A Husband's Terrible Deed

Camden Patriot — March 4, 1892

A HUSBAND’S TERRIBLE DEED

Ex-Policeman Mason’s Fearful Vengeance on His Wife for Her Infidelity

SHOT HER AND CUT HER THROAT.

THE WOMAN STILL ALIVE, BUT MAY DIE AT ANY MOMENT.

Special to Two Papers.

CAMDEN, March 3. — Officer Benjamin Middleton, of the Camden police force, went off duty at two o’clock this morning, and had himself not settled comfortably in his home when he heard a pounding at the door. When he opened it he saw a man, haggard and bloody, who exclaimed: “Officer, I have killed my wife, and I want you to look me up.”

Officer Middleton hurried on his coat and hat, and started out with Mason, who surrendered himself to the authorities. On the way, he found a terrible confirmation of the story. The officer’s first discovery was that the woman was not dead, but apparently dying. She had been shot at least three times, one ball entering the shoulder, one passing through the fleshy part of the leg, and one causing the most dangerous wound, entering the thigh. In addition to this, her throat had been frightfully slashed with a razor. The officer quickly summoned help, and the woman was taken to Cooper Hospital, where it was said she would probably not recover, and Mason, together with Nellie Walker and a man named Schulke, were taken to headquarters.

Threw a Burning Lamp at Mason.

Mason claimed he was told about his wife’s dissolute life in his absence, and that he had endeavored to entrap her. He was told that he might find her at the house of Nellie Walker on Ray Street. Nellie Walker, in whose house at 527 Ray Street the affair occurred, was formerly a mill hand.