Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1882 — MURDEROUS MADNESS. [ARTICLE]

MURDEROUS MADNESS.

The Insane Deed of the Wife of a Celebrated Insanity Expert. Mrs. Dr. Edward C. Seguin Kills Herself and Her Three Children. K » __ _ . An awful tragedy occurred in the family of Dr. Edward C. Seguin, the famous specialist in insanity cases, at his residence in New York city. The wife of Dr. Seguin, aged 36, took her three children to a room at the top of the house, blindfolded them, tied their hands behind their backs, and then shot each one in turn through the head. The insane woman immediately dealt herself the same death. The sickening details of the unnatural crime are embraced in the following telegraphic report of the affair; The children w re Edward D., aged 6 yeais; John Van Duyo, aged 5 years, and Jeannette 4 years. They were all shot through the head and instantly killed The mother's death was as sudden as theirs. The frigatful feature of the tragedy is the manner of the murder. Mrs. Seguin to >k the children to an empty spare room at the top of a five-story now-e in the ab ence of her husband, and while the servants were engaged in the basement, and locked herself in with them.- The servants believed they had gone out for a walk. What happened in the room will never be known, but when Dr. Amidon, Mrs. Seguin’s brother, called, at 5 o’clock, and, with his suspicions aroused by the long absence of the family, made a search of the house, the mother and children were found dead, all shot through the head. The children’s hands were tied behind their backs with whipcord. They were blindfolded with handkerchiefs, and, from all appearances, they must have been shot while playing at blindman’s buff with their executioner. They had been dead for at least an hour and a half, and were quite cold when discovered. Three pistols were found in the room, all of heavy caliber, and all had been med. Mrs. Seguin had been despondent from physical causes for some time, but she has shown no evidence of insanity. She was a small, slim woman of nervous temperament. Her domestic life was very happy, and there was no family trouble. Dr. Seguin is a noted specialist in cases of insanity. His father was equally so. His wife was the daughter of a Massachusetts farmer. The couple moved in the best society. The family lived in a five-story brownstone front English basement house, elegantly furnished. The room in which the tragedy took place is on the fifth floor, and is scarcely ever used by the family. The three servants in the house noticed during the day that Mrs. Seguin was in the moody condition she had been in for several weeks, and which her brother. Dr. Amidon, termed “the blues. ” About 11 o’clock he called upon her, and she said she did not feel well, and had written to Dr. Henry Di aper, who had been invited to dine with the family, to defer his v.sit. This note she asked her brother to send. He took it, jokingly, and told her they would all enjoy themselves. Dr. Amidon called on hi< s’ster at 3 o’clock, and was told she had gone out ior a waik. He returned at 5 o’clock but Mrs, Seguin had not yet return*d. The hall-boy incidentally mentioned that the door of the spare room was locked and the key pone A sudden u picion se zed the doctor tha;Mrs. Segu n had gone to tae Central Park and drowned herselr and tne chldr n. He cou d not explain why he thought this. He immediately went up st irs and bur -t the door of the room open. The horr.ble sight met his eyes. Almost in t e middle of ‘the floor ley the dead ■>< dy of the eldest boy, Edward, in a pool or blood. Partly n a closet lay Mrs. Stguin, grasnngm Ler right hand a b g p arl-handle I levolver. Inside the closet lay the boy John and the girl Jeannette. There could be no doubt the mother had taken the children into the room on the pretense or playing blindman’s buff. She had led the two youngest into the closet, and locked them iu while she murdered the oldest boy. The«pistol with which he was shot was a target-practice weapon, with a barrel eleven inches long. It lay beside him, and the bullet lay on the floor. It had passed through his head. The maniac mother then proceeded to the closet, and with a heavy thirty-two-caliber revolver, with which she afterward blew out her own brains, shot the other two children. Dr Amidon cut the strings that bound the children’s hands and laid them on the bed. The police and Coroner were notified at once. Nothing was found in the room to explain the motive for the terrible crime. The maniac had held the weapon close to her victim’s heads, for the handkerchiefs on their faces had been burned. The face of the little grl wore a look of innocent surprise that cut more deeply than any other feature of the dreadful deed. On the table lay a box of cartridges and a third pistol. Sudden insanity is the on y motive known for the deed- Mrs. Seguin was neatly dressed. The children were lovely little things, and all the family she had. “Why do women so often wander aimlessly in the murky solitude of the dead past, brooding over days forever gone?” asked a young lady of a marrying widower. “They don’t, I think,” he said. “Rather they wander, especially at this season, in the dry goods, stores of the present, often 'tricing articles which they have not tile remotest intention of buying.” *