“…One Survives…”

New York Times, August 28, 1941, p42

MOTHER SUICIDE AFTER KILLING 3
Slashes 4 Sleeping Children in Brooklyn Home, One Survives —
Also Clubs Husband

A Brooklyn mother, apparently suffering from a delusion that her family was infected with an incurable disease, slashed the throats of four of her sleeping children, killing three, clubbed her husband, a former patrolman, and committed suicide shortly after dawn yesterday.

The dead are Mrs. Mary Morey, 34 years old, of 311 Twentieth Street, Brooklyn, wife of William Morey, 36, who was dismissed from the Police Department after a fatal shooting incident in his home three years ago, and the children, Marcella, 7; Claire, 4, and Paul, 3.

William Jr., 11, was taken to the Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, his throat slashed and his head injured. He received a blood transfusion from his father.

A preliminary investigation indicated that the mother used a kitchen knife on her children, struck her husband with an axe handle and then slashed her own throat. The surviving child was unable to tell anything about the tragedy, but the husband said that he was awakened with a stunning blow and saw his wife slash her throat.

Two radio patrolmen cruising the neighborhood shortly after 6 A. M. were notified by a passing truck driver that a man covered with blood was leaning out of a window at the Twentieth Street address, shouting for help. They sped to the place and found three of the children lying dead on the floor, the mother dead in a bed, the fourth child wandering around dazed and the husband likewise stunned.

Relief authorities said the family had been receiving relief checks almost continually since the father was dismissed from the Police Department and had also received medical attention from time to time, but there were no indications that any of the family was suffering from a disease.

The family had been receiving semi-monthly relief checks of $32.75 and had been getting an extra monthly allowance of $19.80 under the food stamp plan, in addition to two quarts of milk daily for the children. The last check was received on Monday and neighbors said the Moreys had quarreled because the father had taken the check and spent it. Relief authorities said that he had been separated from his wife from March, 1940, until last month.

Morey, who was appointed to the police force on July 2, 1928, was discharged on Sept. 3, 1938, for intoxication and permitting a civilian to handle his revolver. The police said that at that time Morey had been drinking with Vincent Daniels, 29, a soda clerk. The two men went to Morey’s home and during the evening Daniels got hold of Morey’s revolver and in some unexplained way shot himself. He died two days later.
New York Times, August 28, 1941, p42