The Alexandria Herald

Most Horrid and Unnatural Murder:

OGDENSBURG, Dec. 31.--It is our painful duty this week to record one of the most diabolical and inhuman acts that has ever come to our knowledge--the deliberate murder by a father, of two of his children. The horrid act was committed by a man named William Kirby, an Irishman by birth, but who had been for several years in the U. S. He has for 5 or 6 months been a laborer in this village: about 8 weeks since his wife came here to join him, with her three children, two of which were the children of a former husband. On Thursday morning last, about 10 o'clock, Kirby led two of the children to the bridge which crosses the Oswegatchie at this place, and deliberately threw them from the bridge into the water, where the little victims to his inhumanity were soon at rest, being seen to struggle for an instant, and then to disappear. The shocking scene was witnessed by two or three persons in the village. One of the children, a little girl of two years and six months, was his own child--the other, a boy about 4 years six months old, was his wife's child.

The most diligent search has been made for the bodies but up to this time without success.

Kirby immediately proceeded to a magistrate, stated the crime of which he had been guilty, and surrendered himself to justice. In the afternoon he underwent an examination, at which he fully confessed the fact of the murder; and assigned as his only reason, that his object was to render the children happy, by translating them from a world of care and trouble to the regions of bliss; and expressed his full confidence in having effected his purpose. Apparently on all subjects he was perfectly sane, and evinced the same coolness and unconcern when questioned as to the murder, that he did in relation to any other circumstance. But we forbear, as he is to be tried by a jury of the country, we wish not to bias public opinion on the subject.

We understand that since his confinement he has expressed the most sincere regret for what he had done.

The following is the substance of the examination before the magistrate.

"Kirby says he has had it in contemplation to destroy the children for about a week past--the children had given him no offence; he was actuated to the deed because he believed it better for the children to go into eternity than to stop in this world; he was educated a Christian, believes in the gospel, but belongs to no religious persuasion; his parents were Roman Catholics; the children had been baptized by a Roman Catholic priest about two years since; he intended to have destroyed himself with the children, but the thought struck him that suspicions might rest upon his wife, and he then determined to stay, to prevent any unfavorable imputations being cast upon her. K. is an Irishman by birth, and has been in the U.S. about five years; he has for the last six months intended to destroy himself; his object in destroying the children was not to rid himself of an incumbrance, he having found no difficulty in supporting them; believes he should have been happy in the world to come, if he had thrown himself into the river after the children, and been drowned." [St. Lawrence Gazette.