The New Hampshire Gazette

CATSKILL, SEPT. 21
HORRID MURDER and SUICIDE.
A gentleman from Hurley, near Kingston, Ulster county, has given us the following narrative of one of the most shocking and tragical catastrophes, which took place yesterday se'nnight, that ever blackened the catalogue of human events. The wife of Mr. Josiah Deo, of a place called the Paltz, about two miles from Hurley, a woman of exemplary character, as to piety, modesty and sensibility, rose in the morning, and went about the ordinary business of her family. getting breakfast, &c. with all her apparent cheerfulness and composure.
After breakfast, she contrived to send out all her family excepting three children which she had designed for destruction, viz--a boy about nine years old, a girl about seven, (both of whom were children by a former husband by the name of Zachariah Huffman,) an infant daughter about nine months old, which she had had since her last marriage.--Her husband she had persuaded to go to a cornfield at some distance, to see if there were not creatures in mischief--a daughter of Mr. Deo, by a former wife, a young woman, she had sent home with two children who had slept at her house the night previous, and who belonged to Mr. Deo's sister, living in the neighbourhood-a lad, also, a son of Mr. Deo, by his first wife, she told to go to a hatter's, about a quarter of a mile distant to get a hat, and to take with him a child, between two and three years old, which, with the infant above mentioned, were the only two she had had by Mr. Deo. Having thus arranged the family, she told the boy, one of the victims of her delusion, that he might go with some boys who were at play near by, while she combed his sister's head, but not go out of call, as she would comb his head also in a few moments.--She then took the girl into a back room which she had darkened for the purpose, by letting down the window curtains, and with a razor cut her throat from ear to ear -The boy whom she had told to go to the hatter's, in the mean time, instead of going had seated himself on the door-steps, with the child, to wait as he says, for his brother's head to be combed, that he might go along with him ;--he heard the little girl cry out directly " don't mamma" and the mother rather sternly replied "hold your tongue" —some faint struggles ensued, but not enough to alarm him —The mother then came to the door and called the boy from play, and as soon as he entered, took him to the back room, and performed the same operation as upon the girl, tho' not quite so effectually-the boy at the door heard enough of this transaction, together with the recollection of having seen his mother take a razor from behind a looking glass and place it under an oil cloth upon a table, to frighten him, and he ran down a lane from the house with the child-He had not ran far before he heard a noise behind him, and on looking round discovered his brother, (who in his struggles had got away from his mother) with the blood spouting from his throat-he passed him a little and then fell down dead. Another (married) daughter of Mr Deo, who had also been absent on this fatal morning, happened, with her husband to arrive at this moment upon the spot--the husband took up the boy, and perceived he was dead and covered with blood, but did not discover that his throat was cut, till after hastening to the house where he was witness to the most shocking spectacle--the mother, her little daughter and child, all with their throats cut and weltering in their blood--A jury of inquest, of which our informant was one, was immediately summoned--their verdict was MURDER and SUICIDE, with one instrument, a razor.
What could have been the occasion of this melancholy event is totally unaccountable, unless it proceeded from a mistaken religious fanaticism- it is however evident from a number of circumstances, that the act was coolly premeditated :--The daughter who was sent away with the two children, on the Saturday preceding, expressed a wish to be absent at a neighbouring village for two or three days, observing that she had but little to do at home--The mother replied, " You will have enough to do on Monday." The daughter said she did not know of any thing particular.-—The mother again replied, that it was no matter--she might depend on having enough to do- It is supposed she alluded to the burying of the dead.-Another circumstance, more striking, occurred after the close of the melancholy scene--the neighbours on examining a chest for linen to lay out the deceased, found in it articles exactly necessary for the purpose, parceled out for each individual, and each parcel laid by itself. Mrs. Deo, was devoutly religious, practising prayer every night in her family--yet naturally cheerful and placid-apparently happy and contented in her family--was highly esteemed in the neighbourhood, and had never discovered the least trait of insanity.--She was a member of the congregational church, and had partaken of the sacrament but a week or fortnight before.