Murder and suicide in Addiewell 1912

A mother kills her child then herself in a double tragedy

The village of Addiewell was thrown into a state of excitement last night, when it became known that a murder and suicide had been committed about eight o’clock.  The circumstance surrounding the tragedy are painful in the extreme.  About ten weeks ago a middle-aged woman named Mrs Ann Sweeney or M’Cartney, with her adopted daughter, went to stay with a sister at 96 Sinton Street, Addiewell.  She had separated from her husband, with whom she had resided in Glasgow.  On Saturday last the dead body of her husband was found in the Clyde, near Glasgow, and this appears to have so preyed upon the woman’s mind that there is reason to believe she was not responsible for her actions. 

Child lying dead

Near it lay a razor with which the crime had been committed

About eight o’clock yesterday evening her sister, on returning to the house, could not gain admittance, and a neighbour, looking in at the window, saw the child lying dead.  The police were summoned and the door was forced.  Mrs M’Cartney’s adopted daughter, a child of about three years of age, was found with its throat cut, and near it lay a razor with which the crime had been committed.  Mrs M’Cartney’s dead body was thereafter discovered in one of the rooms, suspended from a bracket by a cloth round the neck. Life was extinct.

West Lothian Courier , 26 July 1912, page 4