Stockton Murder Suicide

Two Dead – Leonora Tragedy
67-Year-Old Man Shoots Daughter-In-Law

Mrs Stockton, the wife of the officer in charge of the Leonora water supply, was shot by her father-in-law, William ‘Bill’ Stockton, early today. Immediately afterward the 67year-old man walked inside the house and shot himself in the temple. Both were rushed to the hospital in critical condition, but the father-in-law died within an hour. At 8.45 p.m. Mrs. Stockton also died. The shooting- occurred at about 2 p.m. The Stocktons lived in a former shop now used as a private house, and it is next door to a garage conducted by Mr. A. H. Crump.

Ran Screaming Into Street

Apparently, a shot was fired at the young woman inside the house, and she ran screaming into the street with her father-in-law in pursuit. At the front door, two more shots were fired, and she fell bleeding from gaping body wounds, the bullets having evidently lodged in the region of the lungs.

A crowd quickly gathered, and the critically injured woman was picked up and hurried to the hospital. P.C. Jacobs, who was called to the scene, entered the house into which Stockton had disappeared after wounding the woman, and he found him dying from a bullet wound in the temple.

Stockton Great Southern Herald 23 March 1938, page 2

Mrs. Stockton’s child, a lovely little daughter called Laurette, not quite two years old, slept in her cot right through the shooting. She is now being taken care of by relatives. The woman’s husband, who is in charge of the water supply at Leonora, was away from home at the time of the shooting, but the tragic news has since been broken to him.

Eye-Witness Story   “I was crossing the main street when I heard piercing screams as though a woman was in mortal terror.”

Mr. A. H. Crump, garage proprietor, of Leonora, told a graphic eye-witness’ story of the shooting over the long-distance phone last night. “Actually I was crossing towards the shop where the screams were coming from, and I saw Mrs. Stockton in the front doorway. She seemed as though she was trying to get through the front door into the street.

“I heard three shots, and when she fell to the footpath it was obvious that she was very badly wounded. There were three gaping wounds in her chest, and the sight of them almost sickened me. It was no time before there was a crowd around, as it had happened in the main street. Though I had heard her screaming for help, Mrs. Stockton did not say anything, as far as I could hear, after she fell to the footpath. It was a revolver with which she was shot, and the man who shot her apparently went into the house”.

All the Stocktons were well known in the town and were very popular. The old man was known as Bill, and had been working sort of part-time with the water supply, his son being in charge. “I have no theory why she should have been shot or why Bill should have died,” he said.

It had been reported in the newspaper that money trouble had caused the tragedy. This was then retracted as false.

William Stockton left £400 and some property to Kenneth Stockton, his son, whom he worshipped. It has been stated that there were about a dozen firearms found on the premises which have been confiscated by the police. The body of Mrs. Stockton was put on this morning’s train for Perth. Stockton was buried in the Leonora cemetery yesterday afternoon in the presence of a large crowd.

The Victims