DASTARDLY DADS FROM THE ARCHIVES (London, England - 1883)

Account is from Martin Fido and David Southwell, True Crime: The Infamous Villains of Modern History and their Hideous Crimes (2008).

Too Many Children - So He Killed Them (1883)

Twenty-six-year-old Londoner, WILLIAM GOULDSTONE of Walthamstow is a hard-working abstemious blacksmith. He and his wife had three young sons until this August, when she gave birth to twins. The problem of supporting five children preyed on Gouldstone's mind, and neighbours observed that he became morose.

After the Bank Holiday he did not return to work, and when the twins were but one week old, he suddenly dispatched all his offspring.

The three toddlers were forcibly drowned in a cistern containing but 14 inches of water. Then he burst into his wife's bedroom, and struck the twins at her breast with a hammer. As she screamed, he told her that she hadn't wanted the children, and now she should be single and happy.

At the police station he remarked, "I thought it was getting too hot to have five kids in about three and a half years, and thought I would put a stop to it." He added that he had "done it like a man" and was "ready for the rope."

At his trial, evidence of insanity on both sides of his family was tendered, together with his workmates' observation that he had often seemed suicidal. Even so, his statements showed that he knew what he was doing and knew that it was punishable by death, so he could not possibly be held legally insane.

Home Secretary Sir William Harcourt, however, insisted on his undergoing further medical examination after his conviction and sentence, and he has been reprieved from hanging.