Out of a private room at the Norman Inn, on the 4th February 1888 ran a distraught woman, thinking that her estranged husband was about to shoot her. It was late on a Saturday night and a police officer was nearby ready to enforce the closing time law on local pubs, when the panicking woman accosted him. Then two shots rang out.
The first bullet hit Aileen Burke in the chest. The little girl died almost immediately. She was eight years old. The second lodged in Dr. Burke’s chest. It caused damage but not death, not what he had intended. The gun lay on the discarded on floor when his wife entered with a police officer only minute or so later. “It missed” was all the doctor said. He did not utter another word but kissed his dead daughter, while the shocked party waited for medical help.
A note lay on the floor too. It was addressed to Mrs. Burke, the named picked it up and put it in her pocket, but thought be better of it or did not want to touch what could be an explanation for the horror that unfolded and handed to the law.
Medical help eventually arrived, nothing could be done for little Aileen. Dr. Burke was taken to the Beckett Hospital at Barnsley.
Sources
Morning Post 06 February 1888