At first it was generally understood that he had had an apoplectic stroke; anyway, he had been at business hale and hearty as ever the day before his death, which occurred late on the evening of February 1st.
"It was the morning papers of February 2nd which told the sad news to their readers, and it was those selfsame papers which on that eventful morning contained another even more startling piece of news, that proved the prelude to a series of sensations such as tranquil, placid Dublin had not experienced for many years.

This was, that on that very afternoon which saw the death of Dublin's greatest millionaire, Mr.
Patrick Wethered, his solicitor, was murdered in Phoenix Park at five o'clock in the afternoon while actually walking to his own house from his visit to his client in Fitzwilliam Place.
"Patrick Wethered was as well known as the proverbial town pump; his mysterious and tragic death filled all Dublin with dismay.

The lawyer, who was a man sixty years of age, had been struck on the back of the head by a heavy stick, garrotted, and subsequently robbed, for neither money, watch, or pocket-book were found upon his person, whilst the police soon gathered from Patrick Wethered's household that he had left home at two o'clock that afternoon, carrying both watch and pocket-book, and undoubtedly money as well.
"An inquest was held, and a verdict of wilful murder was found against some person or persons unknown.
"But Dublin had not exhausted its stock of sensations yet.

Millionaire Brooks had been buried with due pomp and magnificence, and his will had been proved (his business and personalty being estimated at L2,500,000) by Percival Gordon Brooks, his eldest son and sole executor.

The younger son, Murray, who had devoted the best years of his life to being a friend and companion to his father, while Percival ran after ballet-dancers and music-hall stars--Murray, who had avowedly been the apple of his father's eye in consequence--was left with a miserly pittance of L300 a year, and no share whatever in the gigantic business of Brooks & Sons, bacon curers, of Dublin.
"Something had evidently happened within the precincts of the Brooks' town mansion, which the public and Dublin society tried in vain to fathom.