On December 23, 1883, Henry Rathbone attacked his children in a fit of madness. While attempting to protect the children, Harris was fatally shot by Rathbone who then stabbed himself five times in an attempted suicide..[19] Rathbone was charged with murder but was declared insane by doctors after blaming the murder on an intruder. He was convicted and committed to the Asylum for the Criminal Insane in Hildesheim, Germany, where he died on August 14, 1911. The couple's children were sent to live with their uncle, William Harris, in the United States.[11]