Documents: Mass. man said coping with wife’s relatives led to ‘one murderous night’

Documents: Bounced check preceded Mass. slayings

BOSTON — Authorities say in court documents that a Massachusetts man accused of killing his family said in a note that he should have been “writing a book” about living with his wife’s dysfunctional family instead of letting it fester “until one murderous night.”

Details of the letter written by Thomas Mortimer IV and found at the slaying scene are contained in a nine-page statement of the case filed by prosecutors. The statement was made public Tuesday after The Associated Press and other media fought efforts by Mortimer’s defense to have it impounded.

The documents also say Mortimer’s wife questioned him about a bounced check hours before the slayings.

Mortimer is accused of fatally stabbing his wife, her mother and their two children in their Winchester, Mass., home in June. He has pleaded not guilty.