A Briton accused of murdering his American wife and baby wants to have his ashes scattered on their grave.
Neil Entwistle is accused of shooting dead his 27-year-old wife Rachel and their nine-month-old daughter Lillian Rose at their Hopkinton home in Massachusetts on January 20, 2006.
The existence of the letter was disclosed earlier this year when Middlesex Sheriff James DiPaola confirmed Entwistle, 28, had been sent to the Bridgewater State Hospital to be evaluated, just two days after a judge refused to release him on bail.
But its contents were not detailed until now, when the full text of the note has been published in the Boston Herald, which reported that two sources had provided them with the same letter.
Addressed to his lawyers, Entwistle wrote he wants to be cremated and have his "ashes scattered on Rachel and Lillian's grave" because of concerns his body "would be made an example of" if shipped back to the UK.
Entwistle did not mention suicide or the deaths of his wife and baby, but he wrote: "One day my mood was fine. Then it started to darken."
The letter was found in Entwistle's cell at the Middlesex jail on December 20 last year, with another one he wrote to his parents, prompting officials to hospitalise him for three weeks. It was determined Entwistle was not suicidal and he was returned to his cell.
The former IT worker denies two counts of murder and related gun charges - carrying a firearm without a licence and possession of a firearm without a federal ID card.
On Wednesday, a judge refused to postpone his trial, which is set for January 28. His lawyers asked for a two-month delay to give them more time to study more than 9,000 pages of documents and hundreds of photographs they had received from prosecutors since late September.
But Middlesex Superior Court Judge Diane Kottmyer refused to grant the delay during a brief hearing.
