As he lay recuperating in a hospital bed yesterday afternoon, police arrested Benjamin Odierno, 71, in the killing of his wife during what allegedly became a violent domestic dispute Sunday night at their Upper East Side townhouse.

Christine Odierno, 57, and her husband both lay bleeding on the first floor of their home when police arrived, according to the authorities. Officers from the 19th Precinct had been summoned to the scene by a concerned neighbor’s 911 telephone call. Ms. Odierno had stab wounds to her chest and stomach, police reported.

According to detectives, during the heat of an argument, Mr. Odierno allegedly grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his wife several times. The couple’s two sons, Marcus and Stephen, who were eating at a nearby restaurant, stopped by their parents’ home just in time to see their father then turn the weapon on himself, police said. Mr. Odierno, a successful businessman who owns several rental properties in Manhattan, plunged the knife several times into his own stomach, police said.

Both he and his wife were rushed to New York Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead and her alleged attacker remained in serious condition. After undergoing stomach surgery early yesterday, Mr. Odierno was arrested at his hospital bed, where he will be held until medically cleared for arraignment.

The slain woman had served her husband with divorce papers the previous Friday, according to law enforcement sources, who also said police had been called to the couple’s home five times previously to break up domestic disputes.

Tenants who reside in the couple’s Manhattan buildings, which they owned jointly through their company, 1520 Properties Corporation, expressed shock at the news.

Some of them said they had known both the couple and their two sons personally and described Mr. Odierno as a “mild-mannered” and “simple” man who took great pains to keep his tenants content. Over the past two years, however, tenants said Mr. Odierno had begun to complain about his unhappy marriage.