THE ANATOMY OF MURDER

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30959, 15 January 1966, Page 4

THE ANATOMY OF MURDER

Return Your Verdict. Some Studies in Australian Murder. By Eric Clegg (His Honour Judge E. Clegg, Q.C.). Angus and Robertson, XXIII and 204 pp.

Besides being a record of police investigations and course of trial in some 10 notorious murder cases this book provides a dissection of the anatomy of murder. The author’s work is prefaced with a scholarly introduction written by Sir John Barry, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. The introduction deals with the changing attitude of society towards murderers, the motives which actuate them, insanity as a legal problem, and the myths and realities of murder. Following the preparation of the reader by the introduction, the author deals with 10 illustrative cases. Possibly the best known to New Zealand readers will be the Case of the Pyjama Girl whose

remains were preserved in formalin some 10 years until the murder was finally proved. The Case of the Debonair Stockman has an association, but needless to say an innocent one, for A. W. Upfield, the well-known Australian detective writer and creator of the character DetectiveInspector Napoleon Bonaparte. The plot in “The Sands of Windee” was inspired by this case. The extraordinary life of T. J. Ley, one time Minister of Justice in New South Wales, is retailed in the Chalk Pits Murder. There is also the case of the Passionate Parson leading to a verdict of not guilty of murder but a moral verdict of guilt arising from an amorous association. The other cases are also written with questions raised by the introduction in mind. The book concludes with a chapter on The Law and the Psychiatrist, an appendix on The Judges’ Rules and a

Note on the Inter-Marriage of Mental Defectives.

In the chapter on the Law and tfie Psychiatrist the author gives a very clear ex-1 position of the McNaghten Rules relating to the legal! tests for insanity. This chap-; ter follows a comment on one of the cases concerning a convicted murderer named Willgoss whose sentence of death | was commuted. The writer ventures the opinion that had the death sentence on Will-! goss been carried into effect protagonists of the concept of diminished responsibility might have justified the introduction of legislation to Victoria and other States to give it legal effect. The book is well written and besides catering for the interest of and providing information for the general reader, should find a place in the shelves of those professionally interested in the legal problems raised by insanity and the administration of the law.