Killed Bank Manager And Taxi Driver

Chronicle (Levin), 27 September 1949, Page 5

Killed Bank Manager And Taxi Driver

(N.Z.P.A.-

— Reuter.

. Copyright)

Received Mondav 7 p.m. LONDOX, Sept. 26. When a ror-oner's jury at A lst mu fu mherland, decided after onlv five mimites' ennsideration. that (Miarles C'nrbett Tvennedv, aged 24, sliot and killed Andrew Graham Steele, aged 59. manager o fthe Alston branch of the Midland "Bank, and Ernest Tngraig, a taxi driver, on August 13, Kennedv's grev-headed father, in a voice choking with emotion, said: " Yly sou was particularlv kind and eonsiderate and hated to hurt anythi'ng or anvbody Not many months ago 1 saw hioi stop the car so he would not run over a rabbit. ' ' Mr Kennedy then asked a friend to read the foliowing statement to the Court: "Ylr and Mrs Kennedy express deep sorrow for the grief brought to the families of Mr Steele and Mr Ingrani by the unbalanced act of their much beloved and onlv sun. These. bereaved families have been much in their thoughts and griel' for tliem is added to their dwn personal and bitter sorrow. ' ' Arr Kennedy, senior., wlro is a master at the Morpeth (Irainmar School, said lii? son won a seholavship to Oxford at the age of 17 and after two terms there, was called up and later commfssioned in the 8th Ilussars where he was commissioned at the age of 20. 1 1 e was discharged in 1047 but sinee then had donc no regular work. The evidence sliowed that on August 13 Kennedy entered the Alston branch of the Midland Bank and after bemg shown into the room of the manager, Steele, produeed an automatic pistol and demanded monev. When the manager tried to knock the gun out of Ktunedy's liand, Kennedy sliot him. He then left the bank and drove OtT in m taxi-eab. Later tho driver of the cab, Ingram, was found dead, his body liidden under a pile of stoues. Later still, Kennedy was found dead in Ingram \s taxi with a pistol beside him. The Coroner, Colonel F. W. Halton. summing up, said: "Kennedy was a man of education and he must have known justiee would overtake him. It noems probable that he deiiberatelv and in the same cold blooded way in whieh he had taken the lives of two innocent men, took his own life by shooting himself. I would be careful about recording a sympathetic verdict'against vour better judgment." Subsequent to the shooting of Steele and Ingram at Alston, it was disclosed tliat the police were investigating the possibility that Uliarles Kennedy also had been responsible for the killing of Mr G. B. Black, a Bistol bank manager, in January last. These investigations are not yet completc.