MURDER IN A TRAIN.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 840, 11 June 1910, Page 6

MURDER IN A TRAIN.

CASH BAC FOUND. By Telegraph—Press ABSociaUon-CoDyricW London, June 9. Tho cash bag carried by Mr. Ncsbit, cashier of tho Widdrington Colliery— who was found shot dead in a carriage of a Newcastle train minus the bag— has been discovered ill an air-shaft of a colliery near Morpeth (Northumberland). The gold and silver are missing. ACCUSED'S MOVEMENTS. Advices from Newcastle dated March 21 stated: "John Alexander Dickman, a clerk, living ill Lily Avenue, Jesmond, Newcastle, who has been for some time out ol' work, mul who 'had -been previously employed at a colliery office ill Newcastle, was arrested at his residence to-' night by Detective-Inspector Tate, who took him into custody on suspicion of murdering -Mr. Nesbit, a colliery clerk, in a railway tiaiih last Friday and robbing him of' ,£370. "It is understood that Dickman admits travelling in the'same train as Mr. Nesbit on Friday, and .that lie followed him into the booking-office. Ho says that he did not travel in the same compartment. He further states that he was going on business to a colliery between Stannington and Morpeth, and took a return ticket to Stuniiington. "At Stannington (he adds) he was reading the spurting columns of a newspaper, and passed Hie station without noticing that he had got there. He paid tho excess fare—2!d.—at Morpeth (the town near which tile empty cash bag had Veen found), and after leaving the train there walked to the colliery. He says that he was taken ill on the road ami returned to Morpeth. He bought a single' ticket to Stannington and returned to Newcastle. ""Dickman was taken to , the Central Police .Station, where Su'perintenndent "Wodclell received him and placed him among nine other men. The two clerks, Hall and Spink, who had given descry tions of the wanted man to the. police, were.called in to see if they could identify him. ' . ' "A curious fact connected with the crime has been disclosed 'to-day. Of the four bullets found either in the head of the deceased or in the compartment, two are of ono calibre and two of another. This would appear to indicate that the murderer used two weapons, but the inference is by no means necessarily, true.

"A local gunsmith has shown by actual demonstration that it is quite, possible to fire bullets of differing calibre from the same revolver. Bullets smaller than the proper si7.o were surrounded by packing po as to make them fit. Placed in this manner in Hie weapon it was shown that they could be fired.

"Neither the revolver nor ■ tho cash bag has been found. The track and tho fields on cither side have been carefully searched. 111 tho,hope of discovering the finger-prints of the murderer' the railway officials this afternoon took a number of sectional photographs of tho interior of the compartment—especially • the armrests—in which the body was. found. Imprints of the dead man's fingers have also been taken."