STRANGE CHARGE OF MURDER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 756, 13 October 1876, Page 4

STRANGE CHARGE OF MURDER.

A murder*case awaiting trial ftt the ’Cuddapah sessioh last month was, according to the Indian papers, expected to give rise to much legal discussion ns to whether the circumstances justified the charge. A juggler who alleged that he possessed cune power which rendered him “ bullet proof," invited prisoner in the case to aim at him with ■a loaded musket presented to him by ‘the juggler assuring him that he might do so without the slightest fear of any painful results. The prisoner accepted the kind invitation; and immediately sent a bullet through his dread. It is urged, that as there was no intentjon on the part of prisoner to kill the deceased, the charge of murder cannot bo maintained. Tire juggler was thoroughly confident of his own invulnerability and several of his relations who were to be called as witnesses for the defence were prepared to prove that although several times shot before, he was never hurt. It is always dangerous to take jugglers at their word in these gun tricks. Some few year’s ago, in England, a “ wizard" at one of the theatres, begged one of ■ the audience to fire a gun at him. The spectator thus invited loaded the gun with a charge of shot he had brought with him for the express purpose of testing crucially the alleged invulnerability of the wizard. The result was 1 painful in the extreme—the wizard’s face was peppered with the shot, the spectator who fired the gun was given into the custody of the police. Both narrowly escaped death—one by the gun, the other by the gallows.