THE BRIGHTON MYSTERY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1088, 6 April 1883, Page 3

THE BRIGHTON MYSTERY.

“ Truth is stranger than fiction" is a saying that is well exemplified in the singular case of the man William Robert Harding, whose body was found in the bay near Picnic Point on Thursday, the Ist ult. The case ii surrounded with mystery, and the circumstances of it, so far as they arc known, are as remarkable as the imaginings of a sensational novelist Harding was a man 39 years of age ■ about 6ft. 6in. in statute, with promi nent features and short curly sandj beard. He lived quietly, and so fai as is known,jwas seldom “ in his cups.’

For six years ho was employed in a s'ore at Ballarat, where his father and brother lives. He left that situation a few mouths ago, and entered the service of Dr O'Hara at Brighton, his sister being employed in the same neighbourhood as a domestic servun*. In November last he transferred his services to Dr JR. B. Warren, surgeon, Bay street, North Brighton. Dr War ren found him to bo a good steadyraan whom he could trust with anything. On one occasion, however, his conduct was very peculiar. Mrs Warren found him in the kitchen muttering over a newspaper which he held extended in his hands upside down. Thinking he was intoxicated she mentioned the circumstance to her husband, who, however, soon afterwards found the man in his sober senses. Dr Warren’s house is a ; one story villa residence, ami the next housetothe Devonshire Hotel, at the corner of New and Bay streets-. The yards and gardens of the two places abut on each other, and the men employed at the hotel used to pass a few remarks with Harding over the dividing fence. Harding, however, formed no associates, and was never known by anyone in the localily to be drawn into a lengthy conversation. Re was looked upon as a man who absorbed in his duties, and who was anxious to serve bis employer faithfully. Like most Englishmen he was fond of his glass of beer, but his potations never exceeded a half-a-piut or a balf-a-pint and a glass per diem. He usually obtained this refreshment at the Devonshire hotel, but bo neier tarried there longer than to drink Ins beer ai d to pay iorit. With no one in (hj ■ istiblishment or in the neighbourhood would he fraternise. That he was keeping company with a girl who lives in Richmond is all that is known of his inner life. On Monday morning last week he had to put a grey mare in the doctor’s buggy. He had got the mare partly yoked when the vehicle, which was standing on an incline in the yard, wheeled forward, and the restive animal bolted, dashing the buggy against the fence, and breaking away. About L 5 worth of damage was done to the vehicle, and it had to be taken to a coachbuilders for repairs. During the day it was taken by Dr Warren and the deceased to Mr Daniel White’s establishment in Swanston street, Melbourne. Whilst the deceased was wailing there, the d ctor told him to go and have lunch, giving him a fl rin to defray the expense of his meal_ When Harding returned the doctor observed that he was drunk, and abo saw him in conversation with an old harridan who was mme intoxicated than himself. He therefore told the deceased that he was not fit to drive home, ordered him back to Brighton by train, and left. That was the last ho saw of the man alive, and as yet no trace of Harding’s movements between that time and the finding of his body in the bay has been discovered. Dr Warren of course missed bis man at night, and looked for his return until after 12 o’clock, when he told the servant girl to lock up the premises, remarking that Harding evidently did not intend tinning up that night. At about 2 o’clock in the morning Mrs Harding tancied she heard someone try to open the back dooiy-but beyond this nothing was heard by any of the inmates. Next day (Tuesdav) passed, and no appearance of Harding. On Wednesday Dr Warren reported the man as missing to the police, and engaged a new coachman ; and here it may be said, the first chapter ends. On Thursday foi'-moon, about 11 o’clock, two fishermen named William Mitchell and James U’Mara were enjoying their pipes on the sand hummocks above the jetty at Picnic Point, when Mitchell noticed a white speck suddenly appear on tbe water between the jetty and the Retreat Hotel, and he as suddenly lost sight of it again. In a few minutes, however, it reappeared, and with it this time the arm of a man. The two fishermen then descended to the beach and others joined them in keeping the bn ly in view. It was then about GO yards from the shore, and was drifting with the tide in the direction of the jectv. As the onlookers were standing idly by waiting for the se i to cast up tbe dead, Air George Nathan, son of the lessee of the Retreat Hotel, arrived on the scene, and without any hesitation stripped, waded in to a depth of about 4ft, and brought the body of a man to the beach. The deceased was clad in a pair of dark tweed trousers, a flannel undershirt, a white cotton shirt, with collar, and a pair of new elabioside boots. The fishermen, who in their time had seen a good many 1 bodies taken from the water, judged 1 that this one had been emersed lor | two or three davs. They were, how- • ever, somewhat surprised to observe that although the deceased was covered with sea lice, these parasites had no' had time to commence their nvages, and that the insteps oftlie boots,which were bran new, retained their polish . and sheen. The deceased’s shirt • sleeves were tucked up .to his elbows, i and although the shirt was buttoned i and held secure at the neck, by the i collar, it was torn open at the breast, s exposing the flannel underneath. One eye was open ; the other was • bruised and half cosed. The mouth ? was open at one side, disclosing the • teeth. In the front centre of the > neck was an incised wound like a stab ‘ and at the button of the flannel shirt r was a spot of blood. “ Foul play" Continued <m Fourth Page,

■nvus uitured by one of the onlookers, and the remark was r-echoed by all present. The local po.iceman was sent for, and ho 8( arched the pockets of the deceased, but only found d\« pennies, a penknife, and a lead pencil in them. The body was then conveyed to the Brighton morgue, and there it lay for a day unidentified. On Friday Harding’s sister read of the finding of this body in TheArgua, and apprehending it to be that > £ her missing brother hastened to Dr Warren, wiho -went; to the morgue, and on viewing the body at once identified it as that of his late coachman. On Saturday an uqupst touching the •death of the deceased was commenced by Mr Candler, and on account of the mystery surrounding the case, was adjourned until the J sth inst. The medical evidence given by Dr O’Hara as to the postmortem examination was, however, very important. There was a bruise over the right eye, and'a punctured wound in the throat, extending through the larynx and pharynx, completely severing the windpipe. There were also three little cuts, skin deep, on the throat. There was a little water in the lungs, which showed that deceased was alive when immersed. Hie cause of death however, was hemorrhage, and not drowning. The bleeding came from the wound in the throat, and must have been slow, as there was no lar. e vessel wounded which would have caused •death quickly. Death might have -occurred after the wound in from 40 minutes to two houns, and the de- ' Ceased would probably have fainted and become unconscious. The fatal wound was a stab, not a cut, and was made by a very sharp instrument such as a chisel or dinner knife. Dr O’Hara doubted, too, whether the deceased could have inflicted it on himself *inteutionally. Here the second chapter in the mystery may be said to end, and the third, which is more extraordinary still, to begin. Behind Dr Warren’s house is a long wooden building, which is divided into three apartments—one being a stable with two stalls, the centre one another stable (not often used) with one stall, and the third a feed house. During the week Dr Warren ■and others had entered the unused stable for a variety of purposes, but failed to observe anything unusual. After the inquest was adjourned on Saturday, however, Dr Warren’s new coachman or groom had to prepare the stall in the central compartment for a visitor’s horse, and to his great astonishment he found the deceased Harding’s silk coat and tweed vest, both saturated more or less with blood stuffed into the manger. Under the manger, too, were thrust some empty bags, also smeared with blood. On the earthy floor was likewise a pool of blood, and blood was bespattered over a piece of sheet iron lying in the same locality. Stranger still, a sack of bran in the feed house next door was also spotted with blood. What dreadful meaning there was in all this no one could toll, and up to the present no one, police and detectives included, has been able to throw even a ray of light on the matter. The question is, has the man committed suicide, or has he been murdered 1 In any case, he must have been severely wounded in tbe stable with his silk coat and vest on. He or some one else, after he had bled a great deal, took the coat and vest off, and bundled them into the manger. He or some or else also thrust the blood stained bags under the manger, and he or some one else, with blood dribbing from him also visited the feed house. If he was murdered, someone conveyed him in a dead or dying slate to the bay, and threw him into the water. If he committed suicide he must have walked either a quarter of a mile to the beach or (which is more probable) three-quarters of a mile to the nearest jet ty, after he had lost an enormous quantity of blood, and have there completed his self-destruction. According to tbe local fishermen, the deceased’s body must have entered the water off one of the two Brighton jetties, and that then —as is always the case in such instances—it was carried by the eddy of the tide on towards Picnic Point. These, then, are the facts of this singu lav case, and, as may be easily supposed, they are being earnestly discussed .in the neighborhood. Tbe doctors stiy that the slight wounds in the neck are not sufficient to account for the blood found in the stable, and that the fatal wound must have been inflicted there. Dr o‘Hara and Dr Warren have also agreed that the deceased could not have walked even to the beach after he received the fatal stab. Further, the torn shirt, although it might have been the result of the ■action of the waves, might as likely be evidence of a struggle. Again, although there was a spot of blood on the flannel and clotted blood inside the vest, the white shirt which had been between the two was unstained. And, further still, the plurality of wounds on the neck might indicate that the deceased had been assailed and had parried a number of blows. On the other hand had he been defending himself against blows with a sharp instrument his hands or arms, one would think, must have been injured, but they are not scratched. Morever, no motive can be assigned for the murder, if it is such, and the detectives are inclined to favor the theory of self-destruction. It may be remarked with emphasis, however, that the facts as they stand at present require a highly skilled interpreter.