THE MURDERER SULLIVAN.

Evening Star, Issue 3702, 4 January 1875, Page 3

THE MURDERER SULLIVAN.

BEFORE THE MELBOURNE MAGISTRATES. On December lb Sullivan was brought before the City Police Court charged with “ being in the Colony within three years of the expiration of a sentence imposed on him for felony in another Colony, contrary to the provisions of the Influx of Criminals Prevention Act ” On the Bench were the Mayor and Mr.Sturt, M P , and Messrs O’Grady, Wilton, Fairchild, Heath, D. *. Campbell, Laurens, Prince, Zox, O’Brien, Sutherland, r a r ter, Pigdon, and a few other J.P.’s, attracted by a wish to see the notorious murderer. Evidence, was given by Constable Colorn, who arrested him at Wedderburn, and who deposed that, on taxing the prisoner, the latter said “My nam is not Sullivan. I will never answer to that name, but I am the man ymi are looking for all the same ” In the lookup he talked very freely about his prison life in v ew Zealand, and said, “ When I was in prison in Mew Zealand I had better times there than the warders.” He also said' he got away to Loudon from New Zealand with great difficulty, and that he was recognised on the vessel going home through a portrait of bis wife ; that he bad the doctors on the vessel fighting as to whether he was Sullivan or not, and that he said he would take an action against one for saying he was Sullivan Also that some of the passengers land-d before he got to Loudon, and telegraphed to London that Sullivan was on board, so that die detectives were ready to meet him when he landed ; that he had been all over England trying to dodge the detectives ; and that he went to France, and was through a great part of that country. He talked generally of his life iu New Zealand and at Home. Having extracted from the witness that he did not caution him when arrested. Sullivan thus addressed the Bench: “ 1 flitter myself I know the duty of even a detect ve... let alone a common constable of Viet via and it is a rule laid down by the judges in England, as well as here, that a prisoner should always be cautioned as to any question he is asked. He got into conversation withim in asocial manner, withoutcautioning me. I did not say that I >-ad better quarters than the warders, but I wanted to correct the imnr • sion that ' was kept in a cage ” he next witne s called was Ben.ar 1 o’da an *t pre cut a hotel-k- e.»er in Mel hou-ne, bn* who in 1.886 and for .some years aPewcrd- was a waidr in Dunedin gao , and be p * it-ve y Humified the ■ risomr a* ullivan. With this evidence the Bench wer • sati-fied, and ordered -ullivan “to be taken in ous ody to the country wh. nee be. came.” Whereu;sbn '-ullivan sr.jd—“l am remanded and sent out of this country now as a man with great murders oa me. 1 challenge the world—l have been thirty years in Victoria, and I challenge the world and all police officers connected with all the Colonies to prove that I ever was charged with any crime and iu the present case even I was illegally tried and convicted. E s .id so in New Zealand, and repeat it here, that there was not one tittle of evidence against me to convict me of murder. I should be a coldblooded man if i did not return to Victoria, because myfamilv would have been deprived of land of which I had the Crown grant if E had not returned. That is what brought me b ck, because, my name having become notorious in Victoria, I would be glad to leave it.” HIS ACCOUNT OF HIS TRAVELS. (From the Bendu/o Advertiser, December 15 )

Sullivan arrived in Sandhurst about halfpast nine yesterday, handcuffed and guarded by two policemen. His destination was Melbourne, and it was considered necessary, as much as possible, to keep him from pub’ic observation. The news of the arrest of the criminal, and bis lodgment in the lock-up, only i ot wind about half an hour before the time for his departure for Melbourne, and then our reporter, by the courtesy of Sergeant Drought, was allowed an interview with the prisoner, A 3 f>r as he was convrned (the prisoner is meant), it app-ared a - if he ra'her lilted it The conversion v.bioh ensued was a rather promiscuous one. SuHivan wa as fail of talk as could be wished. In fact, he bailed over with talk. Being a prisoner, he fh sired to be a distinguished prisoner. He had been a distinguished prisoner before, poor wretch, and had paid the penalty of the honor. N 7 ew Zealand had cast him off from her shores and he had gone to ; Fr -m there, for what ? To be branded before he crossed the line as a murderer. “ It was very simple.” said he, “ the way they found me out. I was a passengers of the ship (the name he would not give) so-and-so to London. and just as we were crossing the line a woman identified me. Somehow or the other, women have always been at the bottom o' - my mishaps. It was a woman who drew me to New Zealand, and it was a woman I came back for. I tell you t-e truth,” he said to our reporter, “ I could not rest away from my wife ; I could not rest away from my children. Yon see, I had property at Wedderburn, and T knew it had been sold for a song without my consent, so I came back to reclaim it—only for the sake of my children, I can assure ycif ; only for the sake of my children.” At this stage, the prisoner was on the very verge of tears, hut he was gruffly reminded that be was not expected to talk gammon, and proceeded to relate his adventures in London. “ I wanted to land at Falmouth,” he said very piteously, “ but the passengers, some first-class ones, who were going ashore in a boat, objected to me as a Jonah, Yon seethe captain had got my history by this time, and was very stern with me I asked him whv T could not be allowed to land, and he told me that he had agreed to take me to London, and that take me there ho would. Well, I got to London all right, and with a lot of passengers was landed at the Wept India Docks all right. But when I landed I saw a man who looked at me suspiciously, as T thought, and followed me. I took a cut and went dowu to a coffee shop in the Mileend road, where I had tea, but when I came out another man I did not know was waiting outside, and he, too, followed me. I went about London for a week. I went to the theatres, to the music halls, and to places open only in the small hours of the night, and wherever I went there was some one at my elbow. I went away into the country, down to Shropshire, to see some people f knew there, or who had known m - when I was young, and there I found that T was followed. Then, thinking to distract the attention of my trackers. I went hack to London. On passing Scotland-yard I saw a man watching me intently Keeping an eye on him I cross'd, and passed within a few feet of him He, however, took no notice of me, as far as I could see, hut a few minutes afterwards I found 1 was again followed, I travelled the city that night, south, north, east, an i west. I crossed London bridge with its crowd ; WVesloo bridge with its comparative solitude ; but everywhere I went the footfall of the man who was tel.l off to watch mo fell on my ear. f don’t want to t**ll you I was frightened, because, to tell you the truth. I never was frightened in my life hut once, and how that was I am not going to divulge, but somehow the pit-pat) of the feet I knew were echoing mine in those busy London streets nearly sent me mad. “You want to know ” said he, after a pause, “how I came back to Australia By what means, and by which vessel, I will not tell you. Enough for you that I did not come by the Northumberland, nor did I come by wdy pf Sydaty. Lpfc of poojle hare wanted to

know that, but they never will know it. I came and lam here. 1 came to see my wife, and above all my children, and it is nothing to do with you or anyone else hj w I came. All I can tell you is that lam here, and that being here I don’t think anyone can send me away from here if I like ro stay.” •'ere onr reporter mildly suggested that he might be sent back to ew Zaland, where it was weii-kuown, if once let free, h*; had no chanca of escape. “Asto th »t,” he replied, “ L am prepared to take my chan e.” Here, several persons entered the cell in which he was coalined, and the conversation ceased la appearance the man differed very little from what the writer saw ot him some seven years since in Dunedin gaol, except that he had grown a moustache which had been dyed. Me wore spectacles during the greater part of his conversation, but kept removing them at times, as if they wt-.re irksome to him. When the constable came to him to remove him to the cab waiting at the door, the handcuffs were p'aced on his wrists, and he laughingly remarked that they were old friends. Placing his great coat over his wrists so as to disguise the bracelets, he passed out to the cab in waiting, to be met by a torrent of groan*, to which he mildly replied by remarking audibly that he wished he had the ia the bush. At the station a crowd was assembled to meet him, and here also he was received with a perfect delirium of groans, to which he bowed his acknowledgements. Ho w.jS plaoed in a room for safety and on his advent thence again re coived the compliments of the crowd, passing along with a smile ior all, and a bow for those nearest him. The wretch was placed in no new position. He merely enacted the part he had played before on many stages. He was Iho hero of the hour, and that seemed to satisfy his vanity, as it had done many a time before, when hungry hands sought for bis throat, and cried to Heaven for vengeance iu vain. The * A-,e ’ says : -“It ia questioned, the Influx of Criminals Act notwithstanding, whether Sul ivan can legally be deported under surveillance more than three miles Tea ward of the Victorian coast line, and it ia move than doubtful whether the captain of any vessel trading to New Zealand porta would carry sue a u xious freight. -o one cor raid y Wi.uld if he th->u.ht his passeuge'S had any inkling as to the ouaract r ot their -fupniate. Ihe sirue paper sa » ;hat, after SuJ ivan ha t gone back to his ceil from the City Police Court he was visited by bis attorney (Vl.r F. Bte hen), and spoke very freely concerning himself, mong other matters he averred (hat he had been offered LSO per week by a Loudon Barn urn f >r permission to exhibit him as the New Zealand murderer. He declined the offer, as he desired to return here to see his wife, and learn whether she had married again. Another of his London experiences was looking at a wax model of himself in Madame Tussaud’s exhibition—a sight that he witnessed at Kreitmayer’s in tnis city. He spoke with something approaching to bounce at his pr spects both in England a d Japan, and with still greater bravado of his ability to enter Victoria again whenever he pleases, but which, he says, he dots not wish to do, as he has seen his wife and children The Indewood ‘ Advertiser ’ says :—Une day last week an individual entered our office and staled that he wished to iusert an advertisement to challenge to fight Sullivan for L 5, LlO, or L2O, when and where he liked, intimating the reason for his wishing to give Sullivan a thrashing was that he susp eted him of quietly disposing of a mate of his while in New Zealand.