BRISBANE MURDERS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10314, 25 January 1927, Page 9

BRISBANE MURDERS

POLICEMAN.AS DON JUAN. SYDNEY, January 14. As detectives probe into the circumstances surrounding the murder or Sergeant Ouinming and Mrs. E. G. Walsh, whose bodies were found near Brisbane Gaol on December 24, and whose murderers have so far escaped arrest, they have discovered some amazing things regarding the policeman’s relations with many women. Letters have been found which established the fact that he was concerned in numbers of liaisons with women, most of them married. c» n ly a few weeks before he was found dead he was assaulted with a paling by a man in the backyard of whose house lie liad made an appearance which was difficult of explanation, tour years ago, also, a shot was fired at Sergeant- Camming at Mount Morgan. It lias now boon established that the shot was fired by Cumming’s wife. In that instance the trouble arose over his attentions to other women, and lie was shot at with liis own pistol as he entered his gate early one morning. Gumming was a man, who, had he been normal in bis sex interests, might have lived a most comfortable life, lie had the faculty of making money. While lie was stationeefat Yamba he was better known as a cattle dealer than a policeman: So much so that the Department instituted / inquiries, and transferred him. At his death he had a substantial sum to his credit in the bank, due mainly to his dealings in stock, and he owned the home his family lived in at Woolloongabba. His home life, however, was unhappy. When his long service leave fell due he took it alone to New Zealand and -the southern States, and there had been strained feelings not only between husband and wife, but between Gumming and his eldest son. As a further instance of the tenseness of the situation, it is mentioned •that on a recent evening his wife encountered him at a dance hall in South Brisbane, and openly chided him on liis attitude towards women younger than himself, the theory for a” time regarding the murders ot Gumming and Mrs. Walsh was that they had been shot by some park thief, the motive being robbery. But this was .discountenanced by the fact that more than £5 in cash .ivas in the dead policeman’s pockets when his body "was found. A theory more strongly supported by the official view is that there were two persons associated with the murder. There were two persons in male clothing seen in the vicinity of the tragedy on the night in question. Due was a man oAnedjum height, while the other was of smaller buildi Unfortunately the identity of neither has been established. ' "