BRUTAL MURDER

Grey River Argus, 16 April 1948, Page 5

BRUTAL MURDER

SAYS CORONER INQUEST ON ROY E. WILKINS

(Press Assn.) WELLINGTON, April 15. ‘ 1 This is a vicious, brutal and determined murder which has, probably, never been equalled in the history of this country,” said Coroner W. G. L. Mellish, before giving his verdict that Roy Edward Wilkins, otherwise Erancis Roy Wilkins, was murdered by a person or persons unknown. Wilkins’ body was found on the edge of the waters of Evan’s Bay, Wellington on April 22, last year. Besides serious head injuries there were several bullet wounds in the arms and trunk.

“In my opinion the deceased was stih aivie v.nen he was put in the water. 1 think it proDaole he was then in extremis,'' said ur T. e. uynch. pathologist, giving evidence to-day at the inquest into the death ot Eranpis itoy Wilkins, whose shoe and battered body were found at Evans Bay on April 23 last year. The inquest was begun in the Magistrate’s court before tne Coroner, Mr W. G. L. Mellish, ana was conducted by Chief Detective J. Bruce Young. ±t is expected tnat evidence oi aouut 3u ■..'imesses win be heard.

ur uyncn, tne mst witness, desciioea an examination he had made

■ji wukins's oody on the morning oi u.s recovery, ne described ounetiiuies m the clothing. The body Dore -uv.r l uiiet v/ounas. One was in the arm, one in the left breast, one in the back, and another involving only the thickness oi the skin, on the right wrist. On the back of the head, on the right side, there were three ragged wounds or splits ot the scaip. these were clean/ not bullet wounds, but appeared to have been caused oy some olunt and heavy ihstrument.. After describing the wounds on the body, Dr Kynch summed up the conclusions he had arrived at. "'the deceased was struck at least three neavy bic-ws on tne back of the head by some blunt instrument,” he sam. One caused a fracture of the skull and concussion of the underlying brain. Tins was a serious injury, but not one likely in itself to be fatal, it would probably render the victim unconscious. but would not necessarily do so. FIVE SHOTS FIRED "From me appearance ox me body v. xiie cxotlixxxg it would appear that .Live snots were iireu at the deceased. The one wnicii entered the text arm anu ciiesi uxip damaged me spinal coxd was a muital injury. Such would, in my op.nion, oy reason oi me injury to tne spinal cord. De uuickw iatal.”

Dr Lynch said the combined effect oi the head injuries anti guiisiiuc wounas would certainly oe fatal. He in. his opinion, quickly ratal. He would think me period oi survival num sued injuries might only be a matter ut minutes —certainly only a matter ui hours. In his opinion the deceased was still aiive when he was put into the water, it was prooable was ihen in extremis.

“Death was due to head injuries, gunshot wounds of the chest and spine and drowning,” said Dr Lynch.

On April 24, 1947, witness made an examination of a motor-car which belonged to the deceased. A sample of blood was obtained therefrom and was shown to be human. Blood recovered from the sea wall at Aberdeen quay was also human.

“On Sunday, April 27. 1947, in company wi,th police officers, 1 went to a garage at 118 Adelaide Road,” said witness. “I was shown by police officers a caravan covered by a canvas cover. I saw there bloodstains on the cover and these were most plentiful on the corner nearest the door from the front garage to the back garage. There were numerous spatters of blood and the shape of the bloodstains clearly indicatecrlhat 'the stains were made by flying blood. SPLASHES OF BLOOD “At two places on the cover and at one point on the door between the front and back garage there were splashes of blood, in winch there were small bunches oi hair. This hair appeared to be hair from the scalp.” Witness said that with police officers he had removed from the eanvas cover the tufts of hair and from the wooden door the portion of wood to which the hair was adherent. He had compared them with hairs from the deceased’ scalp in region of the wounds and they were found to bear a resemblance. The appearances were thus consistent with the hairs in the garage having come from the scalp of the deceased and from the scalp in the neighbourhood of the scalp wounds.

Dr Lynch said that while he was in the garage he saw a numoer of mechanics’ tools. He also saw a number of hammers and thought any one of them could have caused the wound in the head, which caused the depressed fracture of tlv skull. Witness described his examination of a hat found floating south of Burnham wharf on April 22. The split in the crown would correspond closely with the position of the upper of the three wounds On April 2G he received from the police a hammer described as having been found by Edward John Soloman at 130 Adelaide Road on April 25. 1947. It was similar to a number which witness had previously seen at the garage at 118 Adelaide Road. In his opin-ion,-it. or some similar hammer, could have caused the wounds in the scalp and the skull fracture. There were dark stains on the hammer which witness scraped off ft r examination. There was no blood on the scrapings when they were examined microscopically and chemically. SKULL PRODUCED Witness produced the vault of the deceased’s skull, showing a depressed fracture, the hammer referred to and also mounted portions of canvas and wood from bloodstains adherent to them. For comparison purposes the portion of the deceased’s scalp in the region of the head wounds was also produced. The next witness, Mrs Alice Powell, of Taihape, said she nad been married twice and the deceased was a son of her first marriage. He was born in Hastings in 1904. and christened Roy Edward Wilkins- He was married in 1924 at Dannevirke, but the marriage was dissolved by divorce some years later. He married again in Wellington in 1935. At the time of his death he was in business as a motor-mech-anic on his own account at 4A Palm Grove. » FRIEND OF DECEASED Miss Florecene Elizabeth Morgan, of Wellington, said she had known the deceased for two years. About nine months after she met £iim he came to board at her mother’s place in Rolleston Street Witness had been in the habit of going with the deceased to Hayvice’s place at 518 Evan’s Bay Road, to play cards. They used to go about once a week. Mr Lewis Fenton used to gp there, to play cards. One night, early in 1947 they, were playing cards and Mrs Hay vice remarked to the deceased that she would like to get a big car. The deceased then turned to Fenton and asked him what the chances were of getting new cars. Fenton casually said: “FII see what I can do.” Witness last saw the deceased at 8.15 on the morning of April 21, 1947.

when he left 18 Rolieston Street to go to worn. Or. prix ks, .sxie rexuveu a teiepnone message xxom w nay vice, .01 uvans nay rtoad, wiiose SUH was axi appxenxxu. ax xxxe dcueaoeu's garage. x»xx- nayvxce saxu me deceased liau not peel; ax worn axi day ana inquired wnere he' might oe. hater sue texepnonea tne ,gaxage jiua spuae to Mr Hyder, Vv no' worked i>n me garage. Hyder said tne deceased nad not been at work an day ana ne (riyaerj was worried auout ms noxiappbarance. witness added: “Later 1 suggested to Hyder tnat we should a search oi some ox the ways to see u we couiu Lino xiis car. x anew me ueceaseu was m Daa health with stoniaun troume and tnougnt he may have COiximilleU suicide. witness said they found no trace of the deceased's car ana s.ne ana Hyder reported gt the Cernra! Police Station that Wilkins was missing. NO KNOWN GRUDGE "I do not know of any person who haa a grudge against me deceased, said witness, "i ao not Know oi any person with whom he was negotiating to purchase a new car on behalf oi Havvice or any other person. He did not discuss inose matters, wnrme."

Mrs Esther Hayvice gave evidence that since Christmas. 194 b, tne deceased and Miss Morgan haa paid regular visits to her home at 518 Evans Bay Road, to play cards. Mr uewis Fenton was also a visitor.

Witness said she and her husband desired to ijurchase a bigger car and in the course yf a cards evening she nad meniioiied this to deceased. Witness might have told Fenton tne same thing as she was aware he was a car dealer.

TRANSACTION OVER CAR

About lu a.m. muu<,dy. riprn 2i. me deceased telephoned witness at iic.r home i-mu aspect u. sue wantfu to_puy a Mercury car, as lie could get ner one lor xbso. The deceased said he wanted to know straight away as he had two qcner people who would be interested, witness tola him she had a car. but could not sell it or raise tne money tor the Mercury at such short notice. The deceased said he had to have the money by 4 p.m. that day. “1 told him I would ring him in five minutes,”' witness said. “1 then told my sister. Hannah Hayvice, and asked hei' if she would be interested. She said she would immediately ’phone the deceased and her husband.” Maurice Hayvice. a tanor, of 518 Evans Bay Road, said that after receiving a phone message from his wife about 10.30 a.m. on April 21, 1947. about a Mercury car, he went to see the deceased at his garage, and saw him alone in his office. The deceased, on being asked if he was sure the car was new replied: “This man rings me up and I do not know what sort of car it is until I see it.” The deceased did not say the man’s name. Witness told the deceased he would nave the money by 4 p.m. that day. “At 3 p.m. that day, in company with my father-in-law, Joseph Zimme, 1 returned to the deceased's garage and I paid him £B5O in cash. He had previously told me he wanted cash, not a cheque.” Witness produced the receipt he received. He added that he left on the understanding that the deceased would ring him when he had the car, but he did not hear from him or see him again. Ronald Maurice Chalmers, mechanic. said he was in business on his own at 118 Adelaide Road, renting a garage from Fenton, who retained use of the office for Empire Motors. When he left the building on April 21. Fenton was in his office with Mr Smith and Jack Solomon. He left about 5 p.m. Witness described the condition of the garage door when he returned there next morning. While he was repairing it, his attention was drawn to bloodstains. It looked as it keronsene had been poured on them, and they appeared fresh. Fenton arrived about 9 a.m. Sometimes later witness saw him hosing down his car. On April 28, witness went to the premises of E. J. Solomon, where he was shown a hammer. He identified it as one from his premises. Ronald Gordon Purdey, an engineer, said he was in a tram in Adelaide Road between 5.30 and 5.50 p.m. when he saw Wilkins’s car narked there.

James Bell Norrie, a civil servant, who knew Wilkins, said that just after 6 p.m. he saw Wilkins’s car at the corner of Dufferin Street and Adelaide Road. He saw only one man in the car. and he was wearing a felt hat.

Another civil servant, Charles Thomas Wildsmith, also said he saw Wilkins’s car parked in front of the Tramway Hotel just before 7 p.m. on April 2L No one was in the car at the time.

At about 7,45 p.m., on April 21, said Mary Ellen Gornall, a married woman, a car pulled up in front of her house in Roxburgh Street. A man with a torch left the car, and walked down the road. Another man, who might have been tne same per. i u as the first, then came past the car. and shone the torch on to her house, -as though looking tor a number. Molly Gornall, said she was with the previous witness when a car pulled up in front of the house. Two men left the car, one on the footpath side, and the other on the road side. The Coroner: “Are you sure there were too people?” Witness: “Yes." WALLET RECOVERED Senior-Sergeant J. Austin said he had recovered a black leather wallet' from the body. It contained bookmaking accounts for a considerable sum, a new wedidng ring, and five or six cheques. There was no money in the wallet,

Edward Wadle, a news vendor gave evidence that on the morning of April 22. he found the sliding door of the garage at 118 Adelaide Road leaning over, on an angle. He telephoned the police. Sergeant Robert Alexander Moore, who answered Wardell’s call, said he made an examination of the garage. Everything appeared to be in order; There was no sign of the premises having been forcefully entered. “Bv looking at the rail of the door, I could see it had been broken at the bolt hole.” he said. “I contacted the owner of the garage, Tillyard, who arrived and made an examination. He said everything was in order.” John Clemon Tillyard, a coppersmith, in business at 118 Adelaide Road, said he was the owner of the building. He occupied the rear premises. A wooden partition divided his part from the portion occupied in front by Empire Motors. Louis Fer-

ton was the owner of Empire Motors in April last year. Fenton had been there for 10 or 11 years. On April 21, 1947, witness left his premises just after 5 p.m. He was the last to leave and locked the door between his premises ana Empire motors. There was an office in the very front of the the garage. When he left, he knew that Fenton was in the office, and he. sang out “good-night!” He believed there was someone else in the office, but he did not see him. The main door was wide open when he left. There was a wicket-door, in the main door, close to the south end. He did not return to the garage that evening. GARAGE DOOR FOUND OPEN At about 5 O’clock the next moaning, Tillyard stated, the police asked him to go to the garage. He found tour of the rollers of the door were off. and the door had fallen inwards. One of the inner joints had puiied apart. There was no evidence of the premises having Deen broken into, nor was there any evidence that the door had been forced open. He assumed that someone had been closing the door hurriedly, and had damaged the door in the process. He concluded that the door must have been pulled off from the inside. At aoout 8.2 U a.m. he returned to the garage. “My son. after looking at the garage,, asked me if I had seen the blood up at the front door,” said witness .“I said I had not, and then had a iook at the spot and noticed where blood had been. Under a small car, liquid had been thrown and then swept on to the roadway. The bioou. was still evident in that spot. The car belonged to Fenton. I asked Fenton, when he arrived at work that morning, whether he had had any trouble closing the doors. He replied: "If you don’t get those doors fixed, you will have them falling and kuflng someone?”

"He said he had not had trouble closing them the night beiore. He also said he did not know how

the blood came to be on the floor.

Later in the moiling, said witness, he saw washing his car with a hose. Tne car was standing over the bloodstains. GAR RECOGNISED Noel Eugene Higgins said he had known Wiikms from about Novenioer. 194 b, when he had Deen in partnership m a used car business. On the after of April 21, 1941, witness caned at tne icings' service Station in Cambridge Terrace. As he left the garage at about 5.30 p.m. and turned into Cambridge Ten-ace, he recognised the car owned by Wilkins, travelling along in front of mm. There appeared to oe only one person in the car in front. He could not recognise who it was.

Terence Mace Tillyard Coppersmith, employed by iris fataer, said that on tne morning oi April 22, when assisting to Tift tne door, witness noticed a pool of wnat appeared to be blood unaerneatn tde ox ronton's car. Part of the blood had run out under the door. 'There were tyre marks in tne biood. The Diooastams had been mixed with some liquid, and a<i_ attempt had been made to sweep them.

Huia Bruce Craighead, a manufacturing tailor, said mat on me ing of April 22, 1947, he called at the garage to have his car attended to, and ne noticed that the door leading to the garage was being repaired. He went into the side of tne garage, and saw blood on the floor just insiue me door. It was a concrete floor witE a broken surface, and tne moous tains appeared to have been brushed over. Kenneth Edward Larner, wjio had been employed at Empire Motors, identified tne hammer produced as being the property oi that urm. CARD PLAYING AT GARAGE Evidence that he had been playing cards with Fenton at Empire Motors on April 21, 1941, between 4 p.m. and 5.30 p.m., was given by Alfred George Smith, taxi-driver. He though three or four men were playing at one stage. Tiiey were Fenton, witness, Chalmers for a while, and Solomon. When witness left, he thought that Fenton followed him out through the wicket door. He did not actually see him. Fenton would' be the last to leave the premises. Witness did not know Wilkins. Edward John Solomon, manufacturing confectioner, whose factory is 30 yarHS from Adelaide rcoau, uesenot,u finding a hammer beside his front entrance on April 25. It had heavy rust stains on the head,, so he immersed it in fuel oil. He later showed it to Chalmers, who stated it was from his workshop. MOTOR DEALER’S EVIDENCE Lewis Fenton, motor-dealer, conducting Empire Motors, 118 Adelaide Road and residing at 29 Townsend Road, said that he knew through card, parties at the Hayvice s. He had no business deals with Wilkins, and knew nothing of his business dealings. To witness’s knowledge, Wilkins had never visited the garage at 118 Adelaide Road. There may nave been discussions at a card party about the purchase of a Mejcury car, but witness couid"hot recall jteriY. He had no idea what amount oi money Wilkins carried with him. The card games were usually small. On April 21, witness played cards at the garage till about 0.30 p.m. He was the last to leave the premises. Witness said that he closed the wicket door, but he was not sure who closed the main door. He arrived home about 6 p.m. He did not go out again that night. He did not notice a car outside the garage when he left that night. Witness said when he arrived at the garage about 9 a.m. the following day, he saw Chalmers working on a Wolseley car. He saw nothing amiss. Tillyard told him there were blood marks on the floor. Witness had nut seen any. He was of the opinion that the stains were caused by rust from the emptying of the Wolseley’s radiator. Witness had hosed down his Singer bar that morning, and had seen no bloodstains. On April 27, witness went to the garage at the request of detectives. They pointed out some bloodstains on a trailer cover. The trailer and cover were witness’s property. There was also some hair sticking to a wooden partition between Tillyard’s and the garage. Witness did not know how the hair and bloodstains came to be there. INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUING Detective Sergeant G. Callaghan described the condition of the deceased’s car when it was found in Roxburgh Street, als'i a search of the garage. Investigations were still being pursued, he said. f CORONER'S VERDICT In giving his verdict, the Coroner said tnat the evidence, so far as it went, was very clear, it showed, too, that the police had done a tremendous amount of painstaking work in taking the evidence of so many witnesses.

“Unfortunately, at the most vital times, evidence failg to point to_the person most vitally concerned,” said Mr Mellish. The Nash Coupe owned by the deceased had been seen, and verv definitely identified, outside the bottle store of the hotel beside the garage rented by Fenton. It was very unfortunate from the police point of view, that the witnesses who saw the car did so just too late in every case to see who was driving it. It was very fortunate from the point of view of the murderer,” the coroner added. “The last one to leave the garage was Fenton. Smith says that he believes Fenton followed him out, but is not sure. Fenton says that, in his opinion, stains on the floor were not blood. Fenton cannot account for the bloodstains. It is inescapable that some attack of a particularly vicious noture was made on some person in that garage.” . The coroner said that, in spite of all the police inquiries .nothing had come to light pointing to one particular person. The only certain thing- was that murder had been committed.