BANKER’S MURDER

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1930, Page 1

BANKER’S MURDER

MAN ACCUSED AFTER SEVEN YEARS.

MELBOURNE, November 25

There is tremendous interest in the trial of Richard Buckley, aged 67 years, a bootmaker, on a charge of murder of Thomas Berriman, a bank manager, who was shot dead on October Bth, 1923. Angus Murray, a notorious criminal, was hanged in 1924 for his part in this crime. The police arrested Buckley on September 30th last, under sensational circumstances. The Crown alleges that he actually fired the revolver and stole a bag containing £lßsl, since when he had eluded arrest. The Crown Prosecutor pointed out that Buckley, in the meantime, had grown a beard and a moustache which made his identification by witnesses more difficult. A request to Buckley’s solicitors that Buckley should agree to be shaved had been disregarded. Buckley had told the police that he did not know Murray, hut he admitted that he had been .hiding for a number of years though he had never been out of the State. The trial is likely to last four days. Crowds waited from 6.39 a.m. to gain access to the Court.