MURDER OF POLICEMAN

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1630, 28 October 1916, Page 4

MURDER OF POLICEMAN

NEW SOUTH WALES CRIME. REMARKABLE COXEESSIONS. MEMBERS OF THE I.WAV A cable message from Sydney states that Roland Kennedy and Frank Fran/, have been found guilty of the murder of Constable George Joss Duncan, and sentenced to death. The murder took place about h p.m. on September 2(>lh, at Taltenham, a small township in New South Wales. The evidence taken at ihq inquest, which lasted four days, showed that the constable, who was 25 years of age, was shot while working at his desk. The coroner returned a verdict of murder, feloniously and maliciously committed by Roland Kennedy, Frank Frau/, and Herbert Kennedy, and committed them for trial.

Inspector F. A. Whit Held said that Fran/ told him that his mother was of Scotch hirlh and his father a German. He said: “The two Kennedys are the two men that shot. Constable Duncan. 1 was there, and bred a shot also.’’ Franz was taken into the police station, and made a statement which was taken down. In the course of it he said: “1 have been led astray by this I .WAV. since coming to Tottenham. It was the two Kennedys, Herbert and Roland, who shot, the constable. There were three shots tired. I was there, and Wtts the man who fired the third shot. I fired it shot because the Kennedys told me they would shoot me if I did not fire a shot." The statement by Fran/ declared that it Wits Roland Kennedy who •suggested shooting the constable. The three men, carrying rillcs, walked to the police station. “There was nothing hnl a thin curtain on the window. I could see Constable Duncan plainly. The two Kennedys took aim at him together through the window. The constable was moving his head np and down, and they waited till he sat up straight; and then they both tired at the same time, . . As soon as they tired they said, ‘Fire, or we’ll I did not hear any more. I fired. "When the Kennedys fired I saw the constable jump from his seat and fall towards his rigid and start moaning. .1 did not see the constable when .1 fired my shot. . . . On Wednesday evening I met Roland Kennedy. Ho said to me, ■“Don’t get drunk, and we’d hotter not be seen together. Mind yon don’t split. If you do I'll blow your brains onl." When I went with the Kennedys to shoot the const abb* I jhad to lire a shot because I was frightened the two Kennedys would shoot me. ... I have been

working in this district for the past four years, and always gut on well till I joined the lAVAV, which I was forced into by (he Kennedys."

According to other evidence Roland Nicholas Kennedy also made a {statement, in which he admitted that he took pari with Franz in the ishooting of the constable, hut he declared that it was Franz who proposed the murder. The statement continued: “J then went hack and got my ride, and we were going to get my brother Herb., and he would not come. We told him what we going to do, and he said as he was a married man it was not. worth his while. Franz and 1 then came down to the police station, hranz was then leading the way. When we got to the window the policeman was sitting working his typewriter. Franz said, ‘Fount three! When 1 pay three we’ll let go together. We'll let two volleys go. 1 Franz tired twice, 1 bred once, and my second shot missed lire. As soon as I fired I ran away. Only for Franz I would not have taken any part in the shooting ot* the constable.

In the statement made by Michael Herbert Kennedy, a miner, he said lie did not know of the shooting till the next morning. “My brother then told mo Constable Duncan had been shot,” he said. “1 said, ‘When?’ and he said ‘Last night. He said he heard that ho had two bullets in him, or that he was shot in two places. ... lam a member of the f.W'.W. 1 address meetings for them. I get their literature and read it. 1 believe in what they advocate. 1 was a member of the New Zealand police force, I resigned from it about live years ago,”