THE MURDER OF LORD LEITRIM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5394, 11 July 1878, Page 3

THE MURDER OF LORD LEITRIM.

' (Home News, May 23.) A magisterial inquiry respecting the murder of Lord Leitrim was opened je. t Lifford on April 26. The prisoners who have been, detained in custody are three brothers named Anthony, Bernard, and Thomas McGrenaghan; • two cousins of the latter named Anthony and Michael McGrenahan, and a man named Michael Ilcraghty. A police inspector deposed: to having examined the scene of the murder about three or four hours after it was committed. He described the positions of the bodies as they bad been pointed out to him by Kincaid, the valet. Two of them were clearly enough defined by blood. . From the top. of the hill, on which the second car was when the valet heard the first shot, to where the murdered earl lay, was 203 yards. From the first-named point the road dips, and on the beginning of the ascent on the opposite side the body of Buchanan, the driver, was found. ' The top of the hill and some distance on as the elevation - continued was the scene of Lord Leitrim's struggle with the two men, when he got off the car, until he was laid dead in the pool of water. Witness described the marks in the wood of the men who lay in ambush and their position, relatively, to their victims. In the ' wood opposite the position of Buchanan’s body there were two holes in the heath, made apparently by the bodies of- men clearing away the underwood, and lying on the sod. The marks of their boots were visible at'one end. In this place witness found a large pistol, which had marks of being recently discharged; a piece of copybook paper and a soft felt hat with shabby silk band, which were all produced. The copybook leaf appeared to have contained lead in a granulated, form. This paper was proved to be part of a leaf with lithographed and copied lines, and bore part of the name McGrenaghan.. In the house of the three first-named prisoners was found a copybook wanting this leaf, and. with the name “Mary McGrenaghan” written on every page.- A portion of the same leaf was also found in. the case of a watch in the same house, the watch having the name of Briney Bernard McGrenaghan on it. In cross-examination, witness said he was present with the prisoners when the governor of the gaol told them that the . Government had offered £IOOO reward, with'aj free pardon to anyone, not the actual assassin, who,would give private information leading to' the conviction of the murderers. Another-, police-constable deposed that in a loft he; ..found a coat from which the arm appeared to have been cut or torn. Subsequently to this; discovery witness searched the house and found hidden under the flooring of a loft, and between the rafters, a piece of blue coating, which fitted to the sleeve of the coat, from . which they had evidently been taken, as they were of the same color and texture. The police-inspector then made affidavit to the effect : that he believed he would be in a position, if granted a remand for a week, to bring forward further important evidence against all the prisoners. On May 3 the case was again before the magistrates, when the Crown Solicitor produced the schoolmistress of the National School in which the girl Mary McGrenaghan, daughter of one of the prisoners, was a pupil, who gave evidence to the effect that the copybook in which the girl last wrote bad been abstracted from the school after the murder. It will be remembered that a piece of paper found at the scene of the murder and the piece found in a watch-case in the possession of one - of the prisoners wore proved to have been parts of the leaf of • a copybook which was discovered in the house of one of the accused. The witness swore that the copybook.was last Used on April 3. The next-day the witness searched for the book at the iußtanco'of the , police, but could not find it. . Professor Hodges, of Belfast, proved that he had analysed spots On two pairs- Of trousers given

to him by the police, and found that they contained blood. The trousers, ‘were proved to have been taken from the house of two of the McGrenaghans. ‘ , The magisterial examination of the prisoners charged-with being concerned in the murder of Lord Leitrim was resumed on May 18, for the fifth'time, at Lifford. The prisoners were Anthony Bernard, Thomas McGrenaghan, Michael Heraghty, and Anthony and Michael McGrenaghan, relations of the other prisoner of the same name. Mr. Holmes, Q. 0., law adviser, attended on the part of the Grown, and stated that there was no evidence at present to justify him in asking the Bench to commit Anthony and Michael McGrenaghan, and they were accordingly discharged. Andrew Colhoun, a schoolmaster, was examined, and deposed that about two months ago the prisoner Heraghty told him about three weeks before the murder that be had purchased a gua from John Friell, of Ballyhusk, and a man had put a stock on it for him. On a subsequent occasion Heraghty borrowed powder and shot from the witness, who went out to shoot with him'oa two or three occasions. The gun-barrel produced was like the one witness had seen with John Friell. It had the same marks, which the witness described in detail, Mary Mcßride stated that on the day of the murder Heraghty called at her hmisd* 1 about two hours before the dinner hour. He offered her Dhuin-water for her eyes, and said he had been at Dhuin Well for water for his mother, who was losing her eyesight. Witness’s house is about a pule distant from Manor Vaughan, a short distance from the road leading to Milford. Heraghty lives on the opposite side of Mulroy Bay. After the examination of Professor Hodges as to the comparison of the lead of pellets with that found in the prisoner’s room, the four remaining prisoners were committed for trial at the next assizes. '