THE INQUEST ON THE LATE OUTRAGE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1225, 20 March 1880, Page 2

THE INQUEST ON THE LATE OUTRAGE.

(Abridged from the Daily Times..) At yesterday's inquest on the late murder, the following important evidence was given : Francis Erull, hotelkeeper, in Georgestreet : I have known the deceased, and also a man of the name of Storck. I have heard since this affair that Storck had a quarrel with;'the Storck slept in house on Saturday night last. He went to bed at a quarter to 12, and came down a little before 9 o'clock on Sunday morning." ; He ■ has gone to Temuka to buy pigs..': ; • By the Jury : Storck left town on .'Tuesday morning iy the .first: train. Charles Donne, deposed : I am the railway stationmaster a,t Yfaitati(Blueiskin).-' Qn' l4tli inst;, I saw the' : Sutler. The Coroner : There is no one acqu§§d here. , ;• ■ : .. . • . Witness : I have singe that it is IJutler, The Coroner : Did you know him then? Witness ; ,N,o hut X. have seen him since'in the train/ in" the'custody of the police. The Coroner": Oh. then you did not know that he was, Butler. We,will.call him simply the man.' : ' Witness : I saw in the dining-room of the Saratoga Hotel on Sunday night, about 10.10 o'clock, a man who was sitting with his head on his hand, thinking, and apparently restless. He was tired, and yawned several times. A man named Russell was in the room also. After about 10 Mr. Qolehan, who was in the bar, remarked What a shocking murder that is in Cumberland-street!" The man immediately sat up erect, and looked steadily at myself and then at Mr. Russell. After this he seemed to be very impatient. • .' Witness : I saw him again in the train on Monday morning. He was seated between Detective Henderson and Constable Townsend in the back seat of the guard's van. This was the same man; I was satisfied of that. | Witness : I became suspicious of the man through the fact I have stated—that when the murder was mentioned he sat up erect in his chair hurriedly. The man did not appear to be inclined to talk, He was taking no notice of the objects in the room. ! The Foreman : Have you mentioned your suspicions to anyone in Waitati ? Witness : Yes ; after the man left the hotel I said to two or three ladies in the bar, " My mind associates that man with the affair in Cumberland-street." Detective Bain deposed : The prisoner told me about ten days ago that he had thrown his carpet-bag and all his other clothes away. That same morning he told me he had serious thoughts of jumping off the wharf and drowning himself. He Was desponding. On Saturday night I left my house in St. David-street about twenty minutes or a quarter to eight o'clock. I saw Butler coming round the corner from St. David-street into Kingstreet. Immediately on reaching Kingstreet he turned back j and then he turned again and came to speak to roe. I said, '} Butler, you promised to meet me tonight at the Octagon at half-past eight." He said, "Yes; but it's more than that now." I said, "No; it wants a quarter .to eight still. Will you meet me there at half-past eight V' He said, " Yes," and walked along the street towards town. I got into a tramcar. He was then dressed in the suit I hare described, with the hard

felt hat and a whit'e shift and collar. I waited for an hour at the Octagon, but he did not conie. With the exception of two 1 or three days, I had seen him every day after he came out of gaoL two or three times. He had been doing nothing.'Yesterday morning week he left Dunedin to work at Ravensbourne, work havihg been obtained for him from the Harbor Board. He left by the six o'clock train to start at eight, but did not start work. He has stopped at different places—first Hotel. He went.there,the day he came from gaol. He did not sleep there. Then he went to a house in King..gteeet, opppgitft...the.JSiational, Hotel., .He •was there for nine days. " Thieri for three :or four nights he slept at the Albion Hotel, next door- to the Police Court. He slept there ;the night before he went to Ravensbourne. Afterwards I do not know | where he slept. On Monday, the Bth, when he asked me if I could get a job for him, he seemed to me to be getting : desperate. He was desponding and brooding, and he had a nervous twitching, although he 'always had a nervous way with him. He said,l want to-.do well for myself this time ; I want to get work, because if X break loose again 111 he one of the most desperate tigers ever let loose in the Colony." J said he was very foolish ; that if he did anything there were men to cope with. him. He seemed anxious to get wp,rk. It was the first time he had spoken , about manual labor. He had spoken about getting an introduction to the editor of some of the papers, in order to write * a series of articles for them. (Laughter.) He was getting money occasionally from friends. When X saw him on Saturday night he was in his usual dress, was clean with a large, fair moustache.. X next saw him on Tuesday morning he had no moustache. Ta thj® J;ury I" made the arrangement with him, to m.eet me on Saturday night in this way. I was. told,off, knowing he was a dangeyo,«s character, to keep him under surveillance.

Sarah Gilespie deposed : I am a servant at Mr. M'Nicol's., Scotia Hotel, at the corner of Leith and Dundas-streets, On Thursday night last week, a man slept at the hotel, who came there abajafc half- . past nine on Thursday morning. .He .was a medium-sized man, veyy thin, with a fair sandy moustache.. He was dressed in a suit all dark brown, with a ( small white check in it. He had a hard felt hat on. He had a blue-top coat and a white muffler. The coat and muffler produced are the ones he had. He had a brown paper parcel, about th& same size as- if it contained a suit of clothes. I saw the same man in the day before yes-' terday. He had not the same clothes on, and h'ig moustache was off. He wore a white shirt when at the hotel. I might ;recognise it by the pleats, of which, there J were three on each side, , about an inch wide. 'After breakfast' on Thursday he was ' 'playing the piano nearly all day. In the evening he went out, saying h,e 'intended to'go to the theatre bv»t j'don't .think he did, because X aaw him, in the house between; § and $ o'clock. He was playing ca,rd s - Be slept in the, house that Right. o,n Friday he got up between 9 and 10, and gat breakfast then. He played the piano off and on all day, He had tea at Q o'clock, and said he was going to the Port; that he was anxious to get there. I saw no more of him until iSunday inorning at 25 minutes to 7. He had left his parcel and top-coat at the hotel I did not like his appearance, and had little conversation with him. He 'did not state what he was going to dcij or anything of the kind. On Sunday morning, when I opened the door he was standing outside, J did not hear him knock. He P«vme in. He asked me if Mr, He gave me 9s to give Mr. M' Nicol. He said he would go and get his things, as he had to go "by the 10 past 7." I suppose he meant the train. He went upstairs, and when he came down he had his topcoat on and muffler. He went out and stood a few minutes at the corner, looking up the, street. He came back agjvin and had a pint of beer, for which h© paid. me. I saw him then go the corner., That was thg I saw of him. He looked aa if there was someone wasi after him. He looked white, and trembled, I thought it was the cold that made him shiver.' He had his'top-coat buttoned over something. It projected out of the coat. I could not form an opinion as to what it was. He was in a minute or two before I saw. i Then he went upstairs. , He locked very white, I never saw him so white before, E£ e is white usually. In asking fpr- the "beer he said," I have flat had my breakfast yet!" I not say anything to him. His boots were covered all over in mud, I as : if he had been up to his ankles in mud. I noticed none on his trousers. It had been raining in the night, but the streets were not muddy. This is the shirt now produced which he woje, I could not say whether on Sunday morning he had a collar on, nof the shirt. . He wore a turndown collar. He left some music on the piano, arid two books. They aye both i music-books. These are the books.

i The Coroner j Thes hayo.the name "R, .O'Brien" on them* .and one is chants for use in Westminster Abbey, and the other psalrns for use in the Catholic. Service. The ; music is masses. • • ; To the Coroner : He had a moustache on when he left the hotel on Sunday morning.

• To the Foreman : He had the same clothes oil on* Sunday morning as I had seen'him in previously. He looked much like as if he had been out all night. • Albert DornwelJ said : The deceased, I believe, threatened to strike Storck, but I thought nothing of it. I think it had nothing'whatever to do with this murder. Storck went away on leaving me to Christchuroh, and then to Wanganui, to buy pigs, . w , : George Leighton, living with his parents at the corner of Castle and Dundas Streets, deposed : A man knocked at our side door at 10 minutes to 7 on Sunday morning. We keep a grocery store. He knocked for ' about five minutes. I went to the door, and saw a man walking up to Cumberland-street.; He was walking fast. . . It looked as if he was tired, and had gone away. I stood at the door a minute. I saw the man lean against a lamp7post at the Cumberland-street corner, and loot towards the old Caledonian grounds. , He stood a minute or two., He . looking only in the one direction. I went inside again. I do not know whether he had seen me. -In a short time. a. knock oame again. • The man, was. standing there, and he walked in without speaking. He went into the shop, and I went behind the counter. He said, " Give me four tins of salmon." Then he asked the price. I said a shilling each. He said, "Is that all 1 ? give me another one." I parcelled the five tins up. I said to him that it was blowing hard, and asked him what sort of a-day it was going to be. He replied, in what I took to be a low tone, " I don't know, but I hope it will be a fine day." He then put down the money and went away. He was a pretty white-looking man, with a moustache. , He had a black top-coat on and a scarf. The coat produced and scarf are like those he had on. He had a stiff felt hat. He had no parcel. The two salmon tins'produced are of the same-brand as those I sold to him.. I have seen theman. since at the gaol, but. I did not,recognise him as the same. The man at the gaol, hiad no moustaohe, nor had he a- top-coat' and scarf qn.,i-,: ; • . ' ! James. Andrew, Townsend deposed : I am .a police constable, stationed at Wai-. kbuaiti. ..On Monday, 15th inst.,lwenfc towards Merton until I had got about five ,• miles from, Waikouaiti,About .100, yards in front of me.l saw a, man go off the road and slip behind a flax bpshi About a minute or two after that Constable Col-

' bourne came from Blueskin, and we met, I said, "Is that the man .that's gone behind the flax bush that we'ro : looking for ?" He said, " Yes." I,then /Baid to Nonstable Colbohrrie, " Youcomo : on quietly ; I'll go on the other Bide of •him, so he can't escape." After I got past the man a few yards I stepped off I the road and walked up the ditch, looki.ing for the man. I saw him lying in a flax bush, in which he appeared to be hiding. I said, " Hilloa ! where did you come from V He said : "I came from Waikouaiti. Why did you ask me that 1 Are you looking for anybody?" " Oh," I said, not particularly." By this time Constable Colbourne came up. I said,. " Jtlere is a man that, says he came from Waikouaiti, Colbourne." He then jumpadl on his feet, stepped back about threei paces, and presented this revolver. He* presented it at me, and then moved ifc from one to the other of ua, as if he didl not know" which to fire at. We rushed at him and jambed him against the bank. The Coroner : Why did he not fire ? Witness : I dpn't know, sir. I scarcely think he had time—we rushed at him so< quickly. When we had got him down, and had got the revolver from him, he. cried "I surrender" several times. I! searched him, and I took from him an< opera-glass, two tins of salmon, a purse? containing 4s lQd, a pocket-book with t*«® papers in it. Inspeotor Mallard explained that onoof these papers was a mask, perforated., The other was a copy of the letter hewrote to the Judge at the time, of his trial for burglary. Witness continued : I also took a piece of candle from him, 41 cartridges, a box j of matches, and a piece of music. The Coroner : Is there any label on the music 1

Witness : No ; it looks as if it was his own writing. It is manuscript. Also, book of goldfields directions, and part of a novel arid a small necktie. The Coroner : Was the revolver loaded? ' Witness : Yes, as it is now. ; Deteotive Bain took the revolver toshoiw it to the jury. The Coroner : You had better turn it; jthe other way. (Laughter.) Witness continued : He had on a black; coat, a pair of strapped trousers, similar to those worn by jockeys and butchers, asff dark tweed ; a vest the : same as; ihe trousers, a soft felt ;hat, a pair of elasticside boots, with the first sole of both cut off as with a knife. After I had takenu everything from him he asked me what I" intended to charge hifn with. I told hiin with attempting to shoot us while in the execution of our duty. He said, "If that's all, I don't care." He asked me three or ' four times, going, up the road what I was going to charge him with. I said I had already told ■ him. He also said,l intended to shoot the first man that interfered with me." I asked him. how he did not shoot me when I came on j him at the flax bush. He said, " I don'tknow what it was ; something kept mefrom doing it." I examined him in ■ lock-up at Waikouaiti. There appeared, to be three or four spots about the neck and front of his shitt, but I could not say whether they were of blood. I examined his hands and arms, but I could see noblood on them. The Coroner : Did the man say anything about this occurrence 1 ? Witness : No ; except that he wanted very, badly to know what I charged .him with. His moustache was cut off close — it seemed with a pair of scissors. I found no scissors on him, but I omitted to mention that I found this pocket-knife. Ho seemed very excited. I shall never forget his looks, as long as I live, when he presented the revolver. He had a most devilish look.—(Laughter). , To the Foreman: I was in private clothes. If I had been in uniform I might have been popped off. The Foreman then formally adjourned, the inquiry till Tuesday next at 2 o'clock-