THE ESCAPED ASSASSINS.

Patea Mail, 18 September 1882, Page 3

THE ESCAPED ASSASSINS.

A CONFESSION. The Home correspondent of the Ape writes :—News came to hand a few days ago that a man had yielded himself up to the police at Caracas, Venezuela, on the charge of being one of the assassins in the Dublin murders of May last. O’Brien, as the man is called, says that he and three others were paid £2O apiece for the perpetration of the vile outrage, and with sinister significance he added, “ £2O is worth more to an Irishman than the life of an Englishman.” Between this country and Venezuela there is no extradition treaty, but there is little doubt but that the authorities will readily yield up O’Brien to the officers who are going- out to fetch him —the more especially as he stands charged on his own confession. O’Brien is not, however, the first man who has attempted to take upon his own shoulders the responsibility of the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish, and it may be that it will turn out that the self-accuser is a mere hair-brained fool seeking notoriety. Whenever a sensational crime is committed a great many persons always seem to come forward anxious to father it with no conceivable motive ; but in the case of O'Brien the authorities say —on what evidence we as yet know not that they have reason to believe the story is not -without some foundation. O’Brien was arrested at Puerto Cabello, and he is supposed to have sailed thither in a barque called Gladstone, which left Swansea for that port early in May. The murders, it will be remembered, were ‘committed on the evening of the 6th of May, at about 7 o’clock, and if he had got away by the mail train the same evening, it would be quite possible for one of the murderers to take ship at Swansea on the Bth, as O’Brien said he did. That a mysterious person did sail in the Gladstone seems to be certain ; and what is still more remarkable Is that another man, whom the Swansea police arrested, and afterwards discharged, had been seen in close and frequent conversation with the man who sailed for Puerto Cabello. The other man after his discharge went to Leghorn ; and if O’Brien is the one that sailed by the Gladstone, it is highly probable that the other, whom the police once had in custod3% was one of his confederates. Inquiries are being made after him at Leghorn, but it is to be feared the police will be too late to discover the againsuspected Harrison. A member of the Irish Constabulary has been sent to South America, and it is expected that he will bring O’Brien back with him.

A man was charged the other day at the Dunedin Police Court with blowing a trumpet for the purpose of crying his wares. The case was dismissed.