MURDER, ROBBERY, AND ARSON.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2425, 24 December 1880, Page 2

MURDER, ROBBERY, AND ARSON.

Particulars o£ a horrible crime, almost rivalling in atrocity the late tragedy in Dunedin, have readied this colony from Australia in a fragmentary" and imperfect shape. Our files to hand by the mail contain a connected narrative *of the crime. The occurence took place on the borders of New South Wales and Victoria on the morning of Tuesday, Dcc|7lh. A man named Marlin Mcntz kept a roadside wine shftnty near Jmulera (lap, about seven miles from Albury, where he lived •with his married daughter and her infant. At 2 o’clock this morning the daughter was aroused by the report of firearms, and coming out of her room was confronted by a man, who presented a pistol at her and demanded her money". She gave all she bad (15s), and the miscreant then fired three shots at her, wounding her in the forehead, left breast, and band. She managed to secure her child and leave Ibo place, taking refuge with a neighbour, a quarter of a mile off. It. is supposed the murderer must have, before this, killed the father, with whom be bad a day or two previously bad a quarrel, lie now proceeded to set fire lo the hut, and a swagsman who had heard the shots fired, arrived on the spot only just in time to find the whole piece in flames, among which he saw a man’s body burning, supposed to be Ment/.’s. The matter being reported to the Albury police they set out, and from the description given by Ment/.’s daughter, arrested a man calling himself Wilkins, in a hotel at Jindera

A police investigation into the charge of murder preferred against the man Henry Wilkinson was commenced on Dec. H. The remains of Martin Moritz, after being disinterred from the ruins of (ho burnt shanty, were brought into Albury, and .subjected ton j>nnt->norfri)i examination. Two bullets were found embedded in the posterior lobes of the brain. These injuries, if they did not cause instantaneous deatii, must have rendered him insensible before ho was consumed by tlie lire. The body, of which only' the trunk and head remained, presented a horrible appearance, and was identified by two sons, to the extent that they swore to the shirt, of which portions lying underneath the body remained unealeined, being one worn by their father. The evidence went to show that Wilkinson spent Sunday at the shanty, and slept there that night. Next morning he went on to Jindcrn, where he stayed at Moritz junior’s hotel until 10 p.m. on Monday, and left then, saying he was going to Brookong station which is in the opposite direction to the Gap. Young Mentz heard him start but stop within 50 yards, and immediately afterwards saw a man pass his door going on to the road to his father’s shanty. He could not swear to prisoner, as it was dark, Prisoner returned to young Moritz’s hotel at Jindera at half-past 5 o’clock on Tuesday morning, and went to sleep in the verandah, where he was arrested at 9 o’clock by the Albury police. A new silver plated revolver was found on him four of the six chambers of which were discharged, the other two being loaded. It is supposed (hat the woman was too excited to be exact about the number of shots fired at her. and that her throe wounds were indicted by two bullets. Tbe one in her hand was caused by her putting it up to save herself. She cannot recover, one of her lungs being penetrated, and a bullet being still lodged in her temple. She again identified Wilkinson on Wednesday as the man who shot her. Prisoner closely cross-examined every witness, and is evidently accustomed to the dock. He is a stranger to these parts, and his photograph should be taken and distributed in order to ascertain his identity. His ago is about Go, height sft. Sin., sunken exes, grizzly hair over face. He possesses a low type of countenance