POISON MYSTERY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 230, 17 December 1927, Page 7

POISON MYSTERY

“One, or Two, Had Strong Motive For Getting Rid of Cheyne” NO DIRECT EVIDENCE (Special to TSM SUN.) HAMILTON. To-day. THE poisoned-beer mystery at Karamu remains unsolved. The coroner's inquiry failed to give Mr. Wyvem Wilson, S.M., sufficient evidence to enable him to name anyone, and he contented himself with finding that Allan Cornall's death, after drinking beer found in Oheyne's car. resulted from some person or persons adding strychnine to the bottle of beer, with felonious intent. He remarked that possibly two people might have a motive in seeing Cheyne dead.

THE inquest was concluded yesterday afternoon. There was a large gallery. Interest; centred in Mrs. Doris Brindley Cheyne, wife of the man who shared the beer with Cornall, but who, fortunately for himself, drank only half a glassfull, or just insufficient to cause his death.

Mrs. Cheyne was the first witness. She is a youngish woman, with light hair, not yet subjected to the prevailing fashi.' attractive but haggard face, and was dressed in brown, gave her evidence untaltermgly. He) statements disagreed with those ct several other witnesses on points that were not very material to the coroner's inquiry. Prominent among the spectators was Edwin Owen Hutt, the rabbitor, the other man in the domestic triangle, stated by the magistrate to he a poisoner by occu- ! pation. and allegedly stated by Mrs. I Birch as reputed to be able to J’ascinate any woman he wanted to. After the proceedings closed he showed no inclination whatever to face a camera, and made a hurried disappearance. HA is very tall and well made, hair of a dark shade, thinning and brushed straight back, sharp face and compressed mouth, and wore a navy b te suit, tan shoes, a blue bov.tie with whi*e spots, and a light coloured fur-felt hat. MRS. CHEYNE IN BOX Mrs. Cheyne stated to the coroner that she had been married for nine years, the. ceremony takigg place in England. She remembered boMi occasions on which James Cheyne, her husband, had been poisoned The first occurred while Hutt was in prison tor failing to maintain his wife, or deserting her. On the second occasion, on Sundav, November 6, when the beer poisoning occurred, they ar rived home from a dance at 2.30 or 3 a.m. Witness did not go to the shed, and had not been there since. Hutt had been a frequent visitor at her home before he went to prison, and on his final visits “came sneaking across country to the house.” Mr. Wilson, S.M.: Did you tell your husband he had threatened you?— Yes. Were you frightened?—l was terrified. Hutt, she said, knew where the salts were kept in the house. He also knew where she kept the poison, but she did not think her husband did. She had had nothing to do with Hutt since he was in gaol, but she received two messages from him, one of which she could not read as it was written between print on a newspaper. SOMETHING PROMISED Her reply, through Leonard Adams, was that she never wanted to see or hear of him again. The letter she could read asserted that everything Hutt had told her of her husband was true, then something about ‘God's truth.” It promised that when Hutt came out of gaol there would be something doing. The letter warned her not to mention anything that had happened. Mr. Wilson: You would scarcely be likely to blazon your shame to the country?—l think he was referring to what I might lell my husband. Detective Sweeney: Where did Hutt try to poison you?—ln the kitchen. What actually happened? ATTEMPTED POISONING Witness: He came to the back door and pushed in. He tried to force me into the bedroom, and I picked up a stick and hit him on the head. He said that if I didn't let. him have what he wanted we would die together. He put some strychnine from a iittle blue bottle into a cup with some water. I ran from the house and he followed. He caught me and said he was going to force me to take it I said, “Don’t be a fool, Ted.” He said, “All right,” and then poured it out on the grass. He said if he din’t get me then he would some other time, and that if he couldn’t have me Jim Cheyne couldn’t. The fact that Hutt was a convincing teller, according to witness, caused her to believe his accusations against her husband, and she finally nuarrelled with Hutt because she found he was married. Witness said she could offer no explanation as to how the bottle got in the car, and when asked if they had any enemies in the district, replied: No one besides Hutt. “I would give my heart to Ted Hutt,” was what Mrs. Charlotte Ros Birch told the coroner Mrs. Cheyne had told her. Mrs. Cheyne had said Hutt could make her do anything but she never thought Hutt would do what he had done. Mrs. Cheyne was quite calm, and said she did not care whether her husband lived or died. This was after the poisoning. THE HAND OF GOD On the suggestion of Mr. X. Johnson, counsel for Mrs. Cheyne, she returned to the box to answer these statements. “I never said anything about my heart,” asserted Mrs. Cheyne. “I said I had seen my husband, and was pleased he was recovering. I put my hand on her arm and said — “This is no human’s work. It is the hand of God. I think it is the Lord Himself that brought my husband back to protect me from Hutt.” j This closed the evidence, apan | from that of a somewhat formal nature | from the police. Detective Sweeney j disclosed that an empty wine bottle j was found in the car. Neither bottle j nor the car had been examined by experts lor finger-prints lie, sf.d other

Hamilton officials had examined the beer bottle, but only found smudges The wine bottle was satisfactorily ex plained.

“Have your inquiries up to the present enabled you to say who put the beer bottle in the car?” asked the magistrate.

“I am sorry to say they have not,” answered the witness.

He stated that Mrs. Cheyne had never at any time refused to answer any question, and had made full replies. Hutt had refused to discuss certain things, such as his relations with Mrs. Cheyne, and a search of his whore had disclosed neither beer bottles nor poison. His movements had been verified, except for the night when he said he was alone, sleeping j at his whare after visit*” ~ * dams. “THIS RUMOUR IS ABSURD”

At one stage Hutt said: “This rumour about me having placed the bottle in the car is absurd. I have a lot of friends round Karamu, and some of them might have visited Chey—~ that day. Cheyne would have offered a drink if he had one.” Three constables gave formal evidence. “I have gone very fully into this matter because of the very strong suspicion that a crime has been committed,” stated the coroner, in summing up. “That suspicion still remains. I am quite satisfied this is not a case of anything accidental, and it is impossible to think either of these men, Cornall or Cheyne, knew anything about the poisoning; and there is nothing to lead one to sv?pose that the addition of the strychnine was j accidental. There was a wine bottle in the car, and this was not noticed by anyone. “Whether the person who put the beer there made the wine bottle more prominent Ido not know. It is a pity that the wine bottle was not examined for finger-prints. TWO PERSONS HAD M"'VE “There is no direct evidence of any. one having been into the shed or placing the beer bottle there. “I say it raises a strong suspicion, because there was one person, if not two, who had a strong motive for getting rid of Cheyne. “If Mrs. Clieyne’s story is to be be lieved, Hutt had made an attempt to poison her a few days before he weut to prison for wife-desertion. “That was about six months before —more than that. The evidence leads me to think that the intimacy between Hutt and Mrs. Cheyne had ceased during some nine months before the fatality, though not with his consent. It looks as if he were trying to resume the relationship. There is nothing to connect him further that he had a motive. At the present time the police inquiries have not elicited anything to enable me to find anything doOni+o j>rninat any person.”