The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1920. THE PONSONBY MURDER.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3509, 22 June 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1920. THE PONSONBY MURDER.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimariuo News.” v

The sensational confession of Dennis Gunn in connection with, the Ponsonby murder seems to have further vindicated the claims made on behalf of linger print evidence, if further vindication was possible or necessary. The persistence and tenacity of linger print experts in t'he {Gunn case disclosed their absolute conviction, that so long as the prints were clear there could be no mistake. Gunn's counsel at'•■the trial apparently did all that was humanly possible to shake the jury's collective mind on finger-print evidence, but failed, chiefly owing to the attitude of infallibility of expert witnesses. Gunn was convicted ou fingerprint evidence, despite his attempts to prove in every way that suggested reasonableness 10 the contrary. The finger-prints on the rifled cash box are now virtually admitted by Gunn to be his, he confesses to having robbed the Ponsonby Post Office, but he denies having murdered Mr Braithwaite. What the sensational confession goes to show is that however strong circumstantial evidence of | murder is there is a grave liability for justice to miscarry, assuming, of course, that Gunn's confession is true in substaneo and fact. The information at hand is brief and lacking in details, but it seems from tin tin's admitted knowledge of the whole premeditated scheme that although he may not have committed the actual murder he was so far accessory a.- to have rendered himself liable to receive such a sentence as was passed upon him. It is difficult to separate the man who assailed -Mr Braithwaite and procured the keys which enabled Gunn and another a: present unnamed person to gain access to the Post Office safe, from the full planned scheme or plot. Gunn 's Confession seems to disclose that three conspirators were involved; that it was one man's part to procure the keys from Braithwaite and account for him while Gunn and the other conspirator robbed the safe. It may be that the safe-robbers had. no idea that (heir partner in crime would deliber- ; ately kill Braithwaite, not even per- ! mitting a struggle, but their part .in the whole conspiracy fully justifies the arrest of Gunn. \hc verdict of the jury and the sentence passed upon the one that was caught, and against whom there was such evidence as merited the punishment pncsdribed. The old gag about, there being honour among theives seems to .have bfc.eh exploded, for Gunn's two proteges, allegedly equally guilty with hhn, were quite content to aUow him to go to his 'Tenth on the scaffold for their crime. If, apparently, did not concern them

whether Gunn was hanged or not, so j long as they escaped, it was Gunn's bad fortune probably, from their point of view. There is just a suspicion that Gunn, knowing He did not commit the murder, thought it improbable that he could be found guilty of tho capital offence, and when he discovered his mistake and found that his finger prints on the cash box so closely linked him up with taking the necessary keys from the murdered man that the capital sentence would be carried out, he determined to state the truth. His confession has created a somewhat peculiar position from the layman point of view, for it is understood that two men cannot be sentenced for the one crime. Gunn has received the sentence for murder, allegedly not having committed it,,.what is going to happen to the arch-criminal who did commit such a cold-blooded murder? It did not seem feasible that one man in ten thousand could so successfully carry through a project involving the worst offence on the criminal calendar, but finger points on the caskbox left no doubt whatever that Gunn had the post office keys, that he robbed the safe, and that he could only obtain the keys from one source, the person of the murdered postmaster, also that if he did not actually take the keys , he was the active accessory of the | man who did. and jointly guilty with him for the whole premeditated crime, j Gunn's confession, if true, may save him from hanging, but it is not likely to save him from life imprisonment, and it may be that one of the most revolting, cold-blooded murders will go unexpiated by the capital punishment it deserves. The confession will have rapid results; arrests must quickly follow, if not for murder, for participation in the robbery, that is, assuming that Gunn 's story is genuine, and, at present it certainly seems entitled to be taken as genuine. The one satisfactory feature of this extraordinary climax is that finger-print evidence fseems to have gained an unshakeable position a s " a means of detecting the most diabolical crimes which were hitherto untraceable. If Gunn 's story of the affair is true there are more sensational disclosures to follow.