CONFESSION OF MURDER AT MELBOURNE.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 83, 3 January 1885, Page 3

CONFESSION OF MURDER AT MELBOURNE.

Melbourne, December 16. William Barnes, a notorious burglar, who was sentenced recently to three years' imprisonment as a rogue and a vagabond (the evidence not having been sufficiently clear to procure a conviction for suspected housebreaking), made a confession a few days ago that he murdered Mr J. B. Slack, who was found in his bed with his throat cut, in a house in South Melbourne, on September 11. The verdict of the coronor's jury was to the effect that Mr Slack committed suicide. The confession was made in tfeo presence of the prison authorities. He said that he heard that Slack (who was 68 years of age) lived alone in a disused hotel, about which thore had been much litigation. Ho conceived tho idea of robbing Mr Slack, as it was supposed that Mr Slack kept a considerable sum of money in the house. Barnes effected an entrance through a back 3 :ndow. Mr Slack awoke as Barnes was searching a buerau, and, to provent discovery, the burglar snatched up an open razor which was lying on a dressing-table and cut Mr Slack's throat before he could stir. He afterwards placed the razor in tho victim's hand, so as to give tho affair the appearance of suicide. Ho then secured all the money which he could find, and left the premises in the samo way as he had ontered them. It was only when he reached tho street that he remembered that he had placed the razor in Mr Slack's left hand. The detectives havo beon making inquiries, and they aro of opinion that the story of the murder is true. Mr Slack is known to have been eccentric, and lived apart from his relatives, and this fact partly induced the belief that he committed suicide. The body had lain dead for several days before tho house was entered by the police. Barnes has a criminal record to tho oxtent of 13 years. He Mas sent to Western Australia for having committed a burglary in England. Mr J. Fleet Neville, a son-in-law of Mr Slack, is said to have urged at the inquest that Mr Slack was not left-handed, and always strongly reprobated the crime of suicide. Several jurymen aro also said to havo hosilatcd about giving a verdict, for tho coroner remarked at tho timo that it was possible for the murderer to havo placed the razor in the hand of his victim after death ; but that tho deceased would not then have grasped iL so ihmly a.s the police asserted was the case Tho entire absence of any disturbance in the chamber had an influence upon tho minds of the jury and tho witnesses. Barnes was discharged from prison only a wcok before Slack.-, death. The dotcolivoft havo discovered that two diamond ring;-, and clothes, idcntilicd as Slack's, worn p'lwned by Barnes in vaiious shops in Melbourne. Barnes's statement %\a-> taken down by the oflieials and forwarded to the Commissioner of Police. Tho ennfo-biun appears to bo vory disjointed, and ib evidently not tho wholo truth.