THE CASTLETOWNROCHE MURDER. Startling Disclosures.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 113, 1 August 1885, Page 5

THE CASTLETOWNROCHE MURDER. Startling Disclosures.

The magisterial inquiry into the charge against Win. Sheehan and David Browne for the murders of Catherine, Thomas, and Hannah Sheehan was resumed at Cork on the 10th inst. Interesting evidence was, you will note, given by Detective Walker, a fellow-passenger "of Sheehan'a on board the Ruapehu, and by David Duane, a convict now serving a period of penal servitude. Walker was the first examined. John M. Walker, the detective who arrested Sheehan in Auckland, was sworn, and identified the deposition made by him on the 18th of March. Catherine Duane verified deposition as follows : — In the month of October, 1877, I lived with my husband, John Duane, on the farm of Mrs Catherine Sheehan. My husband was employed to work on the farm by Mrs Sheehan. We did not live in her house, but had a house of our own some distance from it. Mrs Sheehan's family consisted of herself, her two sons, William and Thomas, and her daughter Hannah. I remember a station being held in Mrs Sheehan's house a day in the end of October. All the family were there. On the following day my bus band went to his work as usual, and when he came back to dinner about 1 o'clock I remember him saying that old Mrs Sheehan and her son Thomas and her daughter Hannah had all gone away since breakfast time. The same evening about 5 o'clock I went down to the house myself, and met William Sheehan. He told me to go and milk the cows, and Baid that his mother, and Bister Hannah, and his brother Thomas had all gone away on a side car that had come for them, and left the place. I asked him where they had gone, and he only replied that the car had come for them and they had gone away on it, and he said they were gone for good. I asked him were they lonesome at going, and he said "No, they were not," but that his mother had turned back and told him to take care of her tick ; and he also said that she had not forgotten me, but had left me some of her clothes. He then snapped his fingers and B*id, "There is room for the girl now." He got married afterwards to a daughter of James Browne, whom he had been courting for some time. The articles now produced (the shawl and handkerchief said to have been found in the well, and which', although in a bad state of preservation, still showed the original pattern distinctly) were those that had been worn by Mrs Sheehan. The sleeve of the coat (produced) was to the best of her opinion portion of the coat worn by Thomas Sheehan. John Duane deposed that after William Sheehan had told Mary Reilly to go and water the cows, he saw David Browne, son of James Browne, of Ballykeating, come into the yard, and go into the house. William Sheehan had gone in just before him. A short time after I saw Brownes sister, Mary, come into the yard and go into the house also. Old Mrs Sheehan and Hannah were in the house at the time. About half an hour after the Brownes went into the house William Sheehan come out to the yard, and said to me — "John, did you see the side-car going off the road?" I said, "No, sir, I did not." Tnen he said " You did." I said "No," and he said no more, except "they are gone." I went home to my dinner shortly after, and I then told my wife that William had told me that his mother, brother, and sister were all gone. "When I came back after my dinner I saw William Sheehan in the yard. He said to me, "I have a new pair of boots belonging to my brother John ; he has only worn them about a fortnight; they might do you." I tried them on, and they were to big, and he said to me. "If you put a rag in them they will fit you." He also said, " There now, don't tell anyone that I have given them to you." William MoFarlane, son of a farmer in the county Tyrone, deposed that he had been in Auckland, and returned in the Ruapehu, leaving Wellington on the 9th of April. The prisoner, William Sheehan, was onboard the same steamer. He spoke to witness, and asked him if he knew what he was charged with, and witness- replied that he did—that he had seen him brought up at the Police s Court at Auckland. He said that when he would go home, he would make things all; right - that 1 he would 1 tell where his people.were., He mentione'd-'his mother, sisteri and brother. ! He'. saidHhey were keeping a h/otel 'in-Nen^hVlorßnagh^ or some name/like- that." ;At v another; time; X he said he did not know wHer^ they.werQ?^

&at,they had gorieaway, that, they went on &Qar, and^he.didin.ot know where they were. jOn /( anbtKeiMCQagiQri ,hei said: (but witness thought it was, in ref prince to another man wHorhad fl been;ia<gapl;ab,outhis wife) that .New Zealand was a bad place to hide in. He i.alsoeaid.tMt .when he would tell where his people where he would get compensation for all this trouble. i David I>u»ne,'*w'h'o was brought into the room iri a' obhviotV dress and handcuffed, was then sworn and examined. The witness, Who is a good-looking young fellow, about 18 years of age, ! verified his deposition as follows :— I remember some years ago when 1 was living with my father and mother at Carrigdowning; my father was in the employment of old Mrs Sheehan, and we lived in a house on her farm, about two fields from her house. I knew Mrs Sheehan and her eons William and Tom, and her daughter Hannah. I remember that Mrs Sh ehan and her daughter and her son Tom were said to have gone away out of the place I one day, and they never came baok again. I remember William Sheehan being married to Mary Anne Browne about a couple of weeks after they went. I remember the night after they left I was out late outside my own house, when I heard the music of a concertina in Mrs Sheehan's house, and went down to a wicket in the garden behind the house to listen. I was there for a long time, I think near two hours, when the music ceased and the lights in the houae went out. Soon after 1 saw William Sheehan come out and go to the stable and bring out the horse and put him to the cart in the yard. At the time William Sheehan came out, I saw David Browne standing at the door of the dwelling house. I knew him very well. I saw him come out and draw the cart up to the door. William Sheehan had brougnt the horse, and they put him to the cart', and they both went then to the stable and brought the cart near the door. They both went into the stable and brought out three persons' bodies. One was a man and the other two women. They (that is Browne and Sheehan) carried them between them, and I saw their legs and heads hanging down. I was not near enough to see who they were. I was behind the wicket door, and about four epades off. The door was broken, and I could Eec through it. I saw a third man inside the wicket door while they were bringing out the bodies. He came out afterwards. I did not know him. When the bodies were in the cart, they all went off in the direction of the old limekiln, and from that through James Sheehans land and over to the old well in David Broderick's land. There is a passage the whole way. I followed them behind the ditch. I kept a good way behind and outside the ditch, bo that thoy could not see me. When they got to the well I was behind the gate in James Sheehan's land, about a hundred yards from the well. I could see them plainly. I saw William Sheehan take off the sticks that were on the top of the well, and then he and David Browne got into the cart and lifted out the bodies and threw them over the little ditch, and then they took them one by one and threw them into the well. I heard them falling down. The third man was by, but I did not see him do anything. I remember he had on a tall white hat. When the bodies were thrown down, I saw William Sheehan put the sticks over the well again. They then took out the horse and turned the carb round themselves, and put to tho horse again, and then they all three went back to the house. I followed them, and when they got to the yard they took the tackling off the horse, and turned him out into the field, and William Sheehan went for some water and washed the cart. David Browne held it up for him. The three of them then went into Sheehan's house. They came out again, alter a few minutes, and went off in the direction of Browne'tf house. Ididnotseothem any more. I then went home, but Idid not go in. I slept in the hay in an out-house of John Sheehan's close by. • I did not go into the house till next morning, after my father had gone to work. I told my mother that I had a great fright the night before, but I did not tell her any more about it, nor did I tell anyone after. Cross-examined by Mr R. Rice : Witness uas in the habit of being out at night, and was beaten by his father for it. Witness was in prison for housebreaking. District Inspector Fleming, of Fermoy, deposed that when he arrested Browne he cautioned him. Browne made no statement at the time, but subsequently when he was getting his clothes, witness heard him curse William Sheehan. Witness heard him say — "D- n you, William Sheehan." Mr Rice said he had still one or two important witnesses to produce before asking the prisoners to be committed for tiial, and he would ask for a further remand. The prisoners were then remanded.