MURDER FROM THE DOCK

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 202, 15 August 1908, Page 4

MURDER FROM THE DOCK

EXCI'ITM! .SCEMiS LN COt'ltTS OF U LAW. Uooducss only knows what would happen to English police ur warders who were careless enough to permit a prisoner to come armed into the dock. Such a ease has never occurred. At least, not of a man bringing lethal weapons info the dock. In other countries they are not so particular in their searching, and the lesnlis have at limes been tragic to a degree undreamed of. the worst case of ihe kind occurred only a lew weeks ago at Hie Indiana city of 't'erre iiauie (pronounce llos, please, "Terry Hut"). A prisoner found guiliy of arson suddenly whipped out a I revolver, and tired from the dock at the shcrill', the head of the town police, I who had been ihe principal witness. The unfortunate man fell dead, and the prisoner emptied his revolver into ' a group of other witnesses, wounding ' no fewer than live, liy that time the - police had drawn their own pistols, and ' I the murderer fell dead, riddled by four ' bullets.

A similar outrage occurred in Paris on May 22ud last. Only here the assailant was not a prisoner, but the unsuccessful plaintiff in a case involving the ownership of three-quarters of a I million francs. His intended victim was his lawyer, who, he believed, had lost the case for I him. He tired straight at the advocate's head, but his aim was, luckily, as bad as his temper. He missed the man, and I smashed a plaster cast of a female iiguvo I I representing the Republic. I Those present in a court at liendigo, the gold city of Australia, on February 25th, 1903, were treated to a most xciting scene. A prisoner convicted of cattle stealing suddenly shouted, "Sooner than go to gaol, 1 wall cut my throat," and, snatching a great knife from a hidden pocket, lie slashed at his throat. He indicted three fearful cuts before the .police could reach him, and .even then fought savagely till lie fell, exj hausled with loss of blood. He died later in the prison inlirmary. I Two convicts named W'iinmer and

t Triukl caused a fearful panic in the 1 Vienna Criminal Court one day in Jio- ,. vember last. Tried for burglary, they , were found guilty, and the judge pronounced sentence. "Three years' hard i labour and detention in a penal colony." c The words were, hardly out of the e judge's mouth before W'iinmer, shouting, r '•• 1 won't lake that," hurled himself out a of the dock, closely followed by Triukl, and made a rush for the bench. 0 The two were climbing the balustrade '' when a policeman pulled Trinkl down. '> But Wimmer. snatched the policeman's 0 sword and struck out viciously. r The crowd in court ran for their lives, \ crushing in panic through the door. But e four policemen came rushing forward. ■j" Thev struck down Wimmer, and disarmed him, and he and Triukl were car- *' ried, yelling, from the court to the cells. ' r below.

Even the English courts are not free from regrettable incidents. An old woman, an habitual drunkard, once lluag a rotten egg at Judge French, missing him by only an inch or two. At Westminster Police Court a somewhat similar thing happened. The prisoner, a sturdy, sulteu-luoking man, wis accused of a scries of violent assaults, and the gaoler had just described him as one of the worst rutlians in Westminster, when the man seized a handful of pennies from his pocket and hurled them furiously at. a witness who stood near. He was in the very act of leaping out of the dock when a couple of olliecis seized and held him, ill spite of his struggles, ft was said that it had tak'-n seven policemen to bring him io the policc-siulion, and that he. had .amid one of tlicni with a kick on the kneecap.

Women prisoners ale sometimes even worse to h .ii'iie than arc men. A sloui., coppcr-hai.ai woman, who is well-known at Clerkenwell Police Court (London) as an habitual drunkard, usually sings when put in the dock. " You can't keep me quiet; if you do, there'll be a riot," is a favourable ditty of hers, and her

boast is true. Perhaps the most extraordinary scene ever witnessed in any'court of law was when Carlos Waddington, son of the Chilian Charge d'Affaires at Brussels, was tried for the murder of Balmaceda, his father's secretary. Maine Bonnevie, counsel for the prosecution, made a speech so savage that ihe prisoner's self-control at last gave way, and he screamed, "You coward! You coward!" Instantly the whole court was in an uproar. Women wept, men yelled insults at the lawyer, the rival counsel jumped up and danced with rage. Ttio judge cried in vain for silence, and finally ordered gendarmes to clear the court.