THE MYSTERY OF A MURDER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 149, 3 October 1910, Page 7

THE MYSTERY OF A MURDER

Some curious reports are being circulated in Great' Britain in regard to the man John Diekman, *ho was executed last month for the muitler in a train oi Mr. Nesb'it, a Newcastle colliery cashier, About twelve months before the murder of Mr. Nesbit a Sunderland money-lender named Hermann Cohen was -brutally 'butchered and - robbed. Cohen carried on his business* in a quiet thoroughfare in the residential part of the town, and one evening m 'March, 1909, he was found 'diving, with- his skull smashed' and the little finger of his left hand missing. In <\rti ofcsyery careful enquiries by the police no-'awesfc was made, and the coroner's jury 'returned a verdict tihat the

money-lender ihad been murdered "toy some .peJrsbh- ( or persons (unknown." Then came the Jiiurder of Neshit and the arrest of!Dk*jr,an, who fell under suspicion only because his face had been seen at the wdwlow of a railway carriage for a moment by Mrs. Nesibait when she was wutdisnjjj -to see her husband travel past her home. The police set to work to trace the mavtments of the accused man, prior to the crime, and mode a thorough■! search of his residence. They took the piano to pieces, emptied the water cis-: ternanu dug up the garden from end to end. Although they found little to connect him .with the train murder, they discovered certain facts which left aio doubt that Diekman had. had transactions with Hermann Cohen, and. they also found certain jewellery: The discoveries were naturally'not made puiblic, at-the time, but while- the police were building up the Nesbit case they, were, a/lso weighing the possibility that, their prisoner might also hwe .been the murderer of Cohen. Their enquiries led them to such conclusions -that had Diwk■mani been acquitted of the murder of Nesbit he would have been detained in custody until he had given a satisfactory explanation: of his movements on March. 8, 1609, and of his possession of certain jewellery, notably a valuable diamomdl ring, which the police had reason to. suspect had', once ornamented the little finger of Hermann Cohen's left hand. . The web seems to have closed very tightly round John Diekman.