ALLEGED ATTEMPTED MURDER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 51, 22 August 1911, Page 3

ALLEGED ATTEMPTED MURDER

I FIVE YEARS AGO. | A CROWDED HO I'll OF 1!)()(!. S THRILLING INCIDENTS ON A FARM, t " ALLEGED IN PALMERSTON POLICE 1 COURT. | THE TELL-TALE FINGER-PRINTS. A thrilling story was told to Messrs I Haines and Simmonds, J.P.'s, when John ' Owen, alias Dore, alias Rowe, alias Lucy, who had ibeen remanded from Auckland, [ waa charged with having attempted to ' murder Augustus Percy Ens ton, at Mou- [ toa, Foxton,, on April 21, 1906. [ A. P. Ea-ston, farmer, deposed that on the evening of April 15, 19U(i, accused called and asked for a. job. Witness gave him it job at .-CI per week. Witness was awav part of the week and on returning a second employee, Johnson, told him that the new man hail not done 1 much work. After accused had finished the morning milking on April 21, witness told Owen that he would be away for the day ami that he must help Johnson. Accused thereupon cursed and swore, and said he would leave straight away. Asked for bis money and wanted to light. Owen then started turning things upside down in the whnre. Witness told him he would be paid that night, and accused retorted that he wanted his money straight away, showing fight all the time, and telling witness that he < would b—— well show him that lie I meant to be paid straight away. Wit- 1 ness said he did not want any bounce, i Owen snatched up a rice pudding which i was in the oven and threw it at witness. ] It missed, and Owen caught up a knife s off the table. Witness told accused that i if he did not drop the knife he would hit him over the head with a chair. 1 Owen then put the knife down. Witness < went to the bedroom and returned with his cheque book. 1 AT THE GUN MUZZLE. 1 While witness was writing a cheque for £1 Owen went into the bedroom, and took down a gun, got some cartridges and then covered witness with the gun | and told him he would not take the ] cheque, but wanted the money witness ( had received for some pigs the day pre- ( viously. Witness told accused he had . not been paid for the pigs. Accused said | witness had been paid, because he beard j the conversation between witness and ( the buyer. Accused made witness open j, the box in the bedroom and empty his ( pockets, and when he found there was j no money in the box he still persisted that witness had received payment for the pigs. While witness was opening trhe box, accused was threatening him, a'id said he would shoot him and burn , down the house with the body, so that j people would not know anything about it, adding that a similar thing had happened in Australia. They went back in- , to the kitchen, accused going backwards, , covering witness with the gun, and back- ( ed out of the kitchen door, still cover- j ing witness, who tried to escape through j the door. Accused thereupon picked < up an axe and made a smack at witness, who caught hold of it as it was descending, and so saved himself, the . axe falling to the ground. Accused j threatened to "fix" witness, and said he j would fire a volley to see if the gun , were all right. j

WHEN WITNESS RAN. Owen tried and the gun misfired. He reiterated that he would shoot witness if ho did not give up the money, hut when after the misfire lie put the gun across his knee to open the breech witness jumped out of the doorway and ran. Accused closed the gun and fired as witness turned a corner ten feet away from the door. Witness continued running across the paddock. Accused pursued, and as witness got over the fence 50 yards from the doorway, lie saw Owen pointing the gun at him, and so kept on running, accused following for about H)0 yards. Witness saw a musterer named Cameron, or Harper, in a pa<liock 400 yards away, and borrowed bis horse and went to his father's place, about three miles away, when he sent his brother, Svd., for the police. BACK TO THE WHAEE. After a time, witness continued, he rode back to the farm and waited about a. quarter of a mile from the whare till Constable Whitehouse arrived, and then went on to the whare, finding no one there. Johnson, the only other ma.il at the farm, was away at the creamery at the time. They found that accused had turned everything upside down in the whare. Outside they picked up the cartridge accused first used and found the gun behind the kitchen door, with a loaded cartridge in the breach, which had misfired, the cap being dented in. THE SWAGGIE. About six weeks after, witness continued, he and his brother Syd.' saw Owen near the Foxton cemetery, carrying his swag. Syd. rode ahead and witness rode up behind, Owen, who looked round, made straight for a gorse hedge. Witness jumped off and called to Owen fo stand still, as he had a revolver. Accused turned round and flashed a sheath knife. Witness fired in the air and accused ran on and escaped into the scrub. Witness went into Foxton and informed Constable Whitehouse, but did not see Owen again till he saw accused iu court, hut was sure he was the man. On returning to the whare the constable found a fresh shot mark in the building. To accused: Johnson was working with accused for witness. [ AT A FLAXMILL. r "Mrs. Sarah Wyeth. wife of John Wyeth, Foxton, remembered a. man much like accused coming about dinner time in April, 1900, to Hickson and Reeves' sawmill, where she was cooking, and asked for dinner. Witness invited him inside. He looked very hot and worried, and had dinner in about ten minutes. While having dinner the man asked Mr. Wyeth if there were any policemen about, and Mr. Wyeth saying "No," »aid he had shot Percy Easton. Mr. Wyeth exclaimed. "No; you never did that!'' and accused said, "Yes, J have." ''What did you shoot him for?" asked Mr. Wyeth. the man answering, ''Because lie did not pay me." Shortly after accused ran out of the dining-room and passed the mill. •lolin Wyeth, coach proprietor, Foxton, corroborated his wife's evidence. Tile man told liini that it was an old game of Fas!on's to get men to work for him and fhen get rid of them without paving. When the man told witness about shooting Kasloii. witness said in fun, not. I akin;.- the matter seriously, "Did you settle liim?" or "Did you make a good job of him?" or something to that effect, and the man replied. "Yes; I did." Ac«used was very much like the man. To accused: The mill was situated on the opposite side of the Manawatu river from Foxton. The man had a hat in his hand. TUB CONSTABLE'S EVIDENCE. Constable Whitehouse, New Plymouth, stated that in l!)0o and lOOti he was stationed in Foxton. (Mis evidence was in corroboration of that of Easton as to the inspection of the whare and cowshed). j Acting-Detective Tssell, Auckland, testified to accusing Owen of attempting i murder, whereupon he stated that ii. was Easton who tried to murder him,

"j'chased liim off the premises, and fired at , liim. Ovrcn added that lie went back ! there three weeks afterwards and met [ the Easton broth, rs, when Percy Kaston I fired two shots aj him. To accused: You made several statements, but they were all contradictory. . Accused, who pleaded not guilty, reserved his defence ,nnd the Bench eomI mitted him for trial.