MOSS VALE TRAGEDY,

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1921, Page 7

MOSS VALE TRAGEDY,

TWO PERSONS SHOT. ARREST OF EX-OFFICER. The comfortably furnished home of i Major Thomas Butler La Barte a popu-: lar former army officer, five miles out of Moss Vale; was the scene of a double tragedy, with some remarkable phases, last night, says a Sydney paper of .De- . cember 19. His young wife was shot dead in the bedroom about half-past six, l and soon after, when the police arrived, they met lively hostility, and while at- , tempting to arrest La Barte, Constable Fred William Mitchell was shot dead. After a long struggle the remaining police forced an entrance and captured La Barte,. and charged him with the murder of his wife and of Mitchell. The first the police knew of the affair was when the neighbors rang up to say that they could hear shooting in La Barte’s house, and Sergeant Mackie, in charge of the station, had barely re- ; ceived the message when Constable Mitchell came in. “La Barte?” asked Mitchell, “I saw him in the street this afternoon. He said he wanted to see you within 48 hours.” With the telephone messages about the shooting, this struck the sergeant as suspicious, but before leaving the station he called up La Barte’s home on the phone. A voice said. “La Barte speaking.” And the sergeant asked him what he wanted to see him about. “Oh,” answered La Barte, “I’ve gone over the line.” The sergeant asked him what he meant, and La Barte repeated, “I’ve gone over the line.” “EVERYTHING QUIET.”. Sergeant Mackie asked him again if anything was wrong; but as La Barte would say little more than “I’ve gone over the line,” he decided to hurry to the scene. Constable Mitchell rushed out to the

house on a motor-cycle, and Sergeant Mackie followed on a push bicycle- On the way out Mitchell met Mounted Trooper* Finch, and they went out together. “We’ve been right through the place and can’t see or hear anything,” reported Finch. The three policemen consulted a few minutes, and then decided on another search. They crept up to the window of the front bedroom, and, peeping through saw Mrs. La Barte lying on her back on the floor. They separated, and Mitehell took up a position near the back door, while the other two went round to the front. When they returned to the back again they saw Mitchell disappearing through the door into the passage. A minute later a shot rang out, and there was a heavy thud on the floor—Mitchell had been shot dead. BULLETS FLYING. Sergeant Mackie immediately made a dash into the place, but just as he reached the end of the narrow passageway, leading into the main hall, another shot rang out and plaster splattered out from the wall near his head. He withdrew, and then morq shots followed.

Sergeant Mackie and Constable Finch made a number of attempts to enter the hall from the passage-way, but as soon as they poked their Leads round bullets whizzed past and struck the wall, so they came out. The 'sergeant next took his boots off and crawled along the ground under the window at the side of the house, but he was apparently seen, because bullets began to sing through the window- The po.icemen’s difficulty was the/ could not sec who •vas firing the shots, and by this time they had been trjing to gain admission co the house fjr over an hour, and it was growing dark.

“COME ON!” Constable Eadie, of Bowral, climbed through the window of the maid’s room, and the other police fired shots into the adjoining room, where the firing appeared to come from, but without result. Tnen Sergeant Shailer, of Bowral, and Sergeant Mackie ran round the other s.de and discharged three cartridges through the drawing-room window. It wi.9 at this ‘tf.ge that they first he nd the voice of La Barte: “Come on!” he said, “I’ve got no firearms, come straight inside/’ All this time Constable Eadie had been searching the rooms on the other side of the house, but as soon as he heard the voice from the drawing room, he dashed across. Switching the light on lie saw La Barte crouching under the table with a double-barrelled shotgun in his hand. Without hesitation the constable pounced on him. and pinned him to the floor with one hand on his throat, while with the other band he seized the gun. In a little time the other police entered and La Barte was taken away to the station in a moto". FIVE REVOLVERS. A search of the house revealed five revolvers in one room, and a rifl j . iu another. Mrs. La Barte was lying dead with wounds in the head and chesv, while the body of Constable Mitchell was found m tne hall with a wound in the head and another in the stomach. No one in Moss Vale is able to explain away the double tragedy. Even the young major’s most intimate friends are mystified. They speak of his gr?at traits, and of the affection he showed for his wife, and say that they can scarcely imagine “T. 8. awaiting his trial for murder. Everybody calls him “T. 8. for he has become, so popular during his six months’ inhabitation of the town. Major La Barte is the son of Canon La Barte, of Melbourne. He is 34 years of age, and was born at Singleton, and is a well-built, fresh-complexioned man. He served with distinction in France in the Royal Field Artillery, and came back to Australia with a M.C. The major’s dead wife is described as on pf the prettiest and brightest women in town- She came from Melbourne, her father being a prominent legal man in the southern capital. DRAMATIC STORY. Miss Drain, the cook at La Barte’s, in telling the story of the affair as she knew it, said that about a quarter to six she was in the kitchen, when her mistress rang for her. She obeyed by walking along the hall towards Mrs. La Barte’s room, but had only gone halfway when she heard screams. She. quickened her step, and passing through the major’s bedroom, arrived at the door of Mrs. La Barte’s room. The major was standing in the middle of the room holding his wife by the wrist. He was deathly pale and his eyes were staring. * As soon as the cook reached the door Mrs. La Barte cried out, “Oh, Lily, he is shooting me. Tommy is shooting me. Lily!” Almost as she spoke there were two reports from a revolver, and the pretty Mrs- La Barte sank to the floor with a bullet through her head '"d an'•Ahar threush her oh***