THE WILSON MURDER.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1922, Page 7

THE WILSON MURDER.

TRIAL OF ASSASSINS. DEFIANT SPEECHES MADE ; ‘TROUD TO DIE FOR IRELAND.” London,’’ July 21. Joseph O'Sullivan and Reginald Dunzi, the murderers of Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, received sentence of death at the Old Bailey this week, apparently convinced of their martyrdom. Both the prisoners admitted that they shot the 'field-xnarshal, but refuse/! otherwise td plead, &o .by the direction of Mr. Justice’Shearman, they were treated as prisoners who. made the profession of being ‘’not guilty.” The statements which they were permitted to make only showed a mentality common in Ireland in these days. It was one of the shortest murder trials on record. The proceedings lasted only three hours, during which there was an adjournment of twenty minutes, xyherein Dunn and O’Sullivan, baulked of an attempt to make a political declaration of faith, withdrew their instructions to their counsel. When all the witnesses for the prosecution hai given evidence of the crime and the capture of the assassins, Mr. Artemus Jones, defending counsel, asked if Dunn could make a statement, not on oath,' but from the dock. The statement was handed to Mr. Justice Shearman, who, after reading it, said it was no answer to the charge, and he could not allow it to be read. It was a political manifesto. and amounted to a justification for the course they pursued. “I cannot allow the Court to be used as a means of an anarchist propaganda,” he continued. “He can make a statement from the dock, or give evidence, but I shall stop him if it has no bearing on the case. I shall not allow this to be read.” “A BLOW FOR IRELAND.” Speaking in a deliberate and wellmodulated voice, Dunn said: “I suppose I must cut out the patriotic attitude that I feel inclined to use under the present circumstances, but I must stale that I fee] still under these same circumstances. proudly conscious that I am an Irishman. You have all heard the accounts from the divisional inspector, who has been asked what is my character, and you will agree that this is the first time I, or my friend for that matter, have appeared in any criminal Court. That I may take a particular pride in, besides my national pride in being a member of the Irish race. “I had endeavored to give an honest statement of the matter from my national point of view, but it seems that that privilege is denied me. I, for my part, am sorry that you, as gentlemen and members of the jury, are denied the chance of hearing an honest Irishman's statement. Several of you, I have no doubt, have endeavored to do your best in the recent great European war. I also took my share in that war, fighting for the principles for which this country stood. Those principles, I found, as an Irishman, were not applied to my own country, and I have endeavored to strike a blow for it. I have no doubt that from the evidence which has been put before you by the prosecution, and from the legal point of view, you will return a verdict of guilty against myself and my comrade here. But I wish to assure you that even your verdict and the verdict of the Judge here will not be sufficient to denounce me before the members of my race, to which I have the honor to belong, as a criminal. As I stated before. I have never appeared in any criminal Court yet, and my intentions have never been criminal as such. I am not a mean assassin who endeavored to slink away. Bear that in mind, gentlemen of the jury.

SERIOUSLY-CONSIDERED MOTIVES. “I have been, I daresay, termed by various journals a cut-throat and an assassin, and all the rest of it. But I wish to state that the motives which impelled me in this action were seriously considered, as. I believe, the motives which impelled the taking of human life in the great European war were seriously considered. 1 received no money for this particular piece of business. So, in conclusion, I wish to state that, as I surmise you will find me guilty, although some of you may have been my comrades in the late European 2 va s’ J trust that the Higher Court, which is the only Court that matters, and which does not belong to this world will judge me by mv former actions m this world, and will consider the purity of my intentions.” ... O’Sullivan, asked if he had anything to say. replied: “What I had to say was contained in the documents you have, and as you will not allow the jury to hear that, I have nothing further to say.” , . ~ The Judge said he did not wish there to be anv imaginary grievance about the reading of the statement. 0 Sullivan had now in effect asked that it should be read. It was the practice to allow prisoners to read statements from the dock. His opinion was that thus statement was irrelevant, and that no good purpose could be served by reading it. Unless the Attorney-General wished it to be read, he proposed to adheie to this decision. The Attorney-General said he was reluctant to take any course whichmight have the appearance of placingsoners at anv disadvantage. He could not see that this statement gave them any advantage.

COWARDLY, USELESS, AND FUTILE

4fter an absence of only three minutes the jury found both prisoners guilty. Asked if they had anything to sav whv sentence of death should not be pronounced according to law, Dunn said- “I have these words to say. There exists and have existed certain living exceptions to this general rule of justice. Captain Colthurst, who murdered Air. Skeffington. and Captain Hardy, who murdered. Brigadier —” The Judge: \ou are asked to say n there are any legal grounds why judgment should be postponed. You are not at liberty to use this occasion for political purposes, and I shall not a now yon to do it. J Dunn: “The only thing I can call to mind, Mv Lord, is this: The motive for this crime being described by you as i political, and not relevant to the Court, 'should, be put for arbitration before a ' Court which would be competent to deal ■with the matter, a Court of the highest Powers in Europe, who would consider the rights and wrongs of ridding the human world of a scourge. This is all I have *to say.” n O’Sullivan said: “All 1 have done My Lord. T have done for Ireland, and for 1 Veland I am proud to di**”

The black cap was placed on the Judge’s head, and he passed sentence of death on Dunn. When he came to the words, “And may the Lord have mercy on your soul.” Dunn said quietly, “He will. My Lord.” The Judge then passed sentence of death upon O’Sullivan, who, at the conclusion. exclaimed defiantly, “You may kill my body, My Lord, but my spirit you will never kill.” After the prisoners had gone below, the Judge referred to the extraordinary sorrow and regret the tragedy had aroused, and characterised the crime as “cowardly, useless, and futile.”