THE HAMILTON MURDER CASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1060, 27 January 1883, Page 1

THE HAMILTON MURDER CASE.

The evidence in Priestly’s defence closed last Thursday morning. Anna Neilson was called, but was to ill to appear. Mr Cooper, in addressing the jury onbehalf of Mrs Hamilton, said the prosecution failed to prove that Hamilton did not meet his death by pure accident. He then proceeded to show that the entire fabric of the ease for the prosecution rested upon the belief of four medical gentlemen that Hamilton could not have sustained his death by falling against a bedstead, and this was but an opinion which was open to question, inasmuch as Dr Philson had admitted the probability of the wound being received from the fall against a bedstead. He also contended that the uninjured state of the dime mater was opposed to the theory of the wound having been caused by a blow, which would of necessity have to be one of excessive violence, and he held that it was quite consistent with the theory of a fall, as were also the alleged statements of the wounded man subsequently rising, staggering about, and talking incoherently. Judge Gillies summed up strongly for the prisoner#. He said there was a missing link in the evidence, and the chain of evidence was therefore no stronger than its weakest part The jury, after half-an-hour’s deliberation, returned a verdict of not guilty. His Honor, in discharging the male prisoner, said Foley Collan Priestly, the jury have found you not guilty of the crime of wilful murder of which you stood charged. Before discharging you I will just say one word, namely, that you have brought yourself into your present position bv your own fault, by your own indiscreet familiarity with a married woman, and endeavouring to account for your absence from your lodging on the night in question by a falsehood. Vbu are discharged.

Addressing the female prisoner l , His Honor said :—Marion Hamilton, —You— a married woman—you have brought yourself to this position by your indiscreet familiarity with a single man, and by talking indiscriminately of your family troubles. Your case should be a warning to others not to commit such indiscretions. You are discharged.

Priestly, without looking round to his fellow prisoner, at once got over the rail of the dock in among'he crowd in the body of the Gourt. Mrs Hamil'.on sat down in the dock tor a few minutes with a constable, till her brother came. Priestly went away in a cab by I lie front, and .Mrs Hamilton by the rear of the Court buildings. The crowd divided into two sections, following tin* cabs and hooting along the street.

THE JEW MILLIONAIRE AND THE DUKE MAXIMILIAN OF BAVARIA.

A few years ago an enormously wealthy banker, of the Hebrew persuasion, was travelling from Munich to Vienna by rail. In the same carriage with himself was a gentleman accompanied by a friend. The stranger was of pleasing manners, and the purse-proud banker at length condescended to enter into conversation with him, and gradually even (as he himself expressed it) took a liking to ‘ the man.’ He even went so far as to say at last, ‘ You seom to he a good sort of a fellow, and a gentleman. Look here, lam going to Vienna to see my daughter, who is married there, is awfully rich, and keeps a tip-top house I will intioduce you to her.’ The stranger thanked him, and mentioned that, by a curious coincidence, ho too was travelling to Vienna to see his daughter. ‘Your daughter, indeed !’ said the Jew banker, with considerable arrogance ; ‘ and pray who may she be V ‘ The Empress of Austria,’ was the calm reply. The stranger was the Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, father of the present Empress of Austria and the ox-Qneen of Naples; the companion was his aide-de-camp. It is needless to add that the Hebrew millionaire irterly c'Lapsed —London Society.