MYSTERIOUS DEATH AT LYTTELTON.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1164, 23 October 1883, Page 3

MYSTERIOUS DEATH AT LYTTELTON.

' Yesterday i (Sunday) • morning (says the Press) the residents in Port were startled:by the news that- a well-known old waterman named John Durham, or 'old Jack Durham,' as he was commonly ; known,.had been found dead,under peculiar circumstances. It appears that about 8, o'clock yesterday morning a man named Jimmie Angus went to the Police Station and reported that ' a man was lying dead in the house he lived at.' On being asked who it was, Angus replied "that he did not know. The police went with him at once to the house, which is situated up.a right of-way on the north aide'of London street, just past Mr Olliver's bakery. Directly the police and Angus went in, Angus exclaimed, as if surprised, ' Why, it is poor old Jack Durham.' Deceased was lying face downwards on the floor of the bed-room, just .alongside the tressel, or bedstead, on which he had apparently slept. His face was quite black, and on a closer inspection Sergeant Mason found a piece of rope tightly bound round his throat. The rope, which was about the thickness of a lead pencil, and was three or four feet long, was bound three times round the throat, each time round having a separate knot, but a few inches of the rope overhanging the last tie. Durham was quite dead when found, and was in a singlet and drawers, apparently bis sleeping dress. Angus had for some time pa9t occupied a bed in the same room, and when he was questioned by the police he made such contradictory statements, saying at one time that he did not occupy his bed on Saturday night, and at another that he had, that Sergeant. Mason deemed it proper to detain him in custody. His statement was that he last saw; Durham alive at about midnight on Saturday, when he was in bed; that he (Angus) slept there that night, and, as was his custom, got up before six o'clock on Sunday morning. He did not then observe that Durham was on the floor, but went out and strolled round the block, and had a nip or two with a chum. On returning at about eight o'clock he saw Durham lying on the floor, and went to him'and shook him, saying, * Jaok, you —, what's tha matter with you.' Finding he did not move, he went off for the police. In reply».to a question, Angus said he thought Durham had fretted a good deal lately about his wife and family having left him for and he had been drinking 'on the quiet.' Though the bouse occupied by deceased farmed part of a frame building tenanted by several other persons, it did not, transpire that any of these heard an unusual noise in Durham's bedroom. About the bed there were signs of a struggle having taken place, aDd lome blood and hair were found on one of the legs of the tressel. Deceased's left eye was badly oontused, as if it had been struck a heavy blow. Angus when arrested was excited a good deal, and appeared to have been drinking. He protested strongly against being detained, saying he did not know how Durham's death happened but b. 9 would fossick it out.