MURDERS IN VICTORIA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1937, 31 August 1889, Page 4

MURDERS IN VICTORIA.

The following Melbourne cablegrams appear in the Hobart Mercury of the 23rd inst.: —

A discovery o£ what is believed to be the body of a murdered man was made yesterday in the neighbourhood of Danedong creek, four miles from Ringwood. The body was found covered with bushes, and it is that of a man aged about 50, but in an advanced stage of decomposition, evidently having lain several months in the place where found. The body was respectably dressed in black cloth vest and tweed trousers. In the pockets were found three half-pence, a pair of kid gloyes, and two letters dated 1878 and 1874, commencing “Dear Sherlock,” and signed “John William Randell.” Owing to decomposition it is impossible to say off-hand whether there are any marks of violence, but owing to the circumstances surrounding the finding of the body it is believed to be a case of murder. A horrible murder has been perpetrated at Pakenham, either late on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. Early yesterday afternoon the body of a man, subsequently identified as that of a labourer named William Fry, was found dead in a hut in Pakenham horribly mutilated. One side of the face was hacked to pieces and unrecognisable, and the body was also much hacked about, and the floor and walls of the hut were smeared with blood. It seems that John M'Namara, employed at Kiely’s ballast quarries, left work on the 13th inst., and went on the spree, living in the old hut mentioned. Fry came to loek for work on Tuesday night, and went to sleep in the hut with M'Namara. During the night one of neighbors heard someone call out from hut, “ Look at the devils,” but he paid no attention, thinking it was only M/Namara on the spree. Next morning M'Namara called at an adjoining store, when it was seen that his hands were saturated with blood, but no attention was paid to him, as it was thought he had been having • drunken row. Later in the day the body of Fry was discovered in the but. It is believed that the murderer made use of what is known as the slasher—viz., a billhook fastened to a long handle, and used to cut scrub. The wounds inflicted were most horrible. The police at once suspected M'Namara, and a mounted trooper was sent off after him, and arrested him near Dandenong. He denied the murder, and accounted for the blood on his clothes by saying he had had a fight. He was brought up before the local bench and remanded until the inquest. The police wanted to get a medical examination of M'Namara to ascertain whether he was mad or only suffering. from delirium tremens, but no doctor | was available. j