A STRANGE STORY.

West Coast Times, Issue 114, 29 January 1866, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY.

(From tlio Ofa/jo Drnhj Times, Jnn. 12.) The s.iyin" , " truth is strange, stranger far than fiction," is trite simply been use it is ono. "which is so often veriuYel. The ro i mice of reality is constantly proved ' o he more wildly wonderful than the inventions of tho most ingenious and imaginative writers. A notable e*ase in point is one which is now convulsing- all New South Wale« with horror and excitement. No cane that has over been the subject of magisterial investigation in Australia has aroused .so much interest ; and for this reasen, that the annals of crime rarely present an instance in which the whole mechanism of the motives and notion have been so thoroughly unveiled. Wo allude, of course, to the charge against Mr Bertrand ami Mi's Kinder, of muvdering the husband of tho latter. In referring, as we have done, to the unveiling of tho circumstances of the case, we must not be understood to express an opinion as to the guilt of the) accused — wo allude to the documentary evidence — the loiter.- of'the one prisoner and the diary of the other. If these do not confirm or rolmt their guilt, they let the reader into tlu details of the innermost thoughts of tho prisoners with a positive startling reality. In ordinary cases of crime, the bulk of the ovidenco refers to tho proof of tho commission of the deed ; the testimony as to the motive is moro or less ohsmiro. But in this instance the evidence of commission is altogether subordinate to that of motive. It is to be feared, too, that lo a large circle of our rcadeis Iho en.se has something more than tho interest which it intrinsically possesses as a strange and wonderful development of human proueness to inn. It has something of a personal interest, since the persons chiefly concerned, with ono exception, were lesiclente both in Otago and (Southland, and well known to a large circle of acquaintances. Onr limits have positively precluded our giving anything like a fair synopsis of tho case. It occupies, in tho Sydney papers, sixteen columns of closely printed matter in the smallest type, and wo believe has been reproduced in the form of a bulky pamphlet. Nor is it perhaps desirable that familiarity should be permitted without tho whole of the details; sufficient information may be gathered from an outline of tho story. Mr Kinder, the man who it is alleged was murdered, was for many years a resident in Now Zealand ; and his wife, Mrs Kinder, was the daughter of an old colonist named Wood, well known in Dunedin not very long since. AVlien. ihe Bank of New Zealand was first opened. Kinder was a clerk, m tho Dunedin branch, but subsequently he was removed to Inv<>rcargill, and again te> liiverton. There he was unfortunate enough lo resume tho acquaintance e)i a man named Francis Jackson, a squaUer in Southland, This person seduced Mrs Kinder, and in order to prennoto his purposes, encouraged Kinder to a course of intemperance, which finally resulted in his having to leave New Zealand, and finding his way to Sydney. Here he oblsiineel an appointment in the* Oily Bank, and appears for some time to havo led a respectable and temperate life. Mrs. Kinder formed acquaintance with tho prisoner, Jiouis Henry Bertrand, and a violent passion appears to have at once sprung up between thorn. Sho first knew him by accidentally seeking his professional assistance ns a dentist ; almost immediately afterwards a correspondence seems to havo commenced between them, and their respective families became on visiting tormjj. To what extent Kinder's jpalousy was aroused, does not seem very clear. Over him, as over every ono brought within his contact, tho prisoner Bertrand exercised a remarkable power. Avowedly holding at nought tho sanctity of human life, and habitually given to the utteranco of opinions at variance with all civilised notions, he yot exercised a wonderful control over persons brought within his circle. His own explanation was, that ho resorted to mesmerism ; and tho evidenco of more than ono witness shows that ho was an accomplished mesmerist. After Bert i< and became intimate with Mrs. Kinder, her old lover Jackson, appeared on the scene, nnd took up his resideuoo at Kimlor'H house, According t<? his own

stiil'.'m.nl, Mrs Kinder acknowledged to him before Bertrand that she had ttiWfvrrcd her affections to the latter. Still Jrfn>'s"on;seems,to havo hung about her, and to have become on intinvito terms 1 with BertraMy although the evidence shovt s that privntel^ lilVere was a great deal of jealousy displayed by 1 6),h of them. Between these two cnciliZe# of his peace, it was not surprising that Kinder led a miserable life. 110 again took to drinking. After a while Jackson left Sydney for Queensland. Soon after he went Kinder died. The account given at the lime was that he shot himself, with n pistol loaded only with powder and wadding. An inquest wns held, at which evidence was adduced that Kinder shot himself in tho presence of his wife and of Bertrand, and that he lingered for many days. The pistol belonged to Bortrnnd, but he avowed he had lent it to Kinder. A verdict of temporary insanity was returned. As soon as Jackson saw the account of tho inquest, he suspected foul play. ( Bcvtraiul hud frequently spoken to him of the probable sudden death of Kinder, and WAH in the habit of talking about marrying Mrtf. Kinder as soon as he could obtain a divorce from his own wife, Mrs. IJoitrnnd. Putting the circumstances together. Jackson at once came to the conclusion that Kinder had met his death at the hands of Bertram!, and wrote to the latter a letter headed " wilful murder," in which he demanded the loan of £20 as the price of his leaving the country, and abstaining from making disclosures inimical to Bertrnnd. For this letter Jackson was prosecuted, nnd received a sentence of twelve months' imprisonment. After the trial the widowed Mrs. Kinder retired to Batluust to live with her father and mother (Mr. and Mrs. Wood), who had recently reached there from New Zealand. Shortly afterwards Uertrand was prosecuted by n Miss Robertson for using threatening language, and in default of being able to find sureties, was thrown into pris-on. No sooner Wore they removed from the terror of his personal presence, than n number of persons seem to have been anxious to disclose what they knew about him, and tho terrible particulars to which we are about to refer were placed in the hands of the police. His sister, Mrs Kerr, wife of mi architect named Kerr, well known in Dunedin, proved that her in-other hud irei'ly confessed to her to having himself shot Kinder, find to afterwards having poisoned him when theio seemed a chance of his recovering. The evidence of Mrs Kerr shows Bertram! to have been a most abandoned ruffian. On more than one occasion, ho attempted to murder his own ivife, and made no secret to her of his amour with Mis Kinder. The evidence of his assistant, Allied Byrne, placed the prisoner, if possible, in a yet more atrocious light, whilst it was an admis-sion on his own part of a considerable amount of complicity. Bertram! used commonly t;> speak to him aboiit his intention of getting rid of Kinder, and on three separate occasions at night-time crossed the water in a boat with Byrne to Kinder's residence, with tho avowed intention of killing the unlhippy man, and leaving the deed to be supposed to be that of Jaek?.on. Byrne was the depository of all KineieVs vile and profligate secrets, and they were not few ; and excuses himself upon the ground of tho mortal few in which he stood of his master, lie had even purchased the pistol, Bertram! accompanying him disguised as a female. The evidence of Miss Robertson, an intimate friend of the family, showed that Bertram! commonly f*pokc of Mrs Kinder in passionate terms; and of his determination to marry her. Once he placed Miss Robertsonunder mesmeric influence ; and once ho made her kiss him in his wife's presence, threatening if she did not do so, to horsewhip the latter. Mrs Bertram! was seemingly a thoroughly weak and powerless woman. According to Mrs Kerr's evidence, she wns in constant terror of her husband, who cither drugged or mesmerised her, so that she passed a great part of her time asleep After Bertrand had confessed to Mrs Kerr his having killed Kinder, she interrogated her sister-in-law, Mrs Bertram!, concerning it, who admitted having been present, and gave the following account of the transaction :— " Mrs Kinder and herself were standing at the, window looking out, when she hoard tho report of a pintol. She turned round, and saw Mr Kinder sitting in a chair and the pistol drop from his hand. As she looked, Bertmnd put v pipe in his mouth. lie took the pipe off the table. Mrs Kinder ran out of the room, and Mr Bertram! followed her with a loaded pistol, saying that if she did not. come into the room lie would blow her brains out. M,is Kinder came into the room, and Bertram! took hold of Mrs Kinder's aim, and bade her face Mr Kinder, lie pinched her arm so hart! that his fingers nearly met, and she bore the marks for three weeks. lie said, ' Mow look at him well ; i wish you always to see him before you.' After ho was shot, they made Mrs Bertram! nurse and attend upon him, and whilst she was doing all she could to remedy the mischief her husband had done, Bertrand and Mrs Kinder were walking up and down the verandah with their arms round each others' waists. She said she was attending on Mr Kinder for two or three days, and ho seemed to get better, and that Bertraud had decided that ho could not let Kinder live — that ho must bo poisoned. Then she said that Bertrand forced her to mix tho poison, and that Mrs Kinder gave it to Kinder." But Bertrand's own admission to Mrs Kerr wns that ho shot Kinder himself, and that h • made Mv» Bovtvond, poison him, fljra

Kinder slurt Mrs Bertrand were b<*th charged with eMbjVl'icity in the crime, but since the evidence? V.»Mws out Mrs Bei trand has been released. There remain two .singular pieces oi evidence to refer to. A diary kept hy Bertrand afttT Mrs Kinder wont to Biithuist, and ]o L toi\s written to him from that iMaco ,by Mrs Kinder. J'oth the dial} And; (ho letters aro penned in most impassioned fottftii'. There are occasional obscure nllusiolfc Wlvich may refer tothcir joint crime, but t/;a' *#Vjctet matter jh chiefly tlio reiteration of fhsiv frenzied attachment for each other. OtW StMitgo feature of tho diary is the assertion thathe spoke a groat deal to his sister, Mi'H Kerr, about Mrs Kinder, and derived great comfort from her ; and that she was favorable to tlic divorce. Against this is Airs Kerr's allegation that she was under tho dominion of bodily i'car the wholo timo she was in her brother's house. We have not further space at present to refer te> tho case. The trial will not take place till March. The evidence to which we havo referred was given in tho Polico Court. •It remains only to be added that the feelings of the mob were strongly against the prisoners. Mrs Kinder's veil was torn from her face, and but for tho polico Bertrand would have been maltreated by tho crowd.