GIRL TELLS WHY SHE SHOT OLD MAN.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 153, 28 June 1919, Page 19

GIRL TELLS WHY SHE SHOT OLD MAN.

CRIME FULL OF GRIM REVELATIONS. There has been a grim tragedy, with an appalling story, at Humansdorp, South Africa, and o young girl, named Cora van Staaden, ls coucerned in it. She ls accused of murder, and a letter she has written to Head Constable Burrows contains sensational allegations of Instigation by, and the complicity of, a farmer named Terblanche and his son ln the murder of the dead man, whose name was Wilson. The letter, which has been put in as evidence, ls to the following effect:— About February, 1918, she says, Fritz Terhlanche and herself were forced by Wilson to do what was not right, but she thought he was just as much to blame as WUson. Between them they ruined her. Wilson, she was sure, promised him to marry her. When she asked him whether it was true, he would say, "You are going' to marry mc. chnmmy, and not a dirty little Dutch dog like Fritz." j "I was never happy one day of my time since I left my mother's home," she writes, and then goes on to say that be took her down to the river once for a walk. There he pushed her into the water and held her down. There were other things that happened, and worse. Everything that was bad she had to put up with. Fritz pretended to be her friend. He said he was sorry for her. and would try to get her out of his grip. Wilson "as much as held a pistol against her temple one morning because she begged him not to touch her honour." It was either death or giving in. "I can't explain how I suffered," she declares. '"Wilson ruined mc when I was only a child of thirteen." When Fritz and his father were there one day, her letter goes on, Wilson said he wanted to work tho farm so as to leave her something when he died. Not so long after Fritz's father came and found her crying. She told him Wilson had Mt her, and he said, "We must try to get rid of him." After Terblanche had gone she got "what you may call a real flogging, first with his fist and then ha would kick mc most unkindly." About two weeks before Wilson's death Fritz brought a bit of white paper down, but she did not know what was in it. He said, "Now we can get of that old brute," and he told her to throw the contents Into Wilson's wine or anj-thing he drank. As he threatened to tell Wilson she was backbiting him, she promised to do it. After Wilson had drunk it, although he was so cruel, she felt sorry for him; she mixed some salt water, and he drank it. In the morning he was better, but at dinner time he rolled on the floor and screamed. He then laid quite still, as if dead.

"SAEO I MUST SHOOT HIM." When she told Terblanche he said he was not going near, as he might get into trouble. He knew what was the matter, because he smiled. "Wilson said it was my doings," the letter concludes, "and he said he would deal with mc. True enough, he felt under I his pillow for the pistol, and said that for two pins he would shoot mc. "It was then that Fritz said I must shoot him, or he would tell on mc abont the poison. I knew Wilson would take his word before mine. So I went into the room, nnd "before T could collect my commonsense I pulled the trigger, and the shot killed him. "Terrified to death, I threw down tie pistol and Tan ont past Fritz, who 6tood laughing. I went straight to his house to tell his father that 'Wilson was dead. "I am ready to face Iboth Fritz and his father; It was they who planned Wilson's death." Wilson was a septuagenarian, and his farm was a lonely one. There is a suggestion that £200 was secreted In the house. A native has said he saw Cora <who is only sixteen) and a youth coming away from the farm. She told him that Wilson had shot himself, and that she had found only £5 in a drawer.