AUCKLAND TRAGEDY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 130, 14 March 1930, Page 3

AUCKLAND TRAGEDY

MURDER AND SUICIDE. EVIDENCE AT THE INQUEST. (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND. March 13. The tragic misfortune which ' befell John Frederick beesley was recalled at the Magistrate's Court this afternoon. Beeslev returned home at 8.15 J3.ni. on February 19 to find his wife lying dead with her throat cut. In another room, William Porter, who boarded with the Beeslevs, was lying with his throat cut also. * Potter was barely alive, and died at the Auckland Hospital about noon on the next day. When the inquest was opened, before Mr Hunt, S.M., as Coroner, Beesr ley said he had last seen his wife alive when he left home to go to work at 8.30 on the morning of the tragedy. She was then in good health and spirits. The three children had gone to school just previously, and his wife was left alone in the house with Potter. Potter had been a friend of his for 20 years, and had lived in his home for nearly three years. Potter was out of work. Returning from work in the evening, he was met at the tram stop bv his three children at 6.15 p.m. They told him their mother was out and the house was locked. On arriving home he found the doors were locked, and he got in a window. He found his wife lying in the dining room. After obtaining assistance from neighbours, he went through the house and found Potter lying dangerously wounded in his bedroom. Beside him lay an open razor. Continuing, Beesley said he did not notice anything wrong with Potter on the morning of the tragedy. Witness had never noticed anything strange about Potter's manner. He had been a man of a very quiet disposition, but had been out of work for some time, and was evidently running short of money. Thomas Henry Nicholl, who was called by Beesley when the tragedy was discovered, said it was evident by the cuts on the woman's neck and hands that there had been a severe struggle. In the opinion of Irene May Nicholl, wife of the previous witness, Potter was morbid and peculiar. Witness had heard him quarrelling with Mrs Beesley on one occasion about five or six weeks before February 19. Potter would sometimes speak to witness and sometimes refused to speak to anyone, and sat out in the yard with his head between his hands. Remarking that -it showed the state of Potter's mind, the Chief Detective produced a letter written by him to his niece in Dunedin on February 14. It was a rambling and almost incoherent epistle. The Coroner found that Agnes Beesley died on February 19, and that death was caused by wounds inflicted by William Potter, while A verdict of suicide was brought in on the death of \Potter.