REMARKABLE MURDER TRIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 199, 20 August 1904, Page 13

REMARKABLE MURDER TRIAL.

A FLAW IN EVIDENCE. LONDON, Jury 8. There waa a most sensational collapse of a murder trial at the Hampshire Assises last Tuesday owing to the fact that although the death of the victim was undisputed and the gnllt of the murderer absolutely clear, no witnesses of the murdered man's death could be produced, and death could not therefore be learally prov "d. The exciting events leading up to the trial recall rivldly the stirring ses fl-rht related by Robert Louis Stevenson in

"Treasure Island." although In this case the motire of the man who held the ship's crew at bay and turned the forecastle In to a fortress was the reverse of high-miud cd. The accused man was an Italian seaman named Callenducci, employed on thr Rrltlsh ste-nmer Arablstan. During a voyage from Brooklyn to Mont»» Video hr attacked a companion in the stokehole, and the captain ordered him to be handcuffed and placed under .arrest. This process Callenducci resented, and. producing a revolver, fired in all directions, wounding the captain, chief officer, second officer and second engineer. He then obtained possession of a rifle and a box of cartridges, and flred Indiscriminately at any who chanced to cross his path. He barricaded himself ln the forecastle, defied everybody, and whenever any member of the crew showed himself Callenducci shot at Mm. One of the men hit at this time was Frunch Roslelch, ln respect of whose death the charge of murder was brought. Thcaptain then steered for Bahla, the nearest port, and the wounded men were con veyed to hospital. Roslelch died two day? later, but the other men recovered. A; the instance of the British Consul a Naval Court was held, Callenducci was found guilty, and ordered to be sent to England Cor his trial.

The dltiicuity of the Treasury (the prosecutors In the case) was that only a doc tor and a nurse saw Roslelch die, and only hospital attendants actually saw the corpse of the man. None of these people could be brought to England, and consequently the Treasury had at the lost mo ment to withdraw the murder charge. But Callenducci did not escape scot-free by any means, for there were Indictments against him for shooting with intent to kill, and these were proceeded with, the result being that the murderer of Roslelch was sentenced to 15 years' penal servitude.