CRIME IN A CROWD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 138, 10 June 1905, Page 13

CRIME IN A CROWD.

i While hundreds of country folk and others from distant towns were enjoyinc: them- ' selves on Easter Monday at Portadown, j ! one of the chief manufacturing centres in ; the North of Ireland, a terrible tragedy i took place in the very midst of the crowd. A man named Patrick Faloon was stand- ■ inj: qnietly on the footpath watching the ! throngs of holiday-makers passing to and j fro, when, according to several eye-wit- ' : ' nesses. Thomas Corduer. who is employed . Jin one of the Portadown mills, walked de- ; i liberately up to him and pulled a revolver J ont of his pocket and fixed. The ballet ; , missed, and lodged in the shutter of a shop I window. Faloon moved back, exclaiming. "My God! what are you doing:" A second j shot was immediately fired, and Faloon fell ; dead on the footpath. Then Cordner atI tempted to discharge a third shot into the I prostrate body, but two policemen who were close by at the time closed with him, anrt wrenched the revolver from his srasp. 1 Some excitement arose when it became known that the deceased man was a Roman j I Catholic, and his assailant a Protestant, j j but it is generally believed that nothing of j i a political or religious nature had anything jto do with the crime. It is affirmed that ; both men were on bad terms in consequence iof a quarrel which took place in January j last. I Doubts have been raised as to Cordner's sanity. On Monday moruing. it is stated. Ihe sent for a couple of friends, and made ' ! his will. He complained of feeling very I ] unwell, and was under the impression that ! Jhe was going to die. lie was examined by ' j a doctor, who said that there was nothing ' physically the matter with him. but that he was in a morbid depressed state of mind, i I aud advised him to associate with cheerful j i company. The deceased man leaves a.wife and fam- i ily. Cordner has been remanded, and it is i . understood he has made a statement which • ■ will have an important bearing on the qnesi tir>n of his sanity. I _