MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 211, 3 September 1908, Page 3

MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.

WANDERED ON JIOUKT EDEX, .VISITOR'S GRUESOME KLXD. A visitor to Auckland, Mr. J. Munro Bertram, made a gruesome discovery at the summit 01 Mount Eden this morning, about ten o'clock, while out for a. walk with his nephew. They had reached the top, andi were walking round, when on the crown, looking towards _, Onehunga, they suddenly came upon the body ot a man stretched at full length upon his back, with a bullet wound through his head. His mouth and moustache were singed through the burning powder and the lips lacerated by the entrance of a bullet. The man was alive at the time, lying perfectly straight, with his hands by his sirle. Close to the left hand, and lying between the hand and thigh, was a revolver. There was no indication of a struggle having taken place, anil the man was lying perfectly still. Mr. Bertram immediately reported the matter to the police, and Sergeant Carroll, accompanied by Dr. King, proceeded to the spot. A hasty examination of the wound showed that the bullet had entered the mouth, and come out just above the right eye. In a pocket a letter was found indicating that tho man's name was Robert King, and from a letter found upon him from a law firm styled McCarthy and Ed«>'.e, of iWashlngton, U.S.A., he was evidently an American. With the exception of this letter and an open-faced Waltham watch attached to his vest by a platted leather chain, nothing else was found on the body that would solve his identification. Neither was there any money or jewellery about him.

The victim was apparently between thirty-five and forty years of age, about five feet eight inches high, of medium build, with dark, sallow complexion and dark hair and eyes, and his hair rather thin on the top of the head and slightly grey at the side. He was clean-shaven with the exception of a sandy moustache. He was dressed in a rough 1 weed coat of bold blue and greou squares and trousers of "pepper and salr' variety. He was wearing light, half-soled boots, slightly worn at the heels. He was wearing a soft striped shirt and with a turned down collar, and also wore a tan coloured vest and blue umderdravvers. The revolver he had evidently used was an electroplated six-chambered weapon of ha-ndy size, slightly rusty, live chambers being loaded, and the other having been recently dit-charg-ed. Five other cartridges were found in bis pocket. The man was taken to the hospital, where he now lies semi-conscious, and in a condition which renders recovery hopeless.