GUILTY, THOUGH ACQUITTED.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 216, 11 September 1911, Page 9

GUILTY, THOUGH ACQUITTED.

THE DOQNBI STATION CRIME., "I AM THE MAN." JIURDERER'S CONFESSION AND SUICIDE. (From Special Correspondent.) LONDON, august 4. A couple of weeks ago—on Friday, July 21 to be precise—a young man named Vernon paid a visit to your L-ondon office, anxious to sell to your correspondent a confession of murder, which, he declared, would create tremendous excitement, in Australia. Your correspondent, however, was not open to buy the confession on the terms required; indeed, he was not nt all anxious to acquire it on any terms, for men who are on their own confession desperately hard up are not usually too particular as to the means they adopt to "raise the wind." Moreover, Vernon did not seem quite rational. He appeared to be "labouring under the influence of drugs or drink, and, truth to tell, his manner nsnerally did not inspire either confidence or courage. So the interview was cut as short as possible. All that your correspondent gatherer! was that the young fellow was George Vernon, who was tried for the murder of John Neil at Doondi station, Queensland, on September 23, ]PIO, and acquitted; that he really did commit the murder, and that ho was anxious to raise money on his confession in order to go with somebody he referred to as "her" to Canada.

From your offices Vernon seems to have gone to those of the "Express" only to meet with disappointment. Eventually he drifted to the offices of "John Bull." There, if we are to believe the statement published in that jottrnnl this week, hd bcciiu to have lost his desire for money, and sought only to "ease his troubled inind," by allowing them to take down his confession and signing it. Then he appears to have gono to the Army and Navy stores, where he bought a revolver in th? name of a cousin, and going on to Victoria, shot himself dead in one of the lavatories in the South-eastern and Chatham railway premises. Taking Vernon's confession to "John Bull" as truth (as it really seems to be), the. young fellow is better dead. He had been a ne'er-do-well since youth, and had become a victim of the drink and drug habit. He was the son of a well-known Middlesex cricketer, and was very well connected. After his school days he joined the Navy, hut when a naval cadet on H.M.3. Grafton, deserted at San Francisco. Influence obtained his pardon for thW, and his people placed him on a Californian fruit farm. From there he went t»:LoM Aberdeen's Coldstream ranch for a few months, and then came back to England. His next, move was to Africa, where the influence of friends secured him a position in the Rhodesian police. Hp left this service after a few months v.-ith a "fair" certificate, and then drifted hack to Fngland. His next move was to Canada, hut "Our Lady of the Snows" held no attraction for hitn, and he was soon back in the Old Country. Last year his friends sent him out to Queensland, where ho obtained employment at the Doondi station of the Australian Pastoral Company,'-of'which his uncle was chairman. It was on this station that ho committed the murder for which ho was tried and acquitted after a trial lasting i-1 (lays.

VERNON'S CONFESSION. "tvhich 18 borne out in all substantial details by the reports of the trial in the Brisbane jiapers, was, omitting a few details, as follows;: "Or. September 2,3 Inst the manager of the station, Mr. Higgiiison, was away, ind tlie only persona at the station besides myself were the cook, named Burdiktin, and his wife; the garden, John Nell: a man named Drew; and a half-caste boy ialkcl Bourram. About midnight the cook, as he thought, heard cries in Neil's tqoni, and on going to see what was thG matter, found Will lying between the two hods in a .Welter of blood, there being So one else in tlie room, or within sight. Of course, everybody was immediately aroused . . . and a man rode off for fi, constable and a doctor.

"However, after taking a considerable Quantity of whisky, I went to my room drunk, and was only aroused next mornlag about midday, when a constable told mo he was arreting me. for a brutal outrage on the gardener. Neil. Meantime, Neil had hern taken by cart to a hospital <t,t St. George, some, IT miles from the station, where four days later he died. Thereupon I was charged with wilful murder, and on February 10 last was put On trial before Mr. Justice Real and a jury. The trial lasted 14 days, and the Public Prosecutor seemed strangely unwilling to press home the evidence against me, but tho judge was dead against him. It should be said that the murdered man Stated in his dying deposition that he could not recognise the person who attacked him. but that the weapon was a cricket bat. Ultimately the jury returned ft Verdict "Not guilty.'" A WOMAN IN THE CASE. Now,'' said Veimon, "I am the man v ' lo • • • committed the murder. It jv'M saiu by one o»| the witnesses that on the way from Neil's room to my own I confessed that I had attacked the old Irian, Hi is I denied at the trial, but it quite true. At the trial no motive two suggested for the murder, but the facts arc these. On the night in question I wag with a woman. She was in my room when Neil called for bis orders for next day. This was about 9 o'clock in the eyc.nhi '■ At midnight I went over to s room and asked him if he intended to tellj Mr. Higgirmon what he had seen. I had ,rny cricket bat in my hand, and I snul, 'jNow, look here, Jack. Are you going; :o tell Mr. Higginson this in the morning?' He said. ' Yetf, I am. I think it is a damned shame that young fellows like you should take advantage of working men's wives!.' I said, 'Well, are you •f™** We you are going to do this?' "Jos, lie said, 'quite certain.' 'Well, then,' 1 said, 'you can go to hell,' and I hit him on the head, My nerve failed mo, I did not hit him hard enough, but I Mulled myself together and hit him about ten times, when I thought I had finished '"• • • . I then set lire to the room and went out. [ went over to my own room and found that my pyjamas were vndfchersd in blood, so I wrapped them 3 P in a packet, and put them into some stocking with screws and nails, and threw ■hew into the river just outside mv room."

Such was the story Vernon told "John Bull." He added:— "You can we it and state what I •<ave told you, provided vou do not do so for a week. I am sick of things I,ere - I have been at tho Keeley In■w,*",tc ever since. I returned to. Eng land a fortnight Itgo. and I am stuffed full of drink and drugs. I intend to cut myself free bl all my relatives and friends and to go with a girl who is very fond of me to British Columbia. What we shall do afterwards does not concern (Uiy6ii<J but ourselves."

Vernon, says "John Bull," seemed greatly distressed after unburdening himself, and leaving the room said, "Well, look out for to-morrow's papers." Later, after he had been advised to do nothing rash, he "looked at us in a strange kind of way, and whispered under his breath. 'Wait till to-morrow, and see.'" No mention is made in "John Bull" of any suggestion of payment being made for the confession, yet when he came to your correspondent ho was keen on the money he was expecting to get for it. Apparently he thought it was worth many sovereigns, and he spoke of "twenty or thirty pounds" being enough to take him and the person he referred to as "her" to Canada. Did he confess to "John .Bull" under the impression that he would receive a substantial sum. and finding his hopes disappointed resolved upon suicide? At the inquest a verdict of suicide during temporary insanity was returned.