PUKEKAWA MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 248, 16 October 1920, Page 7

PUKEKAWA MURDER.

CASE AGAINST THORN. / EXPERT* GIVE EVIDENCE. | TRIAL ADJOUFBWOD TILL MONDAY. \ The hearing of the eharjEe of murder ■ agftinet Samuel John Thorn (94), ] accused of hawing murdered, a eettler, »Sydi»ey Seymour Eyre, at Pukekaiwa., on : August 24, wae continued at Pirkekivhe ' yesterday aifternoon and evening. ' j Phillip Sidney Byre, a lad, who was I I the eldest son of the murdered man, hay- ; j ing supported the evidence -of his mother ' about the relations of improper intimacy j ' between her and Thorn, proceeded with j ; : general evidence. Some time ago, he j , said, lie got a packet of l'etcr's -<| high ■ ; gun" cartridges out of a parcel of four; '■ packets that accused secured from town, j • , The packets had No. 6 and Xo. 7 shot ; ; mixed, and he t<tiil had some Jeft. Wit- • J ness had a single-barrelled shotgun, and ' ; that and an old Enfield rifle were the j only firearms on the place after Thorn ■ I left and took his double-barrelled gun i i away. It was some time since he last i : flred liie gun. The witness stated that ( i after his father returned home Thorn : u«(M tv get up at night, and go to the : ; dining-room or the pawage from where ; he would be able to hear the words of ' conversation between witness' father , ] and mother. The witness corroborated i ! his mother's account of the happenings ■ j on the night of August 24. He was , awakened by the report of a gun and ' heard his mother ce.ll out to Wβ father "Wliat is that?" Then he heard her , call "Dad! Dad!" and come running to witness' rooTn. After that he and his . brother John, who had alao been aroused went out at their mother's request and got word to the police with the assistance of a. neiglrbour us had been related . •by a previous witness. As he went out of the front paddock to summon assist- j ance, he noticed that the wi-re catch was off the gate, •which was swinging, and ' he noticed that the other gate at the ' back was open also. To Mr. Singer: Things were very happy in the hoOse while hi* father was ! away. Thorn and hie mother were on I tilic best of terms and so were ail the ' I children with Thorn. Things were just j I as happy before his father went away. ! When going , to call for help he and his brother first looked out through the i back door and then went out tho front door. Their mother did not tell them to I go out the front door, they -.vent of their own accord. EXPERT OX THE GUNS. William Henry Hazard, gunmaker and expert, deposed that the single-barrelled gun identified as Phillip Eyre's had been examined by him on August 27, when he ' found that it had been roughly cleaned. It had been oiled, but the oil was dry, ; and from that, together -with the pre- i J aence of dust spots and the absence of ■. powder smell and fouling, lie concluded !' : that it had not been fired for a month or I' : more. The double-barrelled shotgun : * ! identified as Thorn's he had examined on ' August 30. Both barrels had apparently ' been fired some time previously, the left i more recently than the right. After i j firing, both barrels had been cleaned, but ' in the left barrel there was a residue of I • powder still left, while in the right there { was no sign of fouling. The powder had worked up in the left barrel to a certain > extent, which always happened when the gun was cleaned only once after firing. ' ] In his opinion the gun had been fixed ] within a week or ten days. The cartridges , in Thorn's gun case were "Peter's high- ' gun ballistitc,"' some No. 0 shot and some j No. 7 shot. His firm had supplied S. .L j Thorn with 100 such cartridges some £ time ago; he was the North Island agent ] for this brand of cartridge, and the No. 7 j was not often sold. He examined 42 shot! s pellets found in deceased's head and on j the floor of his bedroom, and found they ' j agreed exactly in weight with the same' ] number taken from one of the cartridges in Thorn's pin case. He examined, also, c four gun wads said to have been found t by the window at the scene of the murder. In the type of cartridge he was t dealing with there were five wads in each —a biue-top shot cartridge, a three-six-teenths black edge, a quarter black edge, and an eighth black waterproof. To « correspond with this there should have '« been another wad found at the ' i scene, the tnree-sixteenth black edge: it! 1 was probably in the head. He knew of t no other cartridge with a blue-top wad I of this nature. The powder in the ■ r cartridge was called "smokeless," but'l there was no such thing as smokeless powder. The emoke was of a lighter jt colour than that of black powder. He j c examined the window at the scene of the \* murder, and the shot must have been t fired from the left hand corner of the window, and, in his opinion, with the gun held by the left hand, while the right hand was occupied keeping the man in I \ position by holding the window sill. It j \ was impossible for the shot to have been 11 fired as it had boon from within the, I room, or from the front door-step. The;? i old rifle that was in Eyre's house could ' • ■ not have produced the wound that caused ' ,death. s ! TRACKS OF A HORSE. t I Henry H. Sharp, farmer, said his farm <i was four miles and a-half from Eyre's jl flnce on the road to Glen Murray. He'c said that shortly after 9 p.m. on August I ; 24. when he was in bed. he heard his.. I doge barking. Ho went outside. but ! l ! could not see anyone passing on thejc road, which was about 300 yds distant, ie Next .morning as lie drove along a clay l<? road at the back of Eyre's place he I noticed fresh horse hoof marks at a t place called Tippin's corner, where the r clay road joined the main road. The marks were those of a horse travelling on the right side of the road. Having heard a little later that Mr. Eyre had been shot he took special note of these marks as he came back, and took with him a native called Brown Tonga. Thpro had been rain on August 23 and again on August 25. and the hoof marks "left a good impression on the clay road. He < j noticed that the marks were those of < ' a hand-made shoe, being plain and ! without a heel, while he noticed par- i ticularly that the right front shoe was i< wider than the others across the licet, 11 I and plainly showed two notches caused!. i by faulty striking in the making. Those j . i notches agreed with the shoe produced, | > said to have been taken off the right' i | front foot of Oranville's horse Mickey.! i : Other peculiarities he noticed were "a. I" j wider centre on the left front foot than { ] the right, and a little bulge on the right I | hind shoe. The shoes were apparently | made of inch iron. He traced these [ ; choc marks about a chain from Tippin's | Corner down towards Eyre's placp and '' ! back again as far as witness , gate, going in the direction of Glen Murray. When he saw Granville's horse Mickey j being worked in front of Eyre's place i on September 11 he concluded that the! ' horse corresponded with the one he had i in hie mind as the type that would make j the length and style of hoof marke,! being a clean-stepping, well-spread half-draught horse. The shoes taken ' from <he horse showed the peculiarities i 1 he had mentioned. The horse was of j

the type that could carry a man over a long journey without much distress. He had had much experience on military service with artillery horses. HORSESHOES AND OTHER THINGS. Benjamin Tippins, farmer, deposed that he rode home to hie place, -whfc-.b in about half a mile from Eyre's farm, about 10.30 p.m. on August 24. As he was approaching a bridge on the road between the two places hie horse shied violently wiben near a stump on the road. At that spot another borse could not have been standing without being eeen from the road, bat a ferw yarde nearer the bridge was a clump of ferns where a horse could be standing by the roadside and not be seen from the road. He got home about 10.30 p.m., and to bed aliot:t 11 p.m. After going to sleep he was awakened by the dogs barking and heard a horse going at a good pace paat his place and coming from Eyre's direction. Hie house was only 20 or 30 yards from the road. Next day he examined tracks on a side road leading to the main road, and was satisfied they were made by the same horse, going and coming, and he was struck by tUe fact that the off front shoe was much wider than the near front shoe. He formed the opinion that the horse was a heavy one of the medium draught type and a clean stepper with a long stride, and the chocs seemed to be made of inch iron. John McPherson Stewart, cream carrier, deposed to having examined the prints past Tippins' place referred to by the previous -witness, and having remarked that they lrd to a post near the bridge and 150 yarde from Eyre's house. There was a chnnp of fern round the post, and that might prevent a horse tied there being seen from the road. He corroborated the previous witness about some of the characteristics of the shoe marks, and about the tracks .being on the right-hand eide of the road each way. Donald C. Beloe, blacksmith, assistant at Blake Bros.' chop, Pukekohe, deposed to having made the shoes for the horse Mickey, afterwards sold to Mr. Granville, and corroborated the statements about some ot the peculiarities of the set of shoes. After the evidence of other residents of Pukekewa, had been taken, showing that at various times during the night of August 24 a horse had been heard on the Toad going in the direction of Glen Murray, the Court adjourned till Monday at the Auckland Court. There are still aboat eighteen witnesses to be heard.