MURDER IN PERTH.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 94, 21 April 1924, Page 6

MURDER IN PERTH.

» MAN'S BODY FOUND IN RIVER. • Early on Saturday morning tne body of a man was found in the river. Apparently he had been the victim of a brutal murder. A coat, badly torn and saturated with blood, had been thrown over the feet. The head of the roan had been battered. Detectives found .indications of the body having been dragged from a motor car to the river. The intention of the murderer seems to have been to throw the body into a deep hole, which is fenced off and mark-id "dangerous for safety of bathers." The footprints of one man were traced through the stunted undergrowth and across the tramline, which runs between the motor drive and the river. The victim was apparently between 25 and 30 years of age, and apparently had not long been in the State. A struggle appears to have taken place. The victim's shirty sleeves were , neatly rollfed up, and the tic neatly tied. On the left hand was a signet ring with the words "Thelma to Jack, September .5, 1920." , Handkerchiefs in deceased's pockets bore the name of J. O'Neill. The sum of 7/3 was found in an inside trouser pocket. The hip pocket had been turned completely out, suggesting that the murderer thought his victim possessed a roll of notes. Small motor accessories in the pockets indicate that deceased was a motor mechanic. The -body was identified as that of John O'Niell, motor driver on a Perth rank. Several years ago O'Neill married Thelma McCallum, of Subioco. Realising all the money he could from his property, he went to England for the honeymoon. On his return he obtained employment as a motor driver. A friend of O'Neill has stated that O'Neill told him on Saturday that „ lie was leaving for the country •to drive two commercial travellers. It was unusual, he added, for travellers to start out at night, but they had told him they were in a hurry, and he need not worry, as there was good money in it.