BRUTAL CRIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 261, 3 November 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

BRUTAL CRIME.

LONG BAY MURDER MYSTERY. * _____ 3 t DIED NEAR GAOL. f The identity of the person or persons E who murdered Mrs. Rebecca May Anderson f in revolting circumstances in the scrub at I Long Bay on May 10, 1924, has never been * disclosed. g Few more horrifying crimes have been I recorded. In savage brutality it rivalled those of notorious "Jack the Ripper" of * England. r Lying in a cleared portion of the scrub s which covers the sandhills in the neigh- ■ bourhood of Long Bay Gaol, the nude f body of the victim was found on the morn- t ing of May 13 by a boy riding a horse. t She had been done to death in a shock- t iug manner, which suggested that only j a man crazed with drink or the desire for vengeance, or a sex maniac could have per- j petrated it. . Face downwards in the sand, with every appearance of having died in terrible j agony, the woman was naked save for one stocking and an old skirt thrown over her legs. Her clothes in a heap lay a few feet , away. Near them was a broken tumbler. ] A horn-handled penknife was found j near the tumbler. Not far from the knife ] was the stump of a grass tree from which t the rushes had been cut to form a bed. , The bed had been used. Footmarks led , from it through the sand to where the body lay, and near it were two patches of ( blood. i The terrible injuries which had caused ] the woman death had been caused with a j jagged piece of scrub. They must have , been inflicted where the bloodstains were j found, and the woman probably rose and j staggered to where she eventually fell in , mortal agony. j The maniacal nature of the killer was indicated by the fact that he must have i stood over his victim and watched as she writhed in her death throes, biting at the sand and tearing at the grass with her , fingers. Then he took a portion of her , clothing from the heap and threw it over her. Across the woman's shoulders was a blue straw hat and a leather purse, while the skirt lay over her legs. The strange feature of the ease was that the woman and her companion must have gone to the spot in the sandhills on good terms. From the absence of any tears on the woman's clothing it was concluded that she could not have forced her way through the scrub, and that they must have reached the fatal clearing by means of a narrow path than runs to it through the bushes. The condition of _ the garments as they were found also indicated that the woman must have disrobed herself, as several safety pins used had been opened and closed again. Screams At Night. From the fact that the rushes had been cut, and from other acts of the murderer, the,, conclusion was drawn that the crime must have been committed in the daytime. At the inquest, however, a woman living at Long Bay, gave evidence of having heard a woman scream twice about 11 o'clock on the night of May 10. As she was the only one wht> appeared to have heard tha sounds, however, her husband scouted the story, remarking that nothing serious would be happening no close to the prison. Mrs. Anderson was originally married to a seaman employed on a coastal vessel, but on account of her drinking habits he had left her. He told the coroner that he was sorry for her, and had occasionally given her money after he left her. She afterwards married a man named Richmond, and her mode of life brought her under the notice of the police. There were several convictions against her. The efforts of the police were concentrated on endeavouring to find the man who was seen leaving a hotel in Oxford Street in the company of the woman on May 10. Both were said to be then the Worse for liquor. At the Captain Cook Hotel the woman and a man, both under the influence of drink, were seen to board a tram on which they travelled as far as Long Bay Gaol. They were not seen after leaving the tram. Whether they were joined by others there, and the affair developed into an orgy, with frightful results, is not clear. It seems probable that there was only one man concerned. All efforts of the police to locate this individual failed. To one of the witnesses who saw him with the Woman he appeared to be a seafaring man, and the probabilities are that he very quickly made himself scarce, and disappeared from Australia for good. A man and a woman who were seen to speak to the pair before they boarded tiie tram, it was felt, could have shed some light on the crime, but, although a reward of £200 was offered for information, nothing further was heard. At the inquest a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown was returned. The coroner said that he was perfectly satisfied that the police had gone to very great- pains to elucidate the mystery, but it remained unsolved. In January, 1925, a man was detained on the statement of a woman that he had confessed to her that he was the murderer of Mrs. Anderson, but he denied all knowledge of the crime, and police inquiries cleared him. Letters sent to the detectives in the same month were thought to have some bearing on the crime, but nothing came of them.