MAN STABBED.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 182, 3 August 1929, Page 12

MAN STABBED.

DIES IN AMBULANCE. NELSON STREET TRAGEDY. MURDER CHARGE FOLLOWS. TWO WOMEN DISAPPEAR. SEARCH BY THE POLICE., Bleeding profusely, Thomas Levy, labourer, aged 40, was taken from a house in Nelson Street early last evening. He died in an ambulance van, and later the police arrested George Caffrey, a quarter-caste negro, on a charge of murder. It is alleged that following a quarrel at the door of the dead man's house Caffrey stabbed Levy in the groin. Two women were in the house' at the time of the quarrel, but they quickly made off, and have not'been seen since. < The police on-investigating the matter discovered a somewhat tangled skein. Levy lived at the house with men named David Carmody and George Frederick Cole. Last evening they were drinking with two women visitors from the country, who are said to have been friends of the dead man. It is stated that during the party a man came to the back door and went inside without knocking. He was told to leave, and his parting words are alleged to have been: "Allright Cole, I'll get you." Less" than half an hour later, a knock was heard at the front door. Levy said: "I'll deal with this ." Levy then opened the door. The others in the house heard a scuffle, and Levy cried out: "I'm stabbed!" The other men . rushed to the door just as Levy fell backwards. They state that when they looked out there was nobody in sight. . The other men placed Levy on the wire mattress of a bed, and endeavoured to staunch the flow of blood, with a torniquet. They communicated with the ambulance first, and then the police.' When the St. John- men arrived ; the severity of the wound was realised. / About an hour and a-half after the affair Detectives Knight, Bowman and Snedden went to a house in Wellington Street and arrested Caffrey. The other men at the house were closely ' questioned. It appeared that little was known of the dead man in the neighbourhood. Three weeks ago he rented the j house, and the three men had bached ; there. Levy was a widower employed by the Fletcher Construction Company. Sordid Surroundings. . The house where the tragedy happened, 119; Nelson Street, is an unpr'e- !• tentious .dwelling, standing back from : -the roadi; Its four rooms are meagrely and there' are few signs of C comfort.. It is-believed that the., police; found a large number of empty "square riggers." There were Jialf a doz.en, rickftt'y; chair's, a badly battered leather couch,' three? single beds covered with grey, -blanket's,, and a double bed, bare except for the wire mattress. There is a general air of poverty about the: place. The.gas-mantles: were"broken, and the stove had seen much better days. There was ample evidence that candles" had been used ■for illumin'ation. Cole's Story. Cole's version of the tragedy is this: "I went-in the ambulance to the hospital with Levy. 'Come on, TomV it's time to get up and go to work,' I said to him on the way, and I shook him vigorously. But Levy was dead. When Levy said, 'I'm stabbed,' those were the last words he spoke.' I heard Levy cry out I'm stabbed. 1 We got him on to the bed and did our best to bandage him up. The girls, who were friends of Levy's, were very upset and went away. They were strangers to me; I had only seen them once before, and I have not seen them since. I found out that Caffrey "went to a 'place where I was living before and they must have told him that' : I was living in the 'bach.'" -V ' , 7 Search for -Clues. It is believed that Caffrey admitted, he was at the house but denies all knowledge of the stabbing affair. When Caffrey wag arrested no knife was found. "■ Detectives were spoUring the town to-day for the missing women. The affair caused a sensation in the locality, "*nd this morning there were many curious people in-the vicinity of the house, which was under a police guard. The neighbours heard nothing of the scuffle. Tiip.j Bald thiat the men lived quietly at the bach , and apparently did not try ,to make friends with anybody. ; Ambulance men said that if Levy had been doubled up instead of being laid , out on the. bed,, thereby checking the flow of blood more effectively, it is pos-. sible that he would have recovered. If the femoral artery is severed a man will * die in less than ten* minutes. ACCUSED IK COURT. CAFFREY' REMANDED. . . "-1 , The man arrested, George Caffrey, Aged 34, a labourer, appeared before '.j Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., at the Police Court this morning.. ;• . . The Court was crowded with curious people anxious to see Caffrey. Caffrey was charged with the murJer of Thomas Levy on August 2. Chief Detective Hammond obtained a jremand until August 8.