MURDER MYSTERY

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 77, 1 April 1932, Page 3

MURDER MYSTERY

BONES IN CAMP FIRE. STRANGE WESTRALIAN CRIME DEATH SENTENCE PASSED. IS CARRON STILL ALIVE? "I find that Leslie George Brown, also known as Louis Cnrron, came by his death at the Rabbit Reserve, near the 183-mile pate on No. 1 rabbit-proof fence on or about May IS, 1930, and I find Leslie George Brown (Louis Carron) was wilfully murdered by Tohn Thomas Smith, otherwise known as Stanley or '•Snowy" Bowles, and I commit Smith to stand his trial at the March Criminal Sittings of the Supreme Court.' With that finding the coroner (Warden E. Y. Butler) brought to a close the seven-day innuest into the Murchison bones mvstery, which has already been outlined in the '-'Star-' during the past two days.

Attempts at Suicide. Kt the inquest and subsequent trial of Smith, evidence was given that Smith had attempted to commit suicide. Richard Fawcett, a police constable Soned at Meekatharra said that Snowy Rowles was brought into the Meekatharra. lock-up on March 7, 1081. He was still there on March 0. About li nw on March 9," said witness, "ConTcnii and I took him his tea. He then appeared all right. About a nuarter of an hour later we heard a loud noise in the cell, and on rushing to see what was the matter discovered Rowles lying on the floor of the cell trvin" to untie a rope made of strips of blankets from his neck. By placing a sanitary pan underneath a ventilator, and placing a mattress folded in four on top of the pan, he had succeeded in tvin" one end of the rope to a bar across the ventilator. Ho had then either lumped or fallen from the improvised stand. Most of the rope was still attached to the bar across the ventilator The remainder of it was tied around his" neck. He was panting and greatly excited. He said, 'It's all right, I will cive you no more trouble. I nave nad two tries and slipped both times.' He added that he had made the first attempt on the previous day by taking strychnine. I asked him where he had the strychnine concealed, and he said it was hidden in a hand of his trousers. He then said to me, 'Death by strychnine poisoning is a terrible end. A man goes off into a trance or fit, recovers and then seems to stare at you as if he recognised you before he finally goes off.'

Effects of Poison. "He also told me," witness continued, "that he did not want to do a 'stretch' and that rather than do 'life,' he wished 'thev would string him up,' but that he would try and hang himself before they got the chance. As far as I knew, no one had mentioned anything about a murder charge to him then. It was not until later that he was charged with murder. He asked me not to report his attempted suicide to the authorities, but I told him I would have to do so. He said that the strychnine he had taken on the previous day had made him very ill and given him a fearful headache. I remember having given him two tablets when he had complained of a headache on the previous night." Mr. Curran: Do you really think he took poison? Witness: Yes. And do you think he was trying to hang himself. He had a rope round his neck. As a matter of fact, isn't it ridiculous to think he was trying to commit suicide?—No, I don't think so. Do you know that all the time he was in Fremantle gaol he was somehow managing to shave himself with a blade razor I—No.1—No.

Isn't it a fact that in gaol he was in the bootmaker's shop for several weeks handling knives?—l don't know.

Accused Cashes a Cheque. Edward Samuel Moses, licensee of the Paynesville Hotel, said that he first met Snowy Rowles at the Nine-mile Well on the Youanmi Road. He remembered him coming to his hotel on May 20, 1930, to cash a cheque for £25 0/Z drawn by the Wydgee Pastoral Company in favour of L. Carron. The cheque produced was the one. When Rowles first came to the hotel with the cheque witness was away at a mine four miles off, and hit? wife referred Rowles to witness. Rowles came out to the mine and asked witness to let him have some petrol and other goods from the hotel store, saying he would pay with a cheque for £25. Witness told him he would fix him up when he returned to the hotel. Rowles drove back to the hotel in his truck and witness returned about 6 p.m. Rowles then decided that as it was late he would stay the night. He said he had come from Narndee station that dav. Witness supplied him with £2 16/ worth of petrol and groceries, a prospecting dish, a pair of shoes and other articles of a total v alue of £5 11/3 and was paid with a cheque for £25 0/7, which had been endorsed "L. Carron." When witness asked who was the chap marked as the payee, Bowles replied, "The fellow who came along with me." Witness asked him where the chap was and he told him «• was ba ck afc the fox traps> waitin „ »£> *"?' For cha,l g e h e gave Rowles a-Dout £3 in cash and the remainder by a cheque for £17, payable to S. Rowles or bearer (produced).

Crown's Case. In outlining the case to the jury at the opening of the lengthy trial of Smith i -ferth, the Crown Prosecutor said P°iii3 inquiries resulted in the dis«*ery on February 10, 1931, of several rtK. ° f ashes from cam P fir es on a th vr reSerVe near the 183 -niile gate on the No. 1 rabbit-proof fence in the Murchson district. Those ashes were sifted, and articles, "■inch will be produced and proved to j~ Ve ° een Carron's, were found. Most J m P°rtant of those articles were a molar tooth which had been burned, but not aestroyed, and which contained a cavity n exactly the same position as a similar cavity Mr. Sims, the New Zealand dentist, had made in one of Carron's molars; 17 artificial teeth, including Buf"cient diatoric teetli to make a full Jo * er se t; two gold clips; a gold faceted wedding ring which could be identified as Barron's; ten wire stitches of a Peculiar stamp, similar to wire stitches ] n a cardboard box Carron had in his possession when he left the Fountain °v C t mp with Rowles ; 18 shoe-eyelets, Wiich may have come from the sandfh °es Carron was wearing when he left the Fountain outcamp with Rowles; and a Hongkong coin, similar to a coin Y*rron was known to have possessed. A -piece of melted lead, of the same a 0.32-calibre bullet was also 7>und in the fire, and a cartridge case was lound in the vicinity. That may indicate to you.that some one was shot.

r His Mother's Advice. The Crown Prosecutor went on to describe the police visit to Rowles' outcamp on Hiil View station, SO miles . out from Meekatharra, and of the dis- : covery there of articles which, he said, I could be identified as Carron's property. He told of Rowles being brought into — Meekatharra, and of the two alleged •j attempts he had made on his life there. He also quoted statements alleged to j have been made to Detective Sergeant Manning and to Constable Peim by Rowles, in the first of which Rowles is reputed to have said, "A man must have a kink to do this sort of thing. I am sorry I did not take my old lady's advice. She wanted me to give myself 1 up when I escaped from Dalwallinu, and if I had taken her advice I would have had that all over by uow and would not have had this other thing to face." To Constable Penn, Mr. Gibson continued, Rowles was alleged to have said, • ''They're sure to fit me for this and I'll i swing. I'll never do a 'lifer.' I won't ! get a reprieve, and if they don't swing me I'll find a way to do it myself." Dealing with the bones found in the camp fires, Mr. Gibson said that they had been well crushed. Despite an objection from Mr. Curran, which was overruled by Mr. Justice Draper, he went on to say that Rowles had been present at a discussion when Mr. Arthur Upfield, a novelist, had gone into the question of disposing of human remains by burning them and then crushing the bones into small pieces. "Whoever burned the remains found in the camp fires near the 183-mile gate certainly followed the procedure outlined in that discussion," concluded Mr. Gibson.

Mr. Curran's Address. The case for the defence closed on March 19, after Rowles, or Smith, and a number of witnesses had given evidence. Mr. Curran, who appeared for aceused, claimed that the Grown had failed to establish that the remains found were those of Carron and that they had also failed to prove that Rowles had killed Carron. Evidence was given by witnesses called by the defence that they had seen Rowles and Carron together at Mount Magnet after the date Carron was alleged to be murdered.

Mr. Curran then addressed the jury for two hours. "I want you to appreciate that a man is innocent until he is found guilty," he said. "Remember that Rowles need not have given the police any statement, nor need he have given evidence from the witness box. He did both, and I put it to you that there were no weaknesses in his statement of the facts.

"Because a man has disappeared in the Murchison district," he continued, "it does not mean that he has been murdered, or even that he is dead. Men go out into the heart of Australia prospecting very often, and, because they disappear, no one can say they arc dead. They may come back. Accused has been charged with the wilful murder of Louis Carron, and to that charge he pleads not guilty. It is for you to decide, on the evidence you have heard. If you are satisfied that there is any reasonable doubt of his guilt, even if you are left with the gravest suspicions, you must still give the accused the benefit of that doubt."

Continuing, counsel said that, apart from the fact that the law required proof of the actual murder, there was the accused's" emphatic denial of the crime to consider—a denial that had been backed up with evidence of his innocence. The Crown case was entirely built up on circumstantial evidence, he said, and legal authorities had pointed out that from such evidence three orders of presumption could be drawn — violent presumption, probable presumption and rash presumption. He held that in this case the Crown had drawn a rash presumption. Howies was found guilty and sentenced to death on March 20. Since then a report has been made to the police that Carron has since been seen alive. No doubt full inquiries are now being made into this startling pieco of information.