MURDERER TO DIE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 65, 17 March 1936, Page 9

MURDERER TO DIE.

CALLOUS BOY GUNMAN

SMILED WHEN SENTENCED.

BODY HIDDEN IN TANK,

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, March 11

After a careful trial at which the evidence previously presented to the coroner was duly sifted, Ray Soutar has been sentenced to death for the murder o£ Christopher Bolger. The crime— <vhich was described by the Crown Prosecutor as having been carried out "with a callousness that beggars descrip. tion"—presents several remarkable features. Ray " _ was employed by Bolger on the Mount Austin homestead near : Wagga, and he seems to have been in the habit of posing as Bolger's brother, and using Bolger's car. Bolger was wellknown in the district, and 011 Christmas I Eve he drove several of his friends to j Sydney, coming back early on the Friday morning (December 27). On Sunday (December 29) one of these friends, a bank clerk at Wagga, saw Soutar driving Bolger's car. He stopped the car and asked after Bolger, and! Soutar told him that the "boss" liad'l gone away for a time to look after some ' sheep. Parker was surprised at this, and seeing Soutar again on Monday, asked more questions. The results'did riot seem satisfactory to him, arid after he had rung up the homestead in vain, and talked the matter over with another bank clerk, Sceats, they decided to go out to Mt. Austin and investigate. They found the homestead deserted, but there were bloodstains on a pillow and 011 the verandah floor where Bolger slept and several articles of clothing were missing, •marker and Sceats naturally informed the police, and when they searched the place they discovered Bolger's bodv hidden in an underground tank—a heavy weight tied to the feet and two bullet wounds in the head.

j Statement Freely Given. : There seems to have been little difiiI culty in finding and arresting Soutar "on suspicion," and apparently the police had no trouble in inducing him to make a statement in which he admitted shoot, ing Bolger and told at length how arid\ why the crime was committed. According to Soutar's account, after Bolger returned from Sydney on December 27 they had an argument about a girl in j whom Soutar was interested. Bolger | called her an offensive name and next I day Soutar, according to his statement, j was so exasperated that he "saw red" i and after looking round for a piece of i wood to strike the other man, picked up a rifle which was close at hand and shot him as he lay on his bed. The removal of the effects and the concealment of the body followed, and everything in the police account of the circumstances tallied elosely with Soutar's tale. Naturally most people find it difficult to believe that the motive alleged by Soutar— resentment at the insult offered by Bolger to the girl in question—could provide an intelligible motive for this ghastly crime, though Mr. Justice Milner Stephen, in summing up, asked the jury to bear in mind the possibility that' Soutar was suffering from abnormal ■mental stress at the time. Unfortu- | natcly for Soutar there was other evidence that did not weigh in his favour. The girl, Daphne Nolan, with whom lie had been "keeping company," mentioned that while with lier one evening lie showed her a revolver and told herthat lie always carried one in Svdney. His habit of posing as "bick," the brother of ! lr ®°'S cr - an d his frequent use ot Bolger's car also told against him. i and it was proved that on the day of the murder he brought some friends I from Wagga up in the car and entertained them as if he were master of the house. Gruesome Evidence. One peculiarly horrible piece of evidence was described. This was that Soutar, telling his guests that the Waiter in the well was not fit for drinking but that it was used as an icechest, took butter ' and other eatables from the tank for their use, though the body of the murdered man was still hidden there. This gruesome fact certainly suggests an unbalanced condition of mind and this view of the crime was to some extent borne out by the undisturbed cheerfulness that Soutar ais;l

played at the trial and the broad smile with which he greeted the awful sentence of death. The murder of Bolger, following closely on the shooting of another young farmer, Robert King, a few weeks ago lias caused a most painful sensation in the district. Bolger was only 25 years old and was described in court as "single, a total abstainer, and a perfect specimen of physical fitness"; and the indignation naturally aroused by this horrible crime lias been tempered only by some reasonable doubt about the mental condition of the murderer. Though the medical testimony suggested tliat Soutar's mind might have been temporarily unbalanced, the plea of insanity was not put in, and if Soutar escapes tlie gallows it will only be on account of his extreme youth. He is only 17 years old, and this fact may again remind us of the terribie frequency of crimes of violence committed by youths and boys in this city and State. The murder of King, and the shooting of a garageman at Darlinglmrst a few weeks ago, both seem to have been the work of young fellows only verging on manhood, and the constant recurrence of such crime* of vi<jlence constitutes a shocking indictment of our existing economic and social system.