Great Australian Trailś

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 23, 28 January 1939, Page 5 (Supplement)

Great Australian Trailś

The Trial Of Gerald Supple

JOINING the rush of immigration from Europe which followed the discovery of gold in Australia, Mr. George Higinbotham arrived in Victoria in 1833. A year later he became a member of the Bar, the fortyninth person to be admitted, his name appearing on "Ye rolle of Ye Utter Barristers in Ye Supreme Court of Victoria."

I • mills were low, professional pros--1 t" were poor, mill he was <r« 11i 11 <I.'operate. Hut ono flay came a bolt from tlif lilno. A eerluin barrister in huge 11 r;11• t ire was drunk and incapable of appearing in Court. Five of his l.i iefs were brought in a hurry to Mr. lliginhol ham. who nwe to the occasion, mi| ii it. t-ed himself well, and never afterward* lacked work. From 1 HSU to 18!>2 he was Chief .Justice of Victoria. Lawyer Charged With Murder His practice at. the Bar was and varied, and aiium; the many intervst ing eases in which he figured was <,| e in which a man named (ienihl Henrv Supple was charged with tho murder of .lull ii Sexual! Walwhe. Air. Higinbothaui. Mr. Aspinall and J)r. DoUoii appeared for the prisoner, the Crown being represented by Air. Dimn.j and Mr. V\ illiams.

Supple himself was a barrister, and the crime with which he Wlla charged was concerned with yet another member of the Bar. Mr. (ieorge Paton Smith, exAttorney. Cenern I. who had known Supple since JH.">B.

I ho story told by Mr. Smith was that on May 17. I*7o. he wn« walking from the Law Court building in Melbourne to PnrHiirnont Hoiimp. iicpompnttiprl by his friend, ( ieorge./\l« ( ullngh. a former officer of the Iriuli Constabulary. The latter stopped at the corner of Spring and La t robe Streets to speak to two ladies with whom hp was acquainted. Smith walked about :io yards along Spring Street and there stood waiting for McCiillagh to join him. Then the prisoner appeared on the scene.

"f think [ saw Supple approaching," said Smith, in giving evidence. "[ felt someone touch my shoulder. Turning round, I felt Supple'* face almost in contact with mine. I saw the flash of

steel and stooped my head, and went over the kerbstone into the road. In doing so, I heard a report, and the smoke passed over my eyes. He had a pistol in his hand. Knowing that, he, was near sighted, i ran a few paces into the middle of the road. I saw AfcCullagh riirilling towards me. "'Seize this man.' I cried. 'He is trying to shoot me.' "Supple followed me into the middW of the road and I continued to run across it. He tired a second shot. I hesitated and thought I would dodge him. At Haley's corner, a man was standing in front of a coach-house in shirt sleeves. I ran in his direction and called out to him. .At that moment I heard another shot and felt that I was struck in the left arm which I caught hold of and held by the other hand. " I lieu I ran towards a reserve to try to get cover behind a telegraph post. Supple followed me and fired a fourth shot. When T was about 15 yards from the reserve, I saw Walslie coming in a diagonal direction towards me. and we almost met. Supple was then three or four yards behind me, and A[cCullagh ■vci v near him. '""For Cod's sake. save me.' 1 shouted to Walslie. 'That man has a pistol and is trying to shoot me!' "Walslie. who Is a tall thin man. rai>cd his hand with a startled look as if he realised the whole thing. He pas-cil me with his arm poised as if tn grapple with someone. 1 ran a few yards further towards the telegraph post till I came into collision with some man. and then I stopped. Again I heard the report of a pistol, and a woman exclaimed: 'Aly Ciod, he's shot him!' Evidence—And Cross-examination "I turned and saw Walshe rolling off Supple on Supple's right side. AlcCnllagh was behind Supple, holding him down. The hitter had a pistol in his hand pointed upwards at an angle of 45 degrees. Feeling faint from loss of blood, I got a cab and went away. I was not aware then that Walslie had been shot. The bull that entered mv arm was afterwards extracted."'

The wit liossi, in hi« answers to Mr. Higinhotham in cross-examination, threw »ome light on Nupple's extraordinary behaviour. Supple, he stated wan a contrilmtor to the "Age" newspaper for two or three year* while he (Smith) mhr the editor. There u as no unusual difference between them during

"Or slander him?"—"No, I never had any but friendly feelings towards him:" "You can assign no reason for the deadly attack on your life?" "No. I was overwhelmingly surprised when he first fired at me." "Did you ever hear that he regarded you with animosity "Never." "Can you reconcile this act with the sanity of the man?"—"lf I may conjeet tire—" The Chief Justice: T don't think we can have your conjecture. The dramatic story told by Smith was corroborated by McCiillagh, who added that he heard Supple say, "You vile

=roiy o°j^'J^cu>o-ir6Ti

slanderer—lll do for vou!" just before tiring the third shot. 'He was still presenting the pistol at Smith's back when Walshe was about to seize him. Indicative of the. thoroughness which marked Supple'* methods was the fact that lie had armed himself with a dagger as well as a pistol. McCiillagh removed both weapons from him. Two charges were withdrawn from the pistol, live having been discharged. Both to McCiillagh and to the police sergeant. Supple said that he was sorry that he had hit Walshe and that he had intended to hit Smith. But Walshe. whose dying declaration was admitted in evidence, told a different story.

"When I knocked Supple down," he stated, "he raised his pistol, pointed it at me and fired. I am sure he pointed : it at me. I waa hit in the stomach." Within two days after being shot, ' Wal<<he died. For the defence, a number of witnesses were called to testify to Supple's i eccentric behaviour on a variety of occasions. Oil the very day of the* offence, he complained to the Rev. Mr. Guinness that "Smith had been slandering us for years," "us" presumably being the Irish nation. Even if the complaint were well founded, homicide would appear to be a somewhat severe punishment for slander. Dr. Woolridge expressed the opinion that Supple had delusive insanity. "When he committed the fatal act. he waa unable to distinguish right from wrong." "He was a silent, solitary, gloomy man," said Andrew Semple, a fellow journalist of the accused, "of very unhappy disposition, and with a great tendency to imagine himself insulted on the least provocation. Even a person's silence, or his looks were construed by him into an offence against himself. His eyesight had become so bad lately that he could not distinguish a man's features unless their two faces were almost touching." Dr. McCrea and other medical witnesses, on the other hand, gave evidence for the Crown that Supple was quite able to discriminate between right and wrong. So that the defence was twofold; first that Supple was unable to appreciate the nature and quality of his act in shooting Walslie; secondly, that the sliootng was, in any event, accidental, and consequently did not amount to murder. "Supple waa almost blind," Mr. Higinbothani told the jury. "He was a sensitive, despondent man. Was it not natural that he should give way altogether and lose his reasoning faculties? He in no more responsible for these frightful acts than a child." "There's iuv statement," shouted Supple from the dock. "Head it! He slandered me! The country provides no means of punishing an assassin of character!"

"I might almost appeal to the pri- ' soner's interruption," continued Mr. XTiginbotham, "as a fresli proof of my argument. Lawyers and doctors hold different views with regard to insanity. In the eye of the law a man was supposed to be insane if he knew that the act he was about to commit was an unlawful one. But medical men, with one voice, declared that there was another kind of insanity, namely, where a man was dragged along by an irresistible impulse to do wrong. Such a man, they declared, could not distinguish between right and wrong. "In any event, if the revolver was discharged by the mere accident of collision, I submit that your verdict should be 'not guilty.'" Amazing Decision Of the Jury Sir William Stawell's summing-up to the jury was not favourable to the prisoner, and the unfortunate man was convicted. A ray of hope, however, was visible when the foreman of the jury announced, in answer to a question by the Chief Justice, that the jury were unanimously of opinion that the pistol went off by accident! What was the effect of this finding? Would it save the prisoner's neck? Jf the shooting was , an accident, could he l>e guilty of murder 1 So doubtful was the learned Chief Jus- ! tice about the matter that he reserved the question for the consideration of . the Full Court. Alas for Supple! All , three judges, including the chief, deteri mined the point against him. The struggle betw T een him and Walshe must, ■ in their opinion, be regarded as one con- • tinuous struggle by Supple in further- ; ance of his felonious object. And so the • conviction was affirmed. Yet mercy in the end tempered justice and the hangs man was cheated of his victim. In the roll of barristers kept in the 1 Supreme Court library may be seen the • following quaint entry: > "Herald Henry Supple, admitted to £ practice in 1802, now under commuted sentence of murder."