THE HORSE FIEND AGAIN.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9919, 27 December 1897, Page 2

THE HORSE FIEND AGAIN.

HIS SEVENTEENTH VICTIM. THE STALLION "ZULU STABBED TO DEATH. VALUED AT £400. Again the horse stabbiug fiend has returned to his diabolical work, and once more Canterbury is startled with the news that another valuable thoroughbred horse has been sacrificed to the criminal instincts of the vile person whose deeds, done under the darkness of night, have , robbed the province of some of its most useful strains of blood. This time the animal chosen was the stallion Zulu, the property of Mr W. F. M. Buckley, of Dunsaudel, which was stabbed to death in Mr James Carlton's stable at Clyde road, Fendalton, on Friday night. A single stab in the early hours of the morning, skilfully directed, severed the jugular vein, and a valuable animal, priced at some hundreds of pounds, bled to death iv his stall. With the astuteness which has characterised his actions since the time, December 13th three years ago, wheu he killed his first horse, the wretch left no trace of Ins identity, and no clue by which his dastardly crime could be sheeted home to him. During three years he has killed seventeen horses whose aggregate value is nearly £1000. During three veara the police have strained every verve to catch him, and yet the only result has been that he has grown more audacious. He has confined himself to no part of the suburbs in particular, but has swooped down at one time on Sockburn, and at another on Chaney's Corner, iv opposite directions from the city. On occasion he has killed as many as four horses in one night. Heshowsamarkedpartiality, thi- miscreant, to Christmas Eves and Show nights, when his fellows are enjoying themselves. On Christmas Eve twelve months ago he stabbed a horse belonging to Mr T. Walls, of Salisbury street, to death in a paddock off the North belt. On the same evening, apparently, a horse belonging to Mr D. O. Mclntyre had its throat cut in a paddock on the Caledonian road, a quarter of a aule away, and on the following day a third horse was found dead with its throat out in a paddock off the canal reserve, Limrood, where a horse Avas similarly killed a, year previously, and yet a fourth was discovered with its throat cub at Sydenham. Last Show night the valuable entire pony What's Wanted, the property of Mr Jos. Stalker, was stabbed to death at Woodend, and on the same date of tho previous year a horse bei longing to Mr Maloney was stabbed in a paddock almost adjoining the Show Grounds, and on the same night another was similarly treated in Mr Waugh's paddock near the Asylum. But why prolong the recital? It is sufficient for every horse owner to know that none of his animals are safe ; that there is no telling the time when the most valuable animal of his stud may be murdered without hint or provocation, and he may be left the poorer by two or three hundred pounds. A heavy reward of £100, with a free pardon to an accomplice, has been offered. The Horse Owners' Protection Society have given £25, the Canterbury A. and P. Association £25, and the overnment have subsidised the amount J >r £, but without result, fto one knows an; tore about the "horse fiend" to-day tha icy did three years ago. His plan o ction has been as varied as the districts h as chosen, aad his motive is as unknoWs that of his prototype in crime "Jack lie Ripper." Many hold the idea that the ian took this mode of avenging himself for eal or imaginary wrongs, but in this case i can hardly be so. Mr Buckley is a man niversally respected and liked, and it rould be hard to imagine his having an nemy in the wide world. There are few lore popular men. THE CIRCUMSTANCES. The facts connected with the death f Zulu point to the occurrence having iappened between 11 p.m. on Friday and i a.m. on Christmas Day. The entire, nth its groom, arrived at Mr Carlton's j iome time before 8 p.m. on Friday, at which ime it was locked up in the loose box, md the groom took the key away with lim. About 11 p.m. one of the men living it Mr Carlton's returned from town, and vhen he passed the stable to enter the :ottage, which is about twenty yards or so iway, there was nothing in the appearance it the stable to indicate that anything might be amiss. The inmates of Mr Carlton's cottage were out between 5 and 6 a.m. m Saturday, and the groom, who was one of them, on going to the stable was surprised to find that the door was partly open and the lock removed. Upon making a further examination he was horrified to discover that the stallion was lying on the floor of the stable in a pool of blood, which had flowed from a wound in the neck. At once the police were communicated with, and Mr Charlton, veterinary surgeon, was sent for. In the interval before their arrival a close investigation was made of the animal and the box. It was found that Zulu had been stabbed on the off side of the neck, and that tho instrument used was a keenedged one was shown by the cleanness of the exterior cut. After the wound had been inflicted the poor animal apparently walked round aud round its box, as the straw was very much trampled and the walls bespattered with blood. In its dying agonies the beast must have kicked frequently, for the lower part of the walls were cut and scored by its hoofs, just when the deed was committed it is impossible at the present to learn, as the attention of Mr Carlton and the inmates of the cottage was not attracted by any noise in the stable beyond that ordinarily made by a horse in a loose-box, and their astonishment upon the discovery early in the morning of the horse's death can be well understood, especially as one of the grooms heard the animal moving in its stall between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning. Indeed, it is supposed that the horse was killed shortly after that time. When the news began to circulate in the neighbourhood inquiries were set on foot, and it was ascertained that at 11 o'clock on the same night Mrs Rossiter, who lives but a short distance away, met a man who asked which was Mr Carlton's place, and she took him to the gate. He thanked her, said he had a horse down the road, and very abruptly departed. This information led to a closer examination of the locality, and it was then noticed that tracks led from the stable to the gateway, and were lost on the roadway at a point where the wheelmarks appear of a vehicle which had been turned at that spot. One theory is that the perpetrator of the crime stabbed the horse as it put its head out of the door and then made off in a buggy or some such vehicle. Another theory is that the man who committed the deed was short of stature, as the wound was more vertical than horizontal. Whatever the theory, and whoever the person, he has managed to get clear away. Daring the time these investigations were in progress it was learned that Mrs McCann, who resides about a quarter of a mile away heard a disturbance about 11 p.m. at her stable, in which Sir Geo. Clifford's Stonyhurst was locked up. So unusual was the noise, that she informed Mr Adams, who had charge of the horse, of the circumstance, and he at once assured himself that the horse was sate. Before, however, all this information had been collected, the police and Mr Charlton, theveterinary surgeon, arrived. The latter made a post mortem examination of the horse, from which it appeared that the jugular vein had been almost completely severed, and it was surmised that the animal would take between fifteen and twenty minutes to die. The members of the police force were Mr Inspector Brohatn, and Detectives Benjamin, Marsack, and Fitzgerald, a&d they at once entered energetically into the investigation, which they continued throughout tho day. Detectives Marsack and Fitzgerald were encaged all day yesterday in following up apparent traces or elucidating theories, and Detective Benjamin went out as far as Kirwee to make enquiries. Unfortunately none were successful, and the detectives returned to town last night just as Borry as everyone will be that the person implicated had once more escaped detection. Zulu was a black horse by Camel, dam Ruth. He was bred by Mr John Grigg, of Longbeach. THEORIES. There are various theories regarding the manner in which the stabber went about his work. One well-known expert asserts that from to* position of th* wound &•

must have been a short man and not necessarily skilled in veterinary knowledge. Having once discovered that it was easier and moro practicable to stab a horse vitally and yet slightly than to cut its throat, a man with seventeen similar jobs to his credit would certainly have learned theposition of the jugulav vein. By pressing his finger on the vein and stopping the blood he would cause it to dilate. He would plaoe the point of his knife gently against the swollen bloodvessel and then drive it home. Suspioion has rested by turn on several persons, who have been placed under surveillance, and their belongings strictly watched, with the unvarying result that the police have found that they were watching an innocent man. At present the police have more than one man under suspicion, and yesterday the detectives were at work, but without result. People were questioned, and houses searched, quite uselessly. It is to bo hoped that this last atrocity will so rouse the police and the I publio that the perpetrator of the deed may be soon brought to justice.