For Trial On Murder Charge

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29937, 26 September 1962, Page 16

For Trial On Murder Charge

(New Zealand Press Association)

TAURANGA, September 25.

William Rudolph, aged 35, a rail* way worker, of Paengaroa, was committed for trial in the Auckland Supreme Court on October 9 on a charge of murder by Mr G. J. Donne, S.M., in the Tauranga Magistrate’s Court this afternoon.

Rudolph is charged with the murder of his wife, Taka Rudolph, at Paengaroa, on July 31.

After evidence from 14 poliice witnesses, defence counsel, Mr G. H. R. Skelton. said Rudolph would plead not guilty to the charge and reserve his defence. The Crown Prosecutor was Mr R. L. Maclaren.

Kenneth Ervine Killgour. a police constable, of Te Puke, said that when he arrived at the Rudolph house at Paengamoa with Dr Andrews the house was locked and he gained entry by unlatching a broken window.

Witness said there appeared to be bloodstains on a wall above a double bed in a bedroom in the house where the body of a Macri woman was found under a counterpane Frederick Cecil Lockne, a police constable, of Te Puke, said Rudolph telephoned him at 8.30 am. on July 31. As requested, accused called the Te Puke Police Station, about 8 a m. and told witness be had killed his wife. He said he had hit his wife on on the bead with a hammer several times. Rudolph’s Statement In a statement to the police, Rudolph said that since arriving in Te Puke his wife had been going out with other men and not returning to their home at night. He had caught her in bed with Ken Findlay. After talking things over Findlay had said he was in the wrong gnd would stay away from her On Monday July 30. in the early hours be had gone to his home and found his wife in bed with Findlay alongside her As soon as he had seen them he had gone outside to get an axe as he intended to kill them both He was sober at the time but very angry. Rudolph said in his statement Other persons tn the house had taken the axe from him and he bad then grabbed Findlay's trousers and hrs wife’s pawties and taken them to show the next-door neighbour, the statement sand At 4 a m. the next morning he

had gone to his wife’s bedroom with a hammer to murder her. They had not slept together for seven weeks, Rudolph said in his statement. He bad struck his wife severed times round the head with the hammer. She had not known he had the hammer, but she was awake. Just before be killed his wife he had got up to make a cup of tea and when he took her one she said she liked Ken Findlay better then him and that Findlay had been intimate with her before his (Rudolph's) eyes while he was asleep, Rudolph said in his statement. "Not Agitated” Lockie said Rudolph was sober when he made the statement, was not agitated, but appeared to have something on his mind he wanted to tell ham. Rudolph had said he did not want to go out to his home again so witness had instructed Constable Killgour to go to the Rudolph bouse with the doctor

Cross-examined by Mr Skelton, witness said he had not been aware of any scratch marks on Rudolph’s face unrtril some days after be arrested him. He was not aware that Rudolph could not read or write until after he had made the statement. It was not until he had asked him to read the statement. Witness said he had then read the statement to Rudolph.

Rudolph was then committed for trial.