LAW STUDENT’S TRAGIC END

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 244, 9 July 1921, Page 12

LAW STUDENT’S TRAGIC END

GUNSHOT WOUND IN THE HEAD. Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., held an iuquest yesterday morning into the circumstances and cause of death of John Joseph Fair, 21 years of ago, a law student, who was found dead in his room at No. 11 Mount Street about G p.m. on Wednesday, with a gunshot wound in his head. Arthur Fair, brother of tho deceased, said that ho last saw his brother alive at midday on Wednesday; he was then quite normal. He had no mental worries whatever. When witness reached home at G p.m. ho was informed that his brother John was dead. Ho saw the body, and a rifle which was standing alongside the bed. The rifle had belonged to the deceased, and was always kept in two slings hanging above the fireplace in the room. His brother used to clean the rifle occasionally, and it was about due for a clean. There were two boxes of ammunition on the wardrobe, and they had not been disturbed. He lookeel particularly at the ammunition. The rifle was a repeater, and there was only one shell in the rih®- , Dr E. G. Anderson said that on Jutj 6, about 6.5 p.m., he was called to No. 11 Mount Street, and on arrival there he found John Joseph Fair fu %? rBB £ lying diagonally on the bed. The nfle was standing alongside the bed. An e. - amination showed a bullet wound on the right side of the head an inch above tK- right eye In the opinion of witness ltth B wa? duo to cerebral laceration. The pull-through was wound round the l.nrrcl of the rift'’. From the position in which he found the body, and from the direction of the wound he that it could have been self-inflicted He thought, tho rifle must have been fix at V€TV cl OS® T-ftllfl®. Marv Monaghan, housekeeper, stated that she saw the deceased about 4 p.m. on Julv 6. when he had afternoon tea. She saw him again at 5.20 p.m, when! he was taking off his coat m th ® ?* all returning from a ride on his motor cycle. He seemed to be in his usual health and spirits. Tho Coroner found that death was di to a gun-het wound self-inflicted,_Lut whether accidentally or by design there was no evidence to show.