WOMAN BANDIT

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 288, 1 September 1931, Page 11

WOMAN BANDIT

Shooting at Wanganui “I TAKE ALL BLAME” Ordered Partner to Fire RAID ON MAN’S CAMP Dominion Special Service Wanganui, August 31. A dramatic story of how he was held up by masked intruders was told by Clifford Thomas Organ in the Wanganui Police Court to-day, when Florence Cooper, alias Mrs. Winstone, pleaded guilty to a charge of robbing and wounding. Accused was committed to the Supreme Court at Wellington for sentence. During the hearing of evidence, which lasted some two hours, she exhibited no signs of discomposure, and smiled quietly, appearing bored toward the end.

E. J. Reid, a service car driver, said that accused had travelled from Wellington to Wanganui by service car as. Mrs. Winstone, and was met at Wanganui by a man whom she described as her husband. They went into the Rutland Hotel, where A. A. Coutts, the porter, stated that they registered as Mr. and Mrs. Winstope. Both witnesses saw accused’s companion get into the service car going to New Plymouth the next morning. , . , , . The following day accused booked to New Plymouth as Mrs. Winstone on the early morning car. and was picked up at Evidence was given by Clifford Thomas Organ, a wood contractor, living on bt. John’s Hill, who said that since February and until the week before he was shot he had employed a man named Morton, who was succeeded by Richard. Rourke, who on the night, of the shooting was sleeping in a neighbouring tent. Masked Intruder’s Threats.

Organ said that on the night he was shot he was awakened in the early hours of the morning after being struck several severe blows. He saw -a. masked person standing at the head of his bed holding a torch and dressed in men’s clothes. The person said: “Wake up, and stop that noise, and give us your money or we will shoot you. We know where you keep it It is in a wallet and tin under your matOrgan replied that he had not any. “There were two persons in the tent, said Organ, "one standing at the head of the bed holding what appeared to, be a revolver, and the other at the tent s entrance with a rifle. The one at the bed’s bead said: “Are you going to hand over your money?” When Organ refused the intruder said, z “Fire a shot to let him know the gun is loaded.” Then the other fired a shot into the ground. “Before the shot was fired,” said Organ, “I called out to Bourke .‘There are two men trying to rob me and they have got guns.’ He answered from his tent. After the shot was fired the person at the head of the bed attempted to?lift the mattress, but could not find anything, and I snatched at the mask, pulling it down over the attacker’s mouth, but was not able to identify him; neither could I recognise the second man. After this the person at the head of the ’bed pulled the blankets off the bunk and said ‘Give him a bullet.’ The other intruder fired, and the bullet passed through the calf of my left leg. I was then asked if I would give up the money. I replied that I had only 30 shillings,’ which I handed over.” Awakened by voices coming from Organ’s tent, Richard Bourke did not get out of bed until he heard the shot fired. He then went to Organ’s tent, and found him wounded. Detective’s Discovery. After a careful examination of the tents Detective Walsh said he found a spent soft-nosed bullet in the bedclothes of Organ’s bed and an empty cartridge case on the floor near it. He obtained a pea-riflle and cartridges from John Bourke, and among the cartridges there was one similar to the one found in Organ’s bunk. He interviewed accused at New Plymouth. She wrote a statement admitting having committed the offence, saying that she was alone. ’ Sergeant McGregor, of New Plymouth, said that in company with Detective Meiklejohn he interviewed accused at a hotel. She had a man named John or George Morton with her, but they had booked into the hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Winstone. Accused gave her name as Florence Winstone, and said she had recently come from' l Australia, and had arrived at New Plymouth two days previously. The sergeant took her to a room at the hotel, and in the presence of Morton searched it, finding a five-chambered revolver under the pillow and a high-pow-ered air pistol in the wardrobe. Also n a suitcase were a .32 calibre revolver, cartridges, and two boxes of slugs. The cartridges and slugs would fit the revolvers. Strips of black and brown velvet, including a strip of black cloth, were also found. There was also a pair of old grey trousers. Interviewed at the police station, accused admitted that her name was Florence Cooper, and that she was at Wanganui on the night Organ was shot. She came to New Plymouth the next day. Asked if she knew anything of the shooting and robbing of Organ, she said: “You’re not trying to put that on to us,” and later that she would tell nothing about it, except that “Jack” could not be charged with it She said that she had already said too much about the Wellington hold-ups. “Rather Take the Blaine.” Interviewed later Winstone said she would not say anything, preferring to wait and see what the evidence was like. She said that Organ was not shot with a.revolver, and “Jack” was at New Plymouth when it happened. When it was said that there were two present at the affair, she replied: “Well, if there was I would rather take the whole blame than give anyone away.” She volunteered an account of her movements at Wanganui, saying that she was picked up by a commercial traveller and taken to Fordell, where she stayed the night in the car, returning to Wanganui in the morning, where she joined the service car for New Plymouth. When escorted to Wellington accused jolted about how she had tried to knock Organ out, and how she had made him “sit up.” v Morton, it was stated, was seen at New Plymouth on the night of the shooting at Wanganui.