STORY OF DEATH PACT TOLD TO CORONER

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 80, 28 December 1935, Page 11

STORY OF DEATH PACT TOLD TO CORONER

Dismissed Police Trainees SURVIVOR COMMITTED FOR TRIAL By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright. (Received December 27, 11.20 p.m.) Melbourne, December 26. An extraordinary story of a death pact between two police trainees was told to the coroner at the inquiry into the death by shooting of George Thomas Vickers, aged 24, whose body was found near Albert Park Lake on December 24. Lachlan McLachlan, who, with Vickers, was discharged from the Victorian Police Force on December 21, allegedly made a statement, which was read to-day, in which he declared that he and Vickers were dismissed following an incident with girls in a motorcar. A third man was with them when McLachlan and Vickers decided that in the event of dismissal the latter pair should commit suicide. McLachlan’s statement continued: “We bought a revolver and tossed a coin to see who should have first shor. Vickers said: ‘lt’s hard to do, but there is nothing else for it.’ We both shook hands and lay down on the grass. Vickers shot himself in the temple. I heard him breathing and decided to go for an ambulance.”

A letter found on Vickers indicated his intention to commit suicide owing to the disgrace of being “sacked” from the police force. The coroner committed McLachlan for trial on a charge of murder, finding that he had aided and abetted Vickers.