MATE MURDERED

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 104, 3 May 1926, Page 10

MATE MURDERED

TRAGEDY IN DUNEDIN

CONFESSION TO THE POLICE.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

DUNEDIN, This Day.

About 7 o'clock this morning Patrick John Jager accosted Constable Watkins at the South Dunedin police station, and said he had murdered his mate, Arthur Creagh, who lived with him in the same room in a private boardinghouse in Cargill road. Sergeant Murray went to the house and found Creagh lying on a bed with, his throat cut, the head being almost severed. Jager said: "I did the right thing. If I hadn't killed him he would have killed me to-night. He's after me for my money. There's a gang watching me. I'm not worrying about it, as I did the right thing." ■Both men had been mates since boyhood, and had worked together for about twenty years as machinists at Donaghy's rope works. Both were about 40 years of age, and they were always considered the best of pals. It is stated that Jager has been behaving in a peculiar way lately, and he told the police that he had tried to drown himself yesterday. The theory, is that the murdered man was first hit on the head with a bottle, as when the police arrived pieces of a broken "blue peter" were found on the bed and the floor. Prior to giving himself up Jager threw ninety-three pounds in notes into tho front garden of the house adjoining.' . People in the house state that neither of the :nen drank to any extent. Jager is described as being somewhat miserly. The fact that Jager's right hand was covered with blood suggests that he went round to the back of the bed to commit his terrible act. There were no signs of a struggle, indicating that wuen attacked with tho razor Creagh was either unconscious or asleep. Tho inquest will bo formally opened this afternoon.