GOLDFIELDS MURDER

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 1, 1 July 1926, Page 9

GOLDFIELDS MURDER

DETECTIVES DONE TO DEATH

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST.

(United Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received Ist July, 10 a.m.) . PERTH, This Day. At the inquest on the deaths of Detectives Walsh and Pitman, DetectiveSergeant Manning gave evidence that Evan Clarke, one of those held on a charge of murder, made two statements, the second of which resulted in Coulter's arrest. On the strength of the other statement, he and other , detectives found near the Boulder Racecourse some earth congealed with blood, which Clarke said had been put there by Coulter after it had been removed from the bush in his (Clarke's) car. Detective Manning said that about fifty paces from the gold-treating plant, where it is alleged the detectives were killed, was a spot from which some earth had been removed. Tho inquest was adjourned.

. Detective-Inspector Walsh and De-tective-Sergeant Pitman, of the West Australian Police, left Perth on 28th April on an investigation into gold stealing in the Kalgoorlie district. They wero not seen alive again, but their bodies were. discovered by police on 11th May, , brutally mutilated, at the bottom of a disused mineshaffc near the Coolgardie road. It was evident that they had been .atrociously done to death. Rewards ,were offered, publicly and privately,: for information leading to the discovery of the murderers. On 6th June the police arrested Evan Clarke, aged 32, hotel licensee, of South Boulder, and Philip John Treffen, aged 51, barman.. On ; the I.oth June a third man, William: Coulter, aged 42, described as an ex-New Zealander, was arrested. He described himself as an investor, and held a bookmaker's license. The charge was of murder in each case.