AUCKLAND MURDER MYSTERY

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 April 1932, Page 5

AUCKLAND MURDER MYSTERY

AN ALLEGED CONFESSION.

[SPECIAL TO “STAB.”]

AUCKLAND, April 7-

An amazing statement concerning the murder of Francis Edward Jew, at Grey Lynn in July, 1921, has been made to the Auckland police by a woman who voluntarily called at the Detective Office, and announced that she wished to make a confession. No information can be gathered from the police, but it is known that the statement taken down upon the typewriter was not completed, and signed because the woman, when partly through her story, refused to complete the narrative because of the questioning to which she was submitted. She suddenly declined to say anything further. In so far as the statement taken from the woman goes, it is understood that it shows a remarkable knowledge of the details connected with the murder mystery which has completely baffled the police, and remains one of Auckland’s unsolved crimes. Whether the woman’s story is true is for the police to gateThe dead body of Jew, 20 years of age, was found on the forenoon of Sunday, July 17, 1921, on a vacant section, adjacent to St. Joseph’s Church, Grey Lynn. He worked as an assistant at Geo. Treacey’s grocery at the old tram terminus, Grey Lynn, and was widely known in the districtHe lunched at home, No. 12, Arnold Street, Grey Lynn, on Saturday, and in the afternoon, attended a football match at Carlaw Park, leaving his companions a little later to have tea in town. He was seen (hat night about 8 p-m. near his employer’s shop. The place where the body was found was only a couple of hundred yards away from where the young man was seen at eight o’clock. At the inquest, when opened on September 12, nearly two months later, it was stated that the police had interviewed 1500 persons and over fifty witnesses were called. The Government bacteriologist gave evidence that the paling found alongside the body showed the presence of human blood at both ends, and there were some human hairs attached. At the end of the inquiry, which lasted eight days, the Coroner (Mr W. R. McKean) stated that some of the evidence had been very unsatisfactory, and there was great reluctance on the part of some of the witnesses to tell what they really did know, and it was only when they were reminded of the statements made previously to the police that they were able to say that the facts were as stated. The Coroner returned an open verdict that Jew had died of injuries caused by heavy blows by a batten removed from a fence on the property adjoining the section on t which the body was found-