THE GLENBROOK MURDERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11227, 26 March 1897, Page 6

THE GLENBROOK MURDERS.

BUTLER’S story of his life. (Per Press Association.! AUCKLAND, Maeck 25. Butler has given tho San Francisco E»- ■ amner his true name, which he says is John Newman. Ho relates the story o£ 3ais life, which is truly an eventful one.Fe says his parents were proprietors of the “ Boats Inn,” a well-known tavern in Staffordshire. At the age of seventeen he ran away from home, joined the Royal ~ * Navy and served ten years. Ho took part in tho Zulu war, and was in the column sent to relieve Colonel Pearson, besieged in Fort Ekowe, and was awarded the Zulu medal by a Commission of tho Admiralty for services performed during that wai. bubscqnently Butler enlisted in the Gordon Hi "-hiandors, and served in the Egyptian campaign with tho rank of Pioneer Sergeant. Ho was struck with a splinter in ' the hand which necessitated his discharge in March, 1883. Ho was presented with tho Egyptian medal for service during the campaign. Later, Butler says, ho worked in a coalmine near Lancashire. On tho outbreak of the Soudanese war Butler enlisted, but by an error missed his troop’s departure. Ho was then stationed at , Edinburgh Castle, but became disgusted with garrison life, and made himself so disagreeable that he was court-mar fcialled and reduced to tho ranks. Ho deserted, and enlisted in the United States cavalry. Ho was almost immediately promoted to '■ be acting corporal. Again he deserted, and was dishonourably discharged. He served as a volunteer in putting down the Riel rebellion. Afterwards was assistant meteoro- ' logical observer in • Quebec observatory. Ho again enlisted in the United States Army under tho name of Anderson. After ' ' a few months he deserted and shipped on the British ship Balculpha, September, 188 S, under the name of Newman. In a 1 disreputable house ho got into a quarrel, in which one man was shot through the arm, and others injured. This necessitated his speedy departure, and he proceeded as a seaman to Chili, where lie was employed in tho San Paolo silver mines. He' got tired of this life, shipped to Antwerp and Liverpool, and thence to Sydney by the British ship Ulida. Butler says:— “Three weeks after this I shipped for Newcastle as boatswain, on the British ship Star of Russia, Captain J. H. Legge. This was a very eventful voyage. Some men who read this, and who have sailed with Black Jack, alias Billy Legge, will understand ■ why the whole of tho crew left before the ship got alongside of the wharf at San Francisco. Fourteen days from San Fran- , . cisco a mutiny was with the greatest difii- ■ culty averted. Several of the crew refused duty, while I, at pistol-point, was ordered to thc’after-cabm, where I remained until our arrival at San Francisco. It is probably as welHthat this was so, else there would have been no Billy Legge or no Star of Russia.” Butler denies that he is guilty of anymore serious crime than desertion. In conclusion, he says, “ There will be no plea for mercy, no sympathy asked ; death I have faced before in the trenches of Tel- ' el-Kebir and in the various occupations of ; a wandering life. If it comes to the worst I shall meet it without a qualm of fear. ■ An outcast and wanderer all my life, it is but the closing scene of a wasted life.”