"THE WOMAN IN THE CASE"

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 249, 20 October 1915, Page 3

"THE WOMAN IN THE CASE"

DRAMATIC N,Z. MURDER STORY REVIVED.

The other day the Sydney Central Police Court Magistrate put the stereotyped question, "Is anything known of the defendant?" and. the police piosecutor,,with a professional air, replied that she had previously been befcie the Court. Something, therefore, was known about her. but there was more known of the woman than the officer told the Bench. .Indeed a stoiy (ould have been related concerning Caffrey and Perm, about the Soveiign of the Seas, and the buffeting she received in tempestuous weather, about a woman held and a woman desired about a murder and a flio-ht from justice, about -i sensational arrest in a noithern district,about two bodies that dangled from a gallows when \ the owners had paid the price of their crime. That story could nave been told because the woman was one of three aboard the Sovereign of the S<as .i 30-ton cutter, in which Calbcy and Perm sought to make their escape after the murder at the Great Barrier, near Auckland, 30 years ago.

WANTED SETTLER'S DAUGHTER

7'here were circumstances connected with that murder which combined to make it one of the most dramatic m Australasian criminal history. Caffrey was a master mariner, and 'Perm, too was a "seafaring man, and he and Caffrey traded along the New Zealand coast in the Sovereign of the Seas, a cutter which was stout and seaworthy. The women was taken board the cutter at Auckland, and the captain (Caffrey) considered thai the situation would 'be rendered much more congenial by the presence of. another female. * His thoughts w,ero on the engaging daughter of a 1 settler on Great Barrier Island, outside Auckland harbor. The Sovereign of the Seas was consequently tied up close to the settler's home, and the two men, vho were obviously desperate characters, went ashore to endeavor to give effect to a plan which they had worked out in conversation. The plan was to get the girl to join the cutter, and that they were prepared to use force if necessary to carry out their project was proved early in their interview ; They found that _the seitler v. as very strongly opposed to the proposal they outlined, aud his in-, dignation was forcibly expressed. High vtids ensued, "f.nd Caffrey drew a revolver, which he flourished in . the nans-face to impress upon him that they meant business. The old man would not yield, however, and in the midst of a scene in which threats were made that the girl would be taken by any other means, Perm drew his rovolver and shot the settler through Lhe head. -

A FEVERISH ESCAPE.

That was a situation which Oaffiey had not bargained for, and it was obvioYis then that,■with such a dreadful crime to be reckoned with, abduction was out of the question. To escape would-, be a sufficient problem without shouldering the additional burden of a struggling and unwilling woman. So ihey hurriedly retreated, went aboard the Sovereign of the Seas, lifted anchor, and with as little delay as possible, headed for the open sea They agreed, sifter careful -orsideration' that their best plan would be to endeavor to reach South America, reckoning that in such a country their crime would be unknown and probably never would be known. They were well provisioned, and they doubtlessly contemplated re-stocking at one of "the many islands theyVould pass on the way. Fortune did not favor them, however, and their plans went .astray. Heavy weather was encountered. The little cutter was the plaything of the wa/es for many days. Only slight progress could be made, and the craft went so far out of her course^ that hope died in the breasts of the seamen, and eventually the idea of making such a distant por>t as South' —merici was abandoned. A course was consequently set for the Australian coast, and after an adventurous voyage the Sovereign of the Seas reached Smoky Cape—a- spot which the murderers considered v. ould be a suitable landing place. . „ ASHORE IN NEW SOUTH WALES,

Taking just those things they would immediately require . the party arranged to abandon their ship, to scuttle her, and to get ashore. They took the. desperate chance that they would evade detection, and that in the process of time the crime w.ould be forgotten, and their safety would be guaranteed. It was a desperate chance, without a doubt; but it might have worked had it not been that the scuttling of the Sovereign of the Seas \ras not sufficiently complete to N hido its identity. T,he men allowed the name to remain intact, and in due course the wreckage was found with the name prominently revealed. Interest in . the crime— which, on account of the time thai; had elapsed since it was committee!, had almost been forgotten—was at once revived, and in conjunction with theories that the perpetrators had met their death in mid-ocean, others wore propounded that they had passibty gotashore, and had escaped into the interior. As a consequence strangers were carefully watched and th-e free days of the two men were numbered. CAFFREY BETRAYS HIMSELF.

To rendci their chances of evasion as good as possible Perm and Caffrey parted. Perm was compelled to lie low because in landing from the scuttled cutter he injured his back, and for him rapid movement was cut of the question. Caffrey went to the Bellinger River, and at a township now known as Urunga ho work-eel at. a saw mill and rope works, and at other employment. He did not arouse any suspicion for some time, but he developed nervousness, and at length thnt proved to be his undoing. One of his mates noticed his restlessness, wondered. that he tossed about so in his sleep, and at a habit he formed of jumping up in bed in the silence of the night and staring fearfully around, a*s though someone ha<l called his name, or as though the ghastly body of the murdered man had obtruded itself into his dreams. His mate began to theorise when Caffrey's behavior showed no change, and he mentioned the facts to Constable May, who was then in the district, and who Afterwards served in Newtown until ho reachwl the retiring ag-r\ Next night Caffrsy repeated the actions th-it proved the-., existence' of the guilty ooTie?ie:i("v and his companion e«:claimecl, "What's the matter with you, man? Anybody Avon id think you had murdered someone the wav you behave!".

CONSTABLE'S EFFECTIVE RUSE'

The remark scenic! to Cnffrcv to bp doubie-odgod. ::ikl i?o::t day ho packed his sway:, ink] tho boss'that he wa« jioirsr tc> loolc for another jr>l>, was y,aict off, an<l wont away down tho road tl:.'i+ was to lead to his destruction. Scant; distance on ho met

another swaggie* who had a hard luck story to tell concerning the country he hf;d passed through. There was no work to bo got there, he said, and he suggested that they should go along together in the direction from which Caffrey came, hoping to get- a job 'beyond tho^ river. When they got to the river they took the punt- to cross it, and in a second the manner of the persnasiA'-e swaggie changed. His tired manner disappeared, 'and Caffrey—a- heavily-built man, who towered over the other 'man—found himself looking down the barrel of a revolver and heard the constable— for it Avas May, impersonating the swagman—announcing that he had betfer make no fuss,- that his Avas up. Caffrey admitted that'he was trapped, and gave no trouble. Perm had little chance of escape once it Avas known that Caffrey* had been apprehended. . Hs was run down on the Macleay River near Trial Bay,, and the two men we.re taken over to Auckland, tried, and sentenced to death. Caffrey (protested his innocence right to .thetend, and he AA-as innocent of the settler's death too, for Perm made a confession admitting that it was he :who lirecl the fatal shot. They Avere banged together. The Avoman Avho nnpeared at the Central Court last \veek was a witness at the memorable trial. She drifted to Sydn<23 7 Avlien it was all over, and noAV and again she is raen by somebody avlio kroAvs how closely she was assr.e-iated with the principal actors in that sensational drama. Then the story pf the crime is told again.