MURDER TRIAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 4 August 1931, Page 5

MURDER TRIAL

MRS JOHNSON'S DEATH A CANDID WITNESS CBy Telegraph—Press Association)' AUCKLAND, This Day. At the trial of George Rameka-for the alleged murder of Mrs Johnson, Queenie Rose Lawrence, daughter«of the deceased, said her mother and accused were not very much in love. Mrs Lucy Keesing, with whom deceased and her daughter lived, said it seemed to her that Rameka was a friend of the family and interested in them. In reply to a question in reference to her experience of men witness said: “I have had no experience of men. I only had one husband, and from what I see of them I do not want any more.” Asked whether she tried to stop Rameka from poisoning himself, witness said: “If a man wants to poison himself, let him do it by all means. I would not stop any man.” The trial of George Rameka on a charge of murdering Mrs Gwendoline Johnson was continued to-day. Two doctors said the wounds in the woman’s body suggested that they were the work of a man in a frenzy.

Accused’s movements and remarks after the tragedy were described by several witnesses on the lines of the evidence in th Lower Court.

Mi's Kura Murphy, his cousin, said that before he collapsed from the effects of the poison lie gave her a letter for his father, saying: “My girl lias turned mo down after I gave her £2 and my last £7.” He also said that was the end of his life,-and “I have killed someone.” Cross-examined, she said Rameka was one of seventeen children, only two of whom were alive. She had heard that a relative of accused’s in Taranaki liad killed a girl with a tenuis racquet, and that another relative in North Auckland committed a serious offence. An interpreter said the accused in his letters to his father said he was tired of this life, and made requests concerning the disposition of his body.