STATEMENT OF WILSON, CHARGED WITH BEING AN ACCESSORY TO THE MURDER OF MR. DOBSON, AT THE GREY.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 134, 30 October 1866, Page 3

STATEMENT OF WILSON, CHARGED WITH BEING AN ACCESSORY TO THE MURDER OF MR. DOBSON, AT THE GREY.

[From the ITokitika Evening Star, October 19.] For some time past, in fact for four months, since the lGlh June, a prisoner named Wilson has appeared periodically in our police reports, and from time to time he has been charged with the murder of George Dobson on the 28th of May last. The delay, as explained by the police, in bringing forward evidence, has been occasioned through the want of the witness Sullivan, now convicted for complicity in the Maungatapu murders. During this time Wilson has been most anxious to make a public statement, but has not been able to do so. On this coming to our knowledge we requested permission of the Visiting Justice and the Inspector of Police to allow our reporter to have an interview with him and take down the statement, for the purpose of publication. This was courteously refused, but as we had other means of gaining information that we could depend upon, as being the substance of what WiLjon wished to say, we publish it without apology. No doubt, could we have given it iv the first person, it would have been bettor, but it is, at all events, reliable, as far as the accused himself is to be believed : — It appears, from the prisoner's statement, that lie has for years been the associate of bad characters, and in fact he admits that he has followed thieving as a profession for years. He admits that he was associated with Burgess, Kelly, Levy, and Sullivan, for the purpose of highway robbery, and that it was arranged between them that they should rob Fox on his road to the Grey. That prior to the arrangements by the gang to rob Fox, Wilson had manufactured several masks to disguise the party, and after they were completed he took them up with him, together with other effects, met Sullivan and Kelly in the bush, and produced them for their inspection. When Sullivan saw the masks he asked Wilson what the h he wanted with those things, or words to that effect, and Wilson answered him in slang terms ; Sullivan in reply let fall some observations which raised Wilson's suspicions that it was the intention of the party to commit violence, and from that time ho resolved to sever himself from the party — this was prior to the twenty-eighth day of May last, the day on which it it supposed poor Dobson was murdered. Wilson states that Sullivan and Kelly were out prior to the 28th of May together ; that on that day he and Burgess went to see Kelly and Sullivan at the iron hut, three miles from the Grey. That Burgess and Wilson parted with Kelly and Sullivan at 11 o'clock in the morning, and they both walked back together to the Grey. On walking up to the shanty, about a mile and a half nearer town, they met De Lacy, who was on horseback, and De Lacy stopped to speak to Burgess, and they both had a drjnk together. Wilson walking on towards town alone, .carrying with him a heavy swag. As soon as he got to town the first place he went to was Q-eorge Cockburn's, Mahera Quay, where he left the swag. Afterwards, on the same day, he went to Q-eorge Kenny's, the barber's, and there changed his trowsers, leaving the old ones at Kenny's. Wilson stopped at Kenny's about two hours, which brought the time to about five o'clock, p.m. ; from there he went and had his tea at the Criterion Hotel, and then returned to Cockburn's shop, and took charge of it for him until about eight, p.m., when he left for the night to go to the Criterion Hotel, at which house he Had been lodging. On his way to the Criterion he called at the Provincial Hotel to see Burgess, and found him there playing at euchre with somebody, and, after exchanging a few words with Burgess, left for the Criterion, where he slept the whole night. Wilson thus accounts for the whole of his time on the day of the murder of Mr. Dobson, the 28th of May, and states that abundant proof can be obtained of the truth of his statement. With regard to the fact of his sleeping at the Criterion Hotel on that night he said it would be in the rocollection of Mrs. Fellows, the landlady of the house, for this reason — that on that night her little son ,who usually slept with his elder brother in a bunk over Wilson's head, in consequence of being very unwell with a cold, slept with his mother on that night. Wilson got up later than usual ou the following morning and after the breakfast was cooked, contrary to his usual custom, did not partake of it, which caused Mrs Fellows to make some unpleasant observation in reference to his having allowed the breakfast to be cooked for him if he did not want to eat it. On the 29fch Wilson went to the Provincial Hotel, to see Burgess, about 11 o'clock a.m. ; afterwards went up to town, and shortly after met Kelly and Sullivan coming into town. On seeing Wilson, they asked him "Where's Dick?" meaning Burgess, and Wilson answered, '" I have just left him at the Provincial," and Sullivan and Kelly requested him to go and tell Burgess that they had come to town, and at the same time they handed to Wilson an opossum skin rug to take care of for them, which he afterwards left at Q-eorge Cockburn's. Wilson, as requested, went to Burgess and gave their message to him and Burgess told Wilson to say that he (Burgess) would meet them on the bridge. When he returned to Kelly and Sullivan with the message, they said to Wilson " they had camped out the day and night before, and were wet, tired and hungry." From the above statement it would therefore appear that the parties implicated in the murder of Dobson can be no other than Kelly and Sullivan ; and Wilson says that, were he at liberty, he would be able to get abundant proof that both himself and Burgess were at the Grey during the whole of the 27th, 28th, and 29th. Wilson further says that, after the discovery by him that the intentions of the party were of such a deadly character, he ultimately paced the street for hours, thinking what course to pursue, and went to Inspector James, and with him afterwards to Mr. Revell, the Resident Magistrate, and told them all about it, confessing that he was all there for highway robbery, and stating that they would not have seen his face had it not been for the discovery by him of the crime that was about to be committed — the murder of Fox. He also says that for several days the police availed themselves of information furnished by him to them respecting the movements of the party, in fact, he accompanied Burgess, Kelly and Sullivan, at the instigation and at the request of the police, and on Thursday, the 31st day of May, Inspector James and a large party of police passed by while they were in company. He also says that had the police had the courage to take the party at that time, which he understood was their intention to do, most probably the foul murders which have been since perpetrated by these men would not have taken place. After this last occurrence, Wilson was asked by Kelly ■whether he had been speaking to anybody, which led Wilson to think he was suspected of having given information. On the next day (Friday) Wilson received a note from, Inspector James, asking him to meet him at a public-house on the beach. He (Wilson) went there, and at this interview between them, Wilson detailed to him what had occurred, and stated his fears for his own safety, when James promised to throw them off the scent by making inquiries after Wilson himself. Wilson, under all the circumstances, bitterly complains that he should be charged with this crime, when it is within the knowledge of the police that he was the first to give information of the intentions of the party with respect to Fox, and, if they chose, they could have ascertained from reliable witnesses that he could not have been implicated in the murder of Dobson, because ho was at the Grey the time the murder must have been committed. " He further says, that, if permitted to have proceeded in the matter, he would have been entitled to the reward offered for the discovery of the murderers of poor Dobson, as Sullivan and Kelly were the only parties in the neighbourhood on that day. He also says that it was not until the morning of the sth June that he first knew of the murder of Dobson, which he read for the first time in the newspaper on that date. He and Inspector James had a conversation on the same day, the purport of which was, that it appeared Dobson was murdered between Maori Gully and Arnold Gully, and he (Wilson) told Mr. James that the party could not have time to go there, when the latter replied, " but they were not on the road that day." Wilson answered, " Yes, Kelly and Sullivan were." Wilson's defence is, in fact, on alibi, as will be seen from the above state* meat, which we give for what it U worth,