BUTLER IN SYDNEY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10428, 28 April 1897, Page 5

BUTLER IN SYDNEY.

MORE CONFESSIONS.

EXTRAORDINARY CAREER OF CRIME. FOURTEEN MURDERS. PrtisAuociation.-KlectricTelsßrapb.-Copvrlfsht. Stoke?, April 27. The Mariposa arrived to-day. As soon as she entered the Heads Butler was transferred to the Police launch and landed at a quiet part of the harbour and driven to Darlinghurst. There was no demonstration. Considerable crowds had gathered at the wharf and along the shores of the harbour, and naturally these were much disappointed. Butler was subsequently committed on warrant, charging him with the murders of Preston and Lee Weller, to take his trial at the criminal sessions on

May 31, or such time as the Crown may fix. The only evidence of identification given was by Detective Roche, Police-con-stable Conroy, and Constable McLean. Nothing of importance transpired from Auckland. He maintained » sullen demeanour, bub varied his monotony by making a number of other alleged confessions. Ho told the reporters he had committed fourteen murders and about twenty big robberies. He was willing, he said, to tell them about them, but it was too soon yet, and he was not going to show his hand till he saw what the Crown would do in Sydney. He said he would send for the reporters and tell all about his crimes later on. He added he should have been hanged ten years ago for killing his wife.

He recounted with glee the several murders he had committed in Western Australia, and wound up by stating that while a boy at school he killed another boy and stuffed the body in the hollow of a tree. If his story has any foundation in fact he has wallowed in bloody crimes from youth upwards. He takes great pride in it, and says he had only two bad breaks in his life. One was when he gave his photo to a girl in Sydney, and the other when he took possession of Weller's belongings, by which he I was traced.