DEATH UNDER STRANGE CIRCUMSTANCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11986, 7 June 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

DEATH UNDER STRANGE CIRCUMSTANCES.

A MAS' named Henry Walter Roaser, 28. a bricklayers' labourer, has been found dead under circumstances that point to murder. Rosser had been in the employ of a builder named T.enham. of C'lapham .Junction, for about fourteen years. He was a. quiet, inoffensive man. and resided with bis wife and three children at Barbel-street, Sputhwark. On Sunday night. March 16, he entered the St. George's Tavern, Lambeth Road, for the purpose of getting. 11 drink. While there he had a conversation with two or three men and some women. On leaving the house he Was followed by one of the men;!who arAfed him for the price of a drink. Rosser "replied, '~l haven't the money to spare, and if I had I have three children at home who can very well do with it." As he refused to- hand over the money lie was knocked to the ground with a terrific blow on f the side of the. head. While on the ground he wad kicked -about the body by two or- three men, his injuries being so severe that he was conveyed to St. Thomas' Hospital, where he was medically attended, and subsequently returned home, afterwards paying daily visits to the hospital for treatment. At the same time "Rosses was so brutally treated a man named Jeremiah Sheen, a friend of Rosser, and living at 8. Lambeth Walk, was, on going to the assistance of his friend; stabbed in the back with a knife, his life for some time being despaired of. On April 17, at Newington Sessions, three men and two .women were indicted for assaulting Sheen and Rosser; there being a further charge against, one of .the men of stabbing Sheen. On the case coming before the Court it was reported that Rosser died the previous day. and the men were committed to take their trial at''the Central Criminal Court. At the time Rosser's death was believed to have been caused by the kicks he had received, but subsequently Dr. Owen, of KennitJgton Lane, together with the divisional surgeon of police for Lambeth, made a postmortem examination of the body, and were startled to find in.the body of the deceased a portion of a woman's batpin four a,nd a-half inches in length, the point of which had penetrated the lungs. and set op mortification, which had spread to sever;!,! of the internal organs, finally reaching the heart and causing . death to supervene. A Press representative had an interview with Mrs. Elizabeth Rosser, the widow of the deceased.' who made the following statement : —On Sunday night. March 16. my husband returned home saying that he had been knocked down and kicked about the body outside St. George's Tavern. Lambeth Road, because he had refused to give a man the price of a drink, and that he had been to St. Thomas' Hospital to have his injuries attended to. He attended St. Thomas Hospital from day to day until the 9th ot April, on which day.he became so ill that I to* compelled to call in Dr. Owen, win attended him until the.l6th of April, wher he died in great agony. Just before hi* death my husband exclaimed, "My deal •wife, they have murdered me for the price of a drink. It is hard to be murdered lik< this. What will you and our poor little children do when lam gone?" Mrs. Rossei added that several times her husband de clared that he remembered a. woman falling on top of him outside St. George's Tavern and then feeling a sharp stab in his buck He subsequently found that his watch am money had been stolen.