HOBSON STREET TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16098, 11 December 1915, Page 5

HOBSON STREET TRAGEDY.

CONCLUSION OF INQUEST. MURDERER'S CONFESSION. THE DOCTORS' EVIDENCE. CONTENTS OF A LETTER. " I AM FATED TO DO IT." The dosing incident connected with the murder which took place at a boardinghouse in Hob-son Street on the afternoon of Friday, December 3, took place ester- | day, when the coroner, Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M., resumed the inquiry into the circumstances connected with the tragedy. J The tragedy was that in which a halfcaste Maori named George Gordon murdered his wife, Rosanna Nora Gordon, and her infant female child, May' Gordon, and subsequently fatally injured himself by battering his head with a tomahawk, cutting his throat, and inflicting a serious wound on his abdomen with a razor. Chief-Detective McMahon conducted the case for the police. When the inquest was opened on Saturday last Martha McK.ee, sister of the murdered woman, stated that she believed her sister had been married to Gordon about two years previously, and as it is the legal presumption, without having definite information to the contrary, that a man and a woman living together are husband and wife, the whole of the evidence given yesterday was taken on that presumption. The age of the murdered woman was 22 years, and it is believed that Gordon was about 40 years of age. The age of the murdered infant was 10 months. Sister's Awful Discovery. Martha McKee, a waitress, and a sister of the deceased woman, continuing the evidence commenced on Saturday last, said that her sister had been working at the same place as witness, the Thames Cafe. She was in the habit of leaving the baby, which was 10 months old, at the boardinghonse in the care of Gordon. On the day of the tragedy witness had called at the boardinghouse to see her sister at about 4.15 p.m. She asked the proprietor if her sister was in. He replied that her sister was upstairs, and he believed was having a row with Gordon. Witness went up and found the door of the room locked. As she stood outside she could hear her sister moaning, and she called out to Gordon to open the door. She got no reply. She then heard the baby cry. Witness stated how, as previously described, she gained admission to the room occupied by the Gordons byinducing the elder child, Rene, to push the key under the door. Witness handed the key to the proprietor, who unlocked the door and went in, followed by witness. The first thing witness noticed was her sister on the floor and the man Gordon near her. The baby was on the bed. Witness and the proprietor then went downstairs, and she took the child Rene to her place in Nelson Street. In reply to the coroner, witness said that about two weeks previously her sister had told her that she intended to leave Gordon because of his illtreatment of her. She told her on the same occasion that the night before he had endeavoured to choke her when he was drunk. Evidence of Dr. Stride. Dr. S. A. Stride said that he had been called to the boardinghonse in Hobson Street about half-pant six o'clock on the evening of the tragedy. He found in the corner of an upstairs room, against the window, a mattress with two depressions at the lower end covered with blood, the depressions being caused by bodies. He found brain matter on the floor and mattress, and, some small pieces on the skirt-ing-board, up against which the mattress was lying. There were several pools of blood on the floor between the mattress and the bed. There was . another depression on the bed covered with blood. He had been shown a razor with Blood on it, and a tomahawk, which was also covered with blood. The occupants of the room had been removed prior to his arrival. When he had concluded his examination of the interior of the room he went to the hospital. He was shown the man Gordon, whose throat had been cat and had been subsequently stitched up. He had six small wounds on. the front of the head near the centre of the forehead. The abdominal wall was slashed. He told Gordon that he was the uolice surgeon, and asked him who inflicted the injuries. He replied: °I did it mvself, intentionally, after tomahawking both the woman and the child.' Witness then examined the dead bodies of the woman and child. Witness described the wounds found on each body. Statement by the Landlord. Edward Arthur Williams, proprietor of the Commercial Boardinghonse, in which the murder took place, continued his evidence. He said that the deceased man and woman had been staying at his boardinghouse for two weeks, and two days prior to December 3. He did not see or hear anything that would suggest to him that they did not live happily together. He remembered the witness, Martha McKee, calling on the "" afternoon of the tragedy, and in reply to her question he had said that her sister and her husband were upstairs. She had asked if they had been quarrelling, and he had replied that he did not know, but that he had heard a sound as though the bed was being pushed across the room. He had heard the evidence of Martha McKee, and he corroborated it in detail. After disI corroborated it in detail. After discovering what had occurred, he informed the police.

Constable M. Hill, who was the first policeman on the scene, and who ordered the bodies to be removed to the hospital, gave evidence.

The Murderer's Confession.

Dr. A. McG. Grant, acting-medical superintendent of the Auckland Public Hospital, said that the cause of the death of the woman and child was cerebro laceration and fractured skull and shock, and in the case of the man the cause of death was exhaustion and shock, following on severe wounds coj the throat and abdomen. Witness had had a conversation with Gordon on the day of the latter's admission to the hospital. Witness had asked him if he had hit his wife with the tomahawk with the intention of killing her, and Gordon had replied, "Yes." Witness had asked the same question in respect to the child, and received the same answer. Witness then asked Gordon if he had inflicted the injuries on himself with the intention of taking his own life, and he had said '" Yes." In reply to the coroner, witness eaid that Gordon's state of mind was very clear, and it appeared as if the crime had been premeditated. Letters Left by Gordon. Plain-clothes Constable A. A. McGuire stated that he found some letters, a signal-book, a bank-book, and a purse cont taining Is 7d in the room occupied by the Gordons. The letters were in Maori, and witness had had them translated. The first letter was read by the coroner, as follows : — " To Herebere, — to you and your grandchildren ; may the light shine in your heart. You are not to he sorrowful over me, nor the acts I am to do. for it cannot be helped —I am fated to do this act. Herehere. so far as you are concerned, you will be all right with the help of your grandchildren. Do not think of me, I am not worth thinking about. That is all I have with regards to my greeting. I am writing with regards to some goods. The title of Kihikihi propertv — the land __ agent at Awamutu. he has it in his keeping, as £11 has been advanced on it as a mortgage. So far some of them I have in Auckland with me. Some are at Waiti. Rangia has the gun,

which I gave him permission to take away in payment of £5, costs of mending the gun. I saw Maremaxe, also Kotoimoko with Maremare. They will give you all my love. Farewell to you and your grandchildren. I remain, Rawhaitna Gordon." Herehere is Gordon's sister. The letter was dated Auckland, December 2, 1915 the day prior to the murder. Gordon also left the following schedule, the articles probably being those referred to in the foregoing letter — Box, two shirts, two coats, and a ring, watch, earring, mounted with gold, on watchchain, stockings. You are to fetch them. Rawhaitua Gordon." A second letter, addressed to the " Crown of New Zealand,", pointed to the apparent, fact that Gordon had disagreements with his wife. A portion of another letter was read by the coroner. The letter was from a friend of the deceased woman, and was merely signed " Alf." The writer asked to be "kindly remembered" to the deceased woman's sister. The coroner remarked that the contents of the letter were quite innocent, and there was nothing in it to cause suspicion. The Coroner's Verdict. The finding of the coroner was as follows:—"I find that Rosanna Nora Gordon and the infant. May Gordon, died at the Auckland Hospital on December 3. I find that they were murdered by George Gordon by blows inflicted with a tomahawk. I find that George Gordon died at the Auckand Hospital on December 5. the nose of death being shock from injuries self-inflicted on the 3rd inst."