MYSTERY OF HIGHWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20256, 16 May 1929, Page 10

MYSTERY OF HIGHWAY.

SHOOTING OF. A ROADMAN.

ACCIDENT THEORY TESTED.

SEARCHINC INQUIRY CONDUCTED.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

OPOTIKI, Wednesday.

Rumour has already attributed the motives of robbery and jealousy and homicidal mania to the shooting of the roadman, Samuel McAleese, who was found dead on tho Opotiki-Gisborne highway last Thursday, but so far nothing tangible, has been found to confound the accident theory. The detectives have left nothing undone in the direction of painstaking inquiry, and science has been called to their aid to test tho vital exhibits in the case. Tho idea that McAleese, who was in the habit of carrying his rifle in a sack, threw his burden carelessly to the ground and was shot by the resulting explosion has been proved feasible with tho actual weapon. A young man was seriously injured in the head at Matamata last Sunday while handling the same model of rifle, and the discharge in this case was caused by jarring the butt on the ground. The rifle used by McAleese was a bolt-action single-shot Winchester. Small arms experts have shown with tho actual weapon how easily discharge can be effected by careless handling of the barrel when parted from the stock. The rifle would" not even require to bo cocked to fire tho cartridge. The cocking piece projects from the rear of the breech and when the spring was not under tension tho firing pin would just touch the rim of tho cartridge in the chamber. A blow from a hammer will drive this pin into the cartridge and cause percussion. It is immaterial whether this pin is driven by tho release of tho spring as in normal firing or whether it is moved by a blow. Bullet Which Caused Death. It is possible to tako the loaded but uncocked rifle barrel and drop it vertically on to tho cocking piece so that the cartridge will bo discharged. A drop of a foot on hard ground will suffice. Alternatively, tho cocked rille could be fired' if tho loosely-packed butt exerted a pull on tho metal projection from tho breech which engages with the trigger. It certainly would bo kn incautious act to thrown down a riflo in a sack under either condition. If the muzzle of the rille was toward the mouth of tho sack and tho bag and contents wero carelessly thrown aside tho chances that the weapon would be pointing in a dangerous direction when tho breech end struck tho ground arc great. To appreciate the hazards a person need only try tossing a barrel to the ground with a blank loading. The odds are that tho oxperiment would convince the sceptic that he was fortunato the cartridge lacked a bullet. The- ammunition found in the dead man's pocket has been closely examined and compared with the empty shell taken from tho rifle, and with tho bullet extracted from tho body. It is beyond dispute that the bullet which killed McAleese is identical in mako with those carried by deceased. Ho used Kynoch scmi-snioke-less ammunition of the type generally known as ".22 long." These cartridges arc loaded with a3O grain bullet. Experiments wero made by firing deceased's rifle into soap, a material which offers practically tho same resistance as tho human body. Magnified Photography. The bullet which caused death weighs half a grain less than those with .which experiments wero made. It was slightly distorted in passing through the body, and tho difference of half a grain could have been caused by the scraping off of a small fragment of lead. It is not likely that standard bullets would vary as much as half a grain in manufacture, but the deficiency can be explained by tho nature of the penetration, and it is not sufficient to upset the supposition that McAleese was shot with his own rifle and ammunition. Tho only useful test for these points is the magnified photography of tho bullets to bring out distinctive marks left by the rifle barrel. This research is being carried out. Although tho rifling of a barrel is carried out with a precision which makes a hair's breadth seem a huge gap, magnification invariably brings out minute inequalities. Tho groove cut in a bullet by tho rifling appears perfectly smooth to the eye. Adjacent grooves seem identical, but it can be shown that the grooves retain small depressions and excrescences which vary in rifles of the same model as much as finger prints differ.