CLUE TO A MURDER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21562, 5 August 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

CLUE TO A MURDER

DIRTY CARTRIDGE WAD REMARKABLE POLICE TRAIL :|jv ELDERLY COUPLE KILLED iPifci \l, CRIME SHEETED HOME • V'-' ' • |* A story of a remarkable police '■; V, "trail that led to arrest on a charge of .murder" and the subsequent convic!yV tjon of the accused person was j\. told in connection with the death senI;.'; tence passed oft Richard. Hetherington, !|S". a young Westmorland farmer, who, on I®..,May 31 was found guilty at Appleby Assizes of murdering -Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Nixon, aged ,76 and 75 respecj ■ lively, in their bungalow at Newby. A remarkable chain of incidents led to j '*>' the man's arrest and ultimato conviction. The story" bohinci the crime, says the 'Nows ;ol:!.iho^^^r{d]j i ;;-reflocts; ; great credit on..'.S.ttp J of Appleby, - had efinrge case, and the officers who worked under his 13. instructions, particularly Sergeant Lilley and Constable Rcnwick. '. When it was discovered on the morning of February 20 last that the Nixons' bungalow had been burned out during ! . tho night, two theories were iinmediI ately put forward by those who lived in the district. One was that the fire had been caused accidentally, while tho other theory suggested that Mr. Nixon had killed his wife, sot-the bungalow on fire, and then killed himself. No ono suspected that Mr. and Mrs. "Nixon had been murdered, and that tho J 'murderer 'had set tire to the bungalow to remove all traces of his grim deed. J* At tho tinio' all roads leading to the bungalow were thick with snow, and !*•■ Superintendent Eccles had no "flying i« squad" at his command for making in- | vestigatious. Constable Renwick, as a > matter of fact, had to trudge through ; the snow to the bungalow with his puslibicvclo bv his side. ». • {* , A Chance in a Million L When Superintendent Eccles arrived i on tho scene ho found a blood-stained ! saclC.which had used- as a door- « mat. Although this indicated that some- | thing tragic htul happened, the previous {*' night, it did not giv'o any. clito as to j- how Mr. and Mrs. Nixon had died. \ ' _ Continuing his search, the superintendenfc can'io across a charred flower-pot • lying in what was originally tho door- • way. It suggested nothing in itself, but Si he began to turn tho earth over care- ! fully with his fingers. In doing so ho {;;. knew lio was taking a chanco in a {£• million so far as clues wpfo concerned —-but the chance in a million caino off. The superintendent picked out a tiny J J piece of dirty white material about ; „ half an. inch., in; pirenmference, and, i*., !*' nifyimj-glass;,- he found that.-it. was a (£' cartridge him that !&• there ha'd'been but no one !£' in particular was . suspected' just then, j;, Nevertheless, the drama began in real earnest from that moment. , Sergeant Lilley and Constable Ren- ! wick were sent off on foot to make !?. preliminary inquiries at different places, iii- arid the utmost discretion had to bo used by both officers so. that the superintendent's own theory should be kept absolutely secret. Subsequfsjitly Superintendent Eccles reached tho -Shap police station, and after a* few fruitless calls had been put through ho at last heard a voice at tho Penrith end of the telephone saying, " Yes, I sold a gun and cartridges to a man last Friday, but I don't know his name or anything about him." ' Tracing of a £5 Note "Tho gunsmith, Mr. Wilkinson, then mentioned a £5 Bank of England note, and "a few minutes later the superintendent was on his way to Penrith. There, as was stated at the trial, the nqte- was traced through two banks to Richard Hetherington. He had received it in a legitimate way from the sale of a row. But Superintendent Eccles also had in his pocket the wad which 'he had found among the earth in the flowerpot. He ascertained from the gunsmith that it was similar to those used in the typo of cartridges sold to the man c who also bought a gun threo days earlier. Ho then returned to his own of§ce at Appleby and changed into phiin clothes.- There was a psychological reason for this. Hetherington, who had been described by the gunsmith, lived at Great ?•*'. •, Strickland, a most inaccessible place, ' i especially when the countryside was knee-deep in snow. But it was vitally f J ". important that Hetherington should be interviewed that night, and, if necessary, arrested on the spot. Above all, ij however, it was imperative that HetherI ington should not learn that the police suspected him or anyone else of murder. . Superintendent Eccles" therefore arranged with Sergeant Lilley and other officers to let the word be passed round in Hetherington's own district and elsewhere that tho police believed that Mr. and Mrs. Nixon were accidentally burned to death while asleep. False. Rumour Well Circulated '* This false rumour was evidently well circulated, for Hetherington was apparently quite unconcerned at first when tho superintendent spoke to him on the !' ! roadside about 0.30 that night. Tho superintendent accompanied Hethering- ■ l ton to his home, where parts of a L- gun—tho barrel being among tho hay 'v in the loft —and 12 cartridges were discohered. • c- When told that ho would be arrested and charged with murder, Hethorington became violent. Ho struggled and kicked, bub was overpowered and handcuffed and taken to tho Shap Police Station. Here he was searched, and in his pocket was found a wallet containing' a number of letters and documents addressed to Mr. Nisfon. Tho arrest was kept secret for 18 honrs afterwards, and during the inter"J ■. val Superintendent Eccles and Sergeant Lilley covered hundreds of miles to interview possible witnesses, and to give instructions to constables stationed at the loneliest outposts in tho county of .Westmorland* • • . u Incidents at the Trial Poliee-Scrgeant Lilley, his breast glittering with medals, told how Hetherington exclaimed, when the police were searching his home for a gun, " It is enough to send a man mad. I have put up with a lot from that old man." - The wallet found in Hetherington's pocket, witness said, contained letters and documents which suggested that it had been owned by Mr. Nixon. Gruesome photographs of the charred remains of Air. and Mrs. Nixon wore ■ produced during the evidence of Dr. v J. S. Faulds, pathologist. Sixteen pelr... lets removed from the heart of one of thd bodies were also shown in a test *I•• tube. Ihe case for the Crown concluded ■ ■ with the evidence of the Penrith gunsmith that Hetherington bought a gun ,T- and cartridges from him. r Cpuhsel for the defence said that Hetherington had not the intelligence to commit this deliberate and cunning crime. He said that Hetherington had denied having a gun, but this was ex--f, plained by the fact that poaching went v j Dn hi the district and he did not wish the police to know ho had a gun. Tho papers in tho wallet were found by r , Hetherington in a lane. Tho wallet itserf belonged to his mother, who bought it during, the war to send to her sor.. Mrs. Hetherington, who was seated behind the jury, wept when this reference was made, and Hetherington, too, jviped his oyes. When Hetherington

went into the witness box bis mother left the court. Hetherington, standing with his hands clasped behind his back, denied that he owed money to Mr. Nixon. " Did you shoot Mr. and Mrs. Nixon?" asked counsel. "No," said Hetherington firmly. " You can't condemn mo for having a gun," protested Hetherington. He left the witness-box after being questioned for two hours and a-qunrter. Mrs. Hetherington, who gave evidence, is a woman of the dales, with gnarled hands and lined face. With trembling fingers she examined the wallet alleged to have been found on her son. " I bought it for him and sent it to Franco when ho was in the Anny," sho said. "It was kept in a drawer until last autumn, when I gave it to him again." She said she knew nothing about the gun until she found the stock in a box. Defending counsel in his final spoech for Hetherington, said that the prosecution were clutching at straws to build up their case. The murder was a diabolically clever 0110 and yet Hetherington had bought the gun quite openl}'. Was that likely? If it should bo that he had committed the murder there never was such a fool on earth, for ho was 'openly advertising that he had a gun. Was Hetherington a fiend incarnate? He must be, if, having sent two defenceless old people to their death, he could spend four hours with friends and bo quite normal. Ho must •bo if, having burned the bodies, ho could go next day and play cards and laugj with innocent children. Was there 8 man born in this life who could do that? . There was 110 evidence to prove that Hethorington was anywhere but at homo at the time when the prosecution said the murder took place. As Hetherington was with friends until 11.-SO p.m. he could not have got to the bungalow in timo to fire it so that the burned watches would bo stopped—as thev had been —at 12.10.

Prosecuting counsel, in his final speech for tho Crown, said that whoever committed tho murder was not inadequately described as a "fiend incarnate." Whoover was capable of tho

murder was equally capable of tho demeanour to which defending , counsel had referred.

Tho Judge, in summing-up, said that the old couple were living in such a way that it was difficult to imagine anyone being minded to murder them. There were two incidents —the gun and the wallet—which, when the jury had formed an opinion on them, would greatly assist in deciding everything else. If the jury were satisfied the wallet was Nixon's, and that Hetherington's story of using the gun for poaching was untrue, they would probably come to the conclusion the Crown asked them to. Otherwise, the case was one in which the prisoner was entitled to acquittal. The question of tho gun was tho most important. With tho wallet it was tho crux of the case. Clog-marks had been found outside the ruins of the bungalow, but the evidence as to whether or not accused was wearing clogs on the fatal night was inconclusive.

After a retirement of. over three hours the jury returned with a verdict of guilty and Hetherington was sentenced to dqath.