TRAIN MURDERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22406, 30 April 1936, Page 11

TRAIN MURDERS

QUEENSLAND CRIME ACCUSED BEFORE COURT DETECTIVES' EVIDENCE AN ALLEGED CONFESSION By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received April 29. 9.25 p.m.) BRISBANE, April 29 On charges of murdering Messrs. H. J. Speering and M. F. Costello, and attempting to kill Mr. Thomas Boys, on a train on April 2, Herbert Kopet was brought before the City Court to-day. Detective-Inspector A. Jessen and Detective Garvey told the story of Kopet's arrest in a Melbourne coffee house, where he was masquerading as a woman. Inspector Jessen said that Kopet made a variety of excuses for dressing like a woman and assuming wrong names. Finally, when the truth of his statements was challenged, accused said: "Well, as you will get me sooner or later, I may as well tell tho truth. I come from Pi alba, Queensland, and I believe I am wanted for killing two men on a train up there." Kopet explained, said witness, that he had joined the train at Gympie, using a first-class all-lines ticket which he had stolen from a commercial traveller in Cairns. Accused then said: "I occupied a sleeping berth until 5 a.m. Then I got up and began to 'barber' a man in another berth. Alleged Story ol Crime "When the conductor came along and saw me I struck him down with a tyre lever I had brought with me. He tried to get up, so I gave him two more." Inspector Jessen said that Kopet added: "When I discovered that the conductor was unconscious I noticed a man in a sleeping berth whom I intended to 'barber' sitting up and looking at me. I rushed at him and struck him three times on tho forehead with the tyre lever. "Then I ran to a sleeping berth in the front car and struck a man who was asleep there several times. When I left them both men were breathing heavily. I searched the bunks of both men and obtained a £lO note and a £5 note and a 10s note. "I took a pair of t,leevelinks and some gold studs from one man and a £5 note and some silver from the other." Purchase ol a Woman's Outft Detective Garvey stated that Kopet, who signed a statement to the foregoing effect, told him he had used the trousers and coat of one of his victims owing to his own being bespattered with blood. He threw the tyre lever out of a carriage window and alighted at Wooloowin station. Upon his arrival in Sydney, accused said, he purchased a woman's outfit at pawn shops. He stayed one night at the Doncaster Hotel, Kensington. He walked the streets of Sydney dressed as a woman and finally left by train for Melbourne. The Court then adjourned. There are ■lO witnesses to be examined. When a mail train arrived at Brisbane from Rockhampton on April 2 Mr. H. J. Speering, engineer, of the Postal Department, and Mr. M. F. Costello, a business man, of Innisfail, were found to have been attacked in their sleeping berths. Mr. Speering was dead and Mr. Costello was in a dying condition, and expired five minutes after his admission to hospital. The conductor of tho train, Mr. Thomas Boys, was also discovered to have been badly injured. He had suffered terrible injuries to the head and face. Four days later the police, who had been closely following a suspect, arrested a man disguised as a woman in a coffee house at Melbourne. Subsequently Herbert Kopet, aged 28, was charged with the murder of Mr. Speering. Later he was also charged with the second murder.