THE PETONE MURDERER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1314, 6 May 1897, Page 31

THE PETONE MURDERER.

BOSHER’S FULL CONFESSION -SHOWING HOW HE COMMITTED THE CRIME. . HIS MOTIVES FOR THE DEED. It leaked out immediately after the execution of Stephen Bosher, who met at the hands of the law his -just reward for his awful crime on Wednesday, April 21, that he had prepared during his incarceration, and while awaiting his doom, a fully detailed confession of his life, of his last crime and of the motives which had led him to commit it. That confession he left in- the hands of Mr P. S. Garvey, the Governor of the Terrace Gaol, for his own private use and to do with as he wished. The story is a dreadful one, and reveals in all its' horror the frightful criminality of Bosher’s nature. The document has not left, and will not leave, Mr Garvey’s possession, but we have gleaned its contents, a synopsis of which we propose to give. WHAT WE MEAN TO SUPPRESS. In the interests of public safety, however, we deem it wise to suppress a number of the details of the confession, and for the reason which actuated Mr Garvey in keeping the document to himself—that the man ivas a criminal of the worst and lowest type and was acquainted with the tricks and subterfuges of the criminal class on the Continent and in vogue among the worst ruffians in France, and therefore an account of his modes of procedure would be calculated to do a considerable amount of harm if spread abroad among a certain class. HIS MOTIVES FOR THE CRIME. Jt clearly came out at the trial that Bosher was pressed for money, and here, he declares, lay the motive for his crime. In debt on all sides, he planned the awful murder among other crimes which he had in contemplation, but of which he gives no particulars. he pound no money. However, he obtained no money from the Jonees’s. He searche'd for, but failed to find the cash-box. The time at which he says he committed the crime was between 8 o’clock and "§'.ls, and the shadow which the witness Henry Fleet saw on the window was his, and the groan he heard was Mrs Jones’ dying moan, bosher’s movements that evening. He tells that he fed his horse twice that evening, once before the murder was committed, and again when spoken to by his supposed wife, - Miss * Reece, on the subject. The knife he. used was the knife he afterwards hid in Dr Teare’s stable, and the tin of pepper found on the table was his. We do not intend to give here what Bosher has written down j we do not propose to add a fresh dodge, fiendish in its ingenuity, to the Y&jpcvto'iTG of the N"ew Zealand criminal. HE DENIES THAT THE FOOTPRINT WAS HIS. - There were two points in the trial on which stress was laid, and one of them at least was a most important factor in convicting him —we allude to the poker found in some bushes in Bosher’s paddock and the footprint on the back doorstep of the Joneses’ house. Bosher says he knows nothing of the poker. He did not see it “ nor move it. Some other person must have placed it where it was found. Regarding the footprint, he tells that it w£s not his, and if it was his he does not know how it got there. He neither entered nor left by that door so far as he remembers. It is evident, however, that his foot must have made the print, perhaps when he opened the door and peered out to see if anyone was aboufc.^ THE DEED PREMEDITATED. But the most terrible point in the confession is his cool admission that his -diabolical deed was premeditated. He avers that, pressed for money, he went to ' the house armed with the weapons he required to carry out his fell purposes, bought the butter and chaff, and chatted in a friendly manner to Mr Jones. Then he went out and fed his horse, came quietly back, slipped into the house while the old couple were sitting at their tea, and, with his tools ready, pounced upon them and committed the murder. He then left the house, carrying the butter in his hand, and went co the Salvation Army Barracks,where he engaged in worship. Ihe rest of the facts are known; they came out at the trial. HIS INTENTIONS. He says he intended to commit the deed long before he entered the house. The statements which he made to the police were quite untrue, and his horse was in the paddock all the time. A LIFE OF CRIME. Bosher also supplies particulars of a list of crimes he has committed during his life. He says he got into trouble at Home before he was 14 years of age. He was put to his trade as a joiner at that age. He gqt on badly at his trade, and was continually in trouble. He was persuaded to leave it, and when he was 16 years of age he went to Hamburg, in Germany. From there he shipped in the ship Guttenburg, and after that he migrated to London; where he landed when he was only 16-& years of age. He could not speak English, and, in his own words, “did no good ” in London. HE LANDS IN NEW ZEALAND. He knocked about for some time, and then took ship to Lyttelton. He landed there in 1574, and went to limaru and worked for a time on the railway line. He was still unable to speak English, but that did not prevent him from forging a cheque for <£3 15s, for which he received 18 months’ imprisonment m Lyttelton Gaol. He left the gaol in August of 1876. during jjii incarceration he had learnt a little

English. He was unable to find work in Christchurch, and ’went to Akaroa (Banks Peninsula he calls it). HIS FIRST MARRIAGE. Here he met the woman who was unfortunate enough to become his wife. They did not get on well together, and the confession details a number of uninteresting family troubles between them which it is mot necessary to publish. He started there as a photographer, but, like several of his other ventures, photography did not pay, or, at all events, the people at.Akaroa did not appreciate his efforts and he gave it up and sold out to someone else, and, leaving his wife without a clue to where he was going, he went to Melbourne, and from there shipped as cook in a French barque bound for Bordeaux. ARRESTED AND SENT TO ALGIERS. From there he went to England, and after a while gravitated back to France, and, as we already know, was arrested for not having done his term of military duty and sent to gaol. He was after a while sent to Algiers, and with other soldiers—criminals of the worst class —was put to do out-post duty in the desert and on the boundaries of the province. He says he always wanted to get back to New Zealand, and when he finally got his discharge, he managed to work his way to Liverpool and then to London. He had messages from his friends in the French army to people in London, and by the good offices of one of these he obtained a passage to New Zealand as a steward on the Doiic, and landed in Wellington in August, 1890. BACK IN NEW ZEALAND. He had no money, except what was given him by the passengers. He sent a telegram to his wife and told her that he had come back, and asked her if he might come and live with her. He got a telegram back in reply saying no, she did not want him. He worked for several people in Wellington, and finally married Miss Reece, the ceremony being performed by the Baptist minister. He says Miss Reece was absolutely innocent of- all knowledge that he had another wife alive, and was a good wife to him and a good mother to his children. HIS LAST DATS. While walking in the prison-yard two or three days before he was executed he was informed by Mr Garvey that according to his wish his body would be buried in a corner of the Karori Cemetery. He expressed great relief, as he had a horror of being buried in the gaol. He also expressed a wish to be photographed, and in accordance with his desire he was photographed one day in the exercise-yard and copies have been sent to a number of people, a list of whom he left.