THE GRAND HOTEL FIRE

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4407, 13 July 1901, Page 6

THE GRAND HOTEL FIRE

EVIDENCE OF JESSJE MINNS. SCRAPS FROM A PENNY DREADFUL. BBKSS ASSOCIATION. AUCKLAND, .July 12. It now transpires that Jessie Minns, whose sensational evidence at the Grind Hotel fire inquest has been the talk of the town, sought inspiral ion in a novelette. The story about three men with powder and fuse who threatened to kill her if she *' breathed a. word,’’ which provided the newspapers with such sensational “ copy” was the creation of so'tie imaginative ponny-a liner, whose story so imprinted itself upon the memory of th e impressionable Jessie that she was able to reproduce it with cou vincing detail before the Coroner’s jury.

This is on the authority of Jessie’s mother, who gave the whole story to a reporter this morning. Mrs Minns stated that Jessie had already admitted to the police that her story was a fabrication.

“In what book did she get it out of?” asked the reporter. Sirs Minns: "It was a book called ‘Fred, the Miner.’ One of those paper cover books, I think. Henry Jones, the night porter, brought a lot of them from Sydney, and boarders used t 0 leave books about. I think she found it in a drawer in the pantry.” “ Then that yarn about men laying fuse and rubbing stuff on the walls—was all that out of ‘Fred, the Miner?’” —“Yes, it was part of the story, I believe.”

Where did she get the description of the three men that she gave to the police?”—Mrs Minns: “Oh, they were in the book, too.” “And the nicknames?”—“She got them out of ‘ Fred, the Miner.’ ”

“ But why should she tell such a story to mislead the police and the jury? What motive had she?”—“Well, she was frightened of (mentioning the name of a former employee at the Grand Hotel). She saw him and three others on the pantry stairs* and I think she wanted to shield them. She says she heard them go up the stairs and start pulling things about in the dining room. Madame (the oook) saw them on the pantry stairs.” “ Did she know the men ?”—“ Yes.” “ Hut has tho girl no, idea of- the responsibility she is under in making such statements on oath ?”—“No; she doesn’t seem to realise it at all. y ’ Mrs Minns went, on to explain that Jessie had felt hurt at some questions the police had asked her. Jessie complained that the police had tried to put words into her mouth, and sh e decided, in consequence, to “ stuff ” the sub-in-spector. She gave him a statement that covered, two pages of foolscap. About being mesmerised hy these men, she told her (Mrs Minus) afterwards that there was nothing in it at all. She got the idea of mesmerism from some phrenologist years ago down at the Thames. She was only about fifteen at the time. The other night Inspector Cullen had her up before him, and he told her to stand up and look him straight in tho eyes. She stood up, and then turned and ran out of the room and into the street. She. was afraid he would “ read her like the phrenologist did.”