FOULLY MURDERED

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8258, 22 October 1912, Page 8

FOULLY MURDERED

Tbo account of the murder in SontH America of Mr James Bennett, once a wellknown member of the Gloucester Football Club. appears in the Buenos Ayres papers. It would seem that Mr Bennett was foully murdered at his residence In tho Pampa while confined to his bed. and that tho murderer, although well known in the section where tho affair took plaoe, is still aC large. A man by the name of Diaz, who has worked for Mr Bennett at times and nns bought alfalfa from him. called at his house on the "Guaycuru" estancia at Donquimay F.C>O., ostensibly to give him a * < «pagare" for some 400 doll*** worth of alfalfa, or hay. Mr Bennett was in bed suffering from on attack of influenza, and did not see him. But when he called again on Monday, although, tho deceased gentleman was still confined to his bed, he had Dias brought into his bedroom. Diaz was on friendly terms with Mr Ben* nett, and th©re was no question as to the payment for the hay. It was simply a settlement by "pagare," as the money was not forthcoming. Mrs Bennett took to her husband’s room pen, ink, and papers, and then she went to the kitchen, some distance at tho back of the house, m a separate building, where were the cook, an English-speaking man, and two or three "peones/ All were startled, a few minutes later, to liear two shots* ring out in quick succession, .and they immediately started for Mr Bennett's room, Mrs Bennett rushing on ahead. Diaz was met in a passage „ coollv walking out, and said either to Mrs Dennett or a peon: "I have finished him," or words to that effect. On entering the sick man's room a shocking eight presented itself. Mr Bennett lay' beside the bedclothes in his pyjamas, .bathed in blood, which flowed from two wounds in the cheet, one bullet having pierced the heart, which caused instant , death.