WAS THE MOTIVE ROBBERY?

NZ Truth, 4 January 1908, Page 6

WAS THE MOTIVE ROBBERY?

James Sheridan Under Arrest. What He Told a " Truth" Reporter. The Wellington public was moved out of their habitual calm yesterday by the news ihat a man had been killed m a drunken fojrawl at the junction of Grey-street and Lambton Quay, near the Trncadero. It appqars that a wKarf laborer named John McAnally, a man of about i 35, ''had a slight difference of opinion with James Sheridan, a man apparently about 30 years, who plugged his mate on the jaw, and McAnally dropped to-, the macadam a dead man. There were some wild rumors that Sheridan was m the act of • rol/bing "McAnally, when the deceased defended himself, and Sheridan retaliated with a fatal (blow/ -but of course, the accused person will* deny this. He was arrested b} r constable Clay, who was on a tram and saw . the man [running away. The peeler apprehended him on general principles, and had, no defined object, and he was consequently astounded to find that he had "pinched" a homicidal person. Interviewed by a "Truth" representative,- Sheridan (who is a son of Mr Patrick Sheridan/ an influential cleric m the Native Land Purchase office, but himself a carpenter or artisan of some sort) stated that he believed McAnally resided m Mrs Watson's Shamrock . Dining Rooms, but couldn't be sure of it. THE DECEASED HAD BEEN DRINKING heavily, a most unusual circumstance, as Sheridan said he believed Chat the unhappy man had been off the beer for a period of three years and : his . return :to the pernicious liquid was fraught with disaster: 'McAnally insisted upon shouting for everybody and gave money "away right and left. Sheridan expostulated with ,liim, and McAnally turned upon his friend, whom he struck. The drink-inflamed man was behaving • like a madman, and Sheridan called to some fellows working on an adjoining building to ,;"put-'him down here-" McAnally . tore himself away and ' struck Sheridan twice, and immediately dropped to the road from a blow presumably which Sheridaiv doesn't recollect having struck. The- ni,an m custody bore marks of this blows on his face, and spoke rationally. It would be difficult to say if he had been drinking, although his olive skin was flushed with excitement. He infomted our representative that McAnally was a native of Scotland, and had been m Australia for some time, and was a single.man. f