ARTIST AND SLAYER.

NZ Truth, Issue 1001, 31 January 1925, Page 7

ARTIST AND SLAYER.

Louis Henry Bertrand

Louis Henry Bertrand, the last of Australia's infamous five, has frequently been called the "criminal of the century," though he most certainly does not deserve, that somewhat imposing title.

Vain, self-confident, Bertrand was

at one and the same time a clever 1 murderer and a sorry bungler. He committee} the murder of Henry Kinder neatly and cleverly, and then he made a mess of everything, and only by his remarkable luck and his long drawn-out battl6 with the law was he able to avoid the gallows.

The Coroner who inquired into Kinder's death brought m a verdict of suic.de, chiefly as a result of Bertrand's evidence.

Had Bertrand then kept quiet, and patiently waited to claim the fruits

of his evil deed, he might have escaped arrest and conviction for murder. ' ■ < Began to Talk. But, secure m his vanity, Bertrand began to talk. : His disagreements with his wife led him to confide m his sister, and to her he told everything, while Jackson, the mysterious person whose life story is strangely intertwined with that of Bertrand, guessed ■ everything, and then threatened exposure. So Bertrand, instead of displaying discretion, s determined on a very drastic and a very foolish course of action. ife charged Jackson with sending him threatening letters, had him arrested, and later'convicted. , . Then, of course, the cat was out of the bag. The respectable dentist of Wynyard Square; Sydney, the man to whom' all the notabilities of society went when tl.eir teeth began to ache, was arrested. With him m the dock we're Mrs. Kin- | der, wife, of the murdered man, and Mrs. Bertrand, Bertrand's wife. Escaped the Gallows. Conviction for Bertrand was certain, but his legal advisers, resorting to every technical point imaginable, carried the case to the Privy Council, and although they failed to gain him his freedom, they at least gained him his life. For 28 years Bertrand remained m • gaol, assisting m the dispensary, painting pictures, and skilfully carving various figures. He was decidedly an artist before a murderer, | and if he had proved himself as 1 adept a workman when it came to a question of painting 'and carving, Bertrand might never have been stigmatised by the world' as a murderer. Mrs. Bertrand and Mrs. Kinder were both acquitted and discharged. •After his release m. 1894, Bertrand went to England, where he found a safe haven with some money provided for him by a wealthy aunt.