THROUGH THE AMBER-TINTED MIST

NZ Truth, Issue 1043, 21 November 1925, Page 8

THROUGH THE AMBER-TINTED MIST

Gory Visions Made Him Wonder

TWO THIRSTS, HARHASH AND A BOTTLE But the finger-Prints May Prove Awkward (From "Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) It began with a thirst — the type that is known as "the morning after the night before." . Two men were m Auckland lock-up. A friendly feeling arose; one bailed the other out and displayed a hefty wad of notes. Then into the world once more; a carousal together, a bottle is presumed to have got busy on a human head and the wad went west. A jury will decide the case which will come before them m Auckland soon.

Leslie Titchener has at least once m his life over-estimated his own capacity or under-estimated his- powers of resistance. This was what was the basic cause of his finding himself an inmate of the lock-up at the police station at Auckland one Sunday morning m October. In this respect, however, he does not stand alone. As a matter. of fact the occasion was responsible for his meeting Joseph Roy O'Shea for whom no doubt similarity of circumstances and experiences created a fellow feeling. When he was being bailed out Titchener unravelled from the folds of his buckled up shirt sleeves two tenners, and a five pound note. Ten shilling's was the price of his own liberty, but he generously inquired for the ransom which was placed on his fellow prisoner. O'Shea when he was "run m" had something like ten shillings m his possession out of which he had to find half a crown for the joy ride which took him from the scene of his dissipation to the Government institution Wherein he spent the night. . , In the long run, and m the presence of O'Shea, Titchener disclosed his wealth and paid the necessary to have his friend set free. FRIENDSHIP RENEWED. On a later date this friendship waa renewed, but only after a search by Titchener for his former fellow lodger m an effort to get the money lent returned to him. The, friendship which existed bei tween them was further enhanced m

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii an afternoon's jollification. O'Shea invited his acquaintance into the British Hotel ana, ' it would appear, also invited him to shout; for the rest of the afternoon which Titehener says he did. . Titchener has the unique habit of keeping all bank notes of big denomination rolled up m his shirt sleeves and on the occasion m question he had the two he owned the previous week-end safely tuck- v ed there. He had no occasion to resort to ; them and found -that the loose cash m his pocket was as much as he needed. It was after six o'clock, when leaving an hotel, that the curtain of objivi<>n descended on the muddled recollection of Titchener and he knew nothing till the following morning when he found himself m a bedroom he knew not" of nor had before seen. A GORY SCENE. Looking round the room m his slowly returning- consciousness, a gory scene presented itself to Titchener. "There was blood all over the room," he told Chief Detective Cummings, "and my head was pretty dazed I can tell you. The bedclothes were covered m blood and so was my head and face. "There were the remains of two square riggers about the floor. I had never been m the room before and I found that my two tenners were missing. There was no one m the watchhouse when I took the tenners from my sleeve except O'Shea and the constable." Titchener went on to tell how hewas removed to the hospital and was an in-patient there for some time. He was still an out-patient of thp Institution. His coat would have tc be taken off m order to get at his tenpound notes. Dorothy Watt, who. resides with her husband m the house which was occupied by O'Shea, told of a scuffling noise she had heard from the upstairs rooms on the evening of the alleged assault. That evening accused offered the witness the rent of his room to give to the landlady. Other witnesses spoke to seeing the accused m the house on the night ot the alleged assault, and the landlady stated that when sho went into thb room, which had been occupied by the

accused on the Sunday morning after the night before, she found a stranger m the accused's bed and the room m an awful state. There was blood everywhere. O'Shea was owing her a week's rent when he went away. O'SHEA'S STORY. Detective O'Sullivan narrated a conversation he had with the accused after Titchener had been 1 " taken to the hospital when he charged accused with assaulting and robbing the complainant of his £20. O'Shea's explanation was that he woke up and found the man tryIng to commit an unnatural offence on him and he thereupon cracked his jaw. He asked the "Tec" if he would not have done the same had he • found a man over him and holding him by the throat. In regard to the £13 odd which O'Shea had m his possession he said that he had laid a bet with a bookie named Marks on Killock m the Wellington races which won and paid £20. As, however, the bookie did not pay more than a £10 limit he had only received £5 from him at first and th«. balance later. The odd money he had m his possession was some he had worked for. Acting-Detective Moon read a statement he had taken from accused, who had also said that he would not state where he had stayed on the night in 1 question after being bowled out on a statement he made that he had spent the night at the residence of his aunt

Senior Sergeant Dinnie, fingerprint expert for the C.I.D. at Wellington, gave evidence regardingfingerprints he had examined on the broken beer bottle which had been sent to him for examination. He had photographed one of these and compared it with a print taken from accused m Mt. Eden gaol and found that there were 15 points of similarity. He was satisfied that the fingerprint on the bottle and that on the record as being taken from a prisoner at Mt Eden were made by one and the same person. S.M. Poynton committed O'Shea to tne Supreme Court for trial. Bail was fixed at £500.