When Kelly Came Back!

NZ Truth, Issue 1062, 1 April 1926, Page 8

When Kelly Came Back!

"SHE WOIPLD THE BLOOD OFF ME HEAD WITH ONE HAND AND PUNCHED ME IN THE STOMACH WITH THE OTHER" (From "Truth's" Special Wellington Representative.) Whatever else Kelly may have received when he wandered back to the Central Hotel like a ghost visiting 1 a scene of earlier recollections, it is quite certain that he got much more than he expected.

KELLY dropped into the hotel to "see a friend," and was obliged to step outside to see a policeman. As a matter of fact, Kelly stepped inside the hotel several times that day, but each time he stepped out more briskly than he entered. Apparently there was no friend within. In fact, he reckoned that he wtis so severely handled m the hostelry that he claimed £40 from Charley O'Gorman, Arthur McMaster, ar.d Mrs. Diamond, all of whom, Kelly nlleged, had taken to him m a wild style at the Central. It was under the name of William Vinard that Kelly took proceedings against the hotel folk before Magistrate Riddell last week, but there seemed to be just as much Irish blood m him under that name as under. the true cognomen of Kelly. He told m fine, characteristic style how he had been paid off at the shipping office and went into the Cent.-s.'. Hotel m search of his friend. Mrs. Diamond called him into the office, he said, and put it to him that he owed her £2. Vinard- Kelly was not out to repudiate his debts, and said he would be "willing to pay a little now and work the rest of it out" Apparently, this wasn't suitable to Mrs. Diamond, and, as they walked into the passage, he became aware tl-at, snowball-like, the company had increased. Trouble m the Kitchen. O'Gorman said all he had to say by hitting Kelly over the eye; McMaster heaved on to the scene; .and, after Mrs. Diamond had also got busy, he was ruthlessly bundled into the kitchen by the trio, and it was m that very kitchen that Kelly-Vinard or Vmard-Kelly reckoned he received more than a square meal. "Oi hadn't bin m there long, your, Honor," said Kelly, "win Mrs. Diamond started woiping the bloo.d. from me eye with one hand and punching me m the stomach with the other. It was pretty fierce, too . . . " (Laughter.) Magistrate Rid.dell: Are you sure she wasn't joking? Kelly: Aw, she wasn't jokin', your Honor. It was pretty rough. They all took it m turns to have a punch at me. They tore me shirt, and I have got it at home. I should've brought it down. ... Of course, I couldn't hit a woman. . . Kelly said he had not been able to work since the pummelling. Lawyer O'Donovan (for the defendants) Is your proper name Vinard? — Vis. How long has it been Vinard?-— All me loife. . Were you at any time ever, employed at the Central Hotel? — For about three or three and a-half months. Weren't you known as Kelly then? The Magistrate: That certainly seems more appropriate. (Laughter.) Plaintiff: Oi've got one name and Oi've got six or seven discharges here. What name are you known to the police by? Kelly (slightly taken aback) : Under me proper name. Me nanie is Kelly also. (Laughter.) Plaintiff said he had just returned from St. Louis (U.S.A.), and had been . I. aid off, receiving £5, or £6. "Out of that Oi owed a few little debts here and there, and was squaring thim up." \ V ! Counsel: Well, why didn't you pay Mrs. Diamond right up, seeing that you had the money? — I was willing to. pay her a little bit at a time and to work the rest out if she loiked. I got to exist, yer know; I can't go and eat grass until Oi get another ship. Did O'Gorman strike you? — Vis. Well, what did he say^ — He said nothing; he punched at me and thin helped to bundle me through to the kitchen. I thought at first that it was going to be a dinner or something,

but when they got me there they set about me and hammered me m the stomach. Who did the hammering? — O'Gorman an! McMaster, and. Mrs. Diamond, too. She was woiping the blood away with one hand and punching me with the other. And what were , you doing all the trme? — I vvuz so dazed thet — : . ' Or were you so drunk? — No, I "wasn't drunk. Continuing-, plaintiff said he remembered the policeman being summoned, but he did not tell the officer that he had been assaulted because "he wouldn't give me a chance to exli.'am." Counsel; But hasn't /Constable Adams arrested you several times? — Once or twice. (Laughter.) And if he says that there was nothing wrong with you and that your face was all right would he be telling the truth? — He would be telling a loi. Do you ever tell lies? — I don't say Oi don't, but Oi niver tell a loi m a case loike this. He denied that he had received compensation from the shipping company lor injuries which he said had been sustained while he was on the ship, and which Kvere actually sustained while he was at the hotel. The claim, he said, was not as a consequence of the accident, but owing to a recurrence of it. Lawyer O'Donovan: You know, at any rate, that you have no right to go to that hotel? — Oi have slept with £650 under me pillow m that hotel. When Oi had money iverything was all right, but now they don't want me. When you first went m you were oidered out? — O'Gorman had a drink v.th me. It was after he had narked me and had a few punches at me stomach that he got the constable. Reginald Walter Osborne, a law clerk m Lawyer Bob Scott's office, geve it as his opinion that when Kelly called at the office he had a grazed eje and blood oh his face. Generally speaking, he had all the appearances of having been "beaten up " The Policeman Knew Him. Constable Adams told how he had received an S.O.S. to the Central, and on arrival he was told that Kelly had keen causing a disturbance. He asked him to go, and Kelly went. Kelly knew witness. "He is very much afraid of me," put m the constable. The man was well known — if not to the police generally, v/ell, certainly to witness. Witness said he noticed no marks on Kelly, and t'oither did the man make any compiaint about having been asaaulce.l. Lawyer Bob Scott (with some warmth): I myself .saw this man within an hour of his assault, and he had every appearance, of having been thoroughly beaten up. Doesn't it strike you as / strange, constable, that you did not notice . it? — No, I don't think so. He was all right when I saw him. Charles O'Gorman, manager of the httel, spoke of having unsuccessfully warned Kelly to vamoose, and finding it necessary on two subsequent occasions to eject him himself. Under cross-examination, he admitted that Kelly had worked for some t'me at the hotel when he (witness) was there. Kelly had developed the idea at one stage that witness had put him out of his job. McMaster's evidence was simply that he was a non-participant m the kitchen. He saw no one strike Kelly. He denied that there was any feud among the defendants against Kelly. The Magistrate remarked that Kelly's evidence stood alone and uncorroborated. It seemed a significant fact that he had not complained about the alleged, assault when the policeman was called m. He did not think that a charge of assault 7 Avould have stood had it been laid on the same evidence, and, all things 'considered, he felt that defendants were entitled to judgment.