SEVERED HAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22628, 20 July 1935, Page 19

SEVERED HAND

REMARKABLE CASE CHRISTCHURCH MYSTERY CRIME OF THE EIGHTIES. The Sydney “ tattooed arm ” mystery so remarkable in many ways, recalls a happening that created intense interest in New Zealand in 1885-80, a happening which in part remains a mystery and will never be cleared up. The case was known as “ The Mystery of the Severed Hand,” and resulted in the conviction of one man of attempting to defraud three insurance companies of £2400. . There were many unusual disclosures before four persons were placed upon their trial, and the jury returned three verdicts before one was Anally accepted by Mr Justice Johnson, who presided. In his book “ Cheerful Yesterdays,” the late Mr Justice O. T. J. Alpers refers to many interesting criminal cases, and outstanding among them is this story. Eight miles from Christchurch, at Sumner, an enterprising resident constructed what was afterwards known as Bell’s Baths by enclosing within wooden piles a portion of the sea. The baths were open to the public on payment of a small fee. To the south of Sumner, on the far side of the Scarborough spur, is another bay called Taylor’s Mistake. On the afternoon of October 10, 1885, a man called Arthur Rannage Howard went from Christchurch to Sumner, being accompanied part of the way by W. W. Tanner, a shoemaker. Tanner was an observant man and took particular notice of Howard’s clothes, also of a silver watch with gold chain attached which Howard took from his pocket in order to see the time. Howard mentioned he was going for a swim, despite the fact that it was a decidedly boisterous day. No one appears to have noticed Howard in the vicinity of Bell’s baths that afternoon, but about 6 o’clock next morning a boy discovered lying neatly folded in a heap on the wooden pier a man’s clothes. In the waistcoat pocket was found a silver watch attached to a gold chain, and several people who had seen Howard the previous afternoon had no difficulty in identifying the clothes as those he had been wearing, while Tanner, without hesitation, identified the silver watch and gold chain. NO TRACE OF BODY. Obviously the unfortunate man had lost his life. He had either been swept to sea by a current too strong for him or had been attacked by one of the many sharks that were skid to abound in the vicinity. Howard was a married man, with two young children, and he was employed in the Government railways workshops. Search was made for the body but not trace of it found, even though diligence was stimulted by an advertisement which appeared in a Christchurch newspaper a few days after the fatality, offering £SO reward for the recovery of the Body, “ or the first portion received thereof, recognisable.” The unusually large amount of the reward offered and the' wording of the advertisement stimulated public curiosity, and it was soon learned that Howard’s life was insured under three separate policies for sums amounting to £2400, all the insurances having been effected within a year or 18 months, total premiums aggregating £7O per year. The policies, within a few months of being taken out, had been transferred into the name of his wife, Sarah Howard. All Mrs Howard had to do, therefore, to obtain the v money was to furnish satisfactory proof of death. The throe insurance companies by inquiries learned that the wages of Howard were buj: 9s per day and that he was therefore paying away in premiums more than half his total earnings. They naturally became suspicious and refused to pay. BROTHERS’ DISCOVERY.

On December 16 two brothers named Godfrey, with, their sons, drove to Sumner, and then walked over the Scarborough Hill to Taylor’s Mistake, intending to .do some fishing. While at the foot of Scarborough , rocks there appeared a man who was a stranger to them. He wore blue goggles and a wig, and his garments were all too large for his body and it looked as though he was deliberately disguised. The stranger drew the Godfrey brothers’ attention to a man’s hand lying in the sand among the weeds. Elisha Godfrey remarked: “ That is Howard’s hand. ' He was drowned at Sumner.” The stranger said, “ Poor fellow, poor fellow,” and added that he held a high position in town and he did not want to have anything to do with it because it would not do for it to be known that he was there. Godfrey then wrapped the hand in a newspaper and noticed that it had a ring on. The stranger said that if there was any reward for finding it Godfrey could do what he liked with the money, as he (the stranger) was in a good position and had plenty of money and did not wish to have anything to do with it. HAND RECOGNISED. The Godfreys remained fishing and nearly an hour later the mysterious stranger returned and asked them more impressively than before not to let anybody know he had been there. That evening the hand was given to the police, but nothing was said about the mysterious stranger, the authorities being left to understand that the Godfreys themselves had found it. It was a left hand, had been severed a few inches above the wrist, and on the third finger was a ring, apparently of gold, in the form of a strap and buckle. On the inside of the ring were the initials in Roman letters, “A. H.” When shown to Mrs Howard she recognised it as the hand of her husband. Several people saw the mysterious stranger in goggles and wig returning from Taylor’s Mistake to Christchurch on the afternoon of Decemm- 10, and he had accosted them and Hid them that Howard’s hand had been found by two men named Godfrey. It transpired afterwards that Mrs Howard, on the day previous, had received a letter from “ a friend ” asking her to meet him at Cathedral square as he had found some cheap lodgings for her. When questioned on this point by the police, Mrs Howard said she did not go to meet the writer of the letter as the hand had turned up in the meantime. As news of the finding of the hand could not have reached Christchurch till late in the afternoon of December 16, Mrs Howard had either lied about the matter, or she knew beforehand that arrangements had been made for • the hand to be found on the beach at Taylor’s Mistake.

On behalf of the insurance companies and others interested, 10 doctors examined the hand and decided that its appearance was finite inconsistent with having been dead so long as the period between October 10 and December 10. They also decided that the bones of the arm had teen severed, not by the teeth of any shark, but by the teeth of a handsaw, and they were unanimous that the hand was the hand of a woman. The police, in their inquiries, learned that on October 10 a man who called himself Watt, and was afterwards proved to be Howard, and left Lyttelton for Wellington, and had proceeded to Wairarapa, where he was employed for some time at different jobs. They also learned that he had made the acquaintance of a station cook named Beard, whom he had asked one Sunday morning shortly before daybreak to accompany hipi to a cemetery to open up a grave to see if he could identify a body. Beard refused to have anything to do with the project. In the meantime the police had arrested first the two God-

frey brothers, and a week later Mrs Howard, .all three being charged with conspiring to defraud the insurance companies. They were remanded from week to week until some time in the month of January of the following year, Howard being arrested at Petone on January 4. In his book Mr Justice Alpers commented that it was somewhat strange that Howard and Watt, who wore one and the same, should have evaded detection so long. He had lost the thumb of the right hand and the toe of the left foot. On several occasions between December 14 and 22 he walked in the main streets of Christchurch, passing a number of police officers while wearing what must have appeared to the least intelligent an obvious disguise. In Wellington he had been taken in charge by the police on the complaint of a woman, who said he had insulted her, but when she refused to proceed with the prosecution Howard was allowed to go free. And yet pasted on the wall of the police, office he read a printed description of himself, together with a reward for his apprehension. VALIDITY OF MARRIAGE.

The four prisoners were tried at th« Supreme Court at Christchurch on Apri' 8,9, and 10, Mr Justice Johnson presiding. They were jointly charged with conspiring to defraud the insurance companies, and on the second count of attempting to obtain money by fraud. The question of the validity of the marriage of Howard and his wife became one of great importance. If the marriage was a valid one then the charge of conspiracy failed as far as the woman was concerned, for husband and wife cannot conspire. Again, if the marriage was valid the female accused had the advantage of the presumption of acting under compulsion of the husband. A man who' had been the first mate on the Scottish sailing vessel, the Janet Court, on which they had come to New Zealand, deposed that Howard and Mrs Howard were married when the ship was some weeks out at sea, the marriage taking place in tho saloon, and tho skipper performing the rites. This marriage would no doubt have been perfectly valid according to Scottish law, but the ship was outside Scottish territorial waters, when the contract was entered into, and the court ruled that their marriage was no marriage. As the parties had lived together as man and wife, and had two children, and clearly believed themselves to be validly married, the jury probably decided to treat them by their verdict as though it were a valid marriage, in spite of the judge’s ruling. The ease against Mrs Howard appeared to be a strong fine. At no time had she made any reference to her husband’s ring until a few days before the hand was discovered, but the evidence did not connect her so clearly with her husband’s fraud before the alleged drowning as with complicity in the subsequent proceedings to prove death by the production of the mysterious hand. Nor was there any evidence that the Godfreys participated in the. original conspiracy. The evidence of the police implicated them either in a good natured attempt to enable the widow to get the insurance money or in some effort to secure the reward for themselves. The jury evidently came to the conclusion that the circumstances amounted to suspicion only. They returned a verdict of not guilty regarding the Godfreys; they found guilty on the first count for conspiracy. Mr Justice Johnson pointed out that this was an impossible verdict, inasmuch that Howard could not conspire with himself. The jury retired again, and returned with a verdict of guilty against Howard and Mrs Howard on the second count of attempting to defraud, and hot guilty against the two Godfreys. The judge pointed out that this verdict was also inconsistent, because if tho jurjA found that Mrs Howard was not aware that Howard was alive till December 15 how could she know that ho was dead on October 29 and December 4, the dates on which she made application to the insurance companies for the money? The jury deliberated again and finally returned a verdict of guilty against Howard on tho second count, the three other prisoners being found not guilty.

As the law then stood the maximum sentence which could be passed upon Howard on this verdict was two years’ imprisonment without hard labour. This sentence the judge passed upon him, remarking as he did so: ‘I assure you, and I say so sincerely, that I regret I cannot give you more, as your fraud has been a most infinite and daring one.” But whence came that severed hand? That was the mystery at the trial, and after 50 years it still remains so. No fewer than seven buried bodies were exhumed in various parts of the Wairarapa district, where Howard had been working at or about the time of their burial, but all were found to have both hands intact.