The Franton Murder

Otago Witness, Issue 1805, 25 June 1886, Page 14

The Franton Murder

Editor Witness, — In your issue of the 11th inst. you republish from the Williamstown (Victoria) Telegraph an account of the Molyneux murder. There are so many inaccuracies that one would hardly suppose it to have come from the pen of Mr Joseph Tuckwell, once our cleverest detective office* 1 . But old age and loss of memory will tell. The writer has apparently even forgotten the name of the vessel on board which he captured Fratson. He gives it as the Alhambra, when it really was the Gothenburg. I was talking with Fratson when the officer came up and spoke to the culprit. The man had brought a pig down from the Molyneux, and raffled it at Hornby's Hotel, Port Chalmers, the night before ; and being a stranger, he had attracted my attention. I think, too, somebody else will claim the credit of finding the body if the police records are hunted up. Your journal of the date in question has a line or two from " Eugene Aram " : " The angry stream gave up the dead." The river was at the lowest level known for years. The poles, too, that the body was carried on were found. The writer takes all the credit to himself, but I fancy an anxious officer was there also. I shouldn't trouble you, but the crime committed in our midst is a matter of history, and when the apprehending officer makes glaring mistakes, every effort should, be made to

correct him. In your old files, no doubt, will be tound the true version, and if republiahed it would no doubt be now read with interest. — I

am, &c, F. I. M. Sawyers' Bay, June 21.