END OF A NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 21

END OF A NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL.

FRED. PLUMMER SHOT DEAD.

Auckland, August 19

The notorious ex -burglar and criminal, Frederick Plummer, was Ehot dead this evening by the police while endeavouring to effect his arrest. He had broken into the premises of, his uncle, Charles Plummer, a farmer at Hunua, a few days ago, and had taken a quantity of tools, provisions, a gun, and a quantity of ammunition. Constable M 'Knight at Papakura and a farm servant employed by Charles Plummer, armed with a warrant, scoured the district to effect his arrest. This evening they came up with him near the Hunua railway station, in the scrub. They called on him to surrender. He took to cover in a ditch which was sheltered with scrub and opened fire on them. They returned the fire, and finding he did not continue firing -they advanced on the ditch and found him lying dead, shot through the head. Plummer was, a few weeks ago, married to a daughter of Mr Hirst, a respectable settler at Hunua, having left his uncle, with whom he had been living, through a disagreement. On the Bth iust. he left a boarding house in Auckland on pretence of looking after a house in the suburbs, and disappeared mysteriously. After his release from gaol he was a book canvasser and a temperance lecturer in the northern districts. The police have had him pretty well under surveillance of late. In Auokland he had been hard up, and endeavouring to borrow maney from people he knew. In one instance, on being refused, he said it was enough to make him begin his old ways .again. Plummer served many sentences for burglary, robbery, horse-stealing, and' Bonding threatening letters — for the last offence" getting 10 years. He came out with the AJberfcfand settlers. All his relatives "are settlen of the highest respectability. Whon last released from gaol he declined to leave the country, and said he .would stay in Auckland and pi^ve he could live an honest life, and that he hvl never done wrong except when drunk. 'j. ' ' ' 'Auckland, August 20. Ab the inquest held at Charles Plummer's farm re the shooting of Fred Plummer, the jury proceeded to the scene of the encounter, and viewed the ground. The constable deposed that the deceased twice fired at them. They only' fired to intimidate him, and were surprised that the shot took effect. After hearing the evidence, the jury returned a Verdict of justifiablehomioide, and the conduct of Constable M'Kpight was commended.

Hummer was a native of England, and by trade a draper's assistant. He arrived in this colony by the ship Pegasus, landing at Auckland in 1065. Since that time his life has been one of crime, and as such it was made up of some remarkable episodes. He first came into prominence here in May 1872, when togpther with six notorious criminals — Johnston, Elcoek, Bryant, Goldsmith, Te Hira, Muirhead, and Cyrus Haley -"he wai transferred to the Dunedin Gaol for safety. In August of the same year lie was engaged with a gang of prisoners in making alterations about the Hillside toll-bar. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the 9th he managed to effect an escape. He received permission to go to a sentry-box some little distance away, and ft few minutes afterwards he was missed. He wa's seen by a little boy, the son of tho tollkeeper, to crawl away on his hands and knees towards the high part of the cemetery. News of the escape was sent to the police barracks, and the rest of the gang were marched back to the gaol. Meanwhile Plummerhad taken advantage of his start, and all traces of him were lost. During the night he succeeded in procuring a suit of clothes, and it was not until Tuesday, August 13, that he was once more safely lodged in custody. He had in the meantime rented a small house in Queen street, and had managed to effect a number of very daring till robberies. On hi 3 way home on the evening of the 13th Ranger (afterwards Detective) Bain noticed a man watching the Sussex Hotel bar on the opposite side of the street, and soon became convinced that he was the man the police were after for tho till robberies. Meeting Detective Farrell he informed him of his suspicions, and after the two had .watched the individual for a few miuutcs they arrested him, and ou examining him they found that they had, without doubt, secured Plummer, who was wearing some of th<* prison underclothing. He was sentenced to two years' penal servitude in addition to the sentences h.3 was then undergoing for burglary. He raided the ingenious defence that instead of his running away from the warders they went away from him, 10-iving him |fl the. sentry-box. A good deal of indignation was felt in Dunedin at such pri-om«rh as Plummer, Haley, and others bt-iog sent hero. The authorities, it would appear, had some suspicion that in tho attempts at prisou-l: caking made by these criminals they received assistance from outside, and therefore they were removed from Auckland, where both « ore well known, to Dunedin. Fluinmer's daring escape hcie convinced them that he required no outside assistance. In 1875 Hitley, his fallow prisoner, nwile his fiual attempt lo bre:t'c out, us on October \ he met a similar fate to that which has overtaken Plumrr.cr, as ho was shot in fStuavt- street while attempting to escape from n. gang of prisoners at work on Bell Hill. Rome little time before his sentence expired Plummer was removed from Dunedin, anil he does not appear to have made his way here again.