PICTON TRAGEDY

Otago Witness, Issue 4085, 28 June 1932, Page 32

PICTON TRAGEDY

Th following appeared in last week’s Second Edition: —

AN OLD MAN’S DEATH MURDER CHARGE PREFERRED BLENHEIM, June 20. Edward Tarrant, a middle-aged resident of Picton, appeared in the Police Court this morning charged with the murder at Picton on November 3, 1931, of an old man named James Flood. On the application of Sub-inspcctor Ward the accused was remanded to appear at Wellington on June 28. It was explained that it would be some time before the lower court proceedings would be ready. In the meantime it was desired that the accused should be held in custody in Wellington, and be returned to Blenheim for the magisterial hearing. Investigations into the death of an old man named James Flood, who was found dead in his two-roomed house in Canterbury street. Picton, on November 3 of last year, led to the belief that he was brutally murdered, the object being to obtain a large sum of money which seemed to be missing. Flood, who was a bachelor 76 years of age, lived alone. He was last seen alive at 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday (November 3). On November 5 the neighbours, not having seen the old man about, communicated with the police, who made an entry by the window and found the body lying on the floor of the living room with the throat cut. All the evidence at this stage pointed to suicide, but investigation put an apparently different complexion on the matter. In the first place it was discovered that the back of the skull had been smashed in, and that the wounds in the throat were so savagely made that the actual bones were severed. In addition, the police found the one door of the place locked and the key missing. Subsequently they recovered the key from the Picton Croquet Club lawns, where a member found it on the Wednesday afternoon. It had evidently been flung on to the lawn from the road. The croquet club’s premises are over a quarter of a mile from Flood's house. The old man had three nephews resident in Picton, and one of them stated that he had helped his uncle to fill in his unemployment return a week previously. In this paper Flood showed his year’s income at over £l6O. He was known to possess ample means, deriving his income from farm property at Port Underwood, but he had no bank account, and was stated to have kept his money about him. All that was recovered from his pockets was a little silver. From the ashes in the fireplace, alongside which the body was found, a small pocket knife with one blade open was recovered, but it seemed to be incredible that the deceased’s injuries could have been inflicted with so small an instrument.