THE GATTON TRAGEDY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8419, 19 January 1899, Page 3

THE GATTON TRAGEDY.

Electric Telegraph Coprrlglit-Uiiltod Tre-s Association, Brisbane, Jan. IS. It is reported that a woman resident at Gatton informed the city police authorities that she heard shots fired on the night of the murder. Next morning two men whom she can identif}' called at her house and asked to be allowed to work there for their food. The woman then went to the scene of the murder and discovered the bodies. She placed a portion of a dress over one of the girls. She says the men are wellknown in the district. Fear prevented her saying anything earlier. She came to Brisbane in preference to informing the local police. (Received Jan. 19, lO.Sij a.m.) Jan. 19. — Burgess has been remanded for eieht days at Toowoomba on a charge of stealing a saddle.

Referring to the arrest of Burgess, the Brisbane Courier states : — lt is understood the police took action in consequence of his suspicious behaviour. Accused, prior to his arrest, told selectors at houses visited that he knew the Murphy family well, and that the girls got what they deserved. He made a desperate resistance when arrested. Four men assisted the police, and he threatened to brain the first man who touched him. He then said, when, released, lie would shoot the constable, and it was evident he was a desperate character. Burgess is a thick-set man, about oft (Jin high, and is aged 35. He is a native of America.

Mrs Carroll and her son, interviewed at Gatton, describe the man they saw at the slip-rails on the fatal night afi about sft 7in high, and thick set. The police regard it as a significant fact that the man Burgess, now under arrest, was a few days before the perpetration of the Goodna tragedy released from Boggo road gaol after serving a sentence for attempted criminal assaidt on a woman. Goodna, where the boy Hill was outraged and murdered, lies ot the d'reet road between the gaol and Gatton. The description of the man under arrest tallies with the description of the man seen at the sliprails at Gatton on the fatal night. Comment is made on the fact that the boy Hill Was shot from behind and his pony shot in the forehead, and that Michael Murphy was also shot frorii behind aid his horse shot in the forehead, and that the bullets correspond in size.