PONSONBY MURDER.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12016, 19 March 1920, Page 5

PONSONBY MURDER.

"ACCUSED MAN CHARGED. | Per Press Association, Auckland, March 18 A period of feverish activity on the part ‘of the Auckland police in picking up, arranging and following all the available clues in connection with what is known as the Pqnsonby murder, ended yesterday afternoon in the arrest of a young man, Dennis Gunn, at a locality in Newton within a mile of the scene of the murder. The Courthouse was crowded with spectators when the prisoner was brought before Mr J. E. Wilson, S.M., this morning. A considerable number of curious people, including photographers unostentatiously equipped with cameras waited outside the courthouse. When the accused came before the Magistrate in the crowded courtroom he was charged that on Saturday last ho murdered Augustus Edward Braith waite, and also that he broke and entered the Ponsonby Post Office and stole £97. Chief Detective' MacMahon requested a remand till Friday of next week, and his Worship acceding, the prisoner was back in the detention room after having been a little more than a minute in the public gaze.

The scene of the Ponsonby murder is a pretty red-roofed house, standing a*few yards back from the pavement, halfway down Shelly Beach Road. Here Mr Braithwaite resided with his wife, there being no other member of the family. Mr Braithwaite was not on duty on Saturday afternoon, and spent the afternoon playing bowls, but he returned to the gost office at the corner of College [ill and St. Mary’s Road some time before six o’clock—it is believed for the special purpose of getting the keys of the strong room. He spent some time at the office, which closes at 5 p,m. He was seen to leave the building at 7.58 p.m., and some twenty-live minntes later the quietude of Shelly Beach Road was disturbed by two sharp reports Several neighbours appear to have heard the firing, but nobody attached any significance to the noise Returning from an “At Home” on the Grafton bowling green shortly after eight o’clock, Mrs Braithwaite was horrified to*find her husband lying on the floor near the’ back door, in the full light of the kitch en gas burner, with blood oozing from his mouth. There is a telephone in the house, and realising that something serious was’wrong, Mrs Braithwaite rang for assistance. Dr TN Usher was the first medical man available, and arriving at 9.80, he could only de* dare Mr Braithwaite to be dead. The whole circumstances point to the deceased having been shot in opening the back door in response to a knock or in meeting some • intruder The course of the huliet wounds suggested that the first shot was the one that entered the abdomen Then, as the - Wounded man feu, a second shot appears to have penetrated the throat, the bullet taking a 'slightly downward course.