GUILTY, THOUGH ACQUITTED

Southland Times, Issue 16839, 15 September 1911, Page 2

GUILTY, THOUGH ACQUITTED

THE DOONDI STATION CHIME. “ I AM THE MAN.” ‘ (Dunedin “Star” Correspondent.) LONDON, August 4. A couple of weeks ago—on Friday, July 21, to be precise—a young man named Vernon paid a visit to your London office, anxious to sell to your correspondent a confession of murder, which, he declared, would create tremendous excitement In Australia. Your correspondent, however, was not open to buy the confession on the terms required ; Indeed, he was not at all anxious to acquire It on any terms, for men who are, on their own confession, desperately hard up, are not usually too particular as to the means they adopt to "raise the wind.” Moreover, Vernon did not seem quite rational. He appeared to be labouring under the Influence of drugs or drink, and, truth to tell, his , manner generally did not Inspire either confidence or courage. So the Interview was cut as short as possible. All that your correspondent gathered was that the young fellow was George Vernon, who was tried for the murder of John Nell at the Doondi Station, Queensland, on September 23, 1910, and acquitted ; that he really did commit the murder, and that he was anxious to raise money on his confession In order to go with somebody he referred to as “her” to Canada. From your offices Vernon seems to have gone to those of the "Express,” only to meet with disappointment. Eventually he drifted to the Offices of "John Bull.” There, If we are to believe the statements pxiblished In that Journal this week, he seems to have lost his desire for money and sought only to “ease his troubled mind” by allowing them to take down his confession and signing It. Then he appears to have gone to. the Army and Navy Stores, where he bought a revolver In the name of a cousin, and, going on to Victoria, shot himself dead in one of the lavatories In the South-Eastern and Chatham Railway premises. Taking Vernon’s ■ confession to “John Bull” as truth (as It really seems to be), the young fellow Is better dead. He had been a ne’er-do-well since youth, and had become a victim of the drink and drug habit. He was the son of the well-known Middlesex cricketer, and was very well connected. After his school days he joined the Navy, but when a naval cadet on H.M.S. Grafton deserted at San Franclso. Influence obtained his pardon for this, and his people placed him on a Californian fruit farm. Prom there he went to Lord Aberdeen’s Coldstream ranch for a few months and then came back to England. His next move was to ■ Africa, where the Influence of friends secured him a position In the Rhodesian police. He left this service after a few months with a “fair” certificate, and then drifted back to England. His next move was to Canada, but “Our Lady of the Snows” held no attraction for him, and he was soon back In the Old Country. ’ Last year his friends, sent him out to Queensland, where he obtained employment at the Doondi Station of the Australian Pastoral Company, of which his, uncle was chairman. It was on this station that he committed the murder for which he ■ was tried and acquitted after a trial lasting 14 days. —Vernon’s Confession. — which Is borne out In all substantial details by the reports of. the trial In the Brisbane papers, was, omitting a few details, as follows ; “On September 23 last the manager of the station, Mr Hlgglnson, was away, • and the only person at the station besides myself were the cook, named Burdlkan, and his wife ; the gardener, John Neil ; a man named Drew ; and a half-caste boy named Bourram. About midnight the cook, as he thought, heard cries in Nell’s room, and on going to see what was the matter found Nell lying between the two beds In a welter of blood, there being no one else In the room, or within sight. Of course, everybody was Immediately aroused . . . and a man rode off for a constable and a doctor. However, after taking a considerable 'quantity of whisky, I went to my room drunk, and was only aroused next morning about midday, when a constable told me he was arresting me for a brutal outrage on the gardener, Nell. Meantime Nell had been taken by cart to a hospital at St. George’s, some 18 miles from the station, where four days later he died. Thereupon 1 was charged with wilful murder and on February 10 last was put on trial before Mr Justice Real and a jury. The trial lasted fourteen days, and the Public Prosecutor seemed strangely unwilling to press home the evidence against me, but the Judge was dead against him. It should be said that the murdered man stated In his dying deposition 1 that he could not recognise the person who attacked him, but that the weapon was a cricket bat. Ultimately the jury returned a verdict of ‘Not guilty.’ ” —A Woman In the Case. — “Now,” said Vernon, “I am the man who . . . committed the murder. It was said by one of the witnesses that on the way from Nell’s room to my own I confessed that I had attacked the old man. This I denied at the trial, but it was quite true. At the trial no motive was suggested for the murder, but the facts are these : On the night In question I was with a woman. She was in my room when Neil called for his orders for next day. This was about 9 o’clock In the evening. At midnight I went over to Nell’s room and asked him, If he Intended to tell Mr Hlgglnson what he had seen. I had my cricket bat in my hand, and I said : ‘Now,, look here. Jack. Are you going to tell Mr Hlgginson this in the morning ?’ He said ‘Yes, I am. I think It Is a shame that young fellows like you should take advantage of working men’s wives.’ I said, ‘Well, are you quite sure you are going to do this ?’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘quite certain.’ ‘Well, then,’ I said, ‘you can go to hell,’ and I hit him on the head. My nerve failed me. I did not hit him hard enough, but I pulled myself together and hit him about ten times, when 1 thought I had finished him. . . 1 then set Are to the room and went out. I went over to my own room and found that my pyjamas were smothered In blood, so I wrapped them up In a packet and put them into some sacking with some screws and nails, and threw them Into the river just outside .my room.” Such was the story Vernon told “John Bull.” He added : “You can use It, and state what 1 have told you, provided you do not do so for a week. 1 am sick of things here. I have been at the Keeley Institute ever since I returned to England a fortnight ago, and I am stuffed full of drink and drugs. I Intend to cut myself free of all my relatives and friends, and to go with a girl who is very fond of mo to British Columbia. What we shall do afterwards does not concern anyone but ourselves." Vernon, says “John Bull,” seemed greatly distressed after unburdening hlmseif, and, leaving the room, said ; "Well, look out for to-morrow’s papers." Later, after he had been advised to do nothing rash, “ho looked at us In a strange kind of way and whispered under ids breath ‘Wait till to-morrow, and see.’ ” No mention Is made in "John Bull” of any suggestion of payment being made for the confession, yet when he came to your correspondent ho was keen on the money he was expecting to get for It. Apparently he thought it was worth many sovereigns, and he spoke of “£2O or £3O” being enough to take him and the person he referred to as "her” to Canada. Did he confess to “John Bull” under the Impression that he would receive a substantial sum, and, finding his hopes disappointed, resolve upon suicide ? At the inquest a verdict of "Suicide during • temporary ’• •” was returned-