MAN-HUNT ENDS

Southland Times, Issue 19172, 16 February 1924, Page 5

MAN-HUNT ENDS

CAPTURE OF BATSON. AN OBJECT OF ABJECT MISERY. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) SYDNEY, February 15. (Received February 16, 1 a.m.) Batson, who last Sunday fired on a picnic party at Jingellic, fatally wounding one man, was captured this morning on a farm belonging to Mr James Drummond, on the Victorian side of the Murray River. Barefooted, without a shirt and famished, early this morning, Batson appeared in a cowshed some distance from Mr Drummond’s residence, where two youthful acquaintances named William Hare and Percy Emmerson were milking. He said: “Good day, Bill. For God’s sake give me a drink of milk.” He drank this, and when bending to fill the cup again, the youths grabbed him. He pleaded to be allowed to go, as he had done them no harm. Hare replied: “It’s alright, Claude, you would have been caught anyhow in the long run.” Batson said: “Yes, I know that, it was only a matter of time. I am just about settled now.” When grabbed Batson broke away but he was too exhausted to make much use of his freedom and was soon recaptured. He asked his captors to procure a shirt for him before being taken into the presence of women, saying, “I’ve got some decency left.” He was given a shirt. Mrs Drummond supplied the fugitive, who was a figure of abject misery, with milk and sandwiches. Meantime young Drummond rode for the police. Batson stated that six searchers passed within 20-ft of him on the previous night. The scene of the capture is one and a-half miles from Jingellic. After he had been allowed to wash and rest, Batson was taken by the Victorian police in a motor car with a strong escort to Albury and handed over to the New South Wales police.