THE FATAL SHOT

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 92, 23 August 1923, Page 8

THE FATAL SHOT

COLDSTREAM MURDER TRIAL. EVIDENCE FOR THE DEFENCE. Per Press Association. Christchurch, August Kissel, continuing his evidence regarding the night of the tragedy, said he remembered leaning against the stable door and wishing Mackenzie was dead, but he did not remember going to the hut and getting a rifle. Ho ■remembterfed having diifl'culty with the gate at the v wool shed, but he did riot knew «hy lie was there. Ho nest remembered hamg in the courtyard, but could not recollect aujexplosiqn or whether Mackenzie made any noise when the shot was fired. He remembered nothing

more. Kissel, in describing what happened after the fatal shot was fired at Mackenzie,/ said; “I had very vivid dreams that night. I dreamt I’ shot that girl. I got np a s usual '• next morning. I won’t say the dreams alarmed me, hut I had suspicions that tilings were not quite right. I went to work, hut I couldn’t pjet Mackenzie out of my mind. Ho wasn’t haunting me or going alongside mo, but I went through the hell I had had with him in connection with the practice he had taught mo. I had dinne!- and went to my hut. 1 saw that the rifle had been used, and ht began to dawn on me that them was more in the nightmares than 1 thought. I saw, that them were two bullets whire there should have been three, I thought 1 was Imsance; my words came ou{ all of n. jumble. What CTaurlay said in evidence must be right: I was what you’d call disturbed by that time and I couldn’t leave things as they were. I went over to Coldstream in tl\o direction of the house, and outside the gate I saw Martin and Birch. 1 wanted- to get the uncertainty ovbr as soon as possible. I asked if I had hurt Mackenzie and Martin said ‘You’ve killed him.’ It all canio on me at once that it was no dream and that 1 ! was a murderer and a criminal, and I collapsed on the ground.” “Did you go out shooting with Mackenzie?” asked counsel. Witness: Only oncv with Him alone. Counsel: Could you have shot him then ? 1 / Witness; I had several oppbrtuni-tieV-to do so, when' it would ha ve gone off as an accident in everyday life. I could not have brought myself to kill him, although I wished him dead. Kissel gave his evidence in an ex-

traordinary ■ clear manner, showing a ' command of English which amounted to eloquence. Kissel was Subjected to a Severe cross-examination by Mr Donnelly (Crown Prosecutor),,, Kissel denied that he had ever tried to blackqiail Mackenzie. Mr Donnelly (to accused): Do you ever remember discussing the question of murder with Walsh?* Accused': Yes*. I remember on one occasion being down in the dumps and 'I forgot whether I said I was tired of life and had one more act to do. I said words to the effectthat there was a certain person I would, like to kill and then swing for it and get out of it altogether. Mr Donnelly; Walsh said that you asked him how old a person would need to be to be hanged and. that you had had a jolly good miind to shoot your “old mother?” Accused: I can’t remember that. Have you any recollection of havjng told Walsh you had a jolly good mind to shoot your mother?—No. When did you first realise that what you and Mackenzie were doing was wrong?—l suppose it was when I was about fifteen. I was warned

by a man that I was doing wrong. Dr. Percy Chisholm, a specialist in! nervous diseases, gave lengthy evi-l deuce ■of a. technical nature. He considered that at the t)ime Kissel committed the crime he was suffering from disease of the mind to such an extent as to make him incapable of understanding in his personality the nature of his act. Sarah Maxwell Harwell said 'die was Kissel’s mother. Ho would be nineteen an December, in 1914 she lived in Lyttelton with her former

j husband. She mot Mac kenzie 'at the Sunday ftchool of Holy Trinity Church, 'Lyttelton. Kissel came home and said “there was such a nice man who taught Sunday school to-day.” Kissel then was eight years old. He asked her to invite j Mackenzie to go to their house. He became a frequent visitor. . He then lived on Quail Island. Kissel visited Mackenzie there for several- years. Later her boys went to St. Michael’s School. Mackenzie offered to pay for Max, but she said that he could not go without the other boy. . Mackenzie then offered to pay for both boys. He always seemed to 1 be attached to him. He kissed him and had Ins arms around him on the when reading to him.

Hid you object to that? Yes, and Kissel’s father did, too. Did Mackenzie toll yov anything about his past life?—No. Witness added that Mackenzie wanted to educate Kissel at Christ's College for the Church, but, not wanting to be under an obligation, she sent him on a farm. Later Mackenzie stayed with the family at Lobum. He was just as affectionate to the other son as to accused. She had a daughter who walked in her sleep and she believed accused’s halfbrother did so. Her first husband was moody, with a violent temper. The Judge disallowed a question, as to witness’ opinion of her first

husband’s mental condition. She said lie always took rare of an old revolver, and said he had two bullets, one for himself and one for her.

Agnes Violet Joseph, whose son Arthur had been a fellow- pupil of Kissel’s at ftt. Michael, said she asked to take Kissel into her home and did so. Mackenzie arrived several times and also wrote to Kissel. On one occasion Mackenzie telephoned from Quail Island, asking that Kissel should go to the* island. Kissel was much agitated and said he did not want to go again, as his mother had told him not to. Kissel was moody and thought everybody was against him. Arthur Ernest Joseph, son of the previous witness, said that he with Kissel stayed on Quail Island during the school holidays. Kissel slept in the same room as Mackenzie. Witnos had a room to htenself. There was only one bed in Mackenzie’s room. Mackenzie seemed like a father to Kissel.