SHOT IN HER BED

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1933, Page 7

SHOT IN HER BED

WIDOW FOUJJD MURDERED MAN’S ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE SHOT GLANCES OFF WATCH CHARGE MADE AGAINST HIM STATEMENT TO THE POLICE By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. In her bedroom in a Papatoetoe farmhouse at about eleven o’clock last night Mrs. Bertha May Bennett, widow, aged 39, was fatally shot. The police later arrested Thomas Francis Clark, a labourer aged 32, who was charged in the Police Court before Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., with murder. Clark did not appear as he was in the Auckland hospital receiving attention for gunshot wounds in the arm. v In asking for a week’s remand Detec-tive-Sergeant T. Kelly said Clark had attempted to shoot himself after the murder of Mrs. Bennett but the charge had struck a watch in his breast pocket. He would be under police surveillance in hospital. The story of the tragedy, was related by Mr. Alfred George Hamilton, who has been living with Mrs. ■ Bennett at her small farm in East Tamaki Road for about eight or nine years. Mrs. Bennett,. he said, was a widow, her husband having died about' 13 years ago. Clark, who was known to his friends as Frank Clark, was Hamilton’s cousin and resided with his parents at Papatoetoe. He had been friendly with Mrs. Benneft for- about 18 months and frequently called at the house to have tea and spend the evening. , On Tuesday evening ; Clark arrived at the house bn horseback at about 7.30, somewhat later than usual, Mr. Hamilton said; He was out in the paddock at the rear of the house, while. Mrs. .Bennett’s ■ daughter,- Miss Una Bennett and a young man named Robert Hall were sitting on the lawn. Clark joined Mrs. Bennett in the house and' they were reading a paper on the verandah. When Mr. Hamilton returned from the paddock at about nine o’clock Clark left' the house with Mrs. Bennett, got his horse and rode off. Mrs. Bennett returned to--the ■ sitting room and, according to both .Mr. Hamilton and Miss Bennett, 'did not appear to be u any way ' troubled of anxious. She retired shortly afterwards. She and Mr. Hamilton read for a while and Mr. Hamilton turned out the .light in the bedroom at 9.30. “I must have gone to sleep almost immediately,” Mr. Hamilton ' said; “The next thing I ’ remember was hearing Mrs. Bennett call out, ‘What are you doing in the room, Frank? Get out of it’ '

“The next second there was a deafening report of a gtin and a sheet of flame. I Jumped out of . bed and rushed at the figure of a man near the door. However, he slipped through the door and shut it in my face. “Before I could open the door there ' was another report, this ’ time from the witting room, which adjoins the front bedroom. I opened the door and switched on the light. Clark was standing in the room with a shotgun in his hands. He said, ‘lt’s all right. I only had two cartridges.’ Heathen walked, through to the bedroom 'and- stood at the food of 'the. bed.” .... ...

Mrs.. Bennett had . a large gunshot wound in the chest and died a few minutes after the doctor arrived. Clark was later arrested and taken to the Auckland hospital. His condition is not serious.

7.', Clark's parents stated that he returned,home ai about nine o’clock on Tuesday night and retired to his bedroom. It is stated by relatives and friends In the district that Clark and Mrs. Bennett were hoping to be marrieef in a - few months’, time. However, Mr. •Hamilton said he had heard no talk-of marriage...