ANOTHER MURDER AT PAPATOETOE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19394, 19 January 1933, Page 8

ANOTHER MURDER AT PAPATOETOE

WOMAN SHOT IN BED. ARRESTED MAN IN HOSPITAL. By T«!;trauo—cvesi Awocatlon AUCKLAND, January 18. In her bedroom in a Papatoetoe farmhouse at about eleven o’clock last night, Mrs Bertha May Bennett, a 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 R. W. McKean, S.M., with murder.

Accused did not appear, as he was in Auckland Hospital, receiving attention for gunshot wounds in his arm. In asking for a week's remand, De-tective-Sergeant Kelly said accused 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. The accused man. who was known to his friends as Frank Clark, is Hamilton’s cousin, and resides with his parents at Papatoetoe. He had been friendly with Mrs Benr.ett 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 on horseback at about 7.30 somewhat later than usual. Hamilton said he was out in a paddock at the, rear of the house while Mrs Bennett’s daughter. Miss Una Bennett, and a voung 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 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 Hamilton and Miss Bennett, did not appear to be in any way troubled or anxious. She retired shortly after She and Hamilton read for a while, and Hamilton turned out a light in the bedtoom at, 9.30. “I must have gone to sleep almost immediately.” 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 r. deafening report of a gun 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 sitting-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.’ He then walked through to the bedroom and stood at the foot of the bed.”

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

Clark's parents stated that he returned home at about 9 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 married in a few months’ time. However, Hamilton said he had heard no talk of the marriage.