THE AUCKLAND MURDER

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11511, 6 October 1915, Page 6

THE AUCKLAND MURDER

| INQUEST RESUMED, i GUN BORROWEDBIFORE TRAGEDY I __ \\>im Pjiesu association.] AUCKLAND, October 0. The adjourned inquest on John Thoma.-i Perry, farmer of tlamarama, found shot dead in Ikml on September 'Jo. was opened this morning. Amelia Perry, aged twenty-nine, wife- of deceased, under arrest on ;i charge ot murder, was present in custody, ll.er demeanour was perfectly calm. The licensee of tho hotel at Drury gave cv.deiico that deceased had refreshments, including a mug of beer, at the hotel at 7.40 p.m. and left at 8/20 p.m. on September iM. He left tho hotel perfectly sober. Lillian Perry, residing at Kamarama. hut not. a relative of the deceased, gave- evidence of a conversation betwoeV'her mother and accused prior to tlio tragedy, in winch tho accused sakl that "sho would not bo without her husband for anything, as she could not control the lx>ys. Her eldest boy thereupon remarked that he did not earn if his father died to-morrow, as he badly used them. Henry Jennings gavo evidence that accused borrowed a gnu from him one week before tho tragedy, stating that her husband wanted tho loan of it. He identified tho gun produced in Court. Thomas Perry, eldest son of deceased, referring to the conversation recounted by Miss Perry, .said that he did not remember saying anything. He was awakened at about 2.-10 on the morning of September 25 by a noiselike gun fire. A smell of powder came from" his father's bedroom, and he looked through a crack in the boarding between the rooms. He thought he saw his mother moving on the bed', leaning over towarrk his father. Ho heard his father groaning, and asked his mother tlio cause. She did not reply at first, but told him to light the lamp, and then said that hia father looked as if he. had been shot. Sho told him to get a neighbour. Bill Ginnivan came over. They went in together, his mother stating to Ginnivan, "Come on up. Somebody's shot Tom." His mother was crying- Sho offered'' no explanation of how the shooting occurred. His parents sometimes Quarrelled, but not recently. Cross-examined, witness stated that ho remembered his father going to the hospital in May, through being poison- ! ed by eating tinned fruit. His mother threw the tin into the fire after taking out the fruit. He did not remember her doing this before. Mr Mays, for tho Crown, stated that witnesses would be called to show that tho illness was d'ue to strychnine poisoning. Witness, continuing, said he had never heard it said that anyone had a set on his father. On returning from the neighbour's house, his mother said that someono night hare been quarrelling with his father, but sho did not say who.