More Arrests Are Expected In Goldfields Murder Case.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17881, 24 June 1926, Page 5

More Arrests Are Expected In Goldfields Murder Case.

ON ENVELOPE DISCOVERED IS WRITTEN: “THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH.” (Special to the “ Star.”) > SYDNEY, June 11. I he action of the police in keeping Evan Clarke, the Boulder publican, charged with the murder of Inspector Walsh, at Kalßoorlie, while the other men arc at Fremantle, has given rise to much speculation, and it is freely rumoured that Clarke has made some important statements to the police.

It i* certain that not half has been told concerning the murders of the policemen. A doctor has been in constant at tendance on Clarke in his cell at Kalgoorlie. where he is alleged to have; t oxnpletely broken down. Clarke i thirty-two years of age. and arrived in- West Australia from England twelve years ago. He married a Kalgoorlie girl, and has one child. When the police were searching Clarke’s desk at the hotel they found a large and a small envelope in one of the pigeon holes. Clarke, according to the police, stated that he had rc reived the letters anonymously within a couple of days of each other, and it was his intention to have taken them to the detective office to see if the -finders could be traced. In the large envelope was a piece of paper with two graves drawn on it, •nc bearing the name of Inspector Walsh and the other the name of De-lective-Sergear.t Pitman. Along the bottom was the wording, “ The wages of sin is death.’ In the other envelope was a seven of diamonds, across which had been drawn a dagger.

The investigations are known to have r pached a momentous stage, and the ' hief Police Commissioner, Mr Connell, has been on the goldfields for works now. personally supervising the work of the squad in gathering the evidence for the trial. In most respects it is the most, sensational case on record, and even yet it is felt that further arrests are -imminent. Phillip John Treft’ene, who was bar man at Clarke’s hotel, i s fiftv-one rears of age, grey, tanned, tall and spare. I birtv years ago he was a c hampion inter-State cyclist. lie has been miner, shopkeeper, labourer, and latterly barman. He has a white moustache and hair, and his rough attire when arrested was in J*r, iking contrast to that of Clarke. M ilham < harles Coulter is forty-two, and has fair hair and reddish complexion. lie is married, with a wife and three children, while Treffcne is a widower. Intense interest is being manifested m the case, not only in West Australia, but all over the continent, all the newspapers having special stories cn the latest developments daily.