STRANGE DEATH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20239, 24 February 1934, Page 26 (Supplement)

STRANGE DEATH.

Body of Watchman at Mine Exhumed. PUBLIC CURIOSITY AROUSED. (Special to the “ Star.”) SYDNEY, February 14. One of the strange deaths from poisoning which occur periodically to horrify the people of this country was recorded on the night of January 13. George Datson, 51 years of age, was .employed as watchman at the Junction North Mine at Broken Hill. On that night he took his “ crib ” to the mine as usual, and he ate a part of an apricot which seemed to him to taste bitter. Some time afterwards he was found groaning in agony, and, though he was hurried away to hospital he was dead in a few hours. Certificate of Death. It happened that Datson had been suffering from lead poisoning, and as his symptoms just before his death suggested that sort of disorder, the doctor in charge gave a certificate of death from pulmonary infection. But rumours were already afloat which induced the police to make further investigation. They found that two days before Datson took ill the household cat died suddenly; and on the day of Datson’s death a pet parrot was found dead in its cage. Hearing these things, the police got possession of the fruit that Datson had been eating when his seizure took place, and analysis showed that in the apricot which he had bitten but left unfinished there was enough strychnine to kill three or four men. An order for the exhumation of the body followed, and in the stomach traces of strychnine were discovered. The police also disinterred the bodies of the cat and the parrot, which had died about the same time, and sent them to Sydney to the analyst of the C. 1.8. By this time gossip had been busy, and the police heard a great deal about Datson’s family life. Apparently he and his wife had not been on very good terms; but up to the time of his death she was in hospital, convalescent after the birth of a child. In the Datson house lived an invalid pensioner, William Henry Warren, who was reported to show a great deal of interest in Mrs Datson, and one of the hospital nurses testified that Warren had visited Mrs Datson at the hospital several times, and that, on one occasion at least, he kissed her. An Arrest Made. The upshot of all this was that last week Warren was arrested, and on Thursday he was charged with poisoning Datson. As about fifty witnesses are to be examined the case has been adjourned to allow the police time to arrange the evidence. But the detective in charge made in the Court a very significant statement. The day before Datson’s death, he alleged, he quarrelled with Warren, and gave him till January 14 to leave the house. On the

afternoon of January 12 Mrs Datson came back from the hospital with her baby, and by this time Datson had gone on his night shift as watchman at the mine. Next morning, before Datson got back to the house, the wife had left home and stayed at a friend’s place nearby till after her husband had gone to work again. This was January 13, the day before the date fixed for Warren’s departure; and on that morning, on his return from the mine, Datson found his parrot dead in the cage. The detective pointed out that Warren was the only person who had been about the place except Datson’s sons. But as the case was adjourned at this juncture public curiosity must wait to be satisfied till further evidence is available.