People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20367, 26 July 1934, Page 10

People and Their Doings .

Cases in Which Two People were Hanged for the Murder of One Person : Dual Complicity Rare in New Zealand Francois Coty’s Famous Newspaper War.

SUBSCRIBER who asked the “ Star

to give instances where two people have been hanged for the murder of one person initiated an interesting series of inquiries, which revealed that cases of dual complicity are rare in the criminal history of New Zealand. Three men, Burgess, Kelly and Levy, were hanged for the series of crimes known as the Maungatapu murders, which shocked the whole of New Zealand in 1866, but the only case of a double execution for a single murder was that of John Caffrey and Henry Penn In 1886 they shot an old settler named Robert Taylor on Great Barrier Island, and then fled to Australia in a cutter, the Sovereign of the Seas. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, but added a peculiar rider recommending the prisoners to mercy. This was caused by the attitude of one juryman who maintained that as they had not been instructed as to who actually fired the fatal shot, it was only reasonable to give somebody the benefit of the doubt! Penn later confessed that he had fired the shot that had killed Taylor, and both men were hanged on February 21, 1887. $$ £JASES of dual complicity have been much more frequent in English criminal history, but the woman has not usually been hanged. “ Thou Shalt Do No Murder,” an interesting book on famous murders by Arthur Lambton, gives two, however, which were followed by the hanging of both the murderers. One of the most recent was the Thompson and Bywaters case. Frederick Bywaters, a laundry steward, stabbed Thompson, a shipping clerk, while he and his wife were returning from the theatre. For some two years prior to the crime Bywaters had been Mrs Thompson’s lover and she was jointly charged. The line taken by the Judge in his summing up was “ aiding and abetting ” and he laid stress on the fact that Mrs Thompson had acquainted Bywaters with the news that she and her husband would be return-

ing from the theatre at such and such an hour, and at such and such a place. The second case was that of Mr and Mrs Manning, who were hanged in 1849 for the murder of Patrick O’Connor, a friend of the pair and a frequent visitor to their home. Sgs COTY, the French perfumier and Press magnate, who has just died, was engaged in a famous newspaper war. Early in 192 S he launched a popular newspaper, “ L’Ami du Peuple,” which was sold at 10 cents, as compared with 25 cents charged by agreement for all the other newspapers. He admitted that it could not pay at that price and said he was prepared for an annual loss of £120,000. The Newspaper Federation, declaring this to be unfair competition, induced the big distributing firm of Ilachette and similar agencies to boycott the “ Ami du Peuple.” No kiosk or newsagent would sell it. The biggest firm of advertising agents would not deal with it. At a cost of nearly £500,000 Coty set up his own distribution and advertisement agencies, and his paper soon had the third largest circulation in France. In November, 1928, he started an evening edition. He then sued the Newspaper Federation, Ilachette and the Imprimerie de la Presse for damages for boycott, and in January, 1929, was awarded £11,600 damages and a sum to be fixed by law to compensate him for any further damage done to the “ Ami du Peuple ” subsequent to the date of the judgment. w w w r pilE BOYCOTT continued and Coty waited while the damages mounted daily. At the end ot 1930 when they Were nearing £2,000,000 he acted. Having legal authority to seize the offices and plant of his rivals in lieu of damages, stop the distribution of all publications printed in Paris and

cut off a vast percentage of French advertising at home and abroad, he informed the Government that he intended to use his powers. It urged arbitration, but he replied that the time for that was past and demanded complete surrender Otherwise he would seize over thirty newspaper offices. A number of journals wished to defy him. but at the last moment Loucheur, one of the biggest newspaper proprietors, convinced them of the dangers of such a course and they capitulated. The ban on the distribution and advertising of the “ Ami du Peuple ’* was withdrawn and Coty was allowed to retain the rival organisation he Had set up. As for the £2,p00,000, he declared that he was not out for money and reduced them to £SO.OOO, to be paid by instalments. He then sent a subscription of £25,000 to the Journalists’ Pension Fund. CIXTY YEARS AGO (from the "Star" of July 26, 1874) Auckland, July 25.—The William Gifford, whaler, has arrived at the Bay of Islands, with oil to the value of £l6,ooo—the produce of a year’s cruise. The owner of the steamer Lady Bowen prefers a claim of £12,000 salvage against the ship Miltiades. London, July 18.—The Earl of Carnavon stated that the proposal for the cession of Fiji makes seventeen wholly impracticable conditions, and that England can only accept absolute and unconditional cession. He stated that Australian institutions are insufficiently developed to enable the colonies to undertake the responsibility of the government of the Islands. Eastern Monarch’s immigrants.—The single women will be open for engagement this morning, at the Addington Barracks. The single men and families will probably be landed on Monday next. Port Chalmers, July 24.—The ship Maria Bahn is at the heads, from Glasgow with immigrants, and will be ’ towed up tomorrow.