Man Attends Inquest on Himself

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 208, 5 September 1935, Page 10

Man Attends Inquest on Himself

RIVER VICTIM BURIED IN HIS NAME—WIFE’S ERROR LONDON, July 10. A “dead” man walked into the coroner’s court at Stockton recently to attend his own inquest! Legally the man, George Wilson, now living at Liverpool, is “buried” in Dur-ham-road Cemetery, Stockton. Early in May a body recovered from the Tees at Aislaby was indentified as that of Wilson by his wife. Wilson had been missing from his home in Webstcr-street, Stockton, for some time. Shortly after the interment another man, William Hatton, sixty-nine, ironworker, of The Grove, Stockton, was reported missing. Photograph Proof. Relatives who saw photographs of the dead man recognised them as those of Hatton, and at a reopened inquiry other witnesses declared the photographs were not those of Wilson. When the inquest was again opened yesterday the coroner read a letter from the man George Wilson, who said: “I wish to state that I am still alive but not in very good health.” Wilson then came forward and was recognised by his wife, and they signed an affidavit. The corner altered the name on the certificate of death of the body taken from the river to' that of William Hatton.