AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 7 August 1929, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

< Per Press Association—Copyright) SSYDNEY, August 6. The Police Prosecutor disclosed that traces of poison had been found in the body of Mrs Marion Pearson, which was exhumed after it had been buried for six years, when Walter Pearson, aged 55, was remanded on a charge of having murdered his former wife. SYDNEY, August 6. Mr H. Brennan (general secretary to the Seamen’s Union), commenting on the action of Mr O’Neill (secretary of the Victorian Branch) declared that Mr O’Neill had no authority to threaten trouble. His conduct would be reviewed at a special meeting of the Seamen’s Union to-morrow. SYDNEY, August 6. Frederick Walker, an employee of the Cessnock Municipal Council, was today arrested on a charge of attempted murder of Mrs Patterson at the Cessnock coalfields on Saturday last. Mrs Patterson is now showing signs of recovery. [A message received on Sunday stated that a week-old bride, Mrs Patterson, aged 25 years, who married a Cessnock miner, was brutally attacked on the coalfields yesterday, her skull being fractured with a hammer. Her assailant is alleged to be a man who had resented her marriage to a rival.] SYDNEY, August 6. At the Coroner’s inquiry into the death of William Minihan, the medical evidence was that the vaccination showed no reaction whatever, the cause of death being heart disease. The authorities took charge of the body at the graveside, in order to discover whether inoculation directly or indirectly caused death, as in the Bundaberg (Queensland) case last year. The Coroner returned a verdict in accordance with the medical testimony. SYDNEY, August 6. William Wilton and William Nelson were remanded on charges of robbery under arms in connection with the Redfern robbery last night. Nelson was also charged with having fired a revolver with intent to murder. [A message received yesterday stated that two masked robbers, who secreted themselves in Michael Briggs’ butcher shop in Redfern, bound and gagged Briggs, covered him with a revolver, and commenced to hunt for cash. They discovered a bottle of whisky and impudently consumed a large portion, when a woman neighbour, hearing the men’s threats to Briggs, telephoned to the police, who dashed to the scene in a car, arrested the bandits, but not before a shot was fired by one at the woman, who gave the alarm.]

SYDNEY, August 6. Pearson was refused bail. All the food taken to his wife in hospital was seized and analysed. An extraordinary feature is that Pearson lives next door to Mrs William Minahan, whose funeral was held up on July 22 by police, who took charge of the body on July 22. [A cablegram received yesterday stated that detectives closely investigating the mysterious illness of Mrs Helena Pearson, a native of New Zealand, at Sydney hospital to-night, arrested her husband, Walter Rufus Pearson, aged 55 years, a painter, on a charge of wife murder in October, 1923. The police state that Pearson has been three times married. First about ten years ago; secondly in 1923. This woman’s body was exhumed a few days ago, and the report from the analyst is awaited. Pearson is further charged with having administered chloride of zinc to his present wife between April and August 5, with intent to murder. An earlier message stated: William Minahan recently came from New Zealand with his wife and family. He intended going to New Guinea, and decided to get vaccinated against typhoid. The authorities have taken possession of the body, in order to be able to test the serum. Detectives acting with dramatic suddenness, held up a funeral in the Rockwood Cemetery, and took charge of the coffin, which was later placed in the morgue. It is stated that William Minahan died suddenly after vaccination.]