MURDER MYSTERY

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20845, 1 July 1939, Page 13

MURDER MYSTERY

TWO KILLINGS ALLEGED BODIES NOT FOUND accused sent for trial (From a Correspondent' SYDNEY. June 3 One of the strangest murder oharees that has ever rorne before a Court began at Dubbo on Wednesday. In fact it is even a stranger ca«e than the famous shark arm case a few years ago. In that ease a man was charged with murder, and a human arm found inside a raptured shark was alleged by the police to be part of the body of the murdered man. The Supreme Court ruled that an arm was not a body, because a person could lose an arm and still live, and both the inquest and the murder charge were abandoned. The Dubbo case is even stranger, for although the accused. Albert Andrew Moss, aged sixty-one. a labourer, is eharged with the murder of two men. Thomas Robinson, aged sixty-eight, and Timothy O’Shea, in neither ease have the police been able to produce even part of the body. All the evidence is purely circumstantial. Moss was charged with having murdered Robinson at Brummagem, near Narromine. on or about January 21. and with having murdered O’Shea at Narromine. between December 13 and 23. The O'Shea charge was remanded until July 3. Before the Court as exhibits were a black and tan sheep dog. a chestnut gelding, and an oldfashioned sulky which were alleged to have belonged to Robinson. Two Months’ Search The charges against Moss were the result of two months’ investigations in the district by a large force of detectives and police assisted by civilians. During their search for the bodies of the men who are believed to have been murdered, they dragged many miles of river, dynamited snags in the hope of freeing the bodies if they had been caught by them, dug up a lot of ground at camping sites, employed aborigines to search for hollow trees, and travelled many thousands cf miles. Moss was stated to have pointed out several places where he had placed the body of Robinson, but no trace of It could be found. According to the police prosecutor, Sergeant Magnay, who was sent to Dubbo from Sydney to conduct the case. Moss and Robinson camped together in December at a place known as Mack's Reserve. Robinson then had a chestnut horse and sulky and Moss a chestnut mare. Robinson also had a dog. Mate, which would not go with anyone else. Quarrels were heard at night from the camp. The men moved to the three-mile reserve on the Dubbo-Narromine road and on January 21. both were seen camped near a bridge at Brummagem, with three horses—two chestnuts and one white—and a bicycle. On January 22 a man named Dugan asked Moss where his mate was. Moss said he had gone to Orange Hospital, and ask#d Dugan where he could sell a turn-out. pointing to a mare and harness which up to that time had been in the possession of Robinson. From January 21 no trace had been seen of Robinson. Property found in the possession of Moss on his arrest would be identified as having belonged to RobinThe sergeant said Moss had been a patient at Orange Mental Hospital. He .was discharged in September and at that time had only a very small quantity of personal belongings. Evidence would be called to prove that between September and January he did not work. When he disappeared Robinson had a considerable sum of money. Moss, it would be proved, sold a sulky to a man named Wood, stipulating that the wheels must be repainted. Pensioner’s Evidence A pensioner, John Neville, gave evidence that he first saw Moss in December carrying a swag; next in a sulky following Robinson: and finally with a sulky, three horses, and a bicycle. Neville continued: “One evening we were drinking wine when suddenly Moss said, ‘Every time I look at you. Jack, you remind me of my poor old dad.’ Then he knocked me on the head and started to punch me and put the boot in. I have a dog that will fight if I tell him to and I got away and sat on my bunk with my dog beside me. Moss came at me again and 1 went for the lick of my life to a farm. My fare was covered with blood and I still have the scars on my arm.’* "Can’t Burn Teeth" A full-blooded aboriginal said that Moss, when camped near his reserve, once said to him, ’’lt’s a funny thing, when you have burnt people; you can't burn their teeth.” The black asked him how he knew and he said, **l should know. i burnt many 0 f them at the war.” Detective-Sergeant Caiman said that Moss, when first accused of the murder, denied it, but later he said: “I don't know what happened but I killed him all right. I don't know how.” Asked what had become of the body, Moss, according to the detective, said: ‘‘l don't know. I didn't burn him. There wasn't enough wood. I must have put him in the river.” When he was asked where. Moss said: ”1 don’t remember. I went up to the hills and camped.” Later, according to the detective. Moss explained why he had previously pretended to be mad. He said: ‘I put over the madman stunt many times before. Once when I was arrested for stealing a dog I made out I was mad and they put me in an asylum. Another time I was with a man and we had stolen some horses. I put it over the doctors and they sent me to an asylum. I have done the same thing al other times. 1 am not mad and I don’t want to go to the asylum. Call the doctor off. get me out of this observation cell, and I will make a full confession .about everything.” Caiman said he told Moss the police could not bargain with him and Moss then said he put Robinson's body in a broken tree on a reserve. They searched the reserve but could not find if. Later Moss told them lie had put the body in a free in another place huf thev could no! find it there either. Finally Moss said to him: ”1 look him away in a sulky but did not go far. There are some mine shafts three or four miles past Minore. I put him there.” The Magistrate said the circumstances of Robinson’s disappearance were so strange they might well be the subject of a thriller. “The evid-

once is almost circumstantial.” he remarked. "but men don't vanish. The only reasonable conclusion I can come to is that Robinson met his death by violence. [| is extraordinary the nunia man of murder without a body. This is not so.” Moss was committed for trial at > He said he would apply for legal