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24. Prom where the blood was first seen it shows clearly that the man must have ran down the hill before he got the second shot ?—I do not recollect about any blood, except near to where the body was found. 25. Mr. Kelly.] Was the bullet fired from a pistol or a gun ?—There was no bullet, and both discharges were from some short-barrelled weapon. I feel satisfied that every member of the Committee who has any acquaintance with small arms could not come to any other conclusion on carefully examining the clothes of the deceased. With regard to the stiletto, the experiments I made in cloth showed that it was not a cutting weapon. It made a puncture instead of a cut. When you thrust it through anything and withdraw it you can hardly see the hole made, and if you try to make a long cut it is impossible. Some of the cuts on the clothes are over an inch wide. The width of the stiletto is under three-quarters of an inch, and it does not cut. These cuts on the clothes are made with a remarkably keen instrument. The collar has a remarkable cut, showing the use of a keen double-edged instrument, and not with a weapon like a stiletto. If you look at the coat you can see the keen cuts in the cloth over an inch. These were clean cuts when we examined them first; they are very much moth-eaten now. I consider that the cut in the paper collar is most important. 26. Mr. Gully.] Two knives have been mentioned, one stiletto. The other knives have been found by the side of the road ?—I may say I was aware of that other knife which has been alluded to. It was, I think, something like that used in cutting leather—that is, it had a square thickish back with perfectly straight sides from back to edge. That knife could not have made the cuts, which could only be produced by a thin, keen instrument with a double-cutting edge—at any rate near the point. 27. The Chairman.] Is there any other matter? —Much importance was attached to the paper which was taken out of the wound. Pieces of the coat, waistcoat, shirt, and singlet were pulped in the wound. How could the paper be extracted whole when cloth was pulped ? If you fire a weapon loaded with paper the edges will not correspond. If a charge were fired into a substance like a clothed body the paper would be absolutely pulped. Ido not wish to impute blame, but I thought, after looking at all the circumstances, that the paper from the wound must have become mixed with that in which the flesh was wrapped. 28. Would not the shot penetrate first, and the pieces of paper go in after ?—The only paper that could enter would be that which was impelled by the shot. The paper in front of the powder would be blown into several pieces by the explosion, and be much singed by the powder, and has not sufficient specific gravity to be carried on. Paper before a charge of shot will be carried a slight distance before the shot will get past it. 29. Mr. Earnshaw.] Did you see the wound on the body?—No; I knew nothing of the case until after the trial, except what I read in the newspapers. 30. Mr. Moore.] You are aware that this paper alleged to be taken out of the wound fitted in with a paper found on the ground?—l do not recollect. lam not aware that the paper collar was called attention to at the trial. In regard to paper taken from the wound, if I recollect aright there was one small piece of paper taken from the wound of some date in November, the rest being of the 23rd of May. It is an unusual thing to load a gun with paper of two different dates in loading one charge, and the piece of the paper of the 19th November was of a size that might have been obtained after a discharge, whereas other pieces of paper were, in my opinion, too large and with edges too perfect to have been so obtained. 31. Mr. Kelly.] Do you not think it would have been impossible to have taken the paper out of the wound in that condition ? Could a doctor have taken such a large piece out whole ?—I suppose extreme care would be used, but it would have been a difficult matter to extract it. The doctor cut around the wound, removing it entire. He thus had an opportunity of extracting the paper. The Chairman : The evidence (printed) seems very conclusive about the incised wounds : " They were all clean cut." 32. Mr. Allen.] Was there any blood upon the stiletto when you got it ?—I think not. 33. Mr. Smith.] Did you bend the stiletto, do you think, in your experiments with it ?—I do not know. We tried it on a few things and were satisfied that the wounds could not have been made by that instrument. I might add that I never saw the knife—the one found by Low. Sir Harry Atkinson made a drawing of it, which he showed to me. [The knife was here produced.] It corresponds with the drawing Sir Harry Atkinson made, and such a knife could not have made the sharp double-edged cuts in the clothes and paper collar. This concluded Mr. Eichardson's evidence. The Chairman : Was there ever any inquiry made at that time re the man who wa3 quarrelling with Hawkings a few days previous, as was sworn to by Lockesley Pickering, George Hogg, and Frederick Sedgewick ? Mr. Jellicoe : I do not know. The case was then adjourned until Tuesday, the 6th September.
Tuesday, 6th September, 1892.—(Mr. C. H. Mills, Chairman). Mr. Gully appeared on behalf of the Crown, and Mr. Jellicoe for the petitioner. Mr. Jellicoe : Mr. Chairman, I wish to put in the depositions taken at the Coroner's inquest. They contain the statement on oath which the doctor made within a day or two of the murder. Possibly I may have to refer to this evidence, and also to some parts of the evidence taken in the Eesident Magistrate's Court. The Committee will find the latter evidence printed with the Parliamentary papers. Mr. F. H. D. Bell : Mr. Chairman, so far as lam myself concerned, upon the notice I received from you, I propose only, in a very few words, to refute that part of the petition in which charges
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