The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-09-20
THE MOUNTAIN MYSTERY.
(Contlnued from Fourth Page.l

tIOnllHueu rom fOuFLn HdSe.b
 tragedy. Burgess was last seen in Butlers company near place called Bimberry on August last; but there being nothing at or about that time to suggest the presumption of foul play, 1t was supposed by his intimates that he might have betaken himself for pur- poses of legitimate mining adventures 10 West Australia or other distant gold-fields. The discoveries of the bod ies of Preston and Lee Weller, however, pointed to the probability of another and more tragical conclusion in Bur gess' case, and an investigation of the ranges by searchers, moved by the hope of earning a substantial reward, which had in the meantime been an- nounced, resulted in the discovery on January 20 of his body, done to death by bullet wound, fired from behind in the usual way. In this instance, and owing to the longer interval, the flesh of the face. scalp and neck had become deoomposed, and personal identifica- tion was well-nigh impossible, but oth- CT means of arriving at the truth were not wanting. After the murders of Weller and Preston," observes a Syd- ney newspaper, "some of the effects of the men were appropriated by the mur- derer, while other articles, especially clothing, were flung about anywhere, as if the culprit had become too excited and anxious to know what he was do- ing. There are evidences of the same trepidation or frenzy after the Black Range murder Burgess must have taken off his coat near the spot where ba ha ,n1 i,, y1ybinh ha was afterwards buried. The coat was found about twenty yards away, and seemed to have been thrown down as the murderer was hurrying out of the scrub back to the track leading down to the camp"
 Fortunately Butler had. in moment of unusual eXuberance of sentiment, left photograph of himself with re- spectacle waitress at Gilham's dining house in Sydney As soon as the hue and cry set In, this was at once placed in the hands of the authorities. It is not overstating the case to observe that in the absence of this one link-this blunder, so to term it-Butler would to a moral certainty have been a free man to-day. with every opportunity of mak- ing further distinction for himself in the art of exterminating his species. At every stage of the various inquests reduplicated copies of this sun-picture led to his immediate recognition as, in each instance, the partner or compan- ion of the murdered men. Even then his case had not been hopeless one but for second act of almost incredi- ble folly. The effects stolen from Cap tain Lee Weller included the sea-going certificates and papers of that gentle man.
 Proceeding to Newcastle (N. S. W.) about November 14 Butler had the au- dacity to adopt the name along with the tit1e-deeds; and after loafing about the place for rather over a week he shipped as fable seaman, Lee Weller, on board the sailing ship Swanhilda, which left Newcastle for San Francisco with cargo of coal on the 23d of that month. At that date the disappear ance of Preston, Weller and Burgess were disappearances and nothing more Suspicion had not reached the acute stage. But in early December the full murders stood revealed, and the crimi- nal was badly wanted" Detective Machattie, highly efficient member ot the constabulary stationed at Newcas' tie. had a sufficiently acute recollection of spotting the spurious Lee Weller while that person kept lettering about the port, and when 1t came to be knowr that the real owner of the name had tC a practical certainty met with fou play, Machattie, who on November first obtained view of one of the cop. ies of Buffers likeness, evinced nc hesitation in at once pronouncing it as doubly representing the able seaman ol the SWanhilda and the missing male factor. Conroy, who fortuitously joined the police force in Sydney the very day the Swanhilda left Newcastle and whom Butler had some little time before tried to victimize in the usua fashion, was also able to recognize hi. man in the copy of the photograph ex hibited to him by Detective Roche, { superior officer of the force; but the connecting link, the recognition of But Ter as one and the same person witt the able seaman of the Swanhilda, was Macfattie's notable contribution to tht location of the murderer. All further doubt was from this point at an end and the machinery was at once set ir motion for the interception of the mur derer before being made free of tht shore at San Francisco. Roche Ma chattie and Conroy were the officers de tached for that purpose, a task which with many vexatious delays in carry ing the case through the rather formld able complications of the American courts, they have successfully ant most creditably accomplished, reaching Sydney with their prisoner on April 27