The Hawaiian gazette., 1903-03-17
MYSTERY
OF MURPHY'S
RIFLE
PerryShot by One
Like That He
Owned.

Hemmed in by the sea in front and O
semicircle Of precipitous mountains in
e the rear, the little hamlet of Makua
. was the scene of n frightful tragedy
on Friday morning.
Makua Is seldom thus disturbed. One
fourth of the population is employed
fishing, fourth compose the men who
work on the ranch and the remaining
a are women and children who lead the
, ordinary lazy life Of the kuleana. But
the whole population suspended work
after the tragedy on Saturday and aft
err learning all they could Of 1t, assisting
the coroner. and laying the dead away
in the coffin. they sat down under the
trees in clump of little cottages and
accompanied the eating of a roasted
pig with words and songs in praise of
the virtues of the dead man.
Joe Perry" OF Joseph Rego." Por-
tuguese ranch helper, was killed.
There are two names for the dead for
1t seems he was known to different peo-
pie by both. The police arrested on
the preliminary evidence, for the kill
Ing, Pat" Murphy. boss Of the cat
tie ranch. character known the
length of the Oahu Railway as a bad
man when he is In liquor"
The story OF the shooting is about as
| follows:
HOW THEY BEGAN THE DAY.
Joe" and native named Kaio arose
Friday morning at the usual time.
They helped the others with the milk
| ing. The milk was stored in the cans
| and placed aboard n train which left
Kahuku at six o'clock that morning for
Honolulu. Then they were sent to
Ke-au to pump water into the troughs
| for the cattle. Both men were riding
mules. They left Ke-au about ten
| O'Clock and rode back towards the
ranch headquarters. On the way back
the native stopped at his cottage to
learn If his wife had prepared his mid
day lunch. Joe" rode on. He was to
go to the paddock in front of the man
ayers, Pat Murphy's, house and change
the mule he was riding for another.
Kaio was to follow him. In this way
Joe got half hours start on the ma
tive and as the latter was approaching
the managers house he heard an Tex
plosion" He rode on to the house and
found Joe's body lying beside the mule
in front of Murphy's house. The mule
was hitched to the fence. 1t had
saddle on and the girths were in place
but had not been cinched.
MULE KICKED HIM"
Kaio shouted for Murphy and the
latter replying from his house, Kaio
asked:
Murphy what's this? Joes dead"
II don't know-mule kicked him." re-
piled Murphy.
Then Murphy issued orders to Kaio
to go to the house OF Kaleo Joe's wife.
which was about a sixth of a mile
4 ..II
of the body.
kaio did not stop to examine Joe.
He did as Murphy directed He told
Joe's wife and also all the natives
around
Kaio said that when Joe's wife got
to the body she began to cry but MUIR
ply at once ordered her to stop cry
ing.
Kaleo stated to Deputy Sheriff Chill
lingworth that she had been at the
house of Lilo with Kamaka, Lille
and klla, all native women. They had
all heard the report of a gun.
MURPHY TO WAIANAE COATLESS.
The body was allowed to lie where 1t
was. Under the full glare of the sun
it lay while Sam Kaamai got on
horse and rode to Waianae, seven miles
away, where he notified Captain of
Police William Carney that Joe" was
dead and that Murphy had stated that
"A mule had kicked him. train ar
rived at Waanae at the same time
from Makua and Murphy alighted from
this. He sauntered out without a coat
and Carney met him. He asked MUIR
ply about Joe" and Murphy stated to
him that Joe was dead and a mule
had kicked him. but he did not offer
any explanation as to why he had
come coatless to Waianae and left the
lead body of his employee lying in the
sun in front of his own cottage at Ma
tua. Carney permitted Murphy to go
ais way.
Carney went to Makua, and after
making investigations and ordering the
body, removed to Kaleo's cottage re-
urned to Waianae and arrested Muir
Dhy. He locked the latter up and tele-
,honed to Deputy Sheriff Fernandez of
Pearl City thNt there had been a muir
Ter. At the same time messages We're
tent to Senator McCandless, owner of
he ranch, that Joe had been killed
~ a mule and securing a coffin, Sena-
or MCCandless left Honolulu on the
hree O'Clock train for Makua. At Pearl
'ity he was Joined by Fernandez and
L Waianae by Carney. Then at Ma
ua these three made thorough ex-
mination.
THE MYSTERY OF THE GUN.
In Murphy's cottage a forty-fi cali
re gun was found. This contained one
laded cartridge In the breech, and
Inc in the magazine-all the ammuni-
ion that the gun would hold at one
lme. They searched high and low but
1und no trace of an empty cartridge or
gun swab.
Not finding these and realizing that
he case was an extraordinary one
Deputy Sheriff Fernandez telephoned
he facts TO Deputy Sheriff Chilling
'orth, the coroner. At few minutes
CONTINUED on page ~