The Hawaiian gazette., 1909-06-18
EVIDENCE POINTS
To MURDER
tFrom Wednesdays Advertlser.)

The dead body of Henry Wetherill,
the skull beaten in, was found yester.
day morning by Police Officer Parish
in the lumber yard on Queen street,
opposite the place of business of Lee
Chu & Co. There was every indication
that the man had come to his death
from foul play, near the body being
found piece of three by three scant.
ling, about four feet long, fecked with
blood and having upon it some scraps
of hair, plainly from the head of the
dead man.
At the inquest, held yesterday after
noon by Coroner Rose, evidence was
forthcoming pointing tc the conclusion
that Wetherill was struck down by one
of crowd of rioterers with whom he
had been drinking during the evening.
These were all members of the crew
of the American Hawaiian steamer Plei-
AIDES. As result of prior information
gained by the police and further in
formation forthcoming at the first ses-
sion of the inquest, Tom Cummings. Jim
McCandless, George Harbottle and Dan
Kaai have been put under arrest for
investigation. Among them the police
expect to find the one who dealt the
blows from which Wetherill died. Jacob
Richter, Waterman, is also being held
as witness.
Wetherill, who is down on the ship IS
papers as Henry Wal, is a negro, reput-
ed to be brother of Joe Cans, the
negro pugilist. While among the Ha-
waiian members of the Pleiades crew,
he claimed to be a Hawaiian. He was
thirty-three years old and had shipped
as a common sailor.
The discovery of the body was made
at daylight yesterday morning, Police
man Parish stumbling over the body
on his regular rounds. Wetherill was
lying face down among some loose lum.
Der. Near him was the bloodstained
club. He took steps to have the body
left undisturbed until his superiors
could be notified and then sent in
report to Deputy Sheriff Rose, who had
the body taken to the morgue, started
police officers out after evidence and
summoned coroner's jury.
The result of the autopsy showed that
Wetherill had -een struck three crush
ing blows on the skull, one on top of
the head, one on the left temple, which
fractured the skull, and another across
the base of the skull, on the back. This
blow must have been struck after the
victim of the murderous assault had
fallen face down from the blow upon
the temple, the force of the blow, as
shown by the autopsy, having been
from the base towards the top of the
skull.
The suspicious actions of Tom Cum
mings and Jim McCandless, with whom
the dead man was known to have passed
tie evening before, led to their arrest
early in the investigation. In the first
place, the stories the men told as to
when they had last seen the deceased
were conflicting, the most damaging bit
of evidence against them being that
they had gone aboard the Pleiades at
one o'clock yesterday morning and en-
quired for Wetherill, stating and re-
peating the statement several times
that they had left him at ten O'Clock
the night before and now wanted to
find him, while as a matter of fact they
had been with him for some time after
eleven O'Clock. Their insistence with
the Waterman of the vessel that they
had not seen him for some time appears
now to have been an effort to establish
an alibi.
At the inquest, the testimony shows
that the dead man and the ones now
under arrest had passed the greater part
of the evening at a house at the corner
of Liliha and King street, where they
drank gin and ended up in quarrel,
when they were put out of the place.
When leaving the house there was a
threat made on the part of one of the
men to edo up" another. Who made
the threat and who was meant was not
definitely brought out, one of the wit
nesses, Mary McCandless, sister of
Jim McCandless, contradicting state
ment she made prior to the inquest to
Chief of Detectives Leal that Wetherill
had been the one threatened and Cum
mings the threatener. AT the inquest
she swore that two others of the crowd
exchanged the hard words.
The police officers who have worked
on the case, Captain Armstrong, of the
Pleiades, Mary McCandless, Mrs. Lou
ika Kaui, Richter. Cummings and Jim
McCandless were heard as witnesses at
the inquest.