KATHLEEN MEADE'S END
“ACCIDENTAL DEATH.”
A BRIGHT, HAPPY GIRL.
Every circumstance in the story told to a jury this morning by the father and mother of Kathleen Maureen Meade justified them in determining, as they did, that the pretty little girl lying in the next room with a bullet through her breast found death yesterday through a piteous mishap with her father’s revolver.
The coroner (Mr Graham, S.M.) held the inquiry at the parents’ home in Hardy street, St. Kilda. Mr John Elbra was chosen foreman of the jury.
The mother (Amelia Meade), who was in a state of semi-collapse, gave the following account of the accident: — My daughter was fifteen years of age. She enjoyed good health, and was always in the best of spirits. Yesterday she was in unusually good spirits, singing when she rose at 6 a.m. I had asked her to change her clothes, and she went into her father's room to do so. I went into the kitchen, telling her to hurry, as I wanted her. I heard a sound like the striking of a match, and thought she was playing with her father’s revolver, which was lying in the room. I went to the door and called to her to hurry. I got no reply, and went into the room, smelling powder slightly. I saw her slip off the bed to the floor, and I said: “Kathleen, whatever has happened to you?” I got no answer, so I lifted her arm up, and it fell. I tried to lift her on to the bed, but could not. I sent one of the boys for assistance, and told my neighbor to get a doctor and the police. Dr Lindon came. I could not detect any breath then, but when I said “Kathleen” her eyes rolled round. She was a perfectly happy girl, and we had had no quarrel. I should never dream that she did such a thing wilfully. I never noticed the revolver when I went into the room — not till afterwards.
Constable McCartney stated: I was called to Sergeant-major Meade’s house yesterday. I found deceased lying on the floor alongside the bed in a room. She was dead, but the body was warm. With the assistance of William Hurrell I lifted the body on to the bed, and found a revolver (produced) on the floor. There was a wound on the breast and powder on the face. There was one empty cartridge in the revolver, and all the other chambers were empty.
Dr Lindon said: I was called in about 7.10 a.m. yesterday. I found deceased lying on her bed, partially dressed. I examined the body. Death had occurred not more than an hour before. There was the mark of a burn on the underclothing, and below this was a hole from which a slight flow of blood oozed. Her face was marked by burnt powder. Later in the day I made a post mortem examination, and I found that the bullet had entered the breastbone, missing the heart, cutting the pulmonary arteries, and lodging in the back. (The bullet was produced.) Death was due to bleeding from the pulmonary arteries. The course of the bullet was upwards and to the right.
Coroner: If it had been held in the right hand the passage of the bullet ought to have been to the left, should it not?
Witness: If it had been fired with the right hand and intentionally, one would expect the bullet to have gone towards the left. My idea is that the pistol was held backwards, the thumb on the trigger, as inexperienced people sometimes do to look down the barrel. From the general circumstances one would deem it to be an accident.
The Coroner: I will ask you a delicate question. You know what scandal is apt to be spread abroad in such cases. You examined the body — how did you find the organs?
Witness: I found the organs in proper condition. There were no signs of pregnancy.
The Coroner (to the father): You will understand my reason for asking this question.
Sergeant-major Meade: Yes, and I am thankful to you for doing so.
The Coroner: I did it for the purpose of putting an end to any disagreeable talk that might arise.
Sergeant Conn: In your opinion, doctor, from the trend of the bullet, the discharge was accidental, rather than wilful?
Witness: I should think so. Moreover, a person committing suicide would naturally press the revolver against the breast. In this case it was held a little distance away, or the powder could not have got on the face as it did.
Henry James Meade, sergeant-major in the Permanent Artillery, said: I am the father of deceased. I was not at home at the time of the accident, having left home the evening before. I can confirm everything that has been said about my girl’s good spirits. I kept a revolver in my room, but it was not loaded. Deceased was quite used to the handling of guns, but not to their loading.
The Coroner: Were there any cartridges in the house?
Witness: That is what I wish to explain. I was made a present of the revolver from a returned contingenter, and I bought thirty rounds of ammunition, which I used at the Heads, only bringing an odd one or two back with me. My wife and daughter came across a cartridge in a drawer, and put it in a basket. I think that, having the cartridge in the room, my daughter fitted it into a chamber of the revolver, which is a large, awkward thing to handle. In attempting to extract the cartridge I imagine that her finger slipped off the mechanism on to the hammer, which fell and exploded the cartridge.
The Coroner, in summing up, said: You have heard all the evidence which it is proposed to call. I think that, after the evidence of the doctor in respect of the direction of the wound, and also that of the father of the unfortunate girl as to what is likely to have taken place, we may conclude that it was purely an accident. There was no motive for suicide. She was in good health and spirits, and on the best of terms with her family. The doctor, too, has refuted any possibility of scandal. I think you will be perfectly justified in returning a verdict of accidental death.
Without retiring, the jury found that the cause of death was hemorrhage, occasioned by a revolver bullet wound accidentally inflicted by herself. -Evening Star, 10/1/1908.
A MISERABLE RAG.
Little Kathleen Maureen Meade accidentally killed herself at St. Kilda, Dunedin, one day last week, and the sad fatality, the cutting off of a bright life, the bereavement of her doting parents were as nothing to that miserable pence-pinching print, the "Post," which could not content itself with calling the occurrence an accident or a fatality, but brazenly and brutally printed it a suicide. The pinch-penny press is notorious for this nasty sort of thing. It ponders to the morbid mind which loves to dwell on suicide or murder, and it is to appease this class that the daily agony will freely outrage the feelings of bereaved relatives and attribute motives for suicide where none actually exists. The "Post" lives on horrors, and it was, therefore, only natural that when news came through of Katie's sad ending that it immediately pandered to those deceased palates that scorn an accident but revel in a suicide, particularly the suicide of a young maiden. There was absolutely no ground for the "Post" to spread the scandal of Kathleen Meade's death as suicide. The evidence at the inquest negatived the suggestion. The Coroner who presided at the inquest must have had in his mind the scandalous reports of the daily papers when he summed the case up to the jury, who found a verdict of accidental death. The Coroner said that from the evidence of the doctor and the girl's father it might reasonably be concluded that the affair was purely an accident. He considered they should have no hesitation in coming to that conclusion. There was nothing to suggest suicide. The girl was on good terms with her mother and father and all the family. The doctor had refuted any idea of scandal. He considered the jury would be perfectly justified in returning a verdict of accidental death, and there was not a word of this, of course, in the horrifying "Post." It would have been decent on the pious print's part to have declared that it was in error when it made a sensation of an accident and called it suicide. There was no regard for the harrowed feelings of sorrowful parents. Not a word of regret is said. Nothing to remove the reproach of scandal. Truly, the "Post" is a miserable rag. -NZ Truth, 18/1/1908.
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