TERRIBLE TRAGEDY
MAN MURDERED AT DUNEDIN.
ALLEGED CONFESSION.
Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, May 3. At about 7 o’clock this morning a man named Patrick John Jager accosted Constable Watkins at the South Dunedin Police Station and said that he had murdered his mate, Arthur Creagh, who lived with him in the same room in a private boarding house in Cargill road. Sergeant Murray went to the house and found Creagh lying on the bed with his throat cut, the head being almost severed.
Jager said: “I did the right thing. If I hadn’t killed him he would have killed me to-night. He’s after me for my money. There’s a gang watching me. I’m not worrying about it as I did the right thing.” Both men had been mates since boyhood and had worked together for about 20 years as machinists at a rope works.
Both are aged about 40 and were always considered the best of pals. It is stated that Jager has been behaving peculiarly lately. He told the police he tried to drown himself yesterday. The theory is that the murdered man was first hit on the head with a bottle as when the police arrived parts of a broken blue peter were found on the bed and floor.
Prior to giving himself up, Jager threw £93 in notes into the front of a house adjoining. -Manawatu Standard, 3/5/1926.
A GHASTLY DEED.
MAN MURDERS HIS FRIEND.
AN INEXPLICABLE CRIME.
THROAT CUT WHILE SLEEPING
Arthur Creagh, aged about 45 years, was murdered in his bed in the Railway Workshops hotel in Cargill road early yesterday morning. While the landlady was preparing breakfast a little before seven o’clock, Patrick John Jager, the unfortunate man’s room mate, climbed out of the bed and struck Creagh a desperate blow on the head with a bottle, completing the deed by cutting his throat with a razor. Creagh’s head was almost severed.
FRIENDS FROM BOYHOOD. It was an inexplicable crime, for the two men had been friends from boyhood and they had worked together as machinists in Donaghy’s rope works for the past 20 years. For the past two years they had occupied the same room.
JAGER GIVES HIMSELF UP. Almost immediately after the crime Jager went to the Police Station at South Dunedin and gave himself up to Constable Watkins, who took him to Sergeant Murray’s residence at the rear of the station. Jager told the sergeant that he had killed Arty Creagh, adding: ‘‘I did the right thing. If I hadn’t killed him he would have killed me to-night. He’s after me for my money. There’s a gang waiting for me. I’m not worrying, sergeant, as I did the right thing.”
TRAGEDY UNSUSPECTED. Even then the tragedy was unknown to anyone else, for when the police went to the boarding-house to inquire for Creagh, the landlady told them that he would be down in a minute or two, as breakfast was just ready.
JAGER ACTS STRANGELY. The boarding-house is conducted by two sisters, and they say that Jager complained frequently of “frightful headaches.” It is said, too, that on the previous night Jager attempted to commit suicide by drowning, as his clothes were found to be soaking wet. He had been acting queerly of late. From statements he had made, Jager seemed to have the idea that Creagh was spying on him and had been trying to get his money. He was a saving man and had a bank balance of £300. He told Sergeant Murray that he had thrown about £93 over the fence of a resident in Cutten street, and this money was subsequently recovered by the police. It is said that neither of the men drank very much, though on Saturday evenings they would usually lay in a small store of beer. Creagh spent Sunday evening with a friend and returned home about 9.30.
ARRESTED FOR MURDER. When the central station was communicated with Detectives Beer and Farquharson went out to take charge of the case, and Jager was arrested on a charge of murder and brought in about 10 o’clock. The inquest on the victim of the tragedy was opened at the morgue before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., in the afternoon. After evidence of identification had been heard, the inquiry was adjourned. Jager will appear at the City Police Court this morning charged with murder. -Otago Daily Times, 4/5/1926.
HAUNTED BY TERROR OF MURDER MENACE
STRANGE FEAR OF MYSTERIOUS GANG DROVE JAGER TO SLAY HIS LIFE-LONG FRIEND AFTER FUTILE SUICIDE ATTEMPT
"THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE WATCHING ME WHEREVER I GO!"
(From "Truth's" Special Dunedin representative)
WHEN Patrick John John Jager killed his life-long friend, Arthur Greagh, he was insane. This was the verdict of the jury at the trial of Jager at the Dunedin Supreme Court last week.
WITHOUT retiring they acquitted him on the grounds that at the time of the crime he was insane and did not realize the physical nature or quality of his act.
JAGER and Creagh had been friends for years, and it was on Creagh's suggestion that Jager went to live with him at the Railway Hotel, South Dunedin. They both worked together and were exceedingly happy in each other's company.
FOR some time Jager had been saving money. He had been prompted to this step by his sister and had about £300 in the bank. Subsequently this money became an obsession with him. He became suspicious that people were after him and his money, that a gang of men were watching him, spying over him and trying to find out where he hid his money.
In fact, he became so afraid that he carried his wages for the past six months (amounting to £93) about with him. Unfortunately, this served to increase his delusion. His apprehension became incensed and then to his clogged reason came the belief that Creagh was the chief spy — Creagh, the man who slept in his room, and who was planning to find out where he hid his money and then the gang would swoop down and murder him.
WITH BOTTLE AND RAZOR So he decided to end it all. Either he had to end it or they would end him, he thought.
After a futile attempt at suicide on May 2 he woke the following morning and m a moment of madness struck Creagh with a bottle over the temple.
Creagh moaned and gasped. The glitter of steel then attracted Jager. On the washstand lay his razor, which he seized and with one fierce slash practically severed Creagh's head from his body.
Practically every word of this story had been told to the doctors who examined Jager. It practically amounted to an eye-witness's view of Jager's life for some months leading up to the very scene of the tragedy, which occurred about 6.40 a.m. on May 3.
About 7 o'clock Jager called at the police station and confessed to the murder.
At first his story was not credited. Later the police visited the hotel. On a single bed Creagh lay with his head almost severed. A blood-stained razor lay on the floor in a pool of blood.
Further features of the tragedy revealed that in the second drawer of the duchesse was found a suit, neatly folded but soaking and covered with white beach sand, which was also in the pockets.
It was in this suit that Jager had tried to drown himself at Lawyer's Head on the day prior to the murder.
The strange workings of a demented mind were revealed when the doctor gave evidence of the story Jager had told them and how he had come to kill Creagh.
To Dr. William Evans, who had seen him on the morning he had given himself up at the police station, Jager had said: I have been worried by fellows watching and slinging off at me.
Creagh used to sing every night: "What I will do when you are gone!" and he said several times: "I'll be jake-a-1oo soon, plenty of money and clothes."
"I have been hearing voices for the past fortnight. They have kept me awake. There is always someone watching me wherever I go."
Jager had then recounted how he felt that he must end everything. The gang was after him and his money. He had tried to end himself by going to Lawyer's Head, where he had filled his pockets with stones and had thrown himself into the water, but he was washed ashore.
"Last night" (the night before the tragedy), said Jager, "Creagh lay awake with his eyelids closed. He was trying to see where my money was, like the rest of them. I knew he was awake as he made no noise. I could not sleep for worry of it."
ALLEGED MURDER THREAT On the fateful morning Jager said he got up about 6.40 a.m. Creagh was making out that he was asleep. So he decided to put an end to it, and picking up a bottle smashed it over Creagh's head. The latter had called out and moaned. Jager then picked up his razor which was lying on the washstand nearby, and cut Creagh's throat.
"The worry forced me to do it. I am certain I would have been done for myself if I had not taken action. I guarantee if I had gone to the hotel to-night I would have been murdered."
Jager had further said: "Billy Deuchress told me on Friday night that Tommy Wilson was going to murder me. I said: 'Surely he is not going to take that course?' and he said: 'Yes, he will murder you the first time he sees you.'"
"I see nothing else but the rope; I do not think life is worth living with the worry I have gone through this last month."
This concluded the remarkable story Jager told Dr. Evans, who held that he was insane through the delusion of persecution of being robbed, and watched and thinking he heard voices.
A TERRIBLE NIGHTMARE It seems probable that some of the remarks Jager alleged were made against him may have occurred, but in his low state of mentality he had misconstrued them.
To Lawyer Hanlon (for Jager), Dr. Evans said he believed the accused was incapable of realizing at the time the nature of the crimes he was actually committing.
His Honor: "He would understand he was cutting a man's throat?"
Dr. Evans: "Well, I don't think he did."
The final phase was described by Dr. St. Leger H. Gribbon, medical superintendent of Seacliff Mental Hospital, who stated that Jager had been under his observation since his admission on May 16.
"Jager was emotional and agitated," said Dr. Gribbon. "That condition became more marked until recently he attempted to strangle himself."
Dr. Gribbon held that Jager was suffering from chronic systematized delusional insanity. He had so come under the influence of the delusion of persecution and of being robbed and spied upon that he felt life was not worth living.
Jager did not remember the actual crime, but supposed he must have done it when he saw Creagh lying there and saw the blood on his own hands. Jager had never got beyond the third standard.
QUESTIONS FOR JURY His Honor submitted two questions to the jury: 1: "Do the jury find that accused was insane when he killed Arthur Creagh?" 2: "Do the jury declare that accused should be acquitted on account of his insanity?"
Without retiring from the box the jury answered both questions in the affirmative. Throughout the whole trial Jager, who was allowed to be seated, appeared to take no interest m the proceedings. Occasionally he raised his head, but his sunken features and narrow eyes conveyed nothing and sometimes his head would slowly fall forward.
His Honor ordered Jager to be kept in strict custody in the mental hospital at Seacliff until the pleasure of the Minister of Justice is known. -NZ Truth, 12/8/1926.
Arthur Creagh is buried in a family plot in Dunedin's Northern Cemetery. Patrick Jager died in Seacliff asylum in 1944. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the Southern Cemetery.
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