A Sensational Arrest near Waikouaiti

At around ten O’clock on the night of Sunday March 14^th, 1880 a tired and weary gentleman with a “listless attitude” sat in the dining room of the Saratoga Hotel in Blueskin.  In the adjoining bar, the hotel’s proprietor was discussing the shocking murders that had occurred earlier that same day in Dunedin.  A witness noted that having overheard this conversation, the ‘tired gentleman’ became anxious, restless and impatient and left the hotel immediately after finishing his meal.  Police were quickly notified of this man’s slightly suspicious behaviour and telegraphs were sent despatching constables from both Waikouaiti and Blueskin with instructions to arrest the man and charge him with vagrancy. 

Next day Constable Townsend set out from Waikouaiti police station with instructions to proceed in the direction of Blueskin, while Constable Colborne left Blueskin and headed north, towards Waikouaiti.  Inevitably, the two constables met on the Kilmog hill at a point about five miles south of the township of Waikouaiti.  As the two constables approached each other a third man was seen slipping into bushes on the side of the road.  The two Constables conferred and approached the man’s hiding place from opposite directions.  When challenged the stranger stepped back a pace or two and drew a revolver, brandishing it first at one Constable then at the other.  Bravely, they rushed at him and managed to subdue him before he had a chance to fire his weapon. 

The prisoner was restrained and imprisoned in the cells at Waikouaiti.  Items in his possession included a pair of opera glasses that had been being stolen from a house that had been deliberately set alight on the 13^th of March.  The prisoner quickly admitted responsibility for this burglary and arson, however he was very soon after charged with the additional crime of murder.  The ‘suspicious man’ (soon identified as Robert Butler) was the prime suspect in a brutal axe murder that had occurred in Cumberland Street Dunedin in the early hours of March 14^th.

On that night an elderly gentleman noticed smoke billowing from a neighbouring house, and alerted his son (a volunteer fireman) who ran to investigate.  Unable to rouse the occupants by shouting, the young man entered the house through the unlocked back door and found it filled with smoke.  He crawled through the house towards the front bedroom and discovered a woman “making a peculiar gurgling sound” lying on the bedroom 

floor.  After dragging her clear, he returned to the bedroom and extinguished the fire which had been started by a candlestick that had been placed under the bed, igniting the mattress.  On the bed lay the body of James Dewar, “quite dead,” from severe head wounds.  Blood and brain matter covered the bed and walls and a blood stained axe lay on the floor.  In the corner of the room the Dewar’s nine month old baby girl lay dead in her cot, suffocated by the smoke.  Mrs Dewar’s head had been crushed by three axe blows; she died in hospital on that same day, never having regained consciousness.                                                           

The murder weapon was found to have belonged to James Dewar however Police soon discovered three additional items of evidence at the crime scene:

·         A knife was found on the grass beneath the partially opened sitting room window.

·         Hob nailed boot marks were found on the window sill.

·         A great deal of blood had been cast about the room - it was believed that the perpetrator’s clothing must have been heavily blood-stained.

The ownership of the knife could never be established however the prisoner had been wearing clump-soled boots when arrested (boots with an additional, thick one piece sole).  An examination of these boots showed that the outer sole had been recently removed, but nails protruding from the soles could not be matched to marks on the window sill.  Butler explained that he had removed the soles of his boots to “ease his feet while walking.” His clothing was examined “by means of a magnifying glass” and specks of blood corresponding exactly with specks found at the scene of the crime were discovered on the left sleeve of the shirt - the axe blows were thought to have been struck left-handed.   Robert Butler claimed that the blood was his own, and that he had scratched his hands on bushes while attempting to evade the two Constables.

The remainder of the police evidence was entirely circumstantial. At his trial Robert Butler insisted on conducting his own defence and with significant support from the Judge did a thorough job of rebutting each point of evidence presented by the prosecution. He was known to have been in the general vicinity of the crime (‘so were many other innocent citizens’) and was criticised for having a fearful, nervous demeanour that morning (‘having just heard news of the atrocity, I was understandably shocked.’) However he did not attempt to account for his movements on the night of the murders, or explain why he had discarded perfectly good clothing – a bloodstained “suit of dark lavender with a small check” in the town belt.  The question of why he had attempted to disguise himself by clipping his moustache, before hurriedly leaving Dunedin was also not addressed.  No public transportation left Dunedin on Sundays and very few people would have chosen to walk out of town rather than wait until the following day.                                                                                  

Butler’s summing up to the jury took six hours; the jury deliberated for half that time before announcing a verdict of not guilty.  Robert Butler was acquitted on the charge of murder, but was subsequently convicted on burglary and arson charges and given the unusually harsh sentence of eighteen years hard labour.                                                      

The reasons behind the Dunedin Police Force’s suspicions of Butler (and possibly the severity of his sentence) soon became apparent. The name ‘Butler’ was an alias; the prisoner had adopted numerous false names during his extensive criminal career and had spent most of his adult life in jail.  ‘Butler’ had been jailed five times in Australia on various charges of burglary and theft.  During his thirteen years of incarceration Butler had embarked on a programme of self-improvement; he read widely and taught himself music and shorthand. On his arrived in New Zealand in 1876 the charismatic Butler was sufficiently convincing to be able to secure a position as a schoolmaster in Cromwell.  His attempted reformation was short lived; Butler left Cromwell under suspicion of theft and travelled to Dunedin where he carried out a series of burglaries and was jailed for four years.                                                                                                                                                                                     On the 18^th of February 1880 Butler was released from prison and placed under police supervision.  Once again opportunities for honest employment were offered but abandoned.  A position as a journalist was “too much for his head” and a manual labouring role ended after three hours.  On the evening of March 13^th, Butler failed to attend a prearranged meeting with his supervising detective, hours later he embarked upon his crime spree.                             

On his release from Lyttelton prison in 1896 Butler was deported to South America (neither New Zealand nor Australian authorities being prepared to tolerate his residency).  He soon returned to Australia however, where he resumed a life of crime despite being shadowed by the police.  In 1905 he was convicted of the murder of a man he had shot during an attempted robbery.  On the days preceding his hanging he played hymns on the prison organ, on the scaffold he expressed remorse for his actions, his victim and his wasted life.