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HANG
BY THE NECK UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD |
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Brisbane TRUTH Newspaper
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“Sentenced
to hang by the neck till you are dead!”
Grim words of doom, quietly spoken by a youthful looking officer,
president of an American court-martial in Brisbane last week.
The court martial was held in Old South Brisbane Town Hall, serving
as the U.S. Army Provost Headquarters.
These words echoed like shots in the ears of 30-year old U.S.
paratrooper, Abelardo (sic) Fernandez* and drained his face of color. Like a
petrified man he stood correctly at attention, eyes straight ahead,
unwavering; faced ashen gray; knuckles white under the strain of hard
closed fists.
A
tap on the shoulder from his guard; a twitch of the mouth and Fernandez
swung round like a soldier obeying a military command, and marched from
the courtroom, looking neither right or left.
He strutted down the stairs on the first stage of his scheduled
journey to the executioner; first man to be doomed to such a death in
thirty years.
WOMAN’S
AWFUL DEATH IN LANE
After
more than an hour’s deliberation, seven U.S. officers constituting the
court martial, had adjudged Fernandez guilty of having murdered thirty
four old Doris May Roberts, by beating and kicking her to death in an
Elizabeth Street lane-way on the night of June 19.
Because
the woman, whom he had met in Nick’s Café, had made him ”feel
cheap” by asking him for money. Fernandez, with animal brutality bashed her about the face
and neck and kicked her so unmercifully with the paratroop boots that she
died when blood from her many wounds asphyxiated her.
Former
boxer and fruit and vegetable picker, later infantry paratrooper, with
details of twenty six jumps on his record, Fernandez, now under death
sentence, can easily trace the bizarre chain of circumstance and
misfortune which has placed him in the hangman’s hands.
When
hundreds of parachutists made their record leap into the Markham Valley,
New Guinea, last year, Fernandez was one who jumped from a Douglas
transport of General MacArthur’s big paratroop armada.
War Injury
Fernandez,
equipment, rifle and ammunition strapped to his shoulders, made his lead
out, “so heavily loaded," to use his own words, that he ”hit the
ground” and hurt his arm.
The
injury did not worry him at first but last March he saw fit to report it
to his medical officer. He was ordered to a U.S. Army hospital, where an operation
was performed on his arm in April.
Thus
it was that, on June nineteen, Fernandez, with three “buddies," all
out patients of the army hospital began the outing that was to lead to
Nick’s Café, the purchase of two quarts of whiskey, the rendezvous in
the lane with Doris Roberts, the wild scene when he “went crazy” and
based her to death.
All
this was told when Fernandez faced court-martial trial last week, a trial
that extended over two days and ended in his conviction.
“You
are sentenced to be hanged by the neck until you are dead.”
That was the decision of the court that heard the story of how
Doris Roberts died appallingly and was found, blood drenched and partly
nude, in the darkened lane beside McLeod’s Elizabeth Street bookstore.
Charge
against Fernandez was laid under the U.S. Military Ninety Second Article
of War and alleged that the accused did “on or about June nineteen, with
malice aforethought, deliberately, feloniously, unlawfully and with
premeditation, kill one Doris May Roberts, a human being, by beating her
around the face and body with his feet and clenched fists.”
Private
Leland Porter gave evidence of having, on June nineteen, started out on a
“pub crawl” with Fernandez and two other out patients of the U.S.
Hospital. They began at the
Mountain View Hotel, Holland Park and adjourned to Stone’s Corner.
Finally they wound up at Nick’s Café in Elizabeth street after a
meal.
Two
of the party left the café, he said, and secured two quarts of whiskey.
They all had some beer, later returning to Nick’s.
Later he claimed, Doris Roberts joined the party and afterwards
another girl also came to sit at their table.
Some
time after the second girl left, declared Porter, Doris Roberts got up
from her chair, apparently spoke to Fernandez, and started for the door.
Fernandez rose from his seat and followed her.
Witness began to follow also.
“When
I got to the top of the stairs,” he told the court, “I noticed
Fernandez and Doris Roberts about halfway down the stairs, When something
happened. They started to
fall down the stairs. I was
on crutches at the same time, but I got to the bottom of the stairs as
quickly as I could and there was Doris Roberts, Who was knocked out and
dazed.”
Flat on Face
“Fernandez
was further out, flat on his face, and I saw he was sort of unconscious.
I picked him up and then assisted Doris Roberts to her feet.
She finally came to her senses.”
Trial
Judge Advocate: What was the condition of Doris Roberts?
Not
too good, she didn’t have enough strength to stand straight.
I was holding her up.
Porter
further related that they walked down Elizabeth street after Fernandez had
joined them. As they were passing McLeod’s book shop Hernandez took the
woman to the doorway and “began to fool with her.”
Witness
pleaded with Fernandez to leave and Fernandez became abusive. “He was
acting funny like,” said the witness, “and whenever I tried to talk
with him he would curse me so I left. I was with another soldier named
Goff who had come along. I
thought Fernandez would follow us.”
Goff
and Porter went along the street, talked for some time and when they
returned to McLeod’s bookshop later, Porter went on, he heard a sound,
“like someone kicking gravel around.” Goff opened one of the doors at the entrance to the lane and
leaped back in surprise. Once
more Porter and Goff walked down the street and when witness returned this
time he saw Fernandez on the sidewalk.
Trial
Judge Advocate: Did you observe the condition of Fernandez?
He seemed to have something wrong with him. After he fell down the stairs, he changed altogether; he didn’t seem like the same person. After that he began talking loud and acting silly like.
* His correct name
is Avelino Fernandez. This has confounded the internet search engines!
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Ressie
M. Goff, also a patient at the hospital, gave evidence that Porter had
asked his aid in getting Fernandez away from a woman in Elizabeth street
on the night of June nineteen.
William
Vincent McEnroe, Prospect Terrace, Kelvin Grove, told the Court martial
that from a laneway near the Carlton Hotel, in Elizabeth street, about
seven thirty P.M. on the fateful night, his attention was attracted to
voices seemingly raised in argument in the doorway of McLeod’s bookstore
and he noticed a man apparently shoving a woman along the road and pushing
her into the laneway. Later
he heard a slight scream.
Two
youths, Stanley James Smith of Wooloowin, and Neville Hansen, South
Brisbane, gave evidence of entering the laneway soon after eight P.M. and
finding the body of the woman, naked to the waist, lying near the
entrance.
Ellen
McGhie, Barton street, Spring Hill, waitress at Nick’s Café, told of
having seen the party of American soldiers there on the afternoon of June
nineteen. She saw Doris
Roberts there too.
Doris
Clive, Camden street, Clayfield, told of having sat at the table with
Hernandez and party, but only for a few minutes.
She saw Doris Roberts pick up a chair and join the party.
Ivy
Garth, Enoggera road, Newmarket, also gave evidence of having seen Doris
Roberts with the party at Nick’s Café in the afternoon of June
nineteen.
A.I.F.
provost officer Sergeant David William Chaplain said he was attracted by
the noise on the stairway of Nick’s café and when he investigated he
saw a girl and an American soldier who had apparently fallen. Injuries which Doris Roberts suffered before her death were described by Doctor E. Herrick. He found many abrasions and bruises on the face, head, neck and upper chest, he said. The lower jaw had been broken in two places. There had been a good deal of laceration of the tissues, and much internal bruising of the neck which had caused blood vessels to break.
Asphyxiated
One
lung and the air tubes were full of blood, which came from the region of
the mouth and broken jaw. Death was caused by blood entering the air passages and
causing asphyxia.
A
test of the blood, said Dr. Derrick, showed .29 percent of alcohol, which
would indicate that the woman had been very much under the influence of
drink at the time of her death.
First
Class Detective Senior-Sergeant Cecil Edgar Risch, C.I.B., who was in
charge of a wireless patrol on the night of June nineteen, described his
investigations in the laneway.
“Draped
across the right shoulder of the dead woman,“ he said, “were a
bloodstained pair of scanties; there was a great deal of blood down the
front of her blue dress; there was blood and dust on her topcoat; her legs
were nude to the waist; her dress had been rolled up.
Beside the body was the cap of a U.S. Infantry paratrooper.”
“Early
on the morning of June twentieth,” Risch went on, “he saw Fernandez at
the Brisbane C.I.B. and interrogated him.
Fernandez told of leaving the hospital the previous day and how he
and his ‘buddies’ had some drinks and wound up at Nick’ with some
whisky and two girls in the party.
According
to Risch, the conversation between them then ran thus:
Yes.
How
did that come about?
I
asked her if she would go with me and she said she would.
As we were walking down the stairs we both fell; that’s how I got
these bruises on my faced. We
walked down the alleyway and I asked her to come in, but she said she
would sooner go to a room. She
did come into the alley after a while and something happened.
Was
she willing?
Yes.
How
did you injure your hand?
I
must have done it when I hit her.
Did
you kick her?
Yes,
I kicked her all over. I was real mad.
Did
she leave the laneway?
No.
I left her lying there.
When
Risch said, ”That girl was found dead in the lane about eight o’clock
last night.” Fernandez
allegedly said, ”if she’s dead, that’s where she ought to be. I
struck her in the face and knocked her down again. I hit her in the stomach and kicked her.
I would do it again.”
Asked
why he had hit the woman, Fernandez is said to have replied: “She made
me look cheap. She asked me
for money. That was after
something had happened.”
That’s Her
Shown
the U.S. paratrooper’s cap found in the lane, Fernandez is said to have
admitted that it was his. As he was warming his hands at a radiator in the C.I.B. room,
Hernandez is said to have added: “I wouldn’t have done it if she had
been a white girl.”
Fernandez
was later taken to the morgue and shown the body of Doris Roberts. “Yes,
that’s her,” he said.
U.S.
provost officer Ervin Task told of conversations he and Detective Risch
had with Fernandez. Task told of taking a statement from Fernandez.
Statement which was typed by a policewoman.
In
the statement Fernandez is said to have described the “pub crawl,” the
drinking of whisky at Nick’s, the fall down the stairs and the
subsequent happening n the lane.
The
statement went on: “The fact that she asked me for money made me mad.”
And
I punched her. I kept on
kicking her and punching her; I don’t remember for how long.
I think some of the kicks landed on her face.
When she came to she was on the ground and I saw that her face was
bleeding. My hand was pretty badly hurt and I wrapped in handkerchief
around it.”
C.I.B.
detective Baty said that when he saw the girl’s body it was badly marked
about the neck, face and body. He
described his examination of the clothes of the woman and Fernandez for
blood traces.
Man on Crutches
Called
as a witness for the defense, Phyllis Saunders, Wickham Terrace, told the
court-martial that about seven thirty P.M. on June nineteen she was seated
in a motor cycle box in Carlton Lane, opposite McLeod’s bookstore when
her attention was attracted by four American Soldiers in the vicinity.
Two were on crutches, one had his arm in a sling and the fourth had
no apparent injury. Later, declared witness, one of the Americans put his hand under the woman’s armpits and dragged her into the lane; The woman appeared to be unconscious. Sometime later two or three muffled screams were heard.
Fernandez is buried in Clark Cemetery, Angeles City, Philippines, together with a number of other executed criminals. His headstone carries only his name and the date of death, 20 November 1944.
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Witness
said she saw the American on crutches looked into the lane way.
Trial
Judge advocate: Are you certain of that?
Absolutely.
Fernandez,
testifying on his behalf, told how he and his mates left the hospital on
the morning of June nineteen; how they went to the Mountain View Hotel;
later to Stone’s Corner, and finally to Nick’s café.
He told how Doris Roberts joined the party; how they drank whisky,
started to leave the café together, and fell down the stairs. He admitted
being with the girls in Elizabeth street.
He declared there was talk between them of going to a room; that he
suggested “going into the alley” and admitted that they went into the
lane way. He didn’t drag
her, she went voluntarily, he claimed.
She
wanted to kiss me, so I slapped her- a small slap-but she still wanted to
kiss me. After something
happened, he said, the woman said: ”Have you got any money?”
Defense
counsel: What did you do then/
I
hit her. I didn’t like her
asking for money. I hit her
on the faced. She made me
feel cheap. I struck her,
picked her up, and hit her again. I
lost my temper.
Murder Case-Cold Blooded
Asked
whey he lost his temper, Fernandez answered: “Because she made me feel
cheap.”
Defense
Counsel: “How many times
did you hit her?”
I
don’t know.
Did
you kick her?
Well,
the provost officer said she had kick marks on her face, so I admitted I
kicked her.
Is
it true you kicked her?
I
don’t know-It must be. They said I kicked her and I was saying “YES” to
everything.
The
officer told you you needn’t say anything that would incriminate you.
What do you think ”incriminate,” meant?
I
don’t know, I never heard that big word before.
They said that they would let me out if I told the truth.
I thought I wouldn’t get into any more trouble then I was in if I
told the truth and said yes to everything.
Fernandez,
lying on the floor of the courtroom, demonstrated how he alleged the woman
was in the lane when he left her. He
was on the floor, back flat, right legs curled under the left, arms
extended diagonally. He remained in the position while court members studied his
pose and asked questions.
Was
she alive when you left her in the alley?
Yes. Colored Woman
Did
you try to drag her to the street?
I
remember I tried to pull her out of the lane way.
Why
didn’t you want the girl to kiss you?
She
looked as if she might be a colored woman
Have
you ever “got Mad” like that before?
At
Home, not over here.
How
long have you been a paratrooper?
Since
April nineteen forty two. I
have made twenty six jumps from planes.
How
many in the theater of war?
I
was one of the paratroopers who made the record jump in the Markham Valley,
New Guinea. I got injured in
that jump. I was loaded too
heavy and I hurt my arm when I hit the ground.
I didn’t complain until March and was operated on in April.
That s how I came to be in the hospital this time.
In
his address to the court, Defense Counsel asked the officers to take into
consideration that Fernandez was a paratrooper, “trained to kill” and
that he had considerable to drink and that he had suffered a fall down the
stairs before going to the laneway with the woman.
Said the Trial Judge
Advocate: Nothing can be more cold blooded or deliberate than this crime,
unless it is the demeanor of the prisoner in the box, who showed no more
emotion when telling his terrible story than the chair in which he sat.
As
stated, Fernandez was found guilty and sentenced to death. POSTSCRIPT:
“AMERICAN PARATROOPER PAYS FOR HIS CRIME”
He
arrived under military escort at Oro Bay in Northern Guinea and imprisoned
in a rough logged cell. He
remained there unaware that a set of gallows, based on blueprints specially
flown from America by bomber transport was being erected beside the beach.
One week later the gallows were ready.
On
the evening of November fourteen, nineteen forty four, Private Fernandez was
informed he was to die at dawn. He
was given the choice of his last meal on earth and it was six thirty P.M.
and still daylight when he sat down to steak, eggs and chips and a bottle of
beer.
Thirty
minutes later a guard looked into his cell and yelled out in alarm.
Fernandez was sprawled out on the floor, bleeding from a gash to his
throat, the knife used to eat his medal closed to his outstretched hand. The wound proved to be superficial and an army doctor
inserted several stitches. The
condemned man regained consciousness in the night and staggered back to his
cell at eleven thirty P.M.
Weak
from loss of blood, he was almost carried up the steps of the scaffold as
the sun began to rise over the sea. Fernandez died instantly and his body was left hanging for one hour. It gently swayed with the breeze coming in from the Pacific Ocean.
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