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HANG BY THE NECK UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD
American Sentenced for Murder

 

Brisbane TRUTH Newspaper
23 July 1944

 

“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. 

 

(continued next column)

 


* His correct name is Avelino Fernandez. This has confounded the internet search engines!
 

(TOP)

 

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:

  Did you leave the café with one of the girls? 

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.

 

 

(continued next column)

 


 

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.

 

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.

  Defense counsel: What happened in the lane? 

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”

 

  Fernandez was convinced he would not be the victim of any “neck-tie party.”  Capital punishment had been abolished in Queensland and it was thirty one years since the last man hanged in that state but the U.S. Command was equally shocked by the viciousness of the murder.  It was General MacArthur himself who signed the order for the execution which would have to take place outside the legal jurisdiction of the state.  Unaware of the plans for his demise Fernandez was placed in the stockade at Hedley Park where he was given work repairing saddles for a U.S. cavalry division.  When in October, nineteen forty four, he was informed he was being transferred to New Guinea the real reason did not occur to him.

 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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