City Man's Death Case "Fantastic"
At 7.00 a.m. on Monday, December 16, 1968 a woman by the name we shall refer to as “Mockingbird”, accompanied by a male family relative, went to Hamilton Police Station where the friend told the duty officer, Pc. 234 Malcolm Hinds, that “Mockingbird’s” boyfriend, Cecil Earlin Nusum, a 61-year old school janitor had been found dead, lying in a pool of blood in his home on Dundonald Street.
Together with “Mockingbird” and her relative, Pc. Hinds and Pc. 174 Philips went to the small apartment where they observed that were only two windows, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom. There were no other rooms. The officers’ saw the body of a black male lying out-stretched on his back on the kitchen floor. His head was about 9” away from the sole kitchen door and his legs stretched towards the stove. They saw a large pool of blood beside and under his body in the region of his hips.
The officers’ saw that he was dressed in a blue pair of undershorts and a white tee-shirt which only covered his chest leaving his abdomen exposed. He wore a single sock on his left foot and his right foot was bare. On the upper part of that foot was visible a small laceration about 1” long.
There was a blood stained pair of white socks on top of a trashcan in a corner near the refrigerator. On the right side of the deceased’s body there were two pails, one full and the other half-full of water. Nearer the body on the same side there was a bowl with about three inches of a solution of what appeared to be blood and water.
There were bloodstained footprints all over the kitchen floor and in the bedroom there was a large pool of blood and a pair of blood stained trousers lying on the floor at the foot of the bed. At the side of the bed there was another pool of blood and bloodstains were seen on the bed linen.
There was no sign found of a struggle having taken place at the apartment.
Deceased’s yard in Dundonald Street, Hamilton
At the entrance door outside the apartment there was found a blood-stained rug and sacking. Loosely folded inside the rug, broken glass was found.
Apartment entrance door leading directly into kitchen
“Mockingbird” made several verbal statements to Pc. Hinds that following a drinking session with the deceased in his room during the early hours of the 16th they had quarreled and fought; and that he had a knife. He threatened to kill either himself or her, and if he could not have her, then nobody else would. She then said, “I am responsible for his death. He had a knife in his hand and I struck him. My Lord, what have I done?”
It was clear that she was in a very shocked condition and was shaking violently and was under the influence of drink at the time she said these words.
Having regard to the condition at the scene and the evidence then available, Pc. Hinds detained “Mockingbird” on suspicion of having caused the death of Nusum.
He returned with her to Hamilton Police Station leaving Pc. Philips at the scene where I joined him as the CID officer on early morning call-out. The immediate conduct of house-to-house enquiries before occupants left for work yielded excellent early information and throughout the day statements were obtained from those witnesses.
Forensic officers D/Insp. Lesley Waddell, D/Sgt. Jeffrey Sanders and scenes of crime photographer D/Con. Ray Hodges were summoned and thoroughly examined the scene and collected matters of evidential value.
Death was certified by Dr. R. Gourlay and the scene was visited by Dr. Morley Nash, Pathologist at K. E. M. H. who examined the body ‘in situ.’
During the following weeks, as the investigation proceeded, The Royal Gazette newspaper reported on the investigation using the following headlines:
PUBLIC NOT INFORMED:
CITY MAN’S DEATH CASE ‘FANTASTIC’:
DEATH: OFFICIAL CURTAIN OF SECRECY STILL DRAWN
INQUEST ON CITY JANITOR
Cecil Earlin Nusum, the 61-year-old school janitor who was last month found dead in a pool of blood in his Dundonald Street apartment, bled to death from a small cut in his right foot during a drunken brawl.
The circumstances surrounding the death were so strange, a Coroner’s Inquest heard last night, that the police first treated it as a murder investigation.
In opening the inquest, Coroner R.H. Lownie warned the nine-man jury that the case had received a lot of publicity and that it had been described as ‘fantastic’. “The word fantastic was quite strong”, he said “dismiss any ideas of fantasy from your minds.”
As the detective officer in charge of the investigation I was instructed to read my report on the case to the Coroner’s jury. I read the following, in part, -
“Initially, this death was treated in the manner of a murder investigation, but as the enquiry progressed, facts were revealed that caused the Police to doubt the explanations and admissions made by “Mockingbird”.
I advised the jury that enquiries had revealed that Nusum had lived with and supported “Mockingbird” for the past two years. There was no evidence to show that they did not get along well together.
Nusum was known to be a steady drinker and regularly visited the New York Hotel to see a male drinking friend. He often made these visits in company with “Mockingbird.”
I told the jury there was witness evidence that from early on Sunday, 15 December, the deceased and “Mockingbird” were under the influence of drink. They were next seen to be in the bar of the Canadian Hotel from about 6.00 p.m. until between 9.00 and 10.00 p.m. and drinking steadily. Thereafter, they continued their drinking at another friend’s apartment in the New York Hotel on Victoria Street before leaving in good spirits and returning to the deceased’s apartment where the drinking started again. There is no evidence from then on that the deceased left his apartment. This same male witness reported that “Mockingbird” returned to his apartment at about 6.30 a.m. on Monday 16th. He said that “she was shaking all over her body and carried half a fifth of rum and cigarettes.” She said, “I found him dead. I had to move him to get out.” Witness assisted her physically to hold a drink to her lips because of her condition and he had asked a friend to take her to the police station.
Speaking to the jury I told them that at 1.15 p.m. on the day of her arrest “Mockingbird” was interviewed by D/Superintendent Hammond and D/Chief Inspector Sheehy. She was still under the influence of drink and still shocked, but was rapidly sobering up. She made a further short verbal statement which again was not consistent with the conclusion reached by the police as to how Nusum had met his death. She made many verbal statements and was at times incoherent.”
Later that afternoon, “Mockingbird” was taken back to the scene where she demonstrated to the Police the position of the body as she had found it upon awakening from sleep that morning. She then stated that at one stage, the deceased had been drinking from a glass mug, whilst seated beside her on the bed. She then said, “It’s all coming back to me now.”
On being returned to the police station she made a cautioned statement to Det. Con. 220 L. M. Edwards to the effect that while she was sitting up in bed Nusum had sat at her side holding a pint mug in his left hand. He took hold of her left wrist with his right hand and as a result of the deceased twisting her hand and hurting her she struck him a mild blow on his left shoulder. This caused him to fall forward. “Mockingbird” told the police she heard a glass break, but neither she nor he in their bemused condition paid any attention. She was sober and rational when making this statement in the late afternoon to Det. Con. Edwards. This final statement under caution can be relied upon as truthful and accurate.
The police are satisfied that this statement is true; that leaning forward Nusum struck the corner of a make-shift sideboard with the glass mug and the fractured falling glass caused the wound to his right foot, severing the vein. In his drunken condition he did not appreciate the severity of the injury, and subsequently, on account of excessive bleeding and moving about inside his apartment whilst “Mockingbird” was asleep, he became unconscious and died.
At 5.25 p.m. on the 16th December, 1968, when “Mockingbird” was fully composed and sober, she made a cautioned statement in which she detailed to the best of her recollection, all that had happened in the apartment. This is a statement of facts which the Police have now no reason to doubt.
On completion of the statement, I informed the jury that “Mockingbird” was released to the care of her mother.”
Dr. Morley Nash, Medical Superintendent at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, told the inquest that he went to the scene shortly after 9.0 a.m. on the 16th. Rigor Mortis had set in, and a body temperature could not be recorded by the body thermometer. He estimated death to have taken place around 8-12 hours previously. The deceased had obvious varicose veins. Dr. Nash saw a lateral laceration under the head of the first metatarsal of the right foot. There was no other evidence of injury.
Dr. Nash said that he performed a postmortem examination later that day and noted that the only abnormal finding was the laceration to the foot. This laceration on Nusum’s foot was clean and there were no surrounding bruises. It proceeded at an angle towards the first toe. This laceration completely and cleanly severely severed a large varicose vein, the injury being caused by a sharp instrument. Pressure applied could have controlled this bleeding, which in itself would have been a simple matter. The laceration on the foot is consistent with the fact that it had been caused by a piece of broken glass, similar to those found on a blood stained carpet, shown to me at the scene.
In view of the fact that Nusum’s blood-alcohol was 0.31 it is possible that the deceased was so intoxicated that he was not aware that he was injured and bleeding.
Questioned by a member of the jury about the blood-alcohol level the doctor said:
“This means he must have been very drunk. Usually half is considered enough for drunkenness.”
Dr. Nash concluded from his examination that death was caused by hemorrhage from the severed vein.
Asked how long it would have taken Nusum to die he answered –
“Well, a vein of this size would bleed very freely and I would estimate that he could have bled to death in 15 to 20 minutes.”
The doctor said that Nusum could have lost consciousness in about 10 or 15 minutes, depending on whether he had been walking about or lying down.
Questioned on the bleeding and the nature of the wound he said:
“If he had cut his foot and had a snug-fitting sock it would probably have stopped.
“There was no bruising around this cut at all – it was just as if he had been cut with a razor.”
“Nusum’s blood compared with samples that were found in the apartment.”
Superintendent Hammond said that the wound was not the type usually found in homicide cases. Referring to pictures taken at the house he said that scrape marks seen on the floor were made by the carpet having been dragged outside. “He must still have been alive when that carpet was taken outside.”
Nusum, said the Superintendent, later collapsed and by this time “Mockingbird” was in bed. Other “swipe” marks on the floor showed how the body had been moved by “Mockingbird” pulling it. He added that they considered the case to be an extremely rare type of death.
The jury found that death had been accidentally caused in the early hours of December 16. They commended both detectives for the way they had presented the case and for the clarity in which they had given evidence. The jury also extended their sympathy to the family of the dead man.
Verdict: Unnatural death caused by exsanguination through laceration of right foot, severing a large vein.
