Corrupted by pictures

Invincible Strangers 21 Chapter 8.1

Händler Lehners lived alone, in his store near the Tuana’imato plantation on Āpia western side. On 3 January 1913, he was murdered in his sitting room. His body had a 16-centimetre-long wound across his chest that had cut through three ribs and the main arteries. A money box had been smashed open with an axe.

‘Death must have been almost instantaneous,’ Sāmoanische Zeitung reported. ‘The inside of the glass case and the floor was covered with blood.’

The murder remained unsolved for months before ‘Coolie No 2428’ visited the office of Albert Schaaffhausen. He had been the government’s architect and was responsible for most of the buildings in Āpia, including the Court House. He was also the administration’s Chinese commissioner, responsible for the imported labour. The worker, whose name was not reported, told Schaaffhausen of other labourers who had little money but suddenly were richer. Seven men were hauled before court president Bezirksrichter Sperling and under interrogation told that Chan Hing, Ah Kau, Ai Tsai Lin and ‘2428’ had planned the murder, knowing that Lehners kept his cash in the store. Ah Kau, an overseer, was occasionally invited in for beer by Lehners. They tried several times to carry out the plan, but were interrupted, once by a woman buying her bread. On the day of the murder the three went, leaving ‘2428’ out of it. The three had beer and cakes and asked Lehners for an object out of a glass case in the sitting room. As Lehners reached for it, Ai Tsai Lin struck. The men were splattered with blood. After cleaning themselves in the nearby Fulu’asou River, the three returned to Tuana’imato and divided up the loot, around 10,000 marks and six watches. The show of new wealth led 2428 to betray them.

 ‘It was found that the former overseer of the Tuana’imato Plantation, Wu Kwan, who was suspected of being the leader of a Chinese Secret Society, and who certainly had a great influence over his countrymen, received from Ai Tsai Lin … 2,000 Marks for the purpose of bribing those who could give evidence,’ Sāmoanische Zeitung reported.

Samoanische Zeitung, 1906.

Coolie 2428, who was to be the principal prosecution witness, was attacked: ‘Two coolies committed a murderous attack, inflicting a most dangerous wound on the head with a knife, and threw him down a steep stoney precipice where they left him for dead.’