Eddie Cullens - for the murder of a fellow circus performer.

Eddie Cullens - for the murder of a fellow circus performer.

26 year old Eddie Cullens was a Jewish American citizen who was born on the island of Crete, but grew up in Turkey. 

He was working with Turkish born 26 year old Achmet Musa and Assim Redvan, as an attendant to Zaro Agha at travelling circuses.  Zaro Agha was billed as the world's oldest man at a claimed age of 156!

Cullens and Musa, who spoke no English, took rooms together and Cullens borrowed a car from Redvan so that he and Musa could take a trip to Ireland. 

They stayed at Ryan's Hotel on Donegal Quay in Belfast.

When Cullens returned to England he told his boss at the circus that Musa had decided to stay in Ireland.

On the 4th of September 1931, James McCalmot was collecting milk in Carrickfergus Co. Antrim, when his horse became spooked and he stopped to investigate.  

He discovered the naked body of a man wearing only a blue and white women’s bathing hat with a gunshot wound to the head.  The previous day a set of blood stained clothes had been found outside a shop in Belfast.  Police quickly put two and two together.  

The body was identified as that of Achmet Musa.  No one claimed it and it was initially buried in the Jewish cemetery.  Later it was realised that Musa was a Muslim and his body was re-interred in a more suitable burial site.

Rose McGoldrick had read about the case and reported that she had been out with a man on August the 30th and he had been in possession of the bathing hat.  

She led them to Ryan’s Hotel where Cullens had been staying under the name of Bernard Berman.  By this time Cullens had returned to London and was arrested at Hyde Park Corner on the 20th of September.  A holster suitable for a 25 caliber pistol (thought to be the murder weapon) was found in his luggage.

Cullens was returned to Armagh for trial on the 8th to the 10th of December 1931, before the Lord Chief Justice, Sir William More.  

David Nummie of the Belfast Steamship Company was able to tell the court of the records of the car arriving in Ireland on August the 29th and returning to Liverpool a few days later.  Rose McGoldrick was able to identify him as the man she had been out with. 

Although no clear motive was established, the circumstantial evidence convinced the jury which took just 34 minutes to convict him.  He was formally sentenced to death the following day (the 11th of December).  

Cullens’ original execution date was to have been the 29th of December 1931

The Criminal Appeal (Northern Ireland) Act of 1930 had enabled the setting up the Court of Criminal Appeal in Ulster.  The court comprised Lord Justice Andrews (presiding), Lord Justice Best and Mr. Justice Brown.  

This court held a special sitting on Friday the 8th of January 1932 with the Attorney General appearing for the Crown. Counsel for Cullens, Mr. Lowery, sought leave to take the case before the House of Lords in London but this was denied.  A new execution date of the 13th of January 1932 was set.

He was hanged at Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast at 8.00 a.m. on Wednesday the 13th of January by Tom Pierrepoint, assisted by Robert Wilson.  

Rabbi Schachter had looked after him and stated that “Cullens showed bravery beyond imagination, he had a smiling face when they parted and repeated again and again that he was going to meet his maker with the full satisfaction that his hands were clean of the blood of a murdered man.”  

Some 600 people waited outside the prison to see the notices of execution posted at 8.12 a.m.