He had been carried along Pirie Street as far as Hindmarsh Square when he took it into his head to put a bullet through the "topper" of the cabman, but whether through carelessness, inebriation or (as Kingston claimed) a sudden lurch of the vehicle, the slug went low and lodged in Guerrin's scalp.
[3] Kingston was duly charged, convicted and jailed for six months,[4] confounding skeptics, who predicted he would, by virtue of his profession and connections, somehow be treated lightly.
"The Chairman caused some amusement by reading a cutting reporting the trial before justices at Port Augusta of two cases in which the defendants were charged by the District Council of Woolundunga with neglecting to destroy rabbits.
[6]"Around mid-September 1897 Kingston was in Adelaide to appear in an action being heard before the Supreme Court, and expressed to his brother-in-law Hubert Giles his confidence in the outcome.
[1] Back in Port Augusta, Kingston, never a temperate man, and frequently driven to excessive drinking, "had been in a very depressed state of mind for some time" and was suffering the after-effects of a heavy night when he received news of a client having withdrawn from a case, though there is no indication that precipitated what happened next.
[7] Charles Kingston, who had recently returned from a triumphant visit to the United Kingdom, followed by a meeting with the Federation Commission, where he was elected chairman; cancelled all appointments and with his Commissioner of Crown Lands (L. O'Loughlin) was on the 4.30 pm Broken Hill express, and at Petersburg had a "special" waiting to take them to Port Augusta,[1] arriving at 3.45 am.
They had two daughters: He was described as a loving father, but it is likely he and his wife had separated: at the time of his death Kathleen Kingston was had been living with her sister Phoebe Stanton in Glenelg for some years,[1] and may have never stayed in Port Augusta.