Page
BATTLE OF BRITAIN WEEK REUNION PAREY
THES
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1980.
"Yes, gentlemen, 1940 was a very hectic time. So hectic that some of us were so anxious to
do battle with the Luftwaffe we rushed off without settling for one or two outstanding drinks,"
PART III OF A NEW, INTENSIVE INQUIRY...
ON
a wooded hill overlooking the spires and crescents of Regency Cheltenham there stands
a grey, two-storey cottage with ivy creeping, round
the door to a battlemented parapet.
In the bleakness of February, 1938, this gloomy dwelling, called Tower Lodge, was known to everybody in Britain as the centre of a sensa- tional mystery of death and butchery.
Not just one mystery, but a whole horror chamber of mysteries. Riddle upon riddle upon riddle, producing theory upon theory upon theory. I have just been looking back into the Langle
of the Cheltenham
torso
Fair. 1 have found the solution to at least one of Its enigmas-known only to the police until today. And as for the murder-well, was there a murder after all?
The strange tale began with
the following events:
Gassed
January 4-Ex-Army cuplain William Butt (50), uf Old Bath- road. Cheljenham, left home
hy had frequently
AS
inysteriously done befure.
and
is
Daimler, KV1685, Telt at 3
garage for overhaul.
murder unsolved
"
Lady Express Service
by Frank Entwisle
ONE ERROR-
IT MAY HAVE
Anyway, was the torso Butt's? An inquest jury couldn't agree that it was.
before he died, and may have been desperate.
I also found a senior detective on the case with a theory that Geems to solve most of the mysteries.
Mrs Sullivan maintained her son would not have cut a gas pipe beneath the floor boards
He is Cheltenham's knowing there was a gas tap in superintendent Jim Hancock, the room. She said she belleved
he was murdered and that Butt now retired. was still alive.
COST THE POLICE
THEIR CASE
January 24. Mrs Irene Lodge. January 10.-Bloodstains and Sullivan found her son Brian days.
Cheltenham
A British Crossword Puzzle
A hoteller The quarrel
reported
that
on the day be-
fore Butt' dis-
•BY THE WAY.
by Beachcomber
I dont to the moon is to is suggorted that the reason
conduct atombomb tests In comparative,safety. But by the time all is ready. for tests on the moon our earth will have be come too radioactive for human life to exist hero.
What a surprise the refugees from the earth will have” when they reach the moon and und the same old game going on. On to Mars will be the cry, Song for a party
The cocktails" had gone to his
head,
And the puesta: were beginning
to holt him
Suid he Nosters, "I'm sure
That the very best'eure
Is a hair of the dog that bit
film."
But a veteran drinker
replied.
"I know of a better corrective Give him rum, ple and
brandy.
And anything handy- The whole dog is far more
effective."
Scientific nutrition
IT was revealed at Cardiff that
more food is needed in the world.. and that one way of getfing 11 is 10 have more agricultural land; As a scientist, I prophesy that it will not be necessary to grow food. A new kind of standardised Intake of body fuel will be mass-produced In factories, thus releasing agri- cultural land for Government hulidings, race-tracks, atonue and germ warfare research stations, and other necessities. Twinkle, twinkle
little star
THE Rights between celebrities and photographers have evidently given publicity men a new iden. At a film first night | Trivia Tansy took up her posl
tlon in front of a camera in the foyer, and then suddenly lashed out. The photographer, who was in the game, got a pleture of her doing her best to avold being photographed. This made quite a change, and in an inter- view Trivia explained how angry she was at this unwarranted invasion of her privacy. Taking the riak
FROM Quidnune in the Irish Times I take this, Miss Bobo Sigrist, the heiress to some six- teen millions, during a visit to Galway asked someone, dim- dently, if he would cash cheqtie for
"I'll chance £20. was the answer. Where can we put it?
Д
ROLEX
Det,ALING animals from a 200 is a curious occupation, bul, according to my
paper, it still goes un I remember the
theft of an elephant by a man whose wife cald "He's mad on anything Oriental." To her husband she said: "If you musi
Superintendent Hancock beatcal animals, ateal small ones,
Harry."
appeared, a big lieves that Sullivan quarrelled bull necked with Butt at Tower Lodge be- stranger or cause Butt, who had power of rived, and before registering attorney over his wife's fortune, not help settle the had gone to the public library would leaving valuable baggage. He dancer's debts.
He had been dead 10 Mrs Sullivan sold she
Never returned-and in library
directory a pencilled tick was found beside the Tower Lodge address, A bunl for "Mr Bulineck."
1
Was
During the brawi Butt fell or
the pushed down
steep stairs which end at the Lodgo began front
(which. would door
the account for the bruises on
days.
Then detectives sat by the torso), and lay unconscious for
of » Kick woman- she recovered and
a glove found on Haw Bridge (alias Byron Smith), 27-year- thought he left for Landon on
Severn, 10 miles away, old professional West End dance January 10. Inquest verdict: hospital bedside over Analyst
reported
gassed in bed at his suicide. bivari not partner,
Too frightened to call a hcme human. Enquiries dropped.
- Tower
February 3-Seven Oshermen Was smuggled out of town. No doctor, Sullivan and a mysteri- one but the police knew why. uus girl friend (I cannot reven) notted frst catch of salmon
may still be man's bruised and And most mysterious of all, her name as she season- hackett, imbless and headless somebody had been at Tower alive) irled to revive him, but he body. Ten thousand spectators Lodge until shortly before Sul- died. watched
was discovered, subsequent dragging, livan's body
They tried to bury the body during which legs, handless Milk was taken in. Goods which In the corridor but struck rock
could only have been used by a before the arms and gun recovered,
grave was deep young woman were, delivered
enough. from a local store.
The friend then cut up the theories body (Jim Hancocit says: "It murdered must have been the friend. ..that Sullivan was too yellow to wring
10.
17
18
ACROSS
16
The grave
None
There were many
that both men were of these
was by London gangsters events connected by the poiler unill the grave in Tower Lodge had a sparrow's neck"), and, while mys dumping the remains over the Someone remembered that when been dug and used in a Bullivan's body
which one Haw Bridge, they were disturbed Was found. terious newspapers In his car were reveller died naturally and the and dropped the glove.
As Butt's previous mysteri- cus trips--he bad a girl triend at Oxford,
12
open
Neither son or pm (8).
4 Merry dwarf (5),
7 Instrumentalist (0),
The dock, at sea (5).
10 Divine cup-bearer (4).
12 But these insects aren't
worn (7),
15 Watching every move? (5)
10 Brief calendar division (4).
17 The flower of Egypt? (4),
19 Clerical office-holders (6).
20 Of the Queen?' (7),
21 Great divide (4),
23 Major-to-be (B).
1:24 Eaton in Italy
whore (0).
22
24
₤26
DOWN
ritual, in
frightened
participants bad dismembered the body.
at storles on the blood. other stained bridge,
Tower Lodge was searched, Butt's garage receipt and somg of his clothes were found. "And beneath floorboards in corridor
the policy discovered a grave, I contained nothing but the Cap
tain's overcoat.
It was also discovered
Wild parties
Recently after
20
discovered the truth
girl in hospital.
As for the recovered gun after the 1814-18 war hundreds of weapons were dumped in the river at this point by the police. years, I about the
She was Miss W. a hospital
That mistake
that worker who had bensted that Supposing Hancock's theory is
Mra Sulliven lived at Butt's she had attended wild parties at correct and it fits better than holic a mile away, as nurse- Tower Lodge and that she had most-one macabre irony stands companion to his mentally sick been Sullivan's giri friend, After out. wife.
The Haw Bridge bloodstains were re-tested. There had been
an anonymous telephone enll to If the mistake over the How the police (she made it herself) Bridge bloodstains had not been she was traced and questioned. made, the elue of the dropped glove would have been followed
a mistake. They were human Thca someone nt Scotland up at once, and Brian Sullivan, after all, Suddenly, the glove Yard remembered similar stories the frightened gigolo, would found on the bridge, became im- told by a Miss W after a previous have been
arrested before he portant, Its laundry mark was murder. She was the some girl. gassed himself, checked. In 10 hours It was Afraid of prosecution after her
1 But they're waterfowl (8) traced to a London prostitute latest mischief she swallowed And the great Cheltenham
2 May gain one xdmittance
(B).
3 And In addition (4),
5 Giving one's consent (0),
0 Forks have them (0),
I bet you it is onel (5).
11 Tears? (8).
12 Brought to a full-stop? (5). 13 How to treat a live wire?
(8).
14 Cari be knocked out of one
(0);
18 Greek Islands (0),
who had been nowhere Laar drugs, was saved by the hospital torso "murder" would not have Cheltenham or the bridge. She stuff, then smuggled out of leased crime connoisseurs for 22 said: "The glove is Sullivan's I Cheltenham. She had not, in yours,
sent it to the cleaner for alin." fact, been to Tower Lodge and
knew nothing About either · Next week
Now the police had con murder.
sider the obvious theory that Sullivan had killed and disposed
1- discovered the result of the Ho was of Butt, then committed suicide, hunt for Mr Bullnock, from fear after reading of the identified as a confidence trick
ster on the run-nothing to do bloodstain discovery.
with the torso mystery.
and else. 22 All the avaliable informa- | falso trailu, sido issues,
25 Grind one's teeth (5).
20 Ho's no good (3, 3).
tion (4).
Out there were other theories
And I discovered the hitherto They eame up every day and kept unpublished fact that Sullivan, detectives busy and newspaper company-director wife since she living apart from his respectable readers fascinated for months, discovered he was involved with à prealitate, had puod him in London for the return of har
mention a few. YESTERDAY'S CROSSWOHL--Across: 3 Low Diver, (0. Lollop. 9 Zeppelin, 11 Slóvenes, 12. Buer 13 A-gent, 18 Easel, 18 First it was pointed out that. Ague, 22 Bell-hops, 24 Kedgeret.. 20 Grouse, 20 Dontext, Sullivan, a neody weakling of wedding present to blaza Rover Down; 1 Class, 2 Blood, 2- Lorange, 4 Open, 5 Dipa, 6 Vellum, 7 [úttlo coitrage, could not have Sentry, 10 Peona, 14 Eeger, 10 Tellers, 1d Walked, 17 Buddha, overpowered and dienambered Bhe won, and 20 Bogu, 21 Essex, 23 Beais, 33 Legs,
the powerful Butt Patel tema þeing promed for legal
car
Sullivan WAS corta
THE BRIGHTON TRUNK MYSTERY
(London Express Service),
Chess News
Kid: 2 QX KL, R-881; 3 BX? *Solution No. 5894 1,1 5
oh (5 OXQ, RXN · males, KRX®, 0x0; and Black won,
Lundan Kegrees Bergles."
-(London Express Service).
TARGET
CINE
LIOT
REP
Human
Word of
letter
ar more can Fat in
from the letters to The sqaure on the intr
In making The words eurt of the imtis letters 13. By weil nure only. Each word must contain the large letter, and there must be at leaks one ten-friter word in the UsE No plurals: na foreles vocils: nu prober
TODAY'S TARGET Un sgood: 78 words, very good 07′′ worda, excellent "Bulut on Monday. VENTERBAVE SOLUTIONI Aria Mara Marie AVABICIOUS carious caviar colt curio iris orca *aviour savoir self sente scour mixer Hour valy various verus vĒCAT vlearious virana virus MĚHOT
London Express Bervice.