THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 18, 1940
REAL LIFE DETECTIVE TRIUMPHS
[IMPERIAL
THE KENSINGTON GARDENS AIR ARMADA
MYSTERY
Chief Constable Wensley of Scotland Yard was smoking his pipe and taking his ease on the night of Oct..4, 1922— very much as the fictional Sherlock Holmes did in Baker St.-and con- gratulating himself that London at last was behaving itself—at least as far as major crime was concerned when he got a message saying that a man had been murdered at Kensing- ton Gardens, Ilford.
And a strange murder it was! II seems that Percy Thompson, a young shipping clerk, was walking. home from the theatre with his wife, Edith, when he suddenly staggered, fell to the sidewalk and died. She screamed hysterically and the doctor who res- ponded found blood gushing from the young man's mouth. At first the physician imagined it was the result of a haemorrage.
But a closer examination proved that the victim had died from a knife wound in the back of the neck.
Mrs. Thompson was not able to give the police any help. She was in such a highly nervous state and so obvious- ly grief-stricken that they could get
nothing coherent from her.
BROTHER GIVES CLUE
The man had been stabbed in the dark and for days Detective Wensley and his aides also worked in the dark.
-By-
GEORGE BARTON
It was a brother of the dead man who gave them the first faint clue. He said that a mutual friend, a Freddy Bywaters, lived with the Thompsons for a time after their marriage. The husband suspected that he was "a bit too friendly with his wife" and sent him away. He had gone to sea as a ship's accountant and, the brother said, for that reason could not have been
concerned in the crime.
But Detective Wensley, putting the famous Flying Squad to work, learned that Bywaters had been visiting his sister, a few miles from the Thompson home, on the night of the tragedy. He was found, brought to Scotland Yard for an interview. He indignant- ly denied all knowledge of the crime, said the had never owned a knife.
He
Wensley, with bulldog tenacity, be- gan a search into his past life. found that Bywaters and Edith Thompson had been friends from childhood and were supposed to "be sweet" on each other. He was there- upon "detained," as the English police
HER LIMBS CRACKED LIKE DRY WOOD
Suffered with Sciatica for 25 Years
have it, and Wensley felt justified in making a search of his lodgings. He Thompson to Bywaters filled found a bunch of letters from Mrs. with between the lines of one of these mis- ardent protestations of love. Reading
sives it was deduced that she had put band, but that no fatal results had ground glass in the coffee of her hus-
followed. As a result of this Edith was also "detained".
THE WIDOW BREAKB They were in separate cells, but one morning, going from her lace of de- tention to the hearing room, she caught a glimpse of Bywaters, and, breaking down, she exclaimed:
"Why did he do it! Why did he do It'
Confronted with this, Bywaters ud- mitted that he had waited for the couple when they came from the thea- tre. His excuse was that he wanted to protest to Thompson against the way he was treating Edith. He as- serted that they had an argument in the dark street which developed into a violent quarrel. In the struggle, he said, he had accidentally stabbed Thompson. This, of
course, was a direct contradiction of the testimony of Mrs. Thompson, who insisted that she did not know how her husband had been killed.
At the trial the evidence tended to show that the whole business had been cold-bloodedly plotted in advance and that she had stood by while By- waters had killed her husband. Both were convicted and sentenced to be
Petitions hanged.
were signed by thousands of people begging that the life of the woman be spared, but the Home Secretary declined to intervene on the ground that both had been given a fair trial before an impartial jury.
It was another triumph for Wensley and still another and Scotland Yard demonstration of the Biblical warn- ing that the wages of sin is death.
MUTUAL AID IN BALKANS
[SPECIAL TO "THE CHINA MAIL"]
Bucharest, To-day. Despite the previous repeated den- ials, considerable political importance is attached to the forthcoming meeting of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia King Carol of Rumania.
and
When your joints start to creak and crack, it is a sure sign that your sys- tem is producing too much harmful uric acid. If you fail to heed the It is expected that the Sovereigns warning, you are storing up trouble will discuss both the Russian threat to for yourself. Read this letter, from the Balkans and the Italian interests one who suffered for years before she found out how to obtain rellef:--
"For 25 years I suffered from sciatica in my right side, and I had backaches which forced me to remain in bed for two or three weeks at a time. When I got up in the mornings, my arms and legs used to crack as though I were breaking dry wood. One day, I heard of Kruschen Salts: I took a bottle of them without feeling much improve- ment. I tried a second bottle, and that time I felt better. I have kept on taking Kruschen" ever since.”
(Mrs.) HI The pains of sciatica and lumbago are caused by an excess of uric acid in the body. Two of the ingredients: of
there.--Havas.
PRESIDENT AND AID
TO FINLAND
Washington, To-day. President Roosevelt has suggested that Finland be lent an unspecified sum to buy farm products and manu- factured goods-not armaments. This he feels, it is not likely to involve the United States in foreign wars-Reu- ter.
Mr. H. Hall, of the P.W.D. has re- Kruschan Salts have the power of dis- ported that $2 boxes of detonators solving uric acid crystals. Other ingre- valued at $448 were stolen from the dients of these salts assist Nature to expel these dissolved crystals through Government store at Quarry Bay since the natural chantiels.
Tuesday.
FIGURES
London, To-day.
It is stated in London that the £120,000,000 Empire air training scheme will require a personnel of at least 30,000 airmen, 2,680 officers, nearly 5,000 civilians and over 1,000 maintenance staff, according to A Canadian estimate.
Nearly 70 instructional schools will be needed to bring to perfection the Imperial air armada, Reuter.
NAZIS KEEP UP CHARGES
London, To-day.
Despite the Dutch official denial, the German news agency yesterday ro- peated the assertion made in a Ger- man High Command communique that a Dutch plane flew over German ter- ritory near Nordhorn on January 13.
violation of German territory had been The Nazi agency stated that Dutch established beyond a doubt.
nised by the colour of its markings
It added that the plane was recog-
Reuter.
12-16
(léiansed by) The Ball Byndt wir Ihr 1
It's all right for a girl to make her mark in the world but not on another girl's best beau's collar.
THREE RUSSIAN
PLANES CAPTURED
Helsinki, To-day. The crews of three Russian planes which made a forced landing in Fin-
of Lulea, have been taken prisoner. land after raiding the Swedish town
-Reuter.
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1940
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