1949-01-15 — Page 9

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1949.

BOTTLE OF POISON

IN THE WALL

It was in Blarritz that Mrs Mabel Jones, wife of the licensee of the Blue Anchor Hotel, Byfleet, mot the flamboyant little Frenchman Jean Plerre Vaquier.

Between them a strange liaison arose, and when Mrs Jones left, Vaquier followed -from Biarritz, to London, from London to the Blue Anchor in Surrey. There he stayed. One morning, Mrs Jones's husband died. poisoned with strychnine.

The trial of the bearded Vaquier provided the great legal drama of 1921, Sir Patrick Hastings, then Attorney-General, led for the Crown. Here he des cribes the scenes in Court.

*

Man under death sentence

gives clue to a strange discovery

prosecution seeking to infer that he was keeping watch on the bottle of bromo salts which was kept in the parlour.

The other material point against him was the fact that

to

by Sir

Fabriel, Hastings

K.C.

he had been obviously anxious he had bought them.

secure possession of the came the first dramatic bottle from which the salts had ment. He was asked:-

"Why did you buy strychnine?"!

IN some ways the trial of been obtained, and the fact that

Vaquier was п

very re-

markable one.

The prisoner wan French, and the evidence had to be trans- lated.

Vaquier's overweening vanity was self-evident, but his know ledge of criminal procedure came entirely from the French

courts.

He expected to be bullied not only by the prosecuting counsel but by the judge himself. lle expected to be shouted at and called an assassin.

The studied impartiality with which he was treated appeared to raise in his mind an entirely erroneous belief.

the bottle showed signs of having been washed,

Medical evidence that Jones had died of strychnine poison- ing was conclusive. It was also clearly established that strych- nine had been inserted into the bottle of bromo salts.

Why did he give

a false name?

The other testimony against the prisoner, which would be damning if unexplained, was that of the chemist, Mr Bland, from whom Vaquier purchased, the name of "Mr under

strychnine, chloro Wanker," form, and perchloride of mer- cury on the plea that he wanted them for wireless experiments.

It was proved that no wire

Then

mo-

this

And he replied: "I was asked to do so by the solicitor of Madame Jonea."

He was asked to give the name of the solicitor, but sald he did not know it..

He said that the solicitor had asked him for strychnine in order to poison a dog which had the mange, and had given him £1.

He gave no explanation of his various statements to the police, and in particular gave no other explanation of the person whom he alleged to be the murderer.

tion, which in many ways was exceptionally dramatic. As the questions proceeded Vaquier was apparently the only person

Now came the cross-examina-

As nobody shouted at him he thought they liked him; as no- body called him an assassin he less experiments required the in the court who did not feel

seemed to think that nobody thought that he was one.

He appeared to be under the belief that the case was pro- ceeding in an atmosphere of kindness which could only end in a triumphant acquittal.

The morning

after the party

Alfred Jones had died on March 29, the day after a party at which there was a good dent of heavy drinking,

After any night of indulgence, Mr Jones made a habit of drink- ing bromo salts in the morning,į; the bottle being kept in the bar parlour. On the morning after the party Jones had gone into the parlour, poured a dose of salts into a gluas, and died in agony the same day from strychnine poisoning.

Mrs Jones, the first witness,

The Blue Anchor Holel

assistance of strychnine, chloro- form, or perchloride of mercury. quire them, and why had it drawn more tightly around his Why, then, did Vaquier re- the horror of the rope being

been necessary to obtain them neck. Her

by means of a false name?

was obviously in somewhat unsympathetic position. intrigue with Vaquier as it developed became blatant and indeed contemptible.

At some of his answers

What was the explanation shudder seemed almost to run Vaquier had to give of his pos- from the jury-box into the session of these poisons, and gallery and yet Vaquier appear what was the name of the mur- ed more than satisfied. derer whom Vaquier was in a

Questions that position to identify?

The picture of a sorrowful wife was dificult to make con- vincing, and her evidence upon the whole might seem to require considerable corroboration.

If his explanation upon both. The main interest in the trial or indeed upon either, of these so far as her evidence was con- points was satisfactory, he cerned necessarily centred might be acquitted; if not, his around her cross-examination. peril would seem to be very

The outstanding problem kreat. which must have been present

to the mind of every counsel concurned in the case was a sintement made by Vaquier that he was in a position to identify the murderer,

It was thought possible that the cross-examination of Mrs

The actor' in

the box

The prisoner was the first and only witness called for the defence.

decided case

"Perhaps he had no change."

"Did you over give him the change that you must have got from buying the strychnine?"

"No, he never asked me."

From that moment the absur- dity of the prisoner's sugges- tion became more and more pronounced. I next directed his attention to the signature upon the poison book.

"What is the name you have written there?"

"Wanker." "Why did you not put your real name?"

"Because I had been told that when you buy poison you never sign your own name."

"

"Who told you that?" "The solicitor."

"Did the gentleman who asked you to buy the poison tell you to sign a false name?"

"Yes,"

Child could have

killed him

"Did it strike you as odd that a complete stranger who want ed to poison a dog was telling you to sign a false name?"

"No."

I then left the poison book and went to the purchase of the chloroform.

"What did you want 100. grammes of chloroform for?"

"For my personal use."

"Had you Been Mr Jones runk in his hotel at times?

"I carried him three times to ed,"

BIR HENRY CURTIS-BENNETT defender of Vaquier

"Yes, since she wished to go away to France."

did

this

"And

mean you

by statement to suggest that the mur- deter would be Gearge?"

"I cannot indicate anyone."

"You knew that Mr Jones had been murdered? "

"I knew that he had died from polson."

"You knew that the zolicitor of Mra Jones had made you buy strychnine 7"

"Yes."

"Have you ever until todny told the police that this solleitor ordered or asked you to buy strychnine?"

"No."

Although Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett shortly re-examined the prisoner no questions could possibly remove the effect this cross-examination had created,

Mr Bruce Millar, the solicitor to Mrs Jones, was called into the witness-box, and denied that there was a word of truth in Vuquier's

evidence.

Being anxious that the prisoner, us n foreigner, should have every possible advantage at his trial, I refused to claima the privilege of a law officer to make the final address to the jury and allowed Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett to have the last word.

Raved and screamed

in the dock

Although Sir Henry did his best for the prisoner it was impossible for

much him to create very

cПeci, and Indeed the only point of his Anal speech was based upon the curious

"Did it ever enter your mind -hat-if anybody wanted to kill__fact that the only strychnine_traced- Ar Jones that would be the most casy time to do it?"

"No."

"At the time when you carri- ed Mr Jones up to bed would

chloroformı?" it have been easy to give him

to the prisoner was the small amount of 12 of a gramme, whereas Sir

Bernard Spilsbury had stated that at least two grammes were found in the dead man's body.

This point assumed even mory Importance at a very much later -stage of this strange story.

Mr Justice Avory summed up, the jury retired, and upon their return found the prisoner "Guilty.""

"It was easy to give him any- thing you like. He was so insensible that he could easily have been suffocated with chloroform-very easy; a child could have killed him."

"What did you do with the unfair, and he had to be forcibly chloroform ?"

removed, shouting and raving, from the dock.

For the first time Vaquier lost his self-control. He screamed that he, was innocent, that his trial had been

"I inhaled it, to sleep."

But this was not the last act of From the movement in court, this strange drama, While Vuquier It might have appeared that was in prison nwalting execution, information was conveyed to me of a curious statement which he had made from his cell.

those

Quite a few questions and answers were suflicient to make the result of the case a fore- gone conclusion.

"Do you know what strych fate:" nine is?"

"I knew it was a

deadly poison."

"Has anybody ever, asked you before to buy dangerous poisons His entry into the witness. for them?" Jones might throw some light box was dramatic, lie was upon this suggestion.

•quite' self-possessed, almost

Nobody."

"Was it only the second time

"Yes."

alone Knowers

were

enough to seal the prisoner's

Vaquier's statements

to police

I concluded with a reference to Vaquler's statements to the police.

"Do you desire to put susplelon un somebody else in this case?"

*་

He alleged that a few days after the murder he had seen from his window at the Blue Anchor a woman go to a building attached to the hotel and conceal something in the wall; and further that he, Voquier, had subsequently found a loose brick In the wall; that he hnd removed it and that he had found there the Identical bottle of strychnine he had purchased from the chemist.

that is to be understood."

"After what I wrote to the police Found behind a

loose brick

"What do you mean by this: 'I .

will make known tomorrow who I directed the police to search for adminstered the poison' 7 Who is themselves. The loose brick Was the person you intended at that time discovered and behind it a bottle to name to the pollee next day?"

containing nearly 25 grammes of พง the amount "I wish to indicate the wolfeltor of strychnine, which Mrs Jones, who had asked me to buy which Vaquier alleged that he had the poison."

"Is there anybody else whom you "I had never spoken to him Intended to name except the sollellor

of Mrs Jones?"

No one at the Bar was more affable in his demeanour, and experienced in defendling a pri- his main interest appeared to that you had seen the solicitor soner 'upqu trial for murder centre around the effect created of Mrs Jones that he asked you. than Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett, by his personal appearance: to buy strychnine?"

No one could have worked

He said he was in no way harder in defence of a prisoner than Sir Henry in his efforts for concerned with, the death of Mr

"So the person who'`asked you Vaquier. But his cross-examina- Jones, and denied all the rante-to buy the strychnine was some- tion of Mrs Jones threw little rin evidence against him, in- body, to whom you had never cluding that of Mrs Jones as to Hight upon the major problem.

spoken before?" There was certainly no pos- an alleged confession. siblo suggestion against George, The interest in court really the potman at the Blue Anchor, developed when he commenced before." of whom Vaquier had said: "Ie his explanation of the possey- has an Incontestable ascendancy sion of the strychnine. over Mry Jones." There was à He admitted the purchases

there for eight daya" vague suggestion that she had from Mr Bland, with one im

"What did you mean by your a solicitor who was in love with portant exception.

"He told me he was very busy statement in which you Bay this her, and that' was nil.

He alleged that ho had pur- and had not time to buy it." "I think the second act of the drama Two servants were called. chased 25 grammes of strych-

"He gave you a sovereign for will be the ulamppearance of the wife The main point emerging from nine, and not the amount pre- the purchase?"

Fearne 7" their evidence consisted in the viously mentioned by the

"Becauso George had not perhaps o clear conscience with regard to peculiarity of Vaquior's deter chemist, and he admitted buy- "Did that strike you as a Mrs Jones because he might know mination to sit in the cold and ing 100 grammes of chloroform. Iarge sum of money to buy comething." cheerless bar parlour on the He made no reference what enough strychnine for

"Did you not mean, by that sug- morning of Jones's death; the over to the name under which dog?"

gestion that the next person to be murdered, would be George's wifo?"

"Did you know of any reason why he could not buy the pol- won for himself?"

"A pound noto."

one

"uld that the solleitor of Mrs Jones could not have put the poison in the bottle since he had not been

of

purchased.

the appeal, the court pointed out that It was, however, quite useless. At such a quantity of strychnine if purchased by Vaquier would com- pletely dispose of the defence argument at the trial that the amount or strychnine found in the dead

man's body was in excess of the lotal amount ever traced to Vaquler's possession.

The appen was dismissed and Vaquler was hanged at Wandaworth Prison.

NEXT WEEK Why no finger-prints? One question that saved a life.

GILMANS

ANNOUNCE THEIR

1949

MOTOR SHOW

displaying

HUMBER

HILLMAN ·

SUNBEAM TALBOT

CARS

JANUARY 21ST

28TH

AT THEIR SHOWROOMS

132 Nathan Road, K'loon.

Telephones 58800 and 56789.

FOR THE RACES

MAKE IT A REALLY

HAPPY VALLEY

WITH

THE LITER THAT

THE LIGHTER

WITH VISIBLE

FUEL SUPPLY

NEVER FAILS

Ritepoint LITER

RETAIL & WHOLESALE

G. FALCONER & CO. (H.K.) LTD.

UNION BUILDING

THE NEWS IS SPREADING !

FUHIL'S makes

wizard Fish & Chips.

You can eat them

in the cambert Highes

modern want he 06--128. *. - -

Fuhn's

Qudy the best Salz

Of you can pay in

and buy them t

Take away with you

·FOR FINE FISH AND CHIPS Į

46, Queen's Road East. Back of Soldiers' & Sailors' Home.

FAMOUS BELL"&;HOWELL:

Filmo Diplomat

Finest, Most Complete 16mm Movie Projectort.

It's newly improved, finer than ever before...precision. built by the makers of Holly- wood's professional equip ment. All-gear drive through. out-na belix, no chains. Color. corrected lens, Exillaut 1000- watt illumination. Completo protection for your finest films. Come in today!''

FILMO DEPOT Agents for BELL & HOWELL CO.

Marina House

Tel; 32153

THE DISCRIMINATING SMOKER'S CHOICE RICHARD LLOYD & SONS

IN LONDON ENGLAND

VRAOR

MARK

WIR

(MIXTURE PIPE TOBACCO

FOUR STRENGTHS, EXTRA MILD, 'MILD, MEDIUM AND FULL

BUY A TIN TO-DAY

OPTICIANS

голом

Chinese Optical Co.

67 Queen's Road

Tel: 23368