UNSOLVED MURDER

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 86, 5 January 1935, Page 6

UNSOLVED MURDER

Search for Motive

The most difficult murders, from the point of view of the investigating detective, are often those which appear to be the simplest. An example of this is the shop crime which Scotland Yard men are now investigating at Yarmouth —the murder of Horace Butcher, CB, marine store dealer, who was found dead in his shop on October 17. Butcher was killed in a crude and ferocious manner by someone who split his skull open with a 71b. weight used in the shop.

It might be thought that such a crime, distinguished only by its brutality, would present no Insuperable obstacle to the police. But, although one of the best detectives at Scotland Yard —Chief Inspector Barker—has been working day and night on the case for more than three weeks, all the investigations have so far led nowhere. There is now a real danger that the crime may never be solved. Much has been done by the police, but the only tangible result of their inquiries is that four of the scores of men who have been the subject of investigation pre now serving prison sentences for minor offences. It has been established that these four men, while guilty of less serious crimes, could have" had no hand in the killing of Mr. Butcher. Even the motive for that crime and the circumstance in which it was committed remain obscure in spite of the most thorough police inquiries. Robbery is the usual motive in a murder of this kind. But there is no indication that anything was stolen from Mr. Butcher or his shop. Two £1 notes and some loose silver were found on the dead man. Neither the shop nor the living apartments ,had been ransacked.

Vengeance may have been the motive, but Mr. Butcher was a man who shunned the society of his fellow men. His private life is a closed book. Another alternative is that the murder was committed by a maniac, or by

someone whose brain was inflamed by taking methylated spirits or some other noxious drink. The task of the police has been made still more difficult on account of the fact that Yarmouth is a port. The murderer may be a seaman who is now far away. Mr. Butcher’s shop is in the old part of the town—in a street intersected by innumerable narrow passage ways known locally as,"rows.” The side entrance to the shop—and it was through the side entrance “that the murderer must have entered and left —is in one of these dark rows. So it was a simple matter for the criminal to escape unobserved.

Mr. Butcher went out at about 9 o’clock in the evening. He made his usual round of a number of public housps and returned just after the public houses closed at 10.30. Next day he was found dead. The first two of the terrible blows which killed him had pierced his bowler hat. The indications are that the murderer was waiting for Mr. Butcher in the dark passageway, and struck him down as soon as he entered. After the first onslaught Mr. Butcher managed to crawl to the sofa in the sitting room.

The criminal appears to have been determined to take no chance that Mr. Butcher should survive the attack. The heavy weight was crashed down, on the old man’s skull again and again. How could the murderer have made his way into the shop? The side door was secured by a Yale lock, but it is believed that Mr, Butcher usually left this on the latch when he went out in the evening. But the latch was down when Mr. Butcher’s body was found. The balance of probability is that Mr. Butcher was killed by someone who knew him and had studied his habits. Yet, search as they may, the police are still unable to find any individual with any malice against this aloof and eccentric old man.