A “TRAGEDY” EXPLAINED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3582, 4 January 1927, Page 3

A “TRAGEDY” EXPLAINED.

HOAX WHICH MISCARRIED. \ The blood-stained razor and other evidences of tragedy found on Queen’s Wharf on the night of December 20, have proved to he nothing more than the accessories of grisly humonr, says the Auckland Herald. The joke did not operate strictly according to schedule, and the police spent some time in exhaustive inquiry before it was established that there had not been a double suicide. The sensational discovery was made by the police late at night. An old grey cap and a coat lay at the top of the steps on the end of the wharf. There was an abundance-of blood on the steps and the tell-tale razor apparently provided the explanation. In the. pocket of the coat was a letter reading: “Don’t worry to look for us. We have failed and cannot face the world any longer. Good-bye.—W.S.” In spite of the request, the police looked very hard that night and prosecuted numerous inquiries in the days following, while waiting for the sea to give up its dead. It now appears that two men staged the “tragedy” for the mystification of a Harbour Board patrolman. An opportunity for demonstration of electronic reactions was missed, since it is believed that a blood test might have revealed that the most convincing part of the picture had its origin in a butcher’s shop.