Man in Grey Suit

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 419, 30 July 1928, Page 11

Man in Grey Suit

CLUE TO WOMAN’S MURDERER

Callous Golf-Links Crime

A MAN, believed to be an Englishman, wearing a trench coat over a grey suit and walking with a bicycle—this is tlie mysterious person for whom the police are searching in connection with the brutal murder of Mrs. Florence Aline Wilson, aged 55, a rich Englishwoman, at the fashionable French resort, Le Touquet, 15 miles from Boulogne.

■\TRS. WILSON was the daughter of Mr. Charles Cammell, a son of one of the founders of the famous steel firm of Cammell, Laird and Co. She became the" wife of Mr. Wilson, himself a director of that firm. The murdered woman was staying at Le Touquet at a villa called “My Rose.” She had decided to walk home alone from the golf club through the pine woods in which the French resort is situated. She did not reach her villa. Her husband then informed the police she was missing, and, after an allnight search, her body was found at a lonely spot in the woods. The body was terribly mutilated. No fewer than 14 knife wounds were found'in it, and there was evidence of strangulation. No weapon has beeh found.

It was at first believed that a pocketknife handle, picked up close by with a broken blade, was the cause of the wounds. This has not proved to be the case, the marks of rust showing that it had been thrown away some time before the crime occurred, nor has there been any broken blade found in the wounds. The body was found lying in some bushes close to a tram-line. The knees were drawn up, and the clothing disarranged. Although Mrs. Wilson had been wearing some jewellery at the time of the attack it was not stolen, and the little money that she was known to have with her was intact. Fierce Fight For Life Mrs. Wilson had apparently defended herself with considerable courage. There were signs of a fierce struggle, and the undergrowth was trampled down for several yards round the body. Five members of the French flying squad were early on the scene and two suspects were quickly arrested—one Andre Vambre, a deaf mute, and the other an unnamed Portuguese. Vambre, however, practically proved an alibi, and the Portuguese

also was soon released. It was found that he could not have been connected with the murder. The statements of two witnesses, however, have since set the police off on the new line of inquiry regarding the stranger in grey. One of these witnesses is Miss Bowman, an Englishwoman staying at a boardinghouse on the Boulevard-sur-Mer, and* the other Mile. Dieulot, of the same address. Miss Bowman is a London woman, who signed a written statement at the police bureau to the effect that she was walking along the tram-track near the scene of the murder, almost at the time when the crime is believed to have been committed, when she saw a man in a grey suit, apparently an Englishman, walking along the track. Mile. Dieulot said she thought the man was an Englishman, although she could not be certain about it, but he was undoubtedly smoking English tobacco. Later this person stopped at a place near the casino to make a purchase. The police are now making exhaustive injuries, both at the casino and in the neighbourhood, regarding the clues that have come into their possession. Two English workers at the golf club. Miss Graham and Miss Lloyd, have also come forward with a statement that they were “pulled up” by a man unknown to them the day before the murder, not very far from the ’ spot where Mrs. Wilson’s body was found. They have described this man, who was fairly well dressed, and this description tallies with that of the witnesses who came forward to give evidence of having seen a man near the ■ spot with a bicycle. ' Miss Madge Lloyd says such a man j approached her one day, before the 5 crime, and wanted to show her a body > he had found in the wood. She went back to the golf club, : where she works, and told of the inL cident. Permission has been given by the [ police authorities for the body of Mrs. Wilson to be sent to England for crer : mation. ; There is a feeling that the police

are working at top pressure to save the reputation of this very Anglicised coast. As a girl, Mrs. Wilson lived at Ditcham Park, near Petersfield. Later she and her husband lived at Stairburn, Workington. During the war Mrs. Wilson was a commandant of

the Bankfield Hospital for Wounded Soldiers, and her daughters did good work in connection with recruiting. Mr. Wilson is a former captain of the Cockermouth Golf Club, and Mrs. Wilson was particularly interested in otter hunting. She was a regular follower of the West Cumberland Otterhounds. She is. described as a vivacious woman, of a genial and energetic character. She took a keen interest in social service. Maitre Sergeant, the well-known Boulogne avocat, who was counsel for the Daniels family during' the inquiry into Nurse Daniels’s murder, has been called in to help in the investigations into Mrs. Wilson’s terrible end.