REPORTER FINDS WOMAN’S SLAYER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 454, 8 September 1928, Page 11

REPORTER FINDS WOMAN’S SLAYER

A NEGLECTED CLUE When Jane Constance, Professor of English Literature in Peoria College, was stabbed to death recently, the murderer took her wristlet w r atch, which was plainly marked with her initials. This was so obvious a clue that it was entirely neglected by the police. For five days leading detectives propounded intricate theories and chased two suspects, one to New York and the other toward San Francisco. A newspaper reporter went round among second-hand shops looking for the stolen watch. Within an hour he found it still plainly initialled with the dead woman’s name. A boy who had carried the watch to the second-hand dealer was easily traced. "I paid a dollar to a negro for it,” said the lad, leading the reporter to a coloured shoe-shiner named lebert Bastien. “Where did you get this watch?” asked the police when the reporter pointed out Bastien. “Why I just killed that woman. I needed a couple of dollars. How did you trace me?” replied the surprised negro.