A GRIM TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 299, 2 December 1936, Page 3

A GRIM TRAGEDY.

•VITOR •MOOTS GIRL AMD TH—HIMSELF. CINEMA CASHIER’S REVENGE. rinding that his love for a pretty girl cinema cashier was unrequited, a suitor took grim revenge. . He visited her home to make a last appeal for renewal of their courtship; th«n Shot the girl through the heart ■ad turned a revolver on himself with fatsj resulte. . “If I can’t have her, nobody else 4frilt,” Vn the cry Uttered by James Richardson, 42, of Waltham Cross, beforAfirteg three bullets at Elsie Abbott. 22 of Bye Park, near Hoddesdon, . Afhre Abbott, who lived with her *artat» at a Uttte toVtege at Rye Park, waa employed as cashier at a Waltham cinema. Ftnkkbout two years she and JUehariftoh had been sweethearts. They, becapie engaged, but a few weeks' Miss Abbott broke off the tafWnk OK th* day of the tragedy Richardson, -who had appeared heartbroken, did not go to work. He left home saying he was going to ckII on Miss * AbWtt MM! try to effect a- reconciliation. •

When / Richardson called at the cottage Jkfiss Abbott came in from the giftfeti, whbfe Mhe had been playing happily with h timber of children. Met In the Kitchen. ' WipTe niWt In the kitchen, and then. w<ht into-the front room for a •bort Wk. ” A> few minutes later, there was a iMpiuhahd the sound ,ot three shots. < girl's mother and her sister, Mrs Ivy Bloomfield, rushed into the front room. , / They were just in time to see Miss Abbott stagger back, and then, before their horrified eyes, Richardson bent his head Sown and shot himself. Afcriphfo description of the scene M the oOttage Was given by Mrs E. G. Hoad, another married sister of the dead girl. “My iftl’eY, Mrs IVy Bloomfield, heard a knock at the door, and found ‘Jimmy,’ as we knew him, there," declared Mrs Hoad. “He asked to see Elsie, and then walked Wrodgh into the kitchen to my hiother. < ■ “Elsie came in, and when they were in the. front room he was heard to ask, “Will you come back to me?’ and Elsie rtphed, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ BPM In Mother's Arms, I. -. ■ •’ 1 "There’ was a pause, and before the shdts rang out, ‘Jimmy’ was heard to ■ ■ ‘if I can’t have you, nobody else “Ivy was Just in time to catch Elsie u she collapsed. Elsie died in ffitrtheFa arms without uttering a sRfond. “It Is terrible. 1 know ‘Jimmy’ was very upset whe’n Elsie broke off thii eftgagetfient. “Elate told me she could not love him any more as he was so Jealous of her,,.. . •’Elsie was a charming girl. “It te awful that her life should have been cut short like this.’’