Page 8 Advertisements Column 1

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 311, 17 December 1936, Page 8

MURDER CHARGE. BOUND WIFE EXPOSED TO SNAKES FOUND IN POND THREE WEEK? AFTER WEDDING. A murder trial involving allegation! of cold-blooded cruelty almost un paralleled in the annals of America: crime, will begin at Los Angelei shortly. The two accused are: Rob ert James, barber; and Charles H Hope, cafe manager and forme; sailor. They are charged with having en tered into a grim murder compac to kill Mary Emma Bush James, 28 James’ wife, who was found drownei in a fish-pond after only three weeki of married life. Giving evidence before the gram jury, Hope alleged that James drug ged his wife, strapped her across i breakfast table with her mouth am eyes covered with adhesive tape, am thrust her bare leg into a box*con taining When she appeared to be still aliv? after some hours, James, it wai alleged, first drowned her in a bath and then took the body outside am threw it into the pool. Although it is alleged that Jamei at first confessed that he had drownei his, wife, he. later accused Hope oi subjecting her to the “snake torture,’ and maintained that the ex-sailor was the virtual killer. He declared that Hope posed as : medical student, and persuaded Mn James to allow herself to be bouni to the table, thinking she was to un dergo an illegal operation. James also alleged that Hope firs suggested the dreaded “Black Widow spiders of California, whose bite ii frequently fatal, as the instrument oi death before the rattlesnakes and th* eventual drowning. “All you have to do is to throv them in bed with her,” James quoted Hope as saying, after he had broughi a box of the poisonous insects to th/ house. While, in his evidence, Hope ad mitted bringing the rattlesnakes Iron “Snake Joe’s,” a snake farm in Pasa dena, he declared that he did so a James’ request, and he told the jurori how he assisted the barber in puttinj the body in the pool. Mrs James’ body was found in thi pond on August 3, 1985, and a cor oner’s ■ jury returned a verdict ol “Accidental drowning,” with the ad mission that a sting of some kind oi her leg might have been a contribu tory cause of death. It is claimed that insurance mone; is the motive, as James—who with I friend reported the discovery of th body to the authorities —asked doubl indemnity from the insurance com pany on the grounds of accidents death. The dead woman was James’ fifti wife. His fourth wife was foum face down in a bath-tub at Manito; Springs, Colorado, in 1932. The.coi oner reported that her death was du to drowning. The date of the trial has been fixe for June 22 at the Los Angele County Court.

ALL EXPLAINED. A suburbanite who had lost his las train home observed outside the sta lion an acquaintance in a slightly part worn condition, so he approached hie and said, “Would you mind giving rn a lift home?” “Thatsch all ri’ ole boy. Step in.' The other tactfully offered to driv apd in half an hour’s times they wer home. i “Now.” said the driver. looking a his acqualntance”s home, “where’* your garage?” “Don’t have a garage, ole boy.” “Then where do you keep you car?" “Don’t have a car, ole boy.” “Rut, good lord, when I saw yoi outside the station in town, you wer leaning against this car.” “1 )snow, ole boy, but when you fee as I do, you got to lean against some ‘Jiing.” NO MENTAL LOAD. •‘T want a book to take home wit! me ” “ips. sir: something light?” “ll.doesn’t matter; I have my ca* itside.”

S.A. —The Popular Cycle. Just count them on the road; they cant’ all be wrong. Lightband and Wann, Ltd.