MYSTERIOUS MURDER

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 397, 2 April 1937, Page 5

MYSTERIOUS MURDER

TRAGEDY IN NEW YORK. ANGRY MOB AT FUNERAL. Suspect Rescued By Police. Press Association—Copyright. Received 10.25 a.m. New York, April 1. Apparently baffled by the murder, in a fourth floor apartment, of Mrs. Mary Gedeon, aged 54, her daughter Veronica, aged 20, and a tenant of a room, Frank Byrnes, aged 35, the police have begun a relentless questioning of the husband of Mrs Gedeon. They declare that they are not satisfied with his apparent alibis. A strange touch was added to the funeral to-day, when the angry mob of a thousand broke through the police lines and attacked Gedeon, a shrunken little man, who has been acting most strangely since the murder, such as spending his nights _bowling. Detectives pushed him into an automobile. Screaming women leaped on to the running-board and attempted to seize him. The mob were dispersed, with difficulty, by mounted police. The murder continues to be a nine days’ newspaper wonder. Mrs. Gedeon and her daughter were beaten and strangled, and Byrnes was stabbed six times in the head and face with an ice pick or stiletto. The mother’s body, partly clothed, was lying on t-he floor beside the bed, on which was the nude body of her daughter. Byrnes was on the floor in another bedroom. The clothing of the women was torn and scattered. A medical examiner said the mother had been criminally assaulted but the daughter apparently had not.

The police theory is that the mother was alone when attacked; that Byrnes arrived and retired unaware of the tragedy and was slain in his sleep, and that Veronica was next waylaid just inside the door and dragged into the bedroom. Veronica was an artist’s model. Byrnes was a waiter and formerly lived in England.