A CITY OF MYSTERIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 138, 10 July 1909, Page 4

A CITY OF MYSTERIES.

Glasgow has been the scene of probably more really world-famous murder mysteries than' any other city of its size. Here lived Madeline Smith, the beautiful heiress, whos'e arrest on the charge of poisoning her lover, one Emile l'Anglier, created so tremendous a sensation. The trial lasted ten days, and ended in the eminently unsatisfactory verdict ' —peculiar to Scottish law—of "Not Proven." THE SALTMARKET AFFAIR. The luxurious home of Madeline's aristocratic parents was situated in Blythswood Square; and here, too, resided "Pritehard the Poisoner," a doctor who killed his wife and her mother by the administration of tartar emetic. Ho was one of the earliest of the "slow .poisoners," and one of the cruellest and most callou6.

Then there was the "Broomielaw Mystery," a mnrder of the now too familiar "trunk tragedy" type, the body of a young and pretty girl being found in a box in the middle of the thoroughfare in question one foggy November night. Glasgow's mystery of mysteries, however, was that known as the "Saltmarket Affair." An aged dealer in antiquities, living alone with an old housekeeper, was found one morning dead in 'bed, his throat having been cut from ear to ear, and all around signs of a fearful struggle. Upstairs the old retainer was also lying dead, shot through the heart. The street door was bolted on the inside, and the ground-floor shutters were also securely fastened from iwithin. ( No money or other property had, so far as could be ascertained, be* taken. if LOWERED FROM ABOVE BY A ROPE. The terrible deed, it turned out, had been committed by the deceased's own brother, & worthless scamp, by whom the old gentleman had long been blackmailed.

He had lowered himself to the level of his unhappy- relative's bedroom by a rope from arbove, and, having committed the double murder, had quietly made off, leaving everything intact, and intending later on to claim his victim's estate as the legal next-of-kin. This he indeed did, and the resultant enquiries led first to his arrest and ultimately to his death at the hands of the public executioner.