TRAIN TRAGEDIES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 53, 11 June 1910, Page 10

TRAIN TRAGEDIES

i'WVVAj GUIM IN GOMMITTKI) liX ■nil-: iron i;:>.\r>.

The lirulal murder of Mr. Xe-bit. the colliery bookkieper. on March 18th last. has once more brought into public notice the dangers of the compartment a.against the corridor system of railway carriages (says a Home paper).

There have been many such crimes, and over and over again the murderer has escaped, and never been identified. Most of us remember the Merstham Tunnel mvsterv. •■ On September 24th. 1003. the 'body' of Miss Man; Money, a bookkeeper, employed in a dairy at Lavender Hill, was found in Merstham Tunnel, horribly mutilated. The skull was smashed, and one leg severed from tlie body. At first it was believed that she had fallen from the carriage, but it was soon evident that the case was one of murder. HANDMARKS OX THE WALL.

She had 'been gagged with a long piece of her silk veil, while her hands were covered with soot, and there were handmarks on the black wall of the tunnel. A signalman asserted that he had seen two people struggling in a carriage as the train passed his box; but beyond this there was no evidence worth mentioning, and the Merstham Tunnel murder has remained a mystery to this da v.

The same may be said of the killing of Miss Camp, who was murdered in a South-Western railway carriage between Putney and Wandsworth on February 11 1897.

Less than four years ago all France was horrified by a most shocking robbery and murder on the railway. Platelayers inspecting the line on the night of November 10th, 11)06, stumbled across a body. Their lanterns showed an immensely powerful man, with a great cut across his forehead, just breathing his last. He proved to be a M. Gaillieheau, a commercial traveller. At first the case was, like that of Miss Money, supposed to be one of accident, but when the compartment was examined traces of a desperate struggle were dear.

AX UXSOLV KD MYSTERY. Indications .pointed to his assailants having attacked M. Gallicheau while asleep. Evidently he made a desperate fight for his life, and, after a struggle, in which the woodwork of the seats was torn and splintered, he was dragged to the door and hurled ont. His gout watch, rings, and other possessions had been stolen. Whether the crime was committed by one man, or by two confederates, was never discovered. There were no clues, and the murder is written down among the unsolved mysteries of crime.,

One of the most amazing railway crimes occurred some nine years ago, oil the line between Southampton and Waterloo. Mrs. King, wife of a clerk in the Ordnance Survey Department, caught the 11.16 express at Southampton. At Eastleigh a tall, well-dressed young man, with a black moustache, entered the compartment. At Winchester, the next stop, a Mr. Pearson, a well-known farmer, from Wimmall, near Winchester, got in. Presently, Mrs. King, who was looking out of the window", was startled by a sudden report, and, looking round, she saw Air. Pearson huddled up in his corner, while in the hands of the younger man was a revolver. The murderer then began rapidly rifling the pockets of his victim.

Mrs. King screamed for help, whereupon the man turned upon her, and.; grimly warning her to say her prayers, ipressed the muzzle of his pistol against her head, and fired. She fell unconscious, but. by a miracle, was not killed. As soon as the train slowed into Yauxhall, the murderer sprang from the carriage and bolted; but Mrs. King has revived, and her shrieks called the atteni tion of the officials. The murderer by this time was clear ; of the station, but the chase was hot at his heels. He rushed into some gasworks, and was collared toy a sturdy stoker. He proved to he an ex-soldier, a thoroughly ibad lot. who was already wanted for several robberies. The swiftness with which a train murder can he committed, and the ease with which the murderer can escape, were never so plainly illustrated 39 in the killing of Dr. Claussen, in the autumn of 1906. Dr. Claussen, a prominent Hamburg dentist, was found dying on the floor of :a carriage at a suburban station. He had just strength to gasp out that two stations before a young man had got in, and suddenly attacked him with a Iblunt instrument. Then he fell back dead.

A MUEDEBER AT SIXTEEN. The whole horrible tragedy had been enacted between two stations, only three minutes apart. At the second of these the murderer had calmly walked' out. holding a blood-stained handkerchief as though his nose were bleeding. The scoundrel was eventually caught. He was named Ruecker, and was only sixteen vears old. ,

When the night express from Turin reached Modane. early iriwhe morning of January 1-3, 1907, an English lady— Miss Susan Lowe —was found lying unconscious on the floor of a first-class compartment. Everything she had of value had (been stolen. Her skull was fractured, and it was only iby the operation known as trepanning that her life was saved.

When she was able to speak, she told how she had been attacked while asleep toy a man armed with a hammer. He had given her three frightful blows on the head. The weapon was afterwards discovered upon the floor of the carriage; but, though a number of arrests were made, the would-be murderer was not identified.

THE FATAL MEMORANDUM. India Ims recently been the scene of several horrible railway outrages. Little more than a year ago. an English lady —a Miss Taylor—was travelling on the Tndian North-Western from Lahore to Multan. where she was about to be married, when she was attacked by two Eurasians—half-castes who demanded her money and jewellery. They then ■proceeded to rifle her luggage, which contained her wedding presents. This was too much for the poor girl, and she iplnekily tried to stop them. One of the men turned on her with a knife, and stabbed her in the throat, killing her. The two scoundrels then concealed the stolen jewellery in the window-slot, writing down the number of the carriage so that they might get the vnlni\i\)\c< later on. This led to their undoing, for the memorandum of the number was found upon one of them, and both were arrested, anil met the fate they so richly deserved.