MURDER MYSTERY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 133, 23 October 1912, Page 7

MURDER MYSTERY.

EASTBOURNE TRAG ED Y. UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT. London, September 1. A somewhat surprising turn has been given to the mystery of the identity of the central figure in the Eastbourne tragedy, "Robert Hicks Murray." The sister of Robert Henry Money, a brother of Miss Money, who met her death in the Mersham tunnel in September, 1905, under circumstances that have never been properly cleared up, has declared that the writing of the Eastbourne murderer is that of her brother "Bob," and Florence "Murray," who was badly wounded by "Murray" at the time her sister Edith and their children were murdered, has identified the portrait of "Bob" Money as that of the man with whom she had lived. There still, however, remains a good deal of doubt aB to the real identity of the author of the Eastbourne tragedy. "Bob" Money's brothers are dissatisfied with the alleged identification of "Murray" as their brother, and there is much to be said in favor of their disinclination to accept , the identification.

WHERE PORTRAITS DIFFER. For one thing the alleged portraits, line ; and half-tone, published of "Mur--I" v,, a, ; d "Money," and the description oi the two men, are very much at variance. Tn one portrait, for instance, Murray is shown as an open-faced, good-lookmg young man with a straight nose, j arßo) firm-looking chin, and ears with decided lobes, and a fairlv large mouth with moderately full lips." whereas in another he is shown as a thin-faced man with a thin, high nose, a mouth that droops at the corners, thin lips, and ears with scarcely any lobes. "Murray " moreover, was generally described as 'having a military appearance." whereas "Bob" Money's 'brothers declare that he was only sft 4in in height, and tallied so little with the description given that, as one brother said, "anyone who took him for a soldier must have been mad."

SISTER QUITE SURE. The brothers are so dissatisfied with the alleged identification that they are seeking to bring about the disinterment of the remains.at..Eastbourne. Still, there are many striking corroborations of the theory that "Murray" and "Bob" Money were one and the same man. Money's sister, Mrs. Frith, is quite positive on the point, the police who have the case in hand seem fairlv well satisfied with the identification, and a portion of the London press apparently takes it for granted that there can be no question as to the dead murderer's identity. But the very papers that accept without reservation the theory that "Money" and "Murray" were one,' do not agree at all in their stories of Money's career during the .years he has been estranged from his family. The brothers and Mrs. Frith admit.'that they know little or nothing about "Bob's" ..career during the past four or five years. : and the tales of outsiders as to the doings of Money manifestly consist chiefly of mere assertion aid, assumption.

NO WORD FROM "BOB." The strongest' point in favor of the 'theory that "Murray" and "Money" were the ;sam6 man is, of course, the fact that in spite of the .tremendous amount of v .publicity- given ...tq.,the Eastbourne tragedy "Bob" Money remains silent. If he were a-Uye and-in.any civilised land it is'inconceivable' that*"he should still be ignorant of.ihe tragedy and of the connection of his name therewith. Even so, he may have good reasons for desiring to lie reckoned among the dead. He would not be the only man walking about the earth to-day who could, if he SO desired, read his own epitaph, and there arc many .men, and possibly not a few women, who would be only too pleased to read their own, obituaries in the. even,in, connection with such a grim tragedy of lives and shattered hopes, despair and wholesale murder as that iu which , Murray, alias Hicks, alias Money, played the leading role.