LIVED WITH THE DEAD.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1919, Page 11

LIVED WITH THE DEAD.

MAN WITH WIFE'S CORPSE, AN AMAZING DISCOVERY. London, Nov. 5. A tragedy, the details of which startiingly resemble Poe's famous story, "The Oblong Box," has been discovered at a King's Cross lodginghouse. An eccentric elderly man, passing under the name of Dr. Arthur Gooeh, lived in the same room as his dead wife for days. ( The discovery was made through fJooch not taking letters which were left on the doormat. The doar was tried, and knocks being unanswered, it was burst in, and Gooch was found lying dead in the bed, with an empty bottle which had contained prussie acid clasped in his hand.

His wife's corpse, which was lying on a mattress supported by chairs, waß in a terrible state of decomposition. The woman was last seen in May, since when Goocii had pretended that'she ivas ill. He completely deceived the other lodgers. He would carefully lock the door when going out, calling "Good-bve, darling," and taking sympathetic messages from the lodgers, to whom h\ brought replies. A post-mortem examination reveals th.it the woman died from natural causes, Uooeh was a devoted husband, but little was known of his home life. Nobody was ever admitted to his bedroom, which was. labelled "waitingroom." Gooch held an Oxford science degree, and he earned a comfortable income as science tutor and instructor of many army and naval officers. The coroner's investigation disclosed that the couple had lived a hermit-like oxistence for many years. Dr. Gooch is described as a clever medical scientist and lecturer, but a cont firmed drug-taker, consuming great quantities of chlorodyne alternated with alcohol. He left a letter addressed to the coroner, saying: "My wife refused to enter a hospital, so we decided to die together." The coroner returned a verdict that 0-1 wife's death was due to natural causes. A doctor gave* evidence that Mrs. Gooch had died about ten days before the discovery of Gooch.