MURDER IN LONELY MANSION

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 305, 21 December 1912, Page 17

MURDER IN LONELY MANSION

WEALTHY SPINSTKB'S TRAGIC DEATH. AT STXTT-FIVE DRESSED LIKE A CTRL OF TWENTT. A letter box which was so full that it refnsed to take any more led to the disrible murder committed at a lonely mansion at Rroughty Ferry, near Dundee. The victim was Miss Jeannie Milne, a wealthy and eccentric w>-»an of sixty-five. Her brother. .1 tobacco manufacturer, died about nine years ago. and left her property which yielded about £1,000 a year. After her brother's death Miss Milne continued to live at Elmgrove. the large house they had occupied together—a building of fourteen rooms, standing in its own grounds, and surrounded by trees and shrubs. There, in spite of all advice, she lived alone, without servant or companion. She spent most of her time in one room, prepared her own modest meals, and ate them at a corner of a book-Uttered table. Boobs when at home she spent most of her time reading, both in English and foreign languages. Although siity-five years of age. Miss Milne still believed that there was some romance left in life, and dressed like a girl of twenty. She was by no means unsociable with her few local friends, frequently attended concerts in Dundee, and v as a generous subscriber to church and mission funds. She paid frequent visits to London, and was in the metropolis for several mouths this year, visiting the theatres, and apparently enjoying social life. So far from being secretive, she was in the habit of discussing her affairs freely with chance acquaintances, and it is suggested that some careless conversation may have been responsible for the tragedy—that it may have induced a London thief to visit her lonely Scottish home. When the postman went to Miss Milne's house during the week-end, he found the box so full that it was difficult to insert another letter. It was evident that none had seen touched for some time, and as Miss Milne had not given her usual notice to the postal officials of her intended absence from home, he informed the police. On Sunday officers accordingly forced an entrance. They found Miss Milne dead in the hall with her legs bound, her head seriously injured, and a poker with which she had been beaten lying by her side. The Medical examination showed that death had taken place about a fortnight before. Miss Milne was wearing a coat and a bJood-stained straw hat, with the hatpin bent out of shape, as though by a blow, was lying in another part of the hall. Although there was money in the house, the only article of value missing was a valuable diamond ring which the dead woman was known to wear. This is, at present, the only clue on which the police have to work in tracing the murderer. MTSTEKIOUS STRANGER. From the fact that the victim's legs had been ried and the telephone wires cut, it is supposed that the intruder had planned to ransack the house, and that the blow on the head was intended merely to stun the old lady. Why the thief, after taking the ring, failed to search the house for further spoils is unknown. All the windows and doors were fastened, but the front door had only a spring lock, and could have been slammed by the murderer as he left. A stranger wearing a silk hat and a dark overcoat is stated to have been seen in the grounds of Elmgrove on October 13, approximately the date of the murder. When the mass of correspondence was taken from the letter box it was found that the oldest letter was dated October 14. All correspondence addressed to Miss Milne prior to that date had been opened by her. and was found in the house, but after that date hex communications bad been untouched. Miss Milne's frequent visits to London and the Continent were known to her friends, but the examination of her correspondence provided one surprise—that not so very long ago she visited Plymouth. The Dundee police and the Glasgow criminal investigation experts t are assisting them have asked the Lon*. a and Plymonth police to communicate with certain of Miss Milne's correspondents in those places. The manageress of an hotel in Southampton Row, where Miss Milne stayed in February this year, said on Tuesday: "Miss Milne first came here in November, 1911. She was an extraordinary old lady of eccentric habits, with a strange fondness for religious books. In fact, I think she had every symptom of religious mania, with a passion for visiting churches. "For a woman of her years she used to dress loudly, and I took particular notice of her peculiarly-shaped bonnet. She was always speaking somewhat foolishly about the money she possessed."