INFATUATED WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 73, 27 March 1920, Page 19

INFATUATED WOMEN.

ACTOR'S SUICIDE SEQUEL. A TEST AXD A PARASITE. [An astounding storj- of a young adventurer who had spent some" months In prison, and a number of wealthy women who financed him. was related at the inquest at Westminster on Alexander Radford, alias Arthur Granville Alexander, found dead from an opium draught in a West Knd flat. One of the witnesses wss a married woman, fashionably dressed, She told the tragedy of her Infatuation witn this man, t'honc-li prior to bis death she had "dropped everything" and returned to her husband, an officer in the Royal Air Force. 1 The detective-sergeant who identified the body said that Alexander came out or prison In February last year after serving three months iv tbe second division for endeavouring to get £S2O worth of Jewellery from Messrs. Marred*. He also tried to ' pledge the credit of Sir Alexander Hood, who was then in Italy. At that time he told the police that he had squandered his father's fortune ot £20,000 which was left him. and though he followed no profession. w,is associated with "a number of influential women," who financed him. Amongst those mentioned was a widow and a married -woman of middle ape. Witness said the man also told them that he was a personal friend of Sir Alexander Hood. Witness further told the coroner that: Alexander said be took part In "Brewster's Millions" and "Romance." and had also done film work. I suppose you know a preat deal abont him?—l ,-ould not really cet to the bottom of things. Since he had been released he had .main been associated with wealthy I ril.i you know anything about his rela- ( lives?— When J arrested him he said he had none, and that he was born in Italy. | An amazing confession of a most unhappy entanglement was then made in the witness box by Mrs. Dorothy Watkins, 'an extremely handsome woman, who.gave her address as Cavendish -Square, and another address at ■Xalrnside House, near Inverness, Scotland. Considering the trying nature of the case, she save her evidence with considerable composure, and it -was only at the close of the proceedings, when her solicitor was speaking, that she broke down. She then went to the front of the court, and, until stopped by the coroner, made an impassioned appeal, ' for Ihe sake of the children," that her identity should not be disclosed iv the Tress. She said she was 20, and was married in 1310. -Her husband was 32. There were two children, a boy and a girL The dead man she knew by the name of Granville Alexander. His pet name was "Gran." They met on September 30, 1910. at the Brighton Metropole. at a dance, and she became very fond of him. ■Has he been up to Scotland?— Yes. Did your husband know about him?— Xo. but he did the last time. I was In Scotland a fortnight ago. I told my husband then that 1 had heard thlncs about this man, and wanted to end everything. 1 wanted my husband to help mc to drop the man. .My sister, mother, and all my friends were helping mc. And you were Infatuated with him?— Yes, at that time. Mrs. TVatklns said she "finished" witn this man on January 1, and he then came and tried to smash tbe door In. This was In London. Proceeding with her dramatic story, she showed how this man tried by all sorts of means to get her back again Into ills tolls. He threatened to kill ■himself. He swore he would kill her, too, if she left him. She consented to see him for a few minutes for the last time, but instead of going away he actually followed her up to .Scotland the ■ day after she fled there to escape nun. From the Station Hotel he wrote frantic letters beseeching her to come back to him I and not to give him up. "The suspense Is terrible," he wrote. 'She replied.in a note:— "Please don't write or wire to mc any more. I have quite made up my mind that It is utterly finished."' "I went to take my children to the cinema," said witness. "He was at the i window watching for mc to come out, ana ! told the maid he mtist see mc. 1 said, i 'Just for one minnte.' He then took a bottle of laudanum out of his pocket and j threatened to drink it, but I begged him t not to do so. "He begged mc to make It np with him," t said witness. "He said terrible things. 1 ; think he was mad. I told him to think it , over and not to do anything he had ; threatened." He did not answer her . letter, and she never saw- him again. j Equally dramatic vrere the stories of the witnesses who described the finding of the dead man in his room, ami the landlady's description of his life at the house ln Jermyn Street. He lived in one room on the first floor , back, and drank whisky neat till he had delirium tremens, running abont the honse ■ and making a noise and constantly calling | for "Nellie." He told the housekeeper that be was going to the South of France, and he paid her his bill and left. Actually he went to the Grosvenor Hotel, where he took a room, nnd was found by a chambermaid in the morning in a dying condition. ■How the room had been "arranged" as a death chamber, iv what the coroner described as "a contemptible, dramatic, and Ignominious manner," was described by Police-Sergeant Overton, who said:— "About tbe room he had scattered letters | (rhose written by "Mrs. Watklns). and he j had placed her photograph ln the room ana | jabbed it evidently several times with a . poker. The poker was left sticking ] through it." Other things that the sergeant found ln the room showed that he had been pawning several articles of Jewellery. His jewel case w-as empty, and his account was over- [ drawn. There was not a single coin or article of value of any description that he! could find. Uut there was a passport form filled ln. in w-hieh he described himself as Arthur Granville Alexander, a film actor. Some of the sordid pas', of this man was given by the same witness. Soon after his release from prison the man made the friendship of a well known and wealthy lady, who had allowed him ample means. She became infatuated -with >hlm, but the relatives of the woman discovered him as' an imposter, though, she would not believe ' ll - ! . In August last this lady died suddenly, I and he lost his source of income. j In returning a verdict of felo de se. the corener described in the strongest possible ■ terms -both tbe life and death of a man - who apparently -made a living by infatua- ■ ting foolish wealthy women, young or old. This type of man, he said, was to be found in London's West End, and, he supposed, ln all the capitals of Europe. - They would do anything rather than work. ' This man had--been battening upon women ■ and men, and was a pest and parasite on • society. .1 He died as he lived —ignominiously, • maliciously, and malevolently—because he had taken steps to drag down in his down-| i fall a woman who had done so much for : him. It was a contemptible, dramatic, and • ignominious mode of terminating his cii istence. This man, though young, was everything that was bad. In dying he : hoped also to destroy tbe happiness of a woman whom he had very nearly ruined.