THE HOUSE OF DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 304, 22 December 1921, Page 8

THE HOUSE OF DEATH.

FOUR OF A FAMILY. DELIBERATELY GO WEST. !(From«Our Special Correspondent.)* LONDON, November 4. The final scenes in a most poignant tragedy took place yesterday in the Coroner's Court. Four people were fonnd dead:— Mr. Ernest Coates, 47, electrical engineer, formerly well-to-do, who was on bail from Bow Street charged with unlawfully converting a cheque to his own use. Mrs. 'Marie Coates, 62, his wife, who had been married three times, said to have been a nurse to King Alfonso. Mrs. Daisy Townsend, 28, Mrs. Coates' married daughter by her second marriage, a former actress, whose husband is in Australia. Henry Marin, 36, Mrs. Coates' son by her first marriage, who suffered from»the effects of war service. Their story as elicited in the court is as follow:— Mr. J. A. C. Keeves represented Mr. W. B. Goldsworth, a business associate of Mr. Ernest Coates. who had been charged at Bow-street Police Court with aiding and abetting him in the conversion of a cheque for £290. Mr. Edwin Coates, accountant and secretary, Lauderdale Buildings, Maidavale, formally identified his brother and the other persons. He last saw his brother about six months ago. Ho understood that he was in financial difficulties. The Coroner: What brought you into it ?—I received a letter on Monday morning. The Coroner (after reading the letter): What did it convey to you when you got this letter? Witness: It conveyed to mc that there was some tragedy. I went straight to my solicitors to ask them what I should do. They said: "Take it to the police station and see the inspector." I did so, and was accompanied by a policeman to the house, The Knowle, Court Road. The police made an entrance and I went for the doctor. "When I returned they let mc in, and I went into a bedroom at the back and a room at the front, a sort of sitting room. In the back room my brother and his wife were as if asleep, and iv a bed on the opposite side (there was one double and one single bed) was the body of Daisy Townsend. They were all dead. Did you notice anything unusual about them!— Nothing at all, except that the two ladies had their heads tied under the chin with a handkerchief round the jaw. I went into the other room, where there was the body of Henry Marin. He was lying on the bed dressed. There was a handkerchief over Iris face. Did you notice anything else unusual. —It gave mc a shock when 1 saw a bottle of champagne in the bedroom where my brother was. on a table at the foot "of the bed. There were four glasses. The coroner read an extract from the letter as follows:—'T am sorry to have to give yon this shock, 'but the fates are dead against mc. lam altogether without funds. I have no alternative. I have no funds to fight cither in the litigation."

The Coroner: Did that convey anythin" to you?—l had no idea there was any litigation. I knew lie was in pecuniary difficulties, hut 'beyond that I could nof. say. I had no personal knowledge of the litigation. I merely knew that he was in money difficulties because he applied to mc for assistance. I -knew nothin? 'beyond that. I found a will signed by himself, another signed by Marie Coates, and a third docunient which was a specimen form. (These ithe witness handed to the Coroner).

The Coroner looked through the will for some time, and then asked the witness if he had any objection to his dead brothers solicitor seeing it. The witness replied that he bad not, whereupon the Coroner observed that another will had been made by Mr. Coates. - ---' The Coroner: Did he ever suggest making away with ■himself?— Sever. The only information I had w-as in the vonclnding paragraph of the letter. His last phrase said he was "going into another garden."' A further extract from the letter read by tihe coroner ran: —"I am unable to continue, and leave it in tihe care of other handt=. I am going into another garden. Love to all." In reply to Mr. Keeves, the coroner said there was no specific reference in the letter to the charge at Bow Street. Mr. Coates, replying to Mr. Monckton (who represents his interests), said he had not seen ihis brother for six months. He had a letter from him in October applying for funds, and helped him. He knew his circumstances were far from affluent at the end.