MYSTERIOUS MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 94, 21 April 1924, Page 7

MYSTERIOUS MURDER.

OF AGED WIDOW. FIENDISH HUMOUR. (From Onr Special Correspondent.) LONDON, March 11. A strange story hae come to light through investigation into the death of Mrs. Reariey a widow who lived alone in Manmngham. She w» 8 found in her house dead, her head battered in with a hammer. Mrs. Reaney, who had just sold her house was 60 years of age, and this xaet adds its unusualness to the story *or, it now appears, she had sold her °^? e because she was getting married! The details bo far obtainable point to more than a passing connection between Her murder and her anticipated marriage. At the inquest yesterday the sister of the dead woman gave evidence, and told how the deceased, whose husband left her 24 years ago, went through a form of marriage afterwards with a Bradford builder named Gosling, believing that Beaney was dead. News of Reaney's death came later, and subsequently Gosling died. Some of the facts elicited by local inquiry point to a tragedy of deliberate planning and diabolic and fiendish humour indicative of a mind of inhuman cruelty. For nearly two years it would appear Mrs. Reaney has been in touch with some mysterious man who- wished to marry her, but no one near where she lived knows who the man is. This at least is known that, having sold her house, she instructed a furniture remover to move her, furniture to Bakewell, in Derbyshire, but only at the last moment did she give the removing man the full address:—Hymen House, Castleton Road, Buxton. On arriving at the house with their "biggest van," as ordered, the men found a notice on the door written in blue pencil, and what appears to be a man's handwriting, "Gone away to Buxton. Call 8 .a.m. Monday." Here is where the diabolic appears for there is no Hymen House nor a Castleton Road in Buxton, and Mrs. Reaney was inside the house lying with her head battered in. What then are the clues possibly linking the writer of the notice with tlie man she was to marry? It appears'that she told her niece she was contemplating marriage with a gentleman who was a sleeping partner in a firm of stockbrokers and auctioneers. He was 50 years of age, she said. She was warned that the man might be after her money, for apart from the proceeds of the sale of her house, Mrs. Reaney had inherited money under the .will of her first husband. . But Mrs: Reaney aesured her confidantes that her suitor had money of his own. He had once shown her a i cheque for £500, and he was expecting to receive £1000 a year under an aunt's will. He. had impressed the necessity of secrecy upon her, and said that in order to benefit under the aunt's will he and a. sister respectively must be married secretly for three months. He never revealed hie address in the letters. The police have found several of i them at the widow's house, some written from Leeds, some from Harrogate, and most of them from Bradford. Mrs. Reaney used to write to him at an address in Leeds, which has proved to be an accommodation address, and, althrough from the letters it is evident that Be had called to see her, his visits were so carefully made that no one appears to have noticed him. One is led to suspect that the unknown visitor was gradually prevailing on Mrs. Reaney to realise upon her .property. At any rate, she suddenly instructed a local agent to sell her house last DecemShe gave up taking in lodgers, and undoubtedly had made up her mind to marry. She told the house agent as much. ... There the mystery rests, and the inquest proceedings were adjourned for a •fortnight.'