CRIME AND MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 248, 18 October 1924, Page 55 (Supplement)

CRIME AND MYSTERY.

FATAL FASCINATIONS

(By BARRY RICHMOND.)

The Lady Killers Callous Sensualist —James Canham Read—A Double Charatcer A Gifted Liar A Triangular Love Affair—Poor • Florence Dennis — The Scaffold. 'Besides those men who deliberately set out to fascinate women In order to live what may bo termed the professional ladykiller—the class of man whose one object in life Is amorous adventure. Sensual passion, not money, Is tae prime motive here. This, on the surface, gives their exploits a less sordid aspect. Nevertheless the annals of crime show that this species of predatory man can be just as deadly and pitiless as the other variety. Tie unmitigated sensualist is usually an exceptionally eallons Individual, and ruthless in obeying the impulses of unbridled P3ssion. Many a woman in the course or the world's history has lost her life simply T-'crause her existence threatened to Interrupt the busy sensualist's career of selfgra tinea tion. His Jekyll ana Hyde. As a specimen of this type of criminal we may take James Canham Read, who ™as hanged at the end of ISH for the oratal murder of a youag woman named Florence Dennis at Kouthend. A few months before this event Bead wouU have been the last man Iα the world thought capable of committing such a crime, certainly by his friends, relatives and acqnaintancee. Kead presents an extremely Interesting example of a dual nature endeavouring to exercise itself without restraint T>y means of a double life. Like many other men ana women, before and after him, he found that it U by no means so simple a thing to do as It may appear. One side of the dual nature econer or later asserts Itself over the The safe balance cannot be maintained. And it almost always happens that It Is the worse side that prevails. So It was with the two James Canham Beads. To the w,ortd he appeared a model Sasband ana father. His wife was an attractive woman of whom he seemed extremely fond, and who ba4 borne him eight children. He was, indeed, to all intents sad purposes very much of a family man, faced with all the usual responsibilities that the possession of a large family brings. These responsibilities he certainly appeared to recognise and cope with capably, like an affectionate, steady, industrious bneband an 4 father. He held a good position in the Boyal Albert Docks and was re?ognised by his employers as a man of considerable intelligence and integrity. Gift of Romantic Lying. So ranch for the more public aspect of Eead. Tie other, which was not so well revealed till after the tragedy at Southend, is not so pleasant to dwell on. The truth is that this devoted husband, this affectionate father of eight children, with his liappy domestic circle at Jamaica Street. ■Stepney, and. his responsible post at the t-'lgbbouring docks. Bad been for years in-d-jlging in illicit love affaire with the wives awl daughters of other men. He was, In fact, a man who made it hie sole hobby to eeduce one woman after another. After his arrest the police were •surprise* when they discovered the number of women and girls that Read had been secretly associated with in the course of hie amorous career. He was a good-looking fellow, with a lively manner that was an asset Jn itseir la making friendships. Though at the time of the. Southend tragedy he was thirty-eight years old, there was nothing stodgy or middle-age* about hie disposition. He fascinated women as much by his vivacity as by his looks. iAnd also he possessed a gift of romantic lying that made quite Interesting conversation, for Ms dupes. Ingenuity of Long Practice. Bead, in fact, lied so naturally that it is possible to Imagine him really at the mercy of his luxuriant Imagination. Undoubtedly lie regarded hl» sordid affairs as so many romantic love dramas with himself as a eort of Tristan. The key to thi3 theatrical side of his nature may be found in a passage in a letter to one of the young women whom ne had deceived. "Wβ have acted a drama in real life," he wrote, "by which onr only endlence—ourselves—have been deceived." Previously to the murder of Florence Dennis, Eeai, with the ingenuity born of long practice, was engaged in Illicit love affairs with three women at the same time. These were a Miss Kempton, whom he ■ettled in a little house known as Rose Cottage at Mitcham: Mrs. Ayriss. the wife of a TFandswortb dairyman; and Florence Dennis herself, who was Mrs. Ayriss' younger sister. Bead had struck up acquaintance witn Mrs. Ayries on the pier at Southend about five years previously. She was then living ■with her husband at Maypole Road, wandsworth, and for a Ion? while Bead constantly met her and wrote to her under rarions aliases. Tct Another Fairy Tale. This was one of his devices for avoiding detection in his intrigues. He used scores of different names for his correspondence, invented a whole imaginary life for himself, and regaled his victims with fictitious Incidents from it Mrs. Ayriss had no idea that her fascinating friend had a wife and eight children in Jamaica Street. Stepney, One day, after she had known Read for about three years, Mrs. Ayriss introduced him to her unmarried sister, Florence Dennis, a girl about twenty "years of age. Bead immediately began to stage a new romance for himself, though he was very carefnl not to betray tae new direction ef his affection to Mrs. Ayriss. She suspected eotbing for some time till a note in Bead's handwriting, waicu she discovered in Florence's pocket, enlightened her. She Immediately broke off her intimacy with Read. Meanwhile Read bad another adventure on hand. He had become acquainted with a Miss Kempton. a confectioner , » eesistant, whom he first met at Gloucester Boad Station. His good looks, affability, and sympathetic manner attracted her at once. They became very friendly, and Bead invented yet another fairy tale about himself. In an Awkward Plight. His name, be told her. was Edgar Beneon. He was unmarried, lived at Poplar, and had a father residing In the country whom he constantly had to go to see. This, of coarse, was to explain away the irequent calls made on his leisure by tne domestic establishment at Jamaica Street. When absent from Miss Kempton he need to write her long and affectionate letters, giving detailed accounts of his eorements, ■ all of which vrere utterly ftiie.

Sometimes he varied the mythical visit to his father with one, equally mythical, to a non-existent married Bister, a Mrs. Parker, of Canterbury. He Invented a circle of friends that he never had, among: them a Harry Edwards, who lived with his parents and had a charming sister namea Florence. He actually invited Miss Kemp ton to go and stay for a week-end with these non-existent people, but 6he declined. "My darling Beauty," he had written to her. "I am glad you are well and happy. Flo asks that you will go down. The party will be you aed I and Flo and Harry. Write soon, dearest girl. Fondest love from your devoted Edgar." While he was deceiving Miss Kempton with his talk about the fictitious Florence, the real Florence (Florence Dennis) was fondly imagining herself the sole possessor of his affections, and being fed by another set of lies when she complained that he did -not spend as much of his time wltli her as she considered he ought to. Read had, in fact, got himself into a very awkward position with Florence Dennis and Miss Kempton. Both were expecting to become mothers. Florence was pressing him to make arrangements for the coming event, and was distressed by the fact that, though he was a single man. so far as she knew, ne did not proposs to marry her. At the same time Mrs. Ayriss, with whom he seems to have renewed his friendship, discovered the existence of Mies Kempton, and was furious with Bead for twice deceiving her. It was a triangular dilemma -sufficient to tax the powers of a man possessed even Read undoubtedly had. Ingenious though he was, he was driven at last to the conclusion that in only one way could he escape exposure. This way he took, and one Jane morning in 1594 the dead body of Florence Dennis was discovered lying in a ditch bidden from the footpath by a hedge at Prittlewell, near Southend. She had been shot through the head and apparently killed instantly. It was never known by what means Florence Dennis was induced to go to Southend, but it was proved that the evening before her body was found ehe had received a telegram at her lodgings making an appointment, which she went out to keep, and from which she never returned. Bead had been in the habit of communicating with her by telegram. On this occasion, in order to cover up his tracks, Eead took the precaution of posting his telegram, stamped, in a pillarbox. As a further precaution he disguised bis handwriting. The Shock. We find Head on the morning after the tragedy sitting in his office at the Boyal Albert Docks, outwardly cool and intent on his official duties. The amorous adventurer was now a murderer, but he imagined himself secure from detention. His confidence was soon to receive n shock. In the course of the morning a telegram from Mrs. Ayriss was handed to him. It contained the three words; "Where is Florric?" These words must have struck his senses like a death-knell. However, he pulled himself together and sent off the reply: "What is the meaning of your extraordinary telegram? Have not seen young person for 18 months since you were at Wandaworth." The telegram dispatched, he turned his thoughts to flight. He could not mistake the sinister meaning underlying Mrs. Ayriss' query. Some time before his usual hour for stopping work he quitted the office, having first appropriated £160 of the dock company's money to provide means for his escape. He shaved off his | moustache, and might conceivably have escaped abroad, for though the body of the murdered girl had been discovered the police were not yet on his track. Betrayed by Temperament But the ruling passion was too strong for him. Instead of fleeing to the Continent or to America he fled to the arms Of a woman. Miss Kempton was residing in Bose Cottage, Mltcham. where he had installed her, and it was there he scurried. She was astonished by his change of appearance and his agitation, which he explained by saying that be was worried because his accounts were wrong. A week elapsed before he was arrested, and in his after moments he must often have bitterly cursed the trick of temperament that betrayed him into wasting in a last fatal indulgence of his tendencies those vital hours when lie might have been making good his escape from the hangman. Bead died on the scaffold without making confession. He always asserted that he fifty miles from Southend on the night of the tragedy. But the evidence, theragn clrcumstanßal, was overwhelming in proof nf his cuUt. and he was also identified as having been seen walking in a lane at prittlewell with the murdered girl the evening before her body was discovered. The singular thing is that a man whom, witness after witness described as of an Scir«onally kind and centla disposition could Save been guilty of auch a crime.