HIT WITH AN AXE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 43, 20 February 1926, Page 23

HIT WITH AN AXE.

COUPLE ATTACKED IN BED. TIED UP WITH TOWELS, Attacked while asleep at his home in. Saskatoon (Canada) with a wedge-shaped weapon, presumably an axe, some time after 10.3Q, James E. Johnson, railway mail clerk, was found unconscious by the city., police, summoned by his wife, who, bound hand and fopt, contrived to • attract the attention of the long distance telephone operator by manipulating the dial with a toothpick held between her teeth. The woman, in a hysterical'condition, was loosened from, the towels and strips of linen with which she was bound. When Constable, Flavell arrived on the scene he found the woman in the' living room, hysterical and with the bonds of her legs partially loosened.. After releasing her he went into the bedroom, where Johnson lay on the bed unconscious with five wounds in his head, one, on the temple, evir dently made with a sharp instrument. Room Like Shambles. , The room ■• itself v was a veritable shambles, the walls being splashed with bipod, while the sheets and bedding were also bespattered- Johnson was rushed to the city hospital, while the woman, after a brief questioning by the police, -who were unable to get even scant information from her owing to her condition, was taken to her sister's home a few doors away. An 'axe; stained with what may be blood, was found in the cellar. A strange circumstance is that' Johnson's dog, known by neighbours as an efficient watcher, appears to have given" no alarm of 'any intruder to his master or misttess. No Motive Known. . . The police are at a loss to find any mptire or to niake any assumption as to the identity of the assailant. No clues of any kind other than the axe in the basement of - the house with- what is thought to be blood stains on the handle and head have ijeen discovered by. the authorities. This may or may not have been the instrument used by the vicious assailant in dealing the murderous blows. It' is thought quite probable that murder was the intent of the unknown attacker. _ ■