DARK MYSTERIES OF XMAS. UNSOLVED YULETIDE CRIMES.

Auckland Star, Volume 304, Issue 304, 23 December 1926, Page 4 (Supplement)

DARK MYSTERIES OF XMAS. UNSOLVED YULETIDE CRIMES.

Among the stories, traditional and other, there is often one of real life and of more or less "newsy" interest. For the Yuletide spirit does not affect all alike. While in general its influence is for good, it is sometimes for evil, and, as a result, many a mysterious crime mars the festive season and is discussed in front of the Yule log. A remarkable instance has become a 'leading case" in Canada. Shortly before Christmas, 1919, a millionaire theatreowner of Toronto left his office as usual to go home to dinner. He was seen to join the crowd in the streets, and then he disappeared completely. Shortly afterwards a reward of £100, subsequently increased to £1000 and then £10,000, was offered for information concerning the missing man. The millionaire's wife employed a number of detectives to search for him, and these followed up clues in the United States and England, one of them travelling nearly thirty thousand miles. When, eleven months after the disappearance, a caretaker reported to the police that about the time of the mysterious happening he had seen two men carrying something apparently heavy from a motor car to a refuse dump, steps were at once taken to probe the matter to the bottom. A huge steam shovel was obtained, and with this all the ground about the place pointed out by the caretaker was turned over until not a cubic yard remained unexplored, the mechanical navvy penetrating so deep as to expose the virgin soil many feet below the surface. Nothing of importance, however, was found. So the search has gone on ever since. But, for all that is known, the solution of the riddle is as far off now as it was when the wife reported her husband's disappearance to the police, though they have long suspected foul play. No less strange, out for a different reason, is the Hanbury Street mystery —one gf many mysteries of the. East End of London. A building in that thoroughfare was occupied by Samuel Millstein, who let off the upper portion, used the shop as an eating-house, and allowed the front part of the cellars to be turned into a gambling den, the noise from which was so great that ultimately the neighbours, unable to get any sleep, insisted that the tenants should be given notice to quit. So Millstein ordered them to clear out.

unfortunate victim lea>e the house in the same w T ay? As no money was miss. ing, what was the motive of the crime? What was the significance of the broken stick, one portion of which was found near the body? What about the struggle in the passage? These and other puzzles were pondered again and again. But they were not solved then, nor have they been solved since. Hoodwinking the Police. Several of the great robberies which have taken place during Christmastide also remain unsolved enigmas. One of the most sensational occurred in Lombard Street, and, though it involved the loss of £3000, it is still a mystery. The scene of the affair was the office of a firm of bullion merchants. When the staff reached it one morning, it was found that the strong room had been entered, the safe door removed from its hinges, and cash to the value of £3000 as well as a quantity of papers, carried off. Further investigation showed that the robbery had been carefully planned. The street door, for instance, was usually fastened on the inside by a crossbar and bolts, which, of course, could not be operated from the outside. Knowing this and fearing that if the door was left open it would attract the attention of the police, the thieves, when about to leave the premises, screwed a sprint* latch on the inside of the door. So that by pulling it to behind them as they departed they automatically locked it. Still more singular was it that no noise was heard. On the top of the building lived the caretaker, an elderly woman, and she was in her apartments while the robbers were at work below. A watchdog, too, was kept on the premises, and allowed to roam freely about the place at night. But, though he usually barked at the slightest sound, he gave not the slightest audible warning during the period when the burglars must have been in the building. Probably he was drugged, because the following morning a strap which had been left in the safe overnight was found round his neck. Altogether, the Lombard Street robbery was a problem indeed, and ultimately the police came to the conclusion that neither the thieves nor the booty would ever be discovered.