WIDOW KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 171, 21 July 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

WIDOW KILLED.

PIANO STOOL USED AS Wt«run, CLERK'S SUICIDE. Twenty-five years ago Mrs. Ada Gilbert Dennis was one of the best-known modistes in Washington, United States. She served most of the exclusive families ia the capital, and many of the fine gowns seen at White House receptions were the work of her hands and those of her assistants. She was a widow. Her apartments were on the first floor, while the rooms in the upper storeys of her house were let by her (in annual leases. Early on the morning of October -TO, 100*2. ,1 coloured porter euipl"> ' '>) Mrs. Dennis came to v ork as usual. in•• I thy shop, and then, into i ■ U-el. parlour, found the diessm;. •I> iiij; in a pool of her own blood. The feat oi a piiun. stood had been unscrewed, and lav on the floor, smeared with blood- I here was no doubt that the woman had been murdered, and that Ihe wooden seat was the weapon with which the deed had been <l"lje. The coloured man was terrified by the v* fiil sight, and his cries aroused the tenants on the upper floors. They assisted him in calling the police, and then the long and fruitless investigation began. There was no signs of a struggle, and the belief was that the victim had been killed by the first blow of the piano stool. Footprints were found <>ti the window sill *'■ the front room, which indicated liit* i ll l*' murderer had entered in thatviaj. I i. i.i' t thai, the sill "as only a few feet al the -round showed how easy it ■ iif a man to enter and make bis CM' 11 s generally believed that she was rr,■ i: rI. :.] while lying in bed. The first mii mifc Mas that she had been killed for gam but strange to say not a single article in ♦he Dennis horn# had been disturbed. 1 Ii • tin i >rv of revenge was then considered, 1> ' fli.it- brought no results, because the rlrnd '.'Oman had been well liked, and v-as noi known to have a single enemy. \' the outset the negro porter was susp.fiffj. but he bore a good character, and • as *ble to account for bis movements tor ail of th« preceding night. More than tbis he was known to have only toe bost of goodwill toward to

Eccentric Clerk. Detectives were sent to other cities to trace the lite of Mrs. Dennis. and to iuterview her friends, but none ot these trips proved to be fruitful. She had lived a normal life, and there was no reason why tragedy should have ended it in such a dramatic fashionThe (time was the talk of the hour in H ashiiigtoii, and one day a man in one of Hi.: .-Imps casually remarked th;it he knew tin- police were shadowing him in connection with the murder. This was not tin.', hut when this talk was brought to their intention they did shadow him in earnest. He proved to be a clerk 111 one or the Federal Departments. It was discovered that he was an eccentric person who was regarded as harmless by his associates. At his boarding house it was stated that lie had been posting copies of the newspapers containing reports of the murder to out-of-town friends. These papers "ere marked to indicate special passages. It. was also said that he had spoken of Mrs. Dennis more than once, and had expressed the belief that she was a very I attractive-looking person. All ot this might have meant something ] or nothing, but three days after the murder the authorities were shocked by the announcement that the man had committed suicide by inhaling gas. That ended the case so far as he was concerned. There was nothing whatever to prove that lie .lad been in the Dennis house, or near it, on the night of the tragedy. Hut with uis death the police were in a fog from which they were unable to emerge. One theory is that the person who slipped into the house that night bv means of the window might have been someone with a perverted mind who was suddenly seized with an unexpected and uncontroll able murder mania.