RAZOR AS CLUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 213, 8 September 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

RAZOR AS CLUE.

WHO WAS KILLER OF BETTY JEFFS? I HIE I' ACQUITTED. Betty doffs mas a rathe- attractive matron who acted as the housekeeper for a Mr. IjPtt at 11. Montague Place. Bedford Square, London. Mr*. Jeffs, who was .1 widow, was very popular and, so lar as known, ha<l no enemies. On the night of December 31, 1821. her body wag found on the floor of the dining room of the Montague Place house. Her throat had been cut from ear to ear. There was the mark of a shoe print on her dress, the drawers of the sideboard had been ransacked and some of the mmily silver wae gone. On the floor was a razor case belonging to Mr. Lett, the owner of the house. Beside it was the razor which had evidently been used hi tiif commission of the crime. But as Mr. Lett had not been there that night the discovery meant nothing eo far as he was concerned. The police went on the scent at once and in the course of a day or so located a Aire. William*, who identified the razor as one of four that had belonged to her huribaml. She said that she had lent it to W il'iam Jones, a young man of 22, who wa.s Dot entirely unknown to the police. He was arrested iit once on the double charge of robbery and murder. At the outlet he admitted the robbery, but declared very emphatically that he *,ifi absolutely innocent of the murder. He could not explain the tragedy except that somebody else had been ia the house that night. There were a number of things which helped to make out a circumstantial case against WiUiurn Jones. Each detail in itself might, not have meant much, but fomleiied they reined to draw him into the net of the law. ii'ie of these things was the fa<'t that nvei-night lie had changed from a hard-tip >ouih t.«> a man of affluence. But after the murder he had money to spend and he upent it with the lavishness which '« " M 1 posed to characterise au intoxicated hdilor. Spots of Blood. \ntiit point that am used against h. ii v. .if a cut on the linger of his lett Haul. Hp said that it had happened wliile lie w.u-n chopping wood some dass before. But. it uas a fresh cut and it had ev ideuiiy been made by a razor. Tlurd and most serious of all was the fact that his blue coat had blood spots on it. His answer to this was that the o.oat. did uot belong to him, but had been borrowed from a friend. The story of the r. al does not explain the identity of the iriend. He entered the box and told w "at •ee; ii prj to be a #t raijfh t-f or war J «tory. He •mill that lie had gone to the Adelphi I \rtnt.re in the Strand on the night of the murder and had remained there until the fiiiow wan over. This statement wu« corroborated by "the lady friend,""who had him to tube theatre. After