SINISTER FATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 261, 3 November 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

SINISTER FATE.

DEATH OF NEW YORK CLUBMAN

WAS IT JEALOUSY?

Death came to Joseph Bowne Elwell, the bridge whist expert and man of mystery, in its most sinister and most terrifying form. Still breathing, he was found with a bullet through his brain at 8 o'clock in the morning of June 11, 1920, in his apartment at 244, West 70th Street, New York City, where he lived alone. His body, found clad in his pyjamas, and slumped in a chair against the wall of the reception room on the first floor of the house, was still warm. He died a few hours later without being able to speak a word. He was found by his housekeeper, Mrs. Marie Larsen, when she arrived for the daily tidying up of the house. By his side were a number of letters which he had been reading when he met his fatal end. The doors and windows were securely locked. The theory of suicide was not entertained for a moment by the experts because he could not have held the pistol far enough away from his head to avoid powder burns. No weapon was found, no footprints, no evidence of a struggle. But on the floor was the stub of a cigarette different from the kind Elwell was in the habit of smoking, and also a 45-calibre shell such as is used* in an automatic army pistol. Later the detectives discovered a filmy silk garment cut in the shape of a kimona. With it were a boudoir cap and a pair of slippers. These vanished the day of the murder. The police also found in his apartment a list of women's names, thirty-five pictures of women and a number of letters from members of the female sex. Robbery was not the motive of the murder, and general belief was that one of the women whose pictures were in his possession must have been with Elwell at the time of his death. Elwell had been separated from his wife, and this, with his wealth, his gambling proclivities, his love of racing horses, his habit of frequenting cafes, and in general his association with the night life of New York City, combined to make this a case of unusual interest.

Divorcee's Host. I It was not difficult to trace his movements on the night before the murder. During the early part of the evening he| was one of a dinner party at one of the! large hotels. He was the host and one of his guests was a divorced woman whose husband was entertaining another woman in the same room. But there was not the slightest show of feeling between them, and all the members of the party were able to give a good account of themselves. After dinner the group, including Elwell, went to a roof garden theatre, where they remained until nearly 2 o'clock in the morning. At that hour all of them came downstairs and stood on the sidewalk talking for some minutes. Then the guests took a conveyance and started downtown, while Elwell, on foot, headed north. It is at this point that all positive evidences of Elwell'a movements are lost. One witness said he had seen the bridge expert in an upper Broadway dance hall at a much later hour in the morning. Another asserted that he had seen him driven home in a racing car at 2.30 in the morning, and finally a taxi cab driver asserted that he had taken him home direct from the hotel where the party had been dining. None of these conflicting stories helped to throw any light on the motive for the tragedy. Hundreds of investigators worked on the mystery and all they were able to find out was that he had been an unlovely character. By some he was called a parasite who had made a fortune with cards and the race track. His wife, who admitted that she had contemplated divorce proceedings, expressed the belief that he had committed suicide and was indignant that he had made no provision for her and their child. But everybody else was convinced that it was a deliberate murder. Elwell had scores of women admirers. Could it have been one of these, maddened by jealousy, who committed the crime? The police give it up and are content to have this famous crime rest in the lumber loom oi iinsoi/ed jaunteuu