FATAL QUARREL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 9

FATAL QUARREL.

ACTRESS' JEALOUSY. Mrs. Bates Post Shoots Friend Then Commits Suicide. DIVORCED HUSBAND'S GRIEF. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 11.30 a.m.) NEW YORK, April 25: Mrs. Guy Bates Post, divorced wife of the actor, and Mrs. Doris Murray Palmer, her close friend,

were found shot dead yesterday in the latter's bungalow here, in a tragedy which the police reconstructed as murder and suicide resulting from a quarrel over a .luncheon invitation. The authorities asserted to-day that Mrs. Post (53), and known on the stage in her youth as Adele Ritchie, shot her friend in the back when the latter started to go to the garage to drive off to a luncheon engagement, fifteen minutes after another friend had arrived with an invitation which did not include Mrs. Post. After brooding over the act for two hours, the police state Mrs. Post went to the business section on a shopping tour, striving to regain her calm, but returned to the bungalow some time later. She then placed the muzzle of the same revolver to her mouth and pulled the trigger. A Women's Quarrel. The tragedy, which Is one of the most sensational in the history of the theatri-cal-cinema colony liere i was discovered when two neighbours went to the bungalow to return a pet dog which had strayed. The police learned of the invitation and the quarrel from a friend, who was present while the women exchanged sharp words over the nouinclusion of Mrs. Post, and heard the latter .warn Mrs. Palmer against making the trip. The shot which was fired killing the latter entered the back and pierced the heart, while the suicidal charge pierced the brain.

Mr. and Mrs. Post were divorced in December, 1929, Mrs. Post charging her husband with desertion. The actor did not contest the suit. They had • been married sinco 1910, but had no children. Mrs. Post had been married once before, and divorced after a sensational trial. Following her separation from Mr. Post, she went and lived with Mrs. Palmer, and both worked together in the Little Theatre movement. Mrs. Palmer was the daughter of a wealthy Illinois resident, and the divorced wife of a leading Minnesota physician. She was 33 years old. Former Husband Annoyed. Mr. Post, who has ben playing in The Masquerader" in various parts of the English-speaking world for many years, and had featured in Australia during the 1925 season, is at present in Honolulu, playing the same part as guests of the stai local company. When informed of the tragedy he was profoundly shocked. Oh, that is terrible, simply terrible!" he exclaimed. Tlie actor continued: It is so startling to me. Mrs. Post had no enemies that I know of, and I cannot conceive either murder or suicide in connection with her or Mr 3. Palmer." He referred to the reasons for his divorce. He said that they were negligible," adding that to him she would always be. remembered as a "lovely, startling woman," whom he had married when she was the toast of New York for her singing and acting. "The two women had many things in common," he continued. "It is simply beyond me how this thing could have happened." The authorities have decided that Mrs. Post's fear that she was losing the close friendship of Mrs. Palmer caused the tragedy. Officials learned that Mrs. Palmer was gradually drawing away from Mrs. Post, whom the growing coolness greatly angered. Sheriff Jernigan stated that he had discovered that when Mrs. Palmer failed to rush to aid Mrs. Post when the latter was taken ill on Wednesday night, at a rehearsal, several witnesses heard Mrs. Post mutter, "I could kill that woman." , .