POSED AS A WIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 282, 28 November 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

POSED AS A WIFE.

ALLEGED MASQUERADE,

TALE OF COURTSHIP AND LEGACY. How a man was alleged, to Have masqueraded as a woman and lived with another man as his wife, was described, during the hearing of a remarkable case at St. Helens Police Court. The accused, Austin Hull (22), of no fixed abode, was committed for trial at Liverpool Assizes on a charge of indecency. Hull was arrested in Blackpool. When he appeared before the magistrates on a previous occasion he was wearing woman's attire. His fingers were manicured, his hair had a permanent wave beneath a woman's modern "bowler" hat, and he wore a leopard, skin coat, silk. stockings and high-heeled shoes. He now dressed in a man's blue suit. George Burrows said he met Hull while cycling last January. Hull was "dressed as a woman, and he (Burrows) believedhe was a woman. They spent the evening together at a cinema. told him he was single and was living with his sister, who was unkind. He said his name was Norma Jackson. Burrows gave him money. Elopement Suggested. Other meetings took place between them, because, said Burrows, each sympathised with the other in their unhappy domestic circumstances. "She she was kept alone in her room all day, added Burrows, "and she suggested we should elope. When I refused she threatened to drown herself if I did not agree to marry her. X said I was not fit to start courting seriously, as my health was too bad and I was constantly off work. Burrows said Hull refused to let him break off the courtship and suggested a quiet wedding. He agreed and for months they lived together in rooms. They discussed the question of marriage hundreds of times. Hull said they could give notice to the Whiston register office and be married three weeks later. Meanwhile, he said, they could live together, and no one would know. Posed as' Married. Before joining Hull afc St. Helens, he (Burrows) told his parents lie was married. "We lived together as man and wife," said Burrows, "and I told everyone we were married. During the whoie of that time I never had the faintest idea that Hull was not a woman. He did aIJ the household duties of a wife and I gave him my wages packet. I cannot remember all the details, because of the operations to my head." Hull, he added, dressed, walked and talked like a woman. Burrows told the Bench that they went to London together and stayed at Church Army hostels. Hull had told him that tic was expecting more than £5000 from an estate at Blackbrook, near fct. Helens, 011 reaching the age of 25, and suggested that they should get a loan on the legacy fro.a the estate. They quarrelled in London, and he pressed "her" to return to St. Helens to get married. Hull failed to keep an appointment to meet him in London, and lie had not seen "her" until "she" appeared in the dock that day.• n , Boardinghouse keepers from St. Helens and district gave evidence as to Hull and Burrows staying on their premises as man and wife. They never suspected that Hull was a man. He wore a wedding ring and behaved like a woman. Hull was committed for trial.

Coroner: That his head was punched, and he was thrown out?—l don't know anything about it. You remember at the last sitting the unnamed man repeated - that you threatened him. Can you explain why he should invent such a circumstantial statement? —He had invented several circumstantial statements. Baffling Caso. Mr. Oddie said that that was all the evidence he hafd been able to get in that very baffling case. The girl might have fallen out of the window accidentally, or she might have jumped out to commit suicide, or in apprehension that she was in danger from some person who was molesting her. H that were so, the person molesting her would be responsible in law for at least manslaughter, and possibly murder. It was also possible she might have jumped out in a momeijt of wild panic, thinking she was locked, in the place and could not get out. She might even have thought she was going to be assaulted,' when there was no Ekelihood of that, in which case her death would be accidental. She was by no means "down and out," as had been suggested, and she had been able to buy a dress that day and still have £3 odd in her purse. She had arranged to go to Euston in the morning, and that did not look like suicide. "Having seen the landing window at the hotel, I do not hesitate to say that ip was impossible for the girl to have fallen accidentally out of it, but as to the Bed-,

room window it would have been quite easy for a person to fall out, provided she first of all pulled the dressing table away from it," said Mr. Oddie. _ "If that were so, that she accidentally fell out of the window, who shut it? Tie evidence is that the dressing table was in its former position, and the window was closed directly after the/discovery of the body. ' - "The shutting of the window and the replacement of the dressing table suggest," said Mr. Oddie, "that somebody knows quite well that she went out of that window, an,d wishes to conceal the fact;'' The coroner returned an open verdict, remarking that there was not sufficient evidence to show bow the girl fell from the window.