LOVE DRAMA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 187, 9 August 1932, Page 7

LOVE DRAMA.

MURDER TRIAL STORY.

Mrs. Miller's Confessions in Miami Court. GRUELLING QUESTIONING. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 10 a.m.) MIAMI (Florida), August 8. Giving evidence at the continued hearing of the charge against Captain W. N. Lancaster, the British aviator, of murdering Haden Clarke, an American flyer, Mrs. Keith Miller said she had become completely disillusioned. She no longer loved Lancaster nor the memory of Clarke, to whom she was engaged at the time of his death.

She said she was still very fond of Lancaster but had not loved him for two years.

Mr. V. Hawthorne (state Attorney): Were you not a traitor to him if you have not loved him for two years when you wrote to him constantly of your love, while he was on his western trip, to get all the money he could for you?

Mrs. Miller: You do not understand our situation. Mrs. Miller wept as she attempted to show Mr. Hawthorne how she could be very fond of Lancaster and still not be in love with him. She had told Clarke many times before they were engaged that she never expected to marry anyone, but she always felt when "Bill" (Lancaster) should be free from his wife in England that she would marry him. Mr. Hawthorne: Would Lancaster give you any money he had if you needed it? Mrs. Miller: Yes. Would he die for you?— Yes. Lie for you?—"Bill" does not lie. Would he steal for you?—He does not steal. Would he not steal a chicken for you? (Mr. Hawthorne referred to excerpts from Lancaster's diary in which he wrote of stealing chickens and rabbits with Clarke for their table). —Yes he would do that. Mrs. Miller laughed Or a rabbit?— Yes. Or a duck?— No. Yes we did have a duck once. The crowd in the courtroom, which was larger than on any previous day, laughed at each response. Mrs. Miller testified that Clarke l ad a violent temper and frequently was in high rage at his mother and Peggy Brown, a girl ho brought to the house on several occasions. Mrs. Miller wept as she told of losing her love for the memory of Clarke, "after I found out, 6ince his death, that he lied to me about many things. I was passionately in love with him." During the recess she gave way to her emotions outside the courtroom, and Lancaster, appearing highly perturbed, motioned to newspapermen to come to him. Whatever he planned to say was interrupted by his chief counsel, Mr. James Carson.

The case for the prosecution concluded shortly after Mrs. Miller left the courtroom in a state of semi-hysteria, crying, "They are crucifying me." She had just testified for a period of 11 hours regarding her tangled love and life with Clarke and Lancaster.

Asked by Mr. Hawthorne as to the things she believed Clarke lied about, she said that he lied about his age, his experience and his education.

Lancaster took the stand and in response to questioning by Mr. Carson, related the story of his early life and service with the Australian and British Air Forces during the war. He gave his age as 34. He seemed eager to get his story before the jury.