TRAGIC DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 45, 22 February 1934, Page 8

TRAGIC DEATH.

FRENCH OFFICIAL. STAVISKY SEQUEL. Bc£y of Investigator Found Mangled on Railway. BID HE KNOW TOO MUCH? (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 2.30 p.m.) DIJON, February 21. A mysterious murder, indicating elaborate prearrangement and rearousing feverish interest in the Stavisky affair, was brought to light when the mangled body of a distinguished war veteran, Albert Prince, a judge of the Court of Appeal and ex-chief of ,the Public Prosecutions Department, was found on a Paris railway line close to Dijjon. M. Prince, who conducted the inquiries into the Oustric, Hanau and Stavisky frauds from 1925 to 1931, received a bogus telephone call, apparently from a family doctor, demanding his presence at his sick mother's bedside. It was said that it was unnecessary for his wife to accompany him. He departed immediately for Dijon, after which his wife received telegrams purporting to be from her husband, saying that his mother was progressing after an operation. Actually she was in perfect health, but this was a blind to facilitate the murderer's escape. Plate layers with the aid of electric lamps, discovered the remains of M. Prince, following an engine-driver's report of finding blood on his engine. The body was stabbed and the ankles were bound with cord, scraps of which were found on the rails. A severed hand was discovered some distance away, several trains having passed over the corpse, which the murderers apparently placed on the line in the hope of traffic rendering it unrecognisable.

A handkerchief, a powder puif, a gold watch, identity papers and a purse containing £3 10/ were found adjacent to where the body lay. The belief is growing that the crime has a political motive. M. Prince had apparently reached Dijon and was met at the station by acquaintances with whom he entered a motor car. Pieces of his cuff links were found on the road and other pieces near the body. There is a possibility that M. Prince was killed because he knew too much. It is reported that he received threatening letters. His predecessor, M. Cordon, was tragically killed in a motor accident at Dijon. M. Prince should have given evidence this morning in the Stavisky inquiry. I* is believed he would have been able to establish the identity of the official responsible for the lack of action of the police commissioner on M. Pachot's reports.