TRIAL OPENS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 100, 29 April 1937, Page 7

TRIAL OPENS.

Sensational London Murder

Recalled.

HEARING IN PARIS. (Received 10 a.m.) PARIS, April 28. The most sensational of many murders committed in London's most cosmopolitan area, Soho, is being investigated at the Assize Court here. The trial has opened of Rosrer Vernon, alias Charles Lacroix. 3(5, charged with the murder of Max Kassel, otherwise "Red"' Max. Suzanne Bertron, 25, is charged as an accomplice.

In accordance with the usual French procedure, five minutes were allowed photographers before the judge took his seat in which the accused were snapped while an artist rapidly sketched them. Then there was a duel between the judge and Vernon, in which the judge reviewed Vernon's life and forced answers to most damaging questions.

Vernon, after being reminded of his escape from Devil's Island, described how he had repeatedly asked Max to return a loan of 25/. Eventually Max came to his flat at Soho. "Max arrived furious and I knew immediately he or I must be killed," said the accused.

"He tried to strangle me and I tried to seize my pistol but it emptied itself by itself," he added. The hearing was adjourned. The battered body of "Red" Max was found under a lied,'.re at St. .Albans. London, on February 1. M»3(i. death having occurred some days previously. Subsequent investigations revealed the deceased as a white slave trafficker, and it is alleged bis death was due to an

underworld vendetta. The police case is that "Red" Max was killed during a quarrel in a Soho flat, and that his body was conveyed to St. Albans in an attempt to divert attention from thel actual scene of the crime.