This Murder Business

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 136, 11 June 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

This Murder Business

By Cyrano

"OETTER and brighter murders'* is, I think, MJ a motto fastened by some cynic on to the sensational Press of America. A corresponding English saying is that a good murder is worth two Dominions. Novelists of crime have taken the American motto for their own, and their murders are becoming so bright that they dazzle.

Tn one story by a justly popular Englishwoman a husband murders his wife in this way. He calls to her from the upl>er storey of their house in Mesopotamia, and when she responds by putting her head out of the window. Indrops a brick on her. This is done in broad afternoon—in siesta time. I admit. but consider the risk. But this is surpassed in a story I have just read which features a well-known amateur KnglMi investigator. A man is murdered in most mysterious fashion while he is washing his hands in the cloakroom of :i doctor's house in a small English country town. There is a dent on bis head that has fractured his skull, but no weapon or missile is found in the room, and it is impossible that one can have been removed. The explanation is this: The room looks out on a drive along the side of the house, and bordering the drive is a brick wall. The criminal removed a brick in the wall at the level of the window, and arranged for the victim to call at the house at a certain time, calculating that he would go straight into the room to wash hi* hands. Then he fired at him with ;i catapult through (h< , hole in the wall and the open window. The missile was of such a nature that it was rjiiickly dissipated. What was it'/ I".-«• your grey rolls, as M. IViirot says.

Shanghai Inaccuracy Extremely ingenious, but was there ever anything *o fantastic put forward as a method of murder First of all a catapult (or "shanghai"' as boys call it) is. a highly inaccurate weapon. 1 used it a lot when I was a boy, and the number of hits I made against birds was less than one per cent. Moreover, the criminal was firing, not a round bullet or a smooth stone, but a regular cube of some size, and he was aiming through a hole in a wall no larger than one brick, which would certainly cramp his style. Incidentally, it is very likely that he would have been detected in the act of removing the brick, which is a lengthy and not a very silent process. If anyone were mad enough to try such a method the chances would be heavily in favour of his missing, which, of course, would warn the victim, and the whole plot would be exposed.

Over-Elaboration It is time that detective etopy fans, of whom I am one, protested against the over-elaboration of murder. Competition among writers is *<> keen that some of them go to ab*urd lengths , in rigging up complicated methods ui killing. Probably Conaii Pm If responsible for much of 1.11i —- " I 1"' Speckled Band" is one of the best oJ his stories, but Dr. Jirim-by Itoylutt should have l»ei>n lib]- t>. think »"< ;, safer method of killing his daughters than 1)V passing a snake into their b«-u----room.'" Sometimes *he-r brilliance carries off tho excursion into the unpr" - able. One of Dorothy S;,y,rs' ""„■,! -c innuuniM-s l.iiuM'lf gradually * 9 »U**t '»[ poiM.n that bo t<.. 1 i» j-' ■ ,t dinner. Our own Sg»lo 5 I«a !,„«« bottle of champagne fall ' BU y of character e ,d it* new! setting.

I The object ion to bizarre methode ie that, so far as one can tee, they are not u.«e<l in real life, they are not reliable, and they etrt-w clues about, J though the latter, of course, i s a strong attraction to the writer, wlio has tu 2ive his sleuths and hie readers plenty !to woik on. In another recent detective ;«tory a Continental policeman his i views on the relation between complexity and detection: j Tin- morf c<>tn|)lf>x a crlmo. the f-asii'r I n solution is. If a mnrdorer kill* a worl:- | intr man on Iho root nf n (all apartment house, dyes tlie hair of Ills victim, removes Mis linjriT iij.s. ilr-iHSes Mini In the c]olli« nf si iiiillioiiiiii-c, removes t lt»- Ixiily in i. lir!i., ,|.:.t nmelii.ip. flies to Nuplex. ami ilroi>s il down the cr.iter of Vesuvius, mill we liml It if we liml it, then nil very simple in ay bo, \v> luivp the evlilenee of Hie elieinist of «hlcli lie lioilßllt the (lye, the piiwnslio|. where |,«. liiiusht the dresnsuit, i!ip iiieeliniiic wlio eared for the acrolilnne. a hiinilrol people in lour or ttve connlries wlio siiw (lie iimehine Hy\nn nhove then). Our munlprer very clever is, hut a liiinilrei: points of dttni-k he civpH to iih. If I must lia\«- peace of mind, jjlvp m<! siieh a case, Itut I have no peace of mind wheu il mull from a crowded street Into a huildi¥ w.ilkH, up the stairs goes slowly among InindreilH of people, then quietly into a

room where ho kills hie victim with a papor knife from n desk, and after walks »ku)ii out and disappears into the crowds. No one will notice a man who iroee quietly In a crowded place : his glovon have left no tiiiffp-rprfiita on the knife—so where lit theMiiswer ?

Methods Are Simple The truth is that in real life there art very few subtle or ■ complicated murders. The same old methods—a blunt instrument, shooting, stabbing, poisoning—are used over and over again, with little change in technique. "Bumping off" in America ie quite a simple procese. The reaeone why so many murderers go free there have nothing to do with the methods they use. In England the precentage of conviction is high, not because murderers are any more lielpful, but because the judicial system is more efficient. I suppose no case in recent years gave the English police more trouble than the murder of Constable (jriitteridge. It was a long time before the murderers wore caught, ami the resources and patience of the police. were fully extended. But there w«s no subtlety about the crime. The constable stopped two men in a stolen c.i: oil a lonely road, and on the sp n <•! the moment thov shot him dead, and then drove awav. Had tli<'\ ;.l:iiuicd elaborately to kill the -tal.ie they would probably have been e/tught 'I'!" ~1 earlier. Hut "not the «'»'■ plieitv of the crime, the -t-iy "f fne long Search for the iim-ii .'-.id tl.eir *rr**i hiil«l« the iitt.-nti.in as closely as an. j, ..;, narv • •■ ~f detection.

■■■--"VS f" B M- •■'.•■■■ ■■■■■■■• •^ tiVP :":;. ,'t ~f , I «-ri.i.. a ~ ,„ 11... 11. .1.- ...il in;: ..I it. In • I rent r. k ;,,,, | | ; "...ml i!-y: "i'.it i- i'l ni-inmrv ' inif'it .iii'.f» i- the rli.ir.i-'i.T <>t M.,M.|pi-f-n a: 1 tlw :<uth-r'- tr««at irii-ni ,',. .;,,. ~,,,. |iv aliniH him. (See bottom of next column.)

Left: A giant clam on the Great Barrier Reef. BeloH>: Fishing charm made from clam shell belonging to the Santa Cruz Islands.

Till* rl.'iMi is <l('i>])]y i-orrugiifeil on tin' liiick, which pin , * great r-ireiipth In i»:n shell H-lii-n till , w.!\c.« me illt-»r l» »i-k ••«! in a clo-ed position. When tin , val»c» fMijn- tlit' brilliantly-coloured imiiiiiil \vithiii resembles a sinuous snake. If a man inadvertently get* hi- f-i-it into tin- "."ping .-li'-llli-.!), tin , v.ilve* an , closed with 11 nllll |l sullil-U'llt to bleak : mall's leg. Mori' limn one native ili» r has nu-t his Ut-ath by being trapped in this way.

Perhaps the most spectacular ornaments fashioned from clam shells arc the lx'iliitifill neck discs which are worn as lishing charms by tile people of th« Santa (111/ Island*. These, are frequently itVPiiaid with a delicite IhicU'lirk pattern i-Hl'Vi'd out of turtle shell. The Hhiihl design is in the forii) of a conventionalised frigate liinl. an Hit form extensively lined in Melanesia. owing to the respect these |H»ople have for the fishing prowess of thin bird. Oilier neck discs have a very intricate pattern in (he form of a circle mid it is almoHt inconceivable how such delicute work <hii be accomplished with primitive tools.

Beautifully symmetrical armlets are also cut from solid clam shell >>>' th« Solomon Inlander*. First of all. the approximate shape of the article ie arrived at by rough chippinz. after which the raspinjr and shaping is done very effectively with piece* of braincoral, stone, 'wind and water. The middle is perforated by hitting the disc of shell with a sharp flint mounted as a liainiup.r. When a hole is pecked through a cord is dragged buckunids and forwards with the aid of sin<l and water until the core is cut out. levin.' the outer rinjr. Now the process is ha--tened by the use of a jaggt'd piece "1 hoop iron. Another favourite personal ..maim-iil of the Solomon Islander and the hipiwii warrior is a thin rod of < I''" ,?.'°y which pierces the nose .i.piuni. ' ■ are mostlv *tn.i,ht ii. the Solomon", hut beaiitifi'llv crc-ei'iilic in J «.•"•«■ there is a m ..-w.JJi.h* » l^, ll , „!„!, which lii- !«-cn cnl *» » teautifully ~ .hI leading '"" '" ~ , ~„,. ; ~, ,: ; ,.,- and «••■*. *■""'., i t W:\ il.- •■>«■»>• " r .iiell tank*. """ ' , ' H, j , ; , .:;; .. till , ~•,,,„ ,!,,,„ „ i"J h I-'.', ai'i inluiit.- v..ii-l> i.t ' , ~ _ ————

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