CLERGYMAN SHOT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 224, 22 September 1938, Page 22

CLERGYMAN SHOT.

IN LOCKED ROOM. FOUND HOURS LATER. POLICE AJtB MTSTIFTED. I * (Special.—By Air Mall.) PARIS, September 3. A clergyman who had signed a register as the "Rev. James Cecil Howard, aged 47, Clerk in Holy Orders, England, native of Farnham," locked himself in his hotel bedroom, smoked seven cigarette*, and placed two pillows under his head. Some hours later he was found shot through the head, and he died later in hospital. The bullet had buried itself in the wall. Beeide the bed was a box of 25 cartridges, with room for a twenty-sixth. In his suitcase were sermon notes. While his body lies in a Paris hospital, a letter found in his pocket is the only clue to the drama the police have. It is addressed, A mon Epouse (to my wife i, and contains the phrase: ''It is not forbidden to commit s,uicide." So far. his identity remains a mystery. C'rockford's Clerical Directory contains no "Cecil James Howard," and no address was on the dead man's passport, a British one. The letter was addressed to another hotel near the Care du Xord, where it was found that he had been staying. But so far the police have been unable to find anyone there to claim it. Mme. Yvonne Mornot, wife of the manager of the hotel near the Boulevard de Strasbourg, where the drama took place, said: "The man arrived at six o'clock in the morning. He brought no 'baggage and ohose the cheaper of two rooms we offered him. Lay Dying a Day. "He paid in advance, gave a very generous tip, and shook hands with my husband as he said good-night. He was smartly dressed—tall and powerfully built, with greyish hair. "Because it was so late when he arrived wc did not wake him at the usual time. When we eventually went up to the room, we heard groans. I called my husband and we burst in. "We found him lying full-length on the bed with a wound in his head. The bullet had passed through the head and buried itself in the wall at the side of the bed. "A remarkable feature of the tragedy is that no one in the hotel heard the shot. Wc assume he must have fired it about eight o'clock. "He must have suffered terribly throughout the day. It was obvious that he was dying when we found him, and he was unable to speak to anyone." As soon as the man had been admitted to hospital, police dashed to the hotel near the Care du Xord indicated in the letter found in his pocket. " Always Alone." The manager of this hotel said: "Mr. Howard arrived here with one suitcase. He came here alone, and we never saw him accompanied by a woman." An official in touch with the police inquiries said: "In the dead man's case were a number of clergyman's collars and clergyman's black ves'ts. Also, there were manuscripts which looked like a rough preparation of a sermon. "The letter which he wrote before arriving at the hotel where he shot himself does not help very much. "It is in affectionate terms, but is somewhat muddled. Parts of if suggest that he was in an abnormal state of mind."