Biographer killed by gang

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33444, 28 January 1974, Page 19

Biographer killed by gang

'X.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON. January *26. British police today ordered a special watch at ports and airports lor a man believed to have led the murder gang which battered to death a Royal biographer, James Pope-Hennessy in his London apartment yesterday.

Police said that they. wanted to question an Irish-i man living in London who [was known to have made (regular visits to Mr PopeHennessy’s home in Notting Hill, west London. The wanted man was understood to have let two, other raiders into the second floor apartment where they! bound and gagged the 57-year-old writer and attacked him with knives and blunt, weapons. Mr Pope-Hennessy died! later in hospital. A post-' mortem examination said that he choked to death in, his own blood. His valet, 25-year-old Les-| lie Smith, was in hospital, recovering from stab I wounds after fighting his way out of the apartment and raising the alarm. Mr Smith returned from a! shopping expedition and confronted the gang, about to! leave after ransacking the! apartment. He told detectives he heard someone say: “You’ve got to! [kill him now.” Mr Smith put! lup his hands and managed [to stab one of the raiders: with a carving knife he had in his shopping basket. At another London Hospital police were today waiting to question a man who was admitted with stab wounds under an assumed name yesterday who they think may be connected with the murder.

Mr Pope-Hennessy, biographer of Queen Mary, was currently writing an official biography of the entertainer. Noel Coward, who died last year. Police were working on

the theory that the raiders ■ were looking for several (thousand sterling in cash [which they thought had been paid by a publisher in advance of the Noel Coward biography.