THE CRIMSON CIRCLE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 22, 21 October 1907, Page 5

THE CRIMSON CIRCLE.

$.'.?■: •-■-,/ ■■ -~ V '■$■!./-' -■■•''■ '.- ; ' ■ _l j Oppenheim, Le*Queux, and other writer! jp of the "Secret Society ". fiction, in which ra mysterious brands inevitably accompany fearn j. some, threatening letters,, and blood-curdling er murders, have much" to. answer for in the " ; r moral '■ perversion 'of morbid youths.. The J., 'latest victims to this style of literature, pro- ■ ,„ siimably, were recently on view".in the Lam- ; i n beth (London) 'Police Court, as mombors of a j n dread organisation—the "Community of the jp Crimson" Circle"—charged "with "being con-, ~j cerued in felouiouely causing to be received, ; knowing the contents thereof; three letters, ■' >y .throtttqning to murder Muriel Barnctt."- The [y namee of the;desperadoes were: —James Lylo, ill' aged sixteen, student,, of xßye Hill Park, j 0 Peckham, and Douglas, Page, aged sixteen, ig clerk, of, Philip Road, Peckham. > lOi Mr. AValter Barnett, .an Inland Revenue ; : le officer, living at Garden Road, Peckham; said 05 that on August 19 a letter without an en--In velopo was found in the hall of ( his house. 10 It was written in red ink, and addressed tain his daughter ; Muriel.; In one corner it was :n .marked "No. 1," and in the other ''private." a ] On the other side of the sheet was the mes)n sage :—..... . / . id . To Muriel Barnett. ' ■ :d- ;'■■ ' Beware. . o- ■ There was a circle in reel ink at the bottom , ls of the paper. . On August 24- a second letter ■ . , was found in the hall.: ; It ran:— jt Whereas on the 18th- inst., a warning io ' was delivered to you 'by our representa--0 ; : tive, this'is the'second of such: warnings, 10 ' and upon .the receipt of the third, the veni-. i 'geanceof the.Crimson Circle will fall uppa i ,• you swiftly-and surely. ' . ' •■■".';' . . ' ' This lotter, was also marked! with a rrde "'■■:. 1, in red iuk. .Mr,, ißarnett communi'iited s- with tho police and awaited events. Throe" f o- days later camo the final warning, wicoii r- said: — ' 3. Crimson Circle Hcedquariers, Aagust 27. One of throe .warnings, and then— ; h Filial warning. ." ' . / ■''■; ~' ie , On ( and after,. August' 28, tho Crimson is ' ; await,.the opportunity of:taking' ' 11 ■ thi;ir revenge for contain prac•ei ' tised against the members' df'the satdCir- 1, d d 0.., So boware, for tho,hand of the Crimes son Circle is against you, and will be until it our end is accomplished.;. .... ..■ ..'. , ih . The crimson circle-in this case was ( accdmie panied.by the. mystic letter "L". on oither v side, iy It happened thatiMr. Barnott saw the . conspirators leaving the house after ing- their ultimatum. 1 'He followed them and ' obtained their names ; and addresses. Mjsa n Muriel Barnott, < who is eighteen years! of ago,. a stated that she had known Lyle three years, v ■J but not Page. "I was not; frightened by tho lfc first letter," she said, "but 1 was by the s second." , ■ ■■~ ■ ■ .■., ■ 7 liyle oxplaincd that the matter was only 1S a^joke, 1 but' tho magistrate said it was' hiot °. anything like one, and romanded both the d boys '■ ' '