HOTEL DRAMA

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 17, 14 October 1933, Page 18

HOTEL DRAMA

Fate of Dorothy Wright

Despite the extraordinary steps taken by tlie authorities in Paris to keep back the facts about the tragic fate of Miss Dorothy Wright, a beautiful young English girl, who shot herself under dramatic circumstances in a famous Paris hotel, the full story has at last been revealed. All Paris rang with amazing stories of the pitiful tragedy of Miss Wright, who had been known as "The Beautiful Butterfly in the Gold-Studded Car.” Her body, with only a breath of life left in it, was found in the bedroom of a suite in one of the luxury hotels of the French capital—a suite ominously numbered 13.

Py her own confession —written in a friend’s scrap-book—this girl of dazzling, radiant beauty had “no ambition in life but to be a butterfly warming my wings at the fire of love.” Though many names are whispered as that of “the man in the affair,” and some people even talk of a grave political crisis with world-wide effects if the truth were known, there is little doubt in well-informed quarters about his real identity. He is the son of a great industrial magnate, and himself the head of many companies operating throughout the globe. He has stated that to the best of his knowledge the girl was not a drugtaker, although she smoked heavily and drank frequently. But the post-mor-tem and inquiries made by the police have shown that he was mistaken. On the night before her death Miss Wright bought in a night resort a supply of cocaine and other drugs. Part of this supply was in her handbag, and the cigarettes she smoked so freely were drugged. Signs of the recent use of hashish were discovered at the examination, and the doctors have little doubt that she -was under the influence of this drug at the time of the tragedy. On the day before Miss Wright’s death her principal male friend arrived from Tours by air with four companions. During the afternoon he met Miss Wright, with whom he had been on terms of intimate friendship for seven months. In the evening Miss Wright spent some time alone in a cabaret and afterwards visited a cinema.

Instead of going home to the flat she rented in the Pasy district, she made her way about midnight to the suite of rooms occupied in the Hotel George V. by her friend, and, as she was well known as a frequent visitor, she was allowed to enter the suite. About four in the morning her friend arrived in the company of another man, to whom he had offered hospitality because of the difficulty at that hour of getting back to the aerodrome where he was stationed. Both men were surprised to find Miss Wright sitting in an armchair smoking furiously and obviously in a highly-strung state.

Her friend explained that it was impossible for her to remain there in view of his obligation to entertain his companion, and advised her to go home by taxi. An angry scene followed, the excited woman taxing him with the desire to abandon her, and he in his turn reproaching her for making an exhibition of herself in the night resorts of Paris with some of his friends. According to the statement be made to the police, he then turned toward the bathroom, and as he did so he heard a noise like the closing of a drawer.

When he followed the distracted girl into the bedroom she appeared to be hiding something behind her back, and he seized her arms, fearing she meant to carry out threats she had made before to take her life. Breaking herself free, she raised a pearl-handled revolver, which she generally carried, and fired a shot behind her ear. She fell to the floor moaning, and when a doctor was summoned he ordered her removal to the American Hospital, but she died on the way. Though Miss Wright arrived in France only two years ago from Australia, she had become a famous figure in the French capital, as well as at Deauville and on the Riviera. She dressed as though she were the heiress to millions, and in the night resorts of Paris and the South she was a general toast with young men of the smart set because of her beauty and extreme vivacity. It was said that she never wore the same dress twice, and she changed as often as five times a day, her dress generally causing a sensation wherever she went because of its smartness and sometimes because ofits daring. The luxury car. covered with gold studs, which she used was well known in the west end of Paris, and the gorgeously liveried chauffeur driving it helped to keep up the appearance of great wealth. Last autumn she was frequently seen in the company of a son of a well-known Indian prince. From him, it was stated, she received, a letter only the day before her death. This she did not take the trouble even to open, but when the police examined it it was found to contain an appeal to her to return to her Indian friend. Miss Wright’s mother, who flew from Brussels to Paris on hearing of the tragedy, states her daughter was always a highly-strung girl and had many times threatened for trivial reasons to take her life.