CRUEL HOAX

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 252, 21 July 1934, Page 18

CRUEL HOAX

Romance by Photograph

Wedding bells did not ring for Miss Doris Jenks, of Heathfield Road, Ellesmere Port, whose romance with a young doctor whom she had never met had aroused much interest. Miss Jenks stated that she had been the victim of cruel hoax. Gifts of rings and a bangle which Miss Jenks had received'have been handed over to the Birkenhead police, who are making certain inquiries. The hoax began about two months previously, while Miss Jenks was a nurse at the Liverpool Sanatorium, near Frodsham. She received a letter intimating that while the writer was a medical student he was given a photograph of her and had fallen in love. Correspondence followed, with,an engagement ring which Miss Jenks wore, and finally she left the institution in the belief that she would shortly be married. . ,i. . <

A young woiqan representing, herself to be the young doctor’s sister is stated to have acted as intermediary between the parties. The bridegroom’s father was said to be a noted London surgeon and a personal friend of a prominent peer who wasrio forward a present and congratulations to Miss Jenks. The chief method of correspondence was by telephone with Miss Jenks, who was called up at different tinfes of the day at a club near her home. A number of appointments were made with her proposed husband, but all fell through for various reasons.

The only time the parties ever met was when the young-man drove to Miss Jenks’s home in a taxicab with two young women and took her to a local cinema. Half-way through the programme he left hurriedly on the pretext that ho had to perform an urgent operation in Liverpool. Arrangements were made from the Liverpool end for Miss Jenks to select her'trousseau. The manageress of a Liverpool store arrived with samples, -and Miss Jenks selected her wedding gown, bouquet and veil, and she chose the bridesmaids’ dresses. ’ Later a mail’s coat was found on a Birkenhead ferryboat, in the pocket of which was a letter from Miss Jenks. She identified, the letter as hers.'