A MASKED MAN
TERRORISES COUNTRYSIDE
Police throughout West Sussex were recently concentrating on a search i'or an unknown man who, with his lace partly masked, presented himself at the front door of a lonely bungalow, occupied by two elderly women, at Hambrook, five miles from Chichester, says the "Daily Express."
The police were handicapped in their inquiries owing to the lack of a description of the wanted man. It was shortly after 9 p.m. that a knock came at the door of the bungalow, the home of Mrs. J. K. Fox, the widow of a clergyman, and .her sister, Miss Gill.
The bungalow borders the main Chi-chester-Ensworth Road. Mrs. Fox went to the door. Confronting her was a tall man, a black cloth hiding the lower half of his face, and with his trilby hat and the collar of his overcoat covering the rest of his features.
Before Mrs. Fox could call to her sister, the man, without speaking a word, thrust a note into her hand and then vanished into the night. In a state bordering on collapse, Mrs. Fox returned to her sister.
With trembling hands they unfolded the note, which ran:—
"Take £5 and place it in an envelope outside the door within five minutes. If you do not do this, I shall probably u%e a bullet on you.
"The money will save me from doing six months, because I have been wrongly sentenced.
"I must have £5, even if it is in coppers. God help you if it is not there within five minutes."
Summoning her courage, Mrs. Fox rushed from the bungalow and ran for one hundred yards down the dark and lonely road to her nearest neighbour, Mr. C. F. Large, proprietor of a petrol station.
There she blurted out her story, and within a few seconds Mr. Large had telephoned the police, who threw a cordon round the bungalow.
With the aid of lanterns and torches they searched every conceivable hiding place in the vicinity, but no trace of the mystery man could be found. During the search the sisters were taken to Hambrook House, the residence of the Hon. Lionel Lindsay, where they spent the night.
A MASKED MAN
Evening Post, Issue 82, 6 April 1936, Page 10
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