MURDER AND SLUMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 75, 25 September 1937, Page 11

MURDER AND SLUMS

The murder of a young European woman at Doornfontein, South Africa, part of which has become one of Johannesburg's worst slum areas, has caused such: a public" outcry that the Johannesburg City Council has decided to spend £1,000,000 immediately on slum clearance. Bleeding profusely from deep stab wounds. Polly Newman, a 35-year-old factory worker, staggered across the yard of her house and collapsed on her bed. She died in an ambulance while being taken to hospital. Shortly after 3 o'clock in the morning a native entered the yard of Mrs. Newman's house and asked her for two shillings, which he said she owed him. "He spoke in a dreadful, drunken manner," a coloured woman who lived next door told a reporter. Miss Newman went out into the yard with the native. "Then I heard a scream and a lot of swearing. When I ran to the yard I could not see a native, but Polly was standing with her hands on her stomach, swaying. She lurched towards her room. I ran for help and soon an ambulance came and took her away," continued the coloured woman. The motive of the murder is unknown, nor has the murderer been found.