THE LEONSKI TRIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 14, 16 July 1942, Page 6

THE LEONSKI TRIAL

DIFFICULTY OVER IDENTIFICATION

(Rec. 9 a.m.) MELBOURNE, July 15. Evidence that a woman was seen drinking with an American soldier in a city hotel until after midnight on the night that Mrs. Pauline Thompson was murdered was given by three witnesses at the Leonski court-martial today. None of the three witnesses was able to identify Leonski as the soldier Mrs. Thompson was with that night. A barman said, that they had eight or ten drinks. The woman paid for one round and the soldier for the others. Witness said he was taken to an American camp and was shown several soldiers, but he was unable .to identify any of them as the one in the hotel on the nigh^ in question. ■ Further evidence in the case of Mrs. Thompson was reserved. The case of Mrs. Violet McLeod was opened with evidence that the cause of death was suffocation. A barman employed at a hotel in Beaconsfield Parade, Albert Park, said that about daylight on May 3 he saw an American soldier stooping in a doorway near the hotel. The soldier then walked away. • When the witness looked in the doorway he saw the body of a woman with her clothes disarranged. The trial will be continued tomorrow.