PANTOMIME TRAGEDY

Evening Star, Issue 12167, 11 April 1904, Page 8

PANTOMIME TRAGEDY

“My God, here is Gilbert; run!” These words, addressed by Miss Lottie Bates, to iier sister, Miss Florence Bates, in the wings of the stage at the Metropole Theatre, Birkenhead, on Friday night (says the Daily Chronicle’ of February 22), seemed ominous enough in the light of subsequent events. Mr Gilbert, an ex-J.P. of Essex County, and a rejected lover, had endeavored to obtain an interview with Miss I lorence Bates, but was unsuccessful, and luring the rest of the performance of ‘ Sinbad the Sailor,’ a pantomime in which the :wo ladies, under the stage name of the iisters Cora, were appearing as “ specialty lancers,” he paced up and down the side of cue auditorium muttering to himself. At uilf-past eleven he left the theatre, and in -he first dark hour of Saturday morning he ay lifeless ;n the street, killed by his own aand, after having narrowly escaped being the murderer of three persons. The story of che tragedy may best be told in the words of Florence Bates herself: “ Last night Le ont me a note in through the stage door, where he had been waiting, but we mun.ged to slip past him. He wrote: ‘ Dear alorne.—You don’t know how much I love you. No one else shall have you if I can’t.’ le went on to suggest that if I absolutely leclined to see him we should each send our presents back. I sent him word that I did lot want anything to do with him. Well, ! thought I had done with him, but when .re left the theatre and were nearing home, Alan Roberts, the son of our landlady, met us and said Gilbert was waiting down the treet. Lottie and I, with two gentlemen numbers of the company, hurried towards he house, but when we were almost at t ie ;ate the man appeared. He made straight or us. Lottie ran into the road, and I went towards the railway. Gilbert, without speaking a word, stepped right up to me ,nd fired. As soon as I saw the revolver 1 aised my hand, and fortunat ly it just overed my heart, at which he evidently limed. Of course I can hardly tell what happened then. All' I know is that the bullet went through my hand between the ’humb and first finger, and struck me just below the heart. The skin was cut, but the loctors have only found it necessary to put m a plaster. I suppose the’ bullet must have struck the steels in my corsets, for it ■ame out again and wounded my little finger. At any rate I made a rush for the house, and the bullet dropped on the porch.” The other sister, Miss Lottie Bates, said:

“Alan Rob rts made a dash for Gilbert, •nd seized him round the neck just as be fired a second shot. This struck the plucky lad right in the side. Then several people Mine running up, and Gilbert shot himsfif in the temple.” The revolver used was a heavy Colt, but a small pistol was also found in deceased’s pocket. A young man heard shots, and going up the street, met him. Gilbert' said: “You had better go and help them,” and while the man turned iway for that purpose Gilbert calmly placed the revolver to his Kad and fired. Miss Bates was taken to the hospital, but returned to her lodgings in the evening as an out-patient. Young Roberts was thought to be in rather a dangerous condition, but the bullet was extracted yesterday, and he is now progressing satisfactorily. In June hist Gilbert was charged at Worship street Police Court with threatening to murder Florence Bates, and was bound over for six months to keep the peace. His defence at the time was that he was too much in love with the girl to hurt her.

From the account of the legal proceedings given in the ‘Daily Chronicle’ of May 7 last it appears that Gilbert was divorced from his wife in June, 1901. At the end of that year ho met the Misses Bates at Southend, where they were performing, and in March of the following year he proposed marriage to Florence. At that ime she was only nineteen years of age, and her fath r, who lived at Walthamstow, suggested that the marriage should be deferred for five years. Subsequently the anxious lover’s period of waiting was reduced to six months, and in order to provide the couple with au occupation after marriage, and to give the lady “ some form of subdued excitement ” as a substitute for the applause of music-hall audiences, it was arranged that a public-house should be taken. The Merry Carpenters was bought for £245, and, according to Gilbert’s evidence, about £l5O was paid by Gilbert for the furniture and £35 for some additional articles bought on the hire system. The wedding was fixed for January, 1903, the bride’s trousseau was bought, and everything appeared to be going smoothly. In the preceding December, however, there was a quarrel. Miss Bates asking Gilbert if ’re had seen “that girl from Leigh.” Miss Bates and her father maintain’d that the taking of the public-house was not contingent on marriage, but Mr Justice Joyce, who heard the case, decided that it was held by the defendants in trust for Gilbert, and that he had no intention of making an absolute gift to or for Miss Bates, but had taken the house in contemplation of a marriage which was subsequently broken off. His 1 orclship, however, declined to make an order for the return of the £l5O paid by Gilbert for furniture, but granted an injunction restraining defendants from parting with it.