THE READING MURDER

Evening Star, Issue 20310, 19 October 1929, Page 15

THE READING MURDER

IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS EXPECTED SEARCH FOR DREW'S DOUBLE Pre«a A*£o«iation—By Telegraph-Copyright LONDON, October 18. important developments in Hie Reading murder are foreshadowed as the result of a conference at .Scotland Yard which lasted all day, following which a flying squad visited North-eas* London in an effort to trace a ntan who is’ stated to be Drews double. Particular attention is at present being paid to the evidence of Wells, a butcher’s assistant, the only witness at the inquest who did not identily Drew. The police hope for a speedy elucidation of the mystery. •Meanwhile the tour of Hie Monster’’ Company is being continued, and the services of Drew are greatly in demand.—Australian Press Association, , . . . [Alfred Oliver, a tobacconist at Reading, was attacked in his shop on the evening of June 2. Tie 'V !l ? bludgeoned into insensibility and died in hospital. After making inquiries for three months, the police laded to make an arrest, but at the resumed inquest a strange story was unfolded at the Coroner’s Court. Philip Yale Drew, aged fifty, who was playing t ie part of a disguised detective in ‘ The Monster,’ which was being staged at Reading at the time of the -murder, sat and listened to a long succession of witnesses, who pointed to him as the man who behaved strangely outside Oliver’s shop on the evening of the crime. Others gave evidence that Drew kept the theatre late that night, and that he afterwards explained that ho had lost the trousers which he usually wore on the stage. A servant of his lodging house said he asked lor benzolene to clean his jacket, and lie was excitable and nervy. The jury returned a. verdict of murder against someone unknown, the foreman stating that the evidence was too conflicting to permit the establishment of any person’s guilt.]