VERDICT OF MURDER

Evening Star, Issue 21316, 21 January 1933, Page 13

VERDICT OF MURDER

CHALK FARM CASE Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, January 20. (Received January 21, at 10.30 a.m.) At the inquest on Spatchctt a verdict of murder was returned against Furnace. [What appeared to be a simple case of a man being overcome by smoke in a sudden fire in an office while he was typin" at a desk has developed extraordinarily into a murder mystery. Samuel Furnace, a master builder at , Chalk Farm, had an office in a shed. The alarm was given that the shed was afire. A fireman found a man, later identified as Furnace, amid the rums. The first sensation occurcd when a post mortem hv Sir Bernard Spilsbnry (Home , Office pathalogist) revealed three shots lin the body. Then the detectives found that the dead man was not I 1 iirnace, ! but Walter Spatcbett, a young rent collector. The murder was carefully staged. A sheet of paper in the typewriter, which survived the fire, was manifestly intended to suggest that the victim was contemplating suicide. Inc father-in-law positively identified the 1 body as that of Furnace, but bpalcliett’s father recognised a bank book 1 and photographs found on the body as belonging to bis son. Furnace was ari rested and charged with murder, but j took poison and died in his cell.]