TRYING A FILM “STUNT.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 30 December 1927, Page 9

TRYING A FILM “STUNT.”

JvOY \S DEATH FROM HANGING.

IMITATING A MOVIE ARTIST

LONDON, Dec. 20.

The death of a hoy of 13 while trying to imitate a film artist was told at the inquest on Edmund Martin Wells.

The boy was at home last evening and when his father and mother returned, Mrs. Wood, a guest, called upstairs to him as lie had a temporary bed in the bathroom.

As there was no reply -Mr. Wells wont upstairs and found his soil hanging dead from the top of the bathroom door. The boy was Hanging by the wrists, tied with a handkerchief and there were two leather straps around the neck. One of these being tied to one wrist. He had stepped off the bed and was acting what he had seen on the films.

But the hoy had forgotten certain * possibilities not visible on the films. He forgot that when he stepped off the bed he had also tied his ankles together with a strap, and it was too late when lie left hold with his feet. lie was strangled by the nooses around the neck without any chance of saving his life as he had seen on the film. After seeing the film star do the “stunt” he had told a schoolboy friend he could do it.

The Coroner returned a verdict of accidental death, remarking that the boy was fond of the pictures and unfortunately tried to do something which went wrong.

The father stated that previously he had had to break into the house and found tlie boy curiously dressed. lie had gagged and suspended himself.