MURDER OR HOAX?

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9742, 6 March 1914, Page 8

MURDER OR HOAX?

GRIM DIUMA ON THE TELEPHONE. ITNSOLVED :vl VSTER Y. Neither M. Max- Naurey nor the Grand Guignol have ever imagined (says a Paris correspondent) a mystery as blood-curdling as one which had its sotting roeently in a conch rgie',-, lodge at- Passy. The concierge of No. 2 Rue Mi'-'iel-Angc was about to show a vacuo i Hat to a gentleman with his win- and daughter when the telephone beil rang violently. The concierge seized iho receiver and cried: "Halloo! I 1 itstfii Then she turned pale; a voice wan crying to her: "Help! Hfclp! 1 am being killed. Help quickly!" She turned to the gentleman, told him hurriedly what she had heard, and asked him to cake the receiver whiio she ran tor a policeman. Sin 4 was fortumit« enough to find one outside. Policeman Pecheux hastened with her to the lodge. The gentleman was still holding the receiver. "It is terrible, 1 lie said. "The woman is .still owing 'Help! 1 " "is it someone in the. house ?" asked the policeman. "No." said the concierge. "It. is from the outside." Then, says the Daily News and Leader Paris correspondent, the policeman took the receiver and shouted into the telephone: "'Where are. yon, madam? Who are you'? It is a policeman speaking to you. Tell me where you art*, and 1 will rim to your assistance/' ! Ho listened for an answer. A smothered voice «aid quickly: "i 1: j:!" Then there were signs which became a gasp, and ended with a thud as oi a Hlitng I mm!v. . Tlie policeman rang up the "xchangK and begged the telephone girl to let him know at once who it- was that had rutnr up Passy 44-45. The. t-ele-jihoiie oirl enquired. but said it was impossible to find out who had asked for vhe number. Since that time the police have done ;their uimo.st to find out whether a murder v, as committed the day and at the hour in question. They have fail*'"! to get any clu". The only tiling which appears certain is that the concierge's number (Passy 44-45) was given in mistake for some other number. Perhaps some ])ractical joker has taken » leaf oof <>f a piece now being [ played in which a husband at the tele- ! phono hears h ; s wile's cries as she is I being murdered.