DOUBLE-LIFE DRAMA

Northern Advocate, 26 November 1928, Page 5

DOUBLE-LIFE DRAMA

STRANGER THAN FICTION DOCTOR MURDERS ACTRESS. HUSBAND HEARTBROKEN. (Australian Press Association.) * (Received 7.45 p.m.) LONDON, November 24. A story outrivalling fiction is behind a drama in the Gold Coast Colony, where Dr. Benjamin Knowles is today under sentence of death for the murder of Mrs Harriett Knowles, formerly Madge Clifton, a prominent English music hall artist and pantomime favourite, at. their bungalow in a native town 25 miles from Coomassie, the capital of Ashanti. The British Colonial Office learns that the murdered woman Is not Knowles’ wife, but Mrs Harriett Street, the wife of Mr George Street, formerly a successful , actor-manager and now a threat-re proprietor in England. During the time that she was living on the Gold Coast as the wife of Knowles, -her husband and-relatives in

England understood that she was on a music hall tour in Australia, and they were amazed to learn that she was living on the Gold Coast. Her husband received frequent affectionate letters telling of her experiences in Australia. The letters were not posted abroad, but always bore a London date stamp. The letters were on,closed in envelopes addressed to a third party in London and re-poste to her husband for the purpose, of concealing the fact that she was living on the Gold Coast, She spoke of hard times on her theatrical tour and expressed a longing to return to her husband and England. Mr Street, who was deepty attached to her, is going immediately to the Gold Coast to ascertain the story of his wife’s amazing double life. He states: “I am horrified to hear that Madge Clifton has been murdered We were married in London several years ago and were together in the profession for a while. Then hard times came. She told me that she had been offered a contract for a single act in Australia. I advised her to accept if she ■•wished. She w r eut towards the end of last year, but returned to London and told of her experiences abroad. We lived together happily till early this year, when she told me she had another contract in Australia and China. She sailed again, I had not the slightest knowledge of her acquaintance with Knowles, nor ho\v slie met him. I was not worried by the fact that' the letters were addressed through a third person, Madge was so Bohemian, happy-go-lucky and casual that I could easily imagine her enclosing a letter to me in one ad-, dressed to one of her many women friend®, Whatever happened on the Gold Coast, I am not blaming my wife. 'She was the best woman iri the world. We were .the truest and best pals, in good times and in bad times. ” Mr Street then broke down and sobbed.