BURGLED TO GET IDEAS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 2 March 1939, Page 4

BURGLED TO GET IDEAS

BOY’S ALLEGED CONFESSION j THOUGHT IT WAS AMUSING i By Air .Mail—Special Correspondentl LONDON, 4th February. Committed for trial at the Old Bailey, a former public schoolboy this week j was alleged to have confessed that he ! turned burglar to get colour for a novi el he was writing. He pleaded guilty | al Windsor to four burglary charges. This was the statement that the man j Kit Davidge, aged 20, a clerk, of Windsor. was said to have made to the police: “I was reading a book called ‘The Trail of the Lonesome Pine* about a man who was writing stories and bej lieved in getting his points by doing j things and then writing about them. | “I am writing a book, and I thought I would get my ideas in the same way. I “I broke into this house, and, on ! reaching the top of the stairs, heard ! somebody snoring. I sat on the stairs 1 smoking a cigarette, wondering what j t< do. “Finally I went into a bedroom, but disturbed the sleeper and left as quick- : ly as I could. i “The next night I got into the house i next to it, went into a room where a i man was asleep and took a gold wrist- ! let watch. “A few nights later I returned to the tirst house, found a revolver in a bedj room where a man was asleep, took iit downstairs and placed it by the telephone. “I was going back to the second house to take back the watch 1 had stolen when I was arrested. At the time I thought the whole thing amusing. I am now verq sorry.”