THE BOURNEMOUTH CLIFF MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13727, 18 April 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE BOURNEMOUTH CLIFF MYSTERY.

_ ♦ REMARKABLE EVIDENCE. . Evidence of a sensational character was .given at the resumed inquest at Bournemouth into the death of Miss Emma Shcrriff, whose body was discovered on the cliffs ,&,fc.Southbourne on February 20. '"Miss Sherriff, who was 35 years of age, lived at 30, Palmerston .Road, Boscombe. Through knowing his mother she had become on friendly terms with her son, Frank McGuirc — an ex-Life Guardsman, 25 :■-,' years of age, residing in Denbigh-street, Pimlico. ♦ ;• Between Miss Sherriff and young McGuire, in spite of the disparity of age, a ; close friendship existed. McGuire was, however, engaged to the daughter of Mr. Henry Hayman, an artist, of Rochester. 'i'he latter says McGuire was introduced to him by Major Powell Moore as his son. These "facts would seem to explain various names by. which M'cGuire was known. DEAD WOMAN'S JEWELLERY. When the inquest was resumed at Bournemouth. McGuire, who is a dark, tall, " slender man, was brought to the court from Winchester Gaol in the custody of two warders. The first witness called was Miss Sheriffs mother, Mrs. Jessie Jaue Lavers (she , has been married twice). She said she saw her daughter last autumn, when she was spending a holiday at Plymouth, and she received a letter from her three weeks ago. On Thursday, February 20, as she was leaving her home in Sal: .bury Road, Plymouth, she received a. telegram as follows: —"Emmie passed away.— (Signed) A. •McGuire." On reaching Boscombe she saw Mrs. Lane, with whom her daughter had lodged. Mrs. Lane said: "She has - been murdered; done to death." She added: "You know there is a will, I suppose':'" The witness said : "No ; I didn't know it." Mrs. Lane said: "Yes, there is; and there has been some writing done since." Mrs. Lavers added that she was told later that a telegram had been sent by Frank ■McGuire to her daughter on Wednesday, v -February 19. When she saw Mrs. McGuire she said: "This is a terrible job!" Mrs. McGuire ■ replied: "Yes, poor girl It is suicide, -you know." She said: " Don't tell me about suicide. From what I have heard I should think it was murder." Mrs. Mc- ■'- • Guire then said: "It's suicide, right • enough. The poor girl wanted to come out into my neighbourhood to die." . Lily Hatch then came in (witness continued) and told us that detectives had been to see her, and she had been obliged to tell them everything. Mrs. McGuire said : ; Then, if my sun has done it, I am perfectly innocent, and 1 hope he will suffer for it, although this is a hard thing for a ,'-"■ * mother to say." Then I asked what Lily had to tell her, and she replied : "It was something Euimie trld her in confidence."

Miss. Ada Bates, book-keeper at the Salisbury Hotel, Boscombe, said on Monday, February 17, accused stayed at the hotel for the night in the name of F. Hayman. The following morning he asked for his bill, and he paid a sovereign, receiving change. On the 19th McGuire again stayed . at the hotel in the same name, and on the following day he again tendered a sovereign.. J * Mrs. Parsons, wife of the proprietor of the Salisbury Hotel, said the prisoner signed as "F. Hayman," and said, "This f is not my proper name; it is my business name. The police might come m for me , to-morrow, as there is a young lady missing." • When the inquest was continued on the Wednesday McGuire was absent. Mr. "Alabaster, his counsel, represented him, and Mr. Malim.was present- on behalf of i Miss Sherriff' s relatives. •f v Mrs. Annie McGuire, a tall lady of some 50 years, who was convulsed with emotion '"at times, gave evidence. She repeated the story of her reconciliation with her son and his visit to Bournemouth early in February. She said that when it was arlranged that he should stay in the house in Palmerston Road in which Miss Sherriff lodged, she pointed out that there would be a lot of talk. "What do I care?" Miss Sherriff replied; "I am a woman, and can look after myself and do as I like."

■■•!* Mrs.* McGuire saw her son daily from February 7 to February 16, when he said ho was returning to town the next day. Miss Sherriff called on her on the 17th, i -and said that she had seen MtGuire off. ■ Witness added: On Wednesday, February 19, about 1.45 p.m., Mrs. Lane's niece brought me a telegram for Miss Sherriff. On opening the telegram I found it was from my son. It read as follows: — " Meet me three o'clock at Boseombe.''— Frank.

Witness said she went to Mrs. Lane's at Boseombe, and she had not been long there whan, at about three o'clock, her son walked in. She said to him, "Oh, Frank, Emmie cannot be found; have you seen her?" He answered : " No, ma ; 1 saw her last-on Monday night. I did not go back to London that day, but stayed at the Salisbury Hotel, Boscombe." Interrogated by Mr. Malini (who represented relatives "of the deceased woman), Mrs. McGuire said that she had learnt that a wili was executed by Miss Sherriff between 1903 and 1904, in which witness was .left. £150 and her sou £100. A Boscombe constable deposed to McGuire calling upon him at the station at a, quarter to four on the Wednesday afternoon, saying that a young lady he had .expected to see was missing. "He was nervous and rather shaky." , Dr. Faoey, a local practitioner, said upon examination he came to the conclusion that death bad taken place certainly not within six hours, and not more than 48 hours. There was a hem-stitched handkerchief in the. mouth. V 'THEORY AGAINST A STRUGGLE. Police-Constable Ayres, who removed the body to the mortuary, described how it lay between two sandhills. Miss Sherriff was lying face downwards. Her feet had worked two small holes about four inches deep, but he. did not think she could have struggled, because her hands were straight by her side. Turning the bodv over, he noticed a handkerchief forced in "her mouth, and that the clasp of the feather boa was coming in contact with a scar on her neck. Her collar was unfastened, and she was wearing one ring, but no other jewellery. He formed the conclusion that the body was placed where it was found after death had occurred. Cross-examined, he said the disordered condition of the clothing was more consistent with Mies Sherriff having been thrown into the hollow than indicating a struggle. v - a major's so.v. 'i, Henry Hayman, an artist,, of Rochester, .feaid he met Frank McGuire two years ago. He was introduced to him by Major Powell Moore in London. He had lived at Canterbury at the time. Major Powell Moore was stationed there, and had known him for 20 years by repute. McGuire was introduced by Major Powell Moore as his »on. MY. Hayman went on: I thought highly of the young man, and entrusted him with some picture-dealing transactions for me. ■Ho. generally returned the money satisfactorily when a picture was sold, or the picture if it was not. He had commissions for. four or live others besides myself, and I find now that in his dealing with them he has used my name. During the last lew weeks I have been dissatisfied, as pictures were not returned. A Juryman: You say Major Powell Moore introduced McGuire as his son? That was, of course, untrue?l don't know. A portrait was given to me of his supposed mother, The major said, "This is Frank's mother, and she died in consumption." Up to the last letter 1 had from the major he referred to him as his son. Mr. Hayman, continuing, said McGuire look a picture called "The Dutch Garden," worth £15. from him on Friday morning, February 21, the day of his arrest. The ; picture was to have been taken to a gentle- . mac at Bayswsiter.' . The Coroner: .Where is it now?-—J don't Icsiow.

Mr. Hayman said his suspicions of the honesty of M'cGuire, whom he knew as Powell, had been aroused because certain pictures had been removed from clients of his. A letter-card was produced which was sent to Mr. F. Wall, of Pall Mall Place, and purported to be an acknowledgment of the receipt of a picture worth £210 by Mr. Hayman. That, said the witness, pointing to the signature on the card, is a forgery, and the picture was wrongly obtained. On February 6 the witness saw McGuire in Robinson and Fisher's salerooms, when the accused said that he was going to Poole for a week's yachting. This was the day before McGuire went to Bournemouth. An hour later the witness saw McGuire "with two strangers. He did not see him again until February 20, when he saw him. at his lodgings, Denbighstreet, about three o'clock. The Coroner: Was he engaged to your daughter? He was. The Coroner: Is the engagement broken off?— Yes. I could not let it go on in the circumstances. Mr. Alabaster: Did not you say that accused could use your name in the business? —Not in the way he did. Mis. Galpin, of Tower Road, Boscombe, gave evidence that Mrs. McGuire and Miss Sherriff had lodged together at her house two years ago. When Mrs. McGuire was out night nursing McGuire and Miss Sherriff used to stay in the sitting-room together. They had stayed there all night on more than one occasion. The Coroner: Were the lights on or out? —They used to put them out. The Coroner: How old was the accused at this time?— About 18 or .19. The Coroner: What did Miss Sherriff tell you about this?— She told me not to tell his mother that she stayed with him all night in the sitting-room. Before the inquest was resumed on the Wednesday McGuire was taken before the Bournemouth magistrates, being charged with causing the death of Miss Sherriff as John Francis MbGuire, alias Powell and Hayman, a picture-dealer, of Denbigh, street, London. Despite the protest of his barrister he was remanded for eight days.