MYSTERY OF A MURDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19453, 8 October 1926, Page 11

MYSTERY OF A MURDER.

MAN SHOT IN OFFICE CHAIR*

,TRAGEDY OF A WEEK-END.

A SENSATION IN MONTREAL- ' [BY •' TELEGRAPH. i —OWN cokrespondebt.J , . TORONTO. AUK. 25. Montreal,, the commercial metropolis o£ Canada, is absorbed with a murder; tragody. It is one of the most sensational and mysterious in Canadian polico annals. Tho victim was;": Mr. Joseph, Antonio Beaudry, publisher of Le Prix Courant, and a number of other trade publications,' He was 48 years old, successful in business, with social qualities and prominence indicated by the fact that ho was president of the St. Denis Club, tho leading social organisation of French Canadians. Last Saturday afternoon, Henri Bertrand, treasurer of the company, looked in on Mr. Beaudry in his private office. "About time to go?" he asked. "I have an appointment here in a few minutes.'* "Don't lock the door when ■ you go," answered Mr. Beaudry. Sometime later, though no one heard it, as has so far bepu discovered, a .32 .calibre revolver cracked twice in that back office in a large building in the heart of Montreal. The first shot crashed into tho back of Mr. Beaudry as he sat, pen in hand, at the flat-topped desk. His spinal cord was severed. As he lurched backwards in his chair another bullet entered the top of llis head at the back on the right side, ploughing downwards until it stopped just behind the left ear. >• - Dead Man Alone in His Chair, Alone in the building the dead man sat in his offico chair as Saturday afternoon wore away and night fell. The dawn of Sunday found the grim figure still at its lonely vigil.' From the church of Bon Seccurs, just behind, came the music of masses, and "the room echoed to footsteps on the stone flags of Notre Damo Street of the hundreds who passed along to the great grey cathedral, little suspecting what secret the grim office had in its keeping... Sunday night fell and then Monday came. " The .-office staff returned to thek duties and went about their work with ,no' suspicion ;_pf the dread sight behind the .locked door of the private officeMr. Bcaudry's automobile stood in the driveway 'beside ' tho building, wh6te ho had left, it on Saturday morning, .when ho arrived from his home. It contained his golf clubs. He had planned to spend the week-end at the Laval Sur Lac Golf Club. His wife was going to lie Per rot to visit relatives over Sunday.- On Mondaymorning his. 1 wife telephoned. When sho telephoned again and was told that h'err private . office was locked and his car, in,dhe • driveway!, she expressed alarm.' the telephone operator and the editress of one of his papers secured a key for the door and were" terrified to find Mr. Beaudry's lifeless body. His cash was in his pocket and his gold watch and other valuables undisturbed. According to medical opinion he had " been dead about 18 hours. Supposed Pear of an Attack. The dead man apparently in time past had lived in fear of an attack, but no one. Except; possibly the 'police, knows from whom. Some time ago a private detective agency at Mr. Beaudry's request assigned an operative to protect him. But the operative who shadowed him was killed last month in a train wreck and the chief who assigned him to tho duty died not long ago. For years' Mr. Beaudry carried a revolver.' - Each year lie renewed his police permit {or .it. His. wife -says he was accustomed to carry . a revolver 26 years ago when she married him, and that in recent years he gave as his reason the danger of "hold-ups" when returning at night alone from the golf club. Tho l-evolver, however, was found in tho pocket of a light coat in his motor-car and not near his person, where it would likely have been had he been apprehensive of an attack from his expected caller , on Saturday afternoon. ; • iFour years ago Mr. Beaudry was a member of a delegation sent by an American organisation to investigate conditions in Soviet Russia and report upon the advisability of official trade relations. Was there some incident in Mr. Beaudry's trip, or feature of his report that might furnish the clue to his murder ? ■« Roman Catholic and Freemason. It is recalled, too, that some years ago Mr. Beaudry, a French Catholic, joined the Freemasons and became, master of a lodge. When he was running as a candidate for civic honours his opponents published a facsimile of a lodge meeting notice. It is said that after that he with-, drew from the Order and while His 1 Freemasonry may at ,one time have caused, bitterness, his burial was from St. Lee's Church, accompanied with ad the rites o£ the Roman Catholic funeral service. . Who was the person Mr. Beaudry feared and whose opportunity perhaps came aften long years when the engaged detectives died and apprehension was lulled so that, they were not replaced ? Perhaps the police know. But Montreal re not hopeful thafe the police; will get to tho bottom of the) mystery. Fifteen major unsolved mysi teries in five years, to say nothing of many lesser crimes, is Montreal's record.: There was, the case of >Mr. Delorme, & priest's half-brother; of Miss MaLherbe, killed with 1 an axo .on a populous street-; of Mr. Jobin, the furrier, shot down in his office; of "the unknown body found in the river with enough metal attached to it to anchor a 50-ton yacht; and a dozen ojihors. - Apprehensive citizens fear tbafe Montreal will soon be in the class of Chicago with its murder a day.