DOUBLE LOVE TRAGEDY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20272, 4 June 1929, Page 6

DOUBLE LOVE TRAGEDY

FATE OF YOUNG ACTRESS.

SEQUEL TO LOVERS* QUARREL'

MOTHER'S TERRIBLE DISCOVERY. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SYDNEY, May 30. Another lovo tragedy was added to Sydney's long list of crimes last Tuesday when the actress, Rene Linton, a pretty girl of 23, was shot dead. Straughan Knight, ai land salesman, died a few hours later from the bullet wounds ho had received. Reno Linton was a talented girl, and very attx-active, and it is thought that .had she been spared she would have had a 1 very successful stage career. Four bullets struck the girl, one in the head, two in the breast, and one in the arm. There was a single bullet in Knight's arm. It was obviously a case of murder and suicide.' Knight, who was of a jealous disposition, had quarrelled with the girl on Saturday. As.far as can be gathered a, courtship between them had existed for some time. Recently Knight had been away in the country, but lie returned last Saturday, and he and the girl were both at the flat at Cremorne occupied by Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Ward on Saturday night. Knight was the son of Mrs. Ward. On Saturday night the pair quarrelled at the flat, and Miss Linton left for her home some distance away. Knight, who, when in town, stayed at the flat, went away and he was not seen again until tho morning of the tragedy. Sound of Crashing Glass. On Monday the girl rang up Mrs. Ward, who informed her that Ivnigjit was away. On Tuesday morning Knight came back and he at once asked his mother to ring up Miss Linton. This she did, and he, taking the telephone from her, spoke to the girl, asking her to go to the flat. She went almost at once, and the couple greeted- each other with a kiss. Knight then asked his mother to leave the room. Mrs. Ward, thinking that they wanted to make up the quarrel, went downstairs into the yard at"the back of the fiats, taking with her the little boy friend of Rene's, who had accompanied her to the flat. All too soon Mrs. Ward was to discover that it was no reconciliation that was being enacted in the room with its magnificent view of the harbour. She had been in the yard but a few minutes when she heard the sound of crashing glass, and she hurried upstairs, only to find the door of the room locked. She had heard no shots, nor had any of the other residents of the flats. Evidence o! Severe Struggle. Hastening round to a small balcony on to which the room opened, Mrs. Ward saw that a pane of glass in the French window had been smashed, and, putting her hand through this opening, she undid the catcli on the door. A terrible sight confronted her. Lying on the. floor in a pool of blood was the girl, dead, and, nob far from her, breathing slightly, was her sort. Pieces of plaster lay about the room. Tho glassware on the sideboard was knocked over, and on the floor were six discharged cartridge cases. Close to Knight was a .38 calibre Colt automatic pistol. Near the French door there was a pool of blood, and another on the table, and near the end of the sideboard was more blood, which had splashed against the wall. In fact, there were all the signs of a severe struggle in the room. The shots had apparently been fired from the direction of the French door, for in the opposite wall, about Bft. from the floor, was a bullet, and to the right of it, lower down, another had drilled a neat hole through the glass of a steel engraving and had lodged in the wall and had then fallen on to the floor. Horrified, Mrs. Ward went from the room to tho lounge and telephoned at onco for tho police. Knight was taken post haste to hospital, but he died soon after he was admitted to the institution, without making any statement. The tragedy took place in a flat in the most fashionable part of Cremorne. where there aro many handsome flats. This particular flat had only recently been erected and was luxuriously furnished. " Amiable. But Determined." Miss Linton, who was a daughter of Mr. James Linton, a well-known Sydney solicitor, was an actress in the employ of J. C. Williamson. Limited, and had toured in several Australian States and in New Zealand. She recently appeared in the musical comedy, " The Vagabond Kine." taking the part of Huguette, owing to the illness of Miss Mabel Gibson, whom she understudied. She is stated to have been of an amiable, but determined disposition. Knight was a returned soldier. Mr. J. P. Ward states that he had always considered his stepson a very normal, rational young man, and was at a loss to understand the tragedy.