LONDON MURDER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22716, 30 April 1937, Page 11

LONDON MURDER

1 • WHITE SLAVE TRADER 3 TRIAL OPENS AT PARIS d The most sensational of many - murders committed in London's most I cosmopolitan area, Soho, is being inr vestigated at the Assize Court at Paris. The trial has opened of Roger Vernon, - alias Charles Lacroix-, aged 36, who is , charged with the murder of Max Kaasel, otherwise "Red" Max. Suzanne Bertron, aged 25, is charged as an accomplice. In accordance with the usual French j procedure, five minutes were allowed to photographers before the Judge took his seat in which the accused were snapped while an artist rapidly sketched • them. Then there Was a duel between 1 the Judge and Vernon, in which the .Judge reviewed Vernon's life and forced answers to most damaging ques- • tions. '< Vernon, after being reminded of his escape from Devil's Island, described how ho had repeatedly asked Kassel to return a loan of 255. Eventually ; Kassel came to his flat at Soho. "He arrived furious and I knew immediately he or I must be killed," said the accused. "Kassel" tried to strangle me and I tried to seize my pistol but it emptied itself by itself," Vernon added. , The hearing was adjourned. The body of "Red" Mas was found under a hedge at St. Albans, London, on February 1, 1936, death having occurred some days previously. Subsequent investigations revealed the deceased as a white slave trafficker, and it is alleged his death was duo to an underworld vendetta. The police case was that "Red" Max was killed during a quarrel in a Soho flat, and that his body was corveved to St. Albans in an attempt to divert attention from the actual scene of the crime.