A BOX AND ITS GHASTLY SECRET

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1680, 11 May 1904, Page 15

A BOX AND ITS GHASTLY SECRET

'.CFrom Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 25.

A miurdeir .which in some of i.is ghastly details 'recalls tthe gruesome Deeming case, : came to Tight yesterday at TTrfngn.l "Base, -a suburb of North .Loudon. George Albert 'Grossman, a man of about thirty, short, active, neatlydressed, took >a house some mouths ago in 'Ladysmith road, and moved in with a good-looking, blonde-haired woma.i whom The neighbours took to ’be Mins Grossman, .and a child. Seven we-uis ago Grossman let .the lower part of the house to >a young couple ' named Dell, removing his own furniture to the upper .rooms. -A large tin box was left, however, :in a cupboard beneath the stairs* .Grossman remarking tha+ he Bhould like ho keep it there. The new tenants noticed a peculiar smell about •Hie cupboard and complained to Cvobsinan, who said that the-box inside contained some cement, which was goung moluldy. .He •.agreed to have the box removed,! but kept putting off from day to day. Meanwhile it .became plain that he was in- financial straits. A week ago Crossman’s 'furniture was seized upon -a distress -warffant : and'-sold by auction. ; The climax . came ' this week. About seven’ -o’clock »n Monday evening be went, into the .cupboard where the box wals. locked the door, and by the light of. a candle was hammering at something for aberut an hour. There was a dreadf>ul 'smell when he opened the door to come out, and Dell was so much concerned that he called out., “What have you got ? Have you .a dead body in there ?” In a voice which he vainly tried to keep from quavering, Grossman replied “No, its all right; this stuff always smells fearfully when .it goes ‘bad/’ Dell insisted that the box should be removed at . once, but it was not till -Wednesday evening tlmt Crossman . brought out has mysterious box. ,He had' a van at the gatefand was toying to drag the box to iihe .door when Dell came home from work. The weight of the box, the Eocul'iar smell, and the agitation of rossman, who insisted that he wanted Only one man with him —-all these things fl.Tormpd -suspicion. -Dell went for the police. '

T(lie sequel was "tragic and sensational. - Dinecbly 'blae ten ant returned with a couple of policemen, Grossman dashed out of ' the. front gate and ran for; liis life down the; road. A constable followed, 'and"the.chase was kept up:for nearly df a mile. Finally being rapidly 'overhauled, (took a razor from

his‘.pocket ;and severed his windpipe with <©ne dreadful gash. -Heath was practically instantaneous. Meanwhile, the box had been taken to the policestation and there opened. It contained the Tpartiailly clothed remains ;of a woman, very much decomposed, .and embedded in cement. How the woman met*her death is not yet known, but it is clear‘that cement was poured into the trunk in liquid' roam alter the dead body had been placed there, and thus had formed into a solid block.

The murderer proves to be a ticket-of-Leave man, who served a sentence for bigamy. He is stated to have gone through the'ceremony of marriage with five women. The certificate of his first wife's death in 1897 was found upon him. The following year be duped two women into “marrying” him; and the second of these is believed to have been the murdered woman. A fourth woman married him -at Kilhujrai in January, 1903 ; the fifth is the woman Who was Living ‘With mm lately at jxensal-ri&e. Her he “matrred” at Reading last January umber the name of Frank Seaton, ue WiUidiOw all her money from the Post Omoe Savings Bank, by: means of a forged withdrawal foam. There is reason to believe that he -robbed and illtreated all the women lie “married”; and .after obtaining all the money he could from them, he abandoned them. At the time -of his suicide, he was “wanted” by the police," who had had liim under observation for some time. The ticket-of-leave he was given during his sentence of five yeans’ penal servitude for bigamy expired a few wee .as ago. Besides dupmg women, he swindled furniture dealers -to a large extent. Getting goodb from them for which he never paid, he advertised tne articles in the newspapers, in this way obiammg large sums of money.