FRANCES MARSHALL’S DEATH

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8853, 2 October 1914, Page 7

FRANCES MARSHALL’S DEATH

STRANGE ARSENCE OF TRACES OF MURDERER. - Press Association.

AUCKLAND, October 1. The 'theory most favoured in official circles is that the Nelson street murden (m which the woman Frances Marshall was done to death) was a crime that cannot be published.. Viewing the circumstances from every point, the authorities agree in believing that the deed was the act of a man insane, momentarily or otherwise. The ■ perplexing point is that no trace of the murderer’s movements can he discovered. His hands and clothing must have been drenched in blood; he must have carried away some evidences of his crime. A medical man who is a recognised authority in mental cases expresses the opinion - that the man who perpetrated tho crime is a maniac, not a man who had become temporarily insane and had attacked the woman (with demoniacal ferocity, during a moment of madness, hut a man who is. completely and obviously insane. He does not think it a case in which the perpetrator would immediately calm down quietly, leave the victim, and return to his ordinary haunts in a normal state of mind. The deed seemed clearly that of a criminal lunatic, who was mad at the time and is still at largo.