THE TRUPHENE MURDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20354, 10 March 1928, Page 11

THE TRUPHENE MURDER

A STARTLING THEORY. UNKNOWN MAN THE VICTIM. (Pros* /naoclatlon—Cy Telegraph—Copyris'.it) PARIS, March 8. (Received March 9, at 6.5 p.m.) A startling theory, reminiscent, o£ Edgar Allan Poe, has been advanced for the Truphene murder. It is now suggested that Truphene, who was in possession of more than £6OOO in money and diamonds, himself murdered an unknown man and substituted the victim’s body, dressed in his own clothes, to which he set fire, hop : ng to mislead the police into believing that bo was dead. The theory is supported by three men identifying Truphene from a photograph as the driver of a coffee-coloured motor car in which it is believed the body was conveyed to the scene. Two women well known to Truphene state that he mentioned that he had a presentiment that he would bo assassinated and in’s body burned, and that, he was going to Amsterdam, where he had a new position. Another intriguing circumstance is that Truphene’s overcoat, in the pocket of which there was a small set of scales used for weighing jewels,/ was found on the roadside near the body.—A. and N.Z. Cable. A previous message from Paris stated that a man who was murdered at Melun had been identified as a young traveller named Gaston Truphene. who had been missing for two days. He was in possession of jewels and precious stones worth £6OOO. His head was horribly battered, presumably by motor bandits, who tied the body up in a petrol-soaked sack, to which they set fire. The clue was supplied by a butcher bov who saw a motor car discarding bloodstained tins.