MIAMI TRAGEDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21648, 19 May 1932, Page 7

MIAMI TRAGEDY

CHARGE AGAINST CAPTAIN LANCASTER THE TRIAL POSTPONED. NEW YORK, May 17. (Received May 18, at 5.5 p.m.) A report from Miami states that, appearing before the Circuit Court on a charge of murder, Captain Lancaster pleaded not guilty. The judge granted the defence’s application for a postponement of the trial to permit a witness as to character to be brought from England and tentatively fixed July 5 as the date of the next hearing. Captain Lancaster, an English airman, is charged with the murder of another pilot, Haden Clarke. Clarke was. fatally wounded in bed a few hours after he and Mrs Miller had told Captain Lancaster of their plans to be married. Mrs Miller’s acquaintance with Clarke turned into love as she wrote the story of her life. At the funeral service Mrs Miller met Mrs Ida Clarke, mother of the dead man. The women embraced and wept. The investigators said that notes left by Clarke pointed conclusively to suicide. Mrs Clarke agreed, and said her son had financial worries. It has since been alleged, however, that the notes were written by Lancaster, Mrs Miller and Captain Lancaster were emphatic in their assertions that Clarke took his own life. Letters found by the investigators from Mrs Miller and Clarke to Captain Lancaster told of their intention to marry, and in an answering telegram from Captain Lancaster he told the two that he did not want to be a dog in the manger, and wished them every happiness. He urged that they should defer their marriage till his return. One of Clarke’s notes, addressed to Captain Lancaster, read: “Bill, I can’t make the grade. Tell Chubbie of our talk. My advice is never to leave her again.” A note to Mrs Miller said; “The economic situation is such that I can’t go through with it. You have Bill; he is the whitest man I know.”