A BRUTAL ROBBERY

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 27

A BRUTAL ROBBERY

ROME, March 5. A train thief has been identi&ed as the assailant of Miss Low, Mho was murderously attacked and robbed in the Turin express on 13th January, 1907. An Englishwoman, Miss Susan Lowe, 29 years of age, wa« discovered lying uncon^cious in a, fii-st-da&g compartment vpjheix the express fiom Tuiin reached Modane at 2.20 a.m. on the date mentioned above. She had eustained three savage blows which were apparently inflicted with a hammer. Her watch, jewellery, and purse (containing £8) had been stolen. A doctor was summoned, and took Miss Lowe to Chambery, where an ambulance was in waiting to take her to the town hospital. Dt- Cheron examined the patient, and found it necessary to carry out at once the . peration of trepanning. It was the only chance of saving her life. Later on. when she was sufficiently recovered to give an account of what had happened, she said : — "I was on my way from Genoa to Paris, where my employer, Mme. Leoa-et, was to meet me at the railway station. At Turin a. well-dressed young man, -with a fair moustache, entered my compartment, and laid himself down aa though to sleep. It was then about 11.30 at night, Ita'ian time. The train started again, and I felt rather rervoui at finding myself alone in the compartment with a man, and the blinds drawn. However, he seemed to be sleeping soundly, and presently, about tin hour afterwtirds, I began to dose off. Ido not know how long I had slept when I was aroused by a sharp, violent pain in the head. I opeiied my eyes and tried to sit up, and I saw my travelling companion standing over me with a raised hammer. I had no time to cry out before he struck me a second blow, which knocked me senseless. When I came to 1 fcund my clothe 3 disarranged and my jewellery and purse gone. My assailant had evidently gone through all my pockets. Mr hair was clotted with blood. I lost consciousness again, and I remembered no more until I saw the doctor leaning over me and attending to me in the train." When the man entered the compartment at Turin she told him thai she understood the compartment was for ladies only, .nn«l Ihat she preferred to be alone. The man then went cut into the corridor, and Miss Lowe began to dose, stretched out on the cushion*. She was in a. half-waking condition when the man re-entered the compartment and instantly struck her. The following is a list of the objects stolen from her: — A ring, a long watoh chain in gold, a silver watch, a ' small handbag, which contained her ticket, her registered luggage receipts," two French or Italian 20 franc pieces, 18s in English silver, an English sovereign, and six or seven franca in French silvor. Attached to the watch and chain was a small .medal, with the inscription, "Frue, kind, and true." Tha assailant also carried off a parcel eontimiing a number of cuffs and nurse's piri*.forea, as well as a packet containing 100 photographs of Capetown and views of Cape Colony.