A CALIFORNIAN DRAMA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9127, 23 April 1908, Page 7

A CALIFORNIAN DRAMA.

(New York, March 1. Mrs Charlotte Noyes, a beautiful Boston woman, was shot and instantly killed yesterday at “her home, in Los Angelos, California, by Mr W. P. McComas, a local mining engineer. It was the climax to a romance which had lasted five years. Mr |McOomas declared that be fired in self-defence, when the woman attempted to blind him with acid.

When the police arrived, summoned by Mr McComas himself, they found the revolver with which the crime was committed, still in his hand. The luxurious apartment had been thrown into disorder, and the room bore every evidence of a desperate struggle. On the floor lay Mrs Noyes, with a bullet wound in her body. A physician was hastily summoned, and declared that she had been instantly killed. The police searched the room for any evidence tending to support Mr McComas’ charge that the woman tried to blind him, but in vain, as no acid was found. Mr McComas said : “I have known Mrs Noyes five years. She has been bothering me, and I could not stand it any longer, sol tried to end our friendship.” Mrs Noyes came to Los Angeles a fortnight ago, and the two spent every afternoon of the time at the race track. Luck ran against them, and they are said to have lost £IOOO between them. The police have heard that a quarrel {over money preceded the tragedy. The lady was the wife of Mr Charles M. Noyes, a travelling man, at Boston, Massachusetts. Noyes said yesterday: -“Ah, dear! It’s come at last. What a lesson to flighty wives! I’m surprised to'hear my wife ’is killed, but from my knowledge of her disposition, and my experience gwith her during the eight years we were married, I rather expected something of the sort would happen sooner or later. I married her in 1893. She was the daughter of Eli Lamprey, a carpenter. My wife was 86 years old on her last birthday. Five years ago she ran away from me. I heard from her in Los Angeles, and I knew she had met Mr McComas. She petitioned the Californian courts for a divorce and I did not contest the case. ’ ’