LONDON HOUSE MYSTERY

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 84, 4 July 1928, Page 2

LONDON HOUSE MYSTERY

CURSE OF KING TUT CINDERS ON THE SOFA. A number of mysterious incidents that have occurred recently at the home of Captain the Hon. Richard and Mrs. Bethell in Manchester Square, London, have been the subject of investigation by the police. Discoveries made in the bouse included: — Red-hot cinders underneath a cushion on a divan; a silk curtain, valued at £SO, set alight by an electric stove placed near it; hack of an antique screen burnt; a burnt patch on a carpet; corner of a divan in Mrs Bethell’s boudoir found smouldering; and moulding wrenched away from a window on the second floor. Captain Bethell, the son and heir of Lord Westhury, is a keen archaeologist and was- secretary to Mr Howard Carter when he discovered the tomb of King Tut-Ankh-Amen. His daughter is named Nefertari. after the Egyptian queen. Some speculation has been aroused as to whether or not the incidents might' have isome occult origin, but a more commonplace explanation has been suggested by the police. As a result of a suggestion by the detectives, a member n r He household left ’ Captain Bethell’,s employment. •

SMELL OF BURNING, “Captain and Mrs Bethell gave a luncheon party,” said one of the staff. “Afterwards, when Captain Bethell was in his study, he thought ho could smell burning. At first he imagined that a cigarette end had dropped on trie carpet, but it was discovered that red-hot cinder s and ashes had been placed in a corner of a sofa, beneath a cushion. ’“The coal shovel, covered with ashes wag found near the sofa.^ “One afternoon a silk curtain in the drawing-room was found smould. ering. It had been set alight by an electric fire placed behind it. “A short time ago a carpet was found burned in one of the rooms, and it was thought- to be duo to a piece of coal flying out of the fire. The carpet now appears to have been damaged through a red-hot poker being placed on it. DANCER DAUGHTER. “The edge of a divan in Mrs Bothell’s boudoir has been found smouldering, and Nefertari discovered that the back of a .valuable' ornamental screen in the corner of one room had been burnt. Part of the framework of a window hag also been wrenched away.” l , Mrs Bethell joined with Miss Gertrude Lawrence in opening a beauty boudoir in Hanover Square last year, and their ten-year-old daughter Nefertari has been training to he a ballerina since she was three.