Astounding Story

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 521, 26 November 1928, Page 9

Astounding Story

WHAT AFRICAN TRAGEDY REVEALED WOMAN’S DOUBLE LIFE (Australian cud N.Z. Press Association) LONDON, Friday. Behind a drama of the Gold Coast colony, where Dr. Benjamin Knowles to-day was sentenced to death for murder, is a story outrivalling fiction. He killed Mrs. Harriet Knowles, formerly Madge Clifton, a prominent English music-hall and pantomime favourite. It happened at their bungalow in a native town 25 miles from Kumasi, the capital of Ashanti. There they had lived as man and wife. The British Colonial Office learns that the murdered woman is not Know'les’s wife, but Mrs. Harriett Street, w r ife of George Street, formerly a successful actor-manager, now a theatre proprietor in England. During the time she was living in West Afi'ica as the wife of Knowles, her husband and relatives in England understood she was on a music-hall tour of Africa, Australia and the East. They were amazed to learn that she was living on the Gold Coast. Her husband received frequent and . affectionate letters telling of her experiences in Australia. The letters were not posted abroad and always had a London date stamp. The letters were enclosed in an envelope addressed to a third party m London, and reposted to her husband for the purpose of concealing the fact that she was living on the Gold Coast. She spoke of the hard times of the theatrical tour, and expressed a longing to return to her husband in England. Mr. Street, who was deeply attached to his w-ife, is going immediately to the Gold Coast to ascertain the story of his wife's amazing double life. “I was horrified to read that Madge Clifton had been murdered,” he said. "We were married in London several years ago, and were together in the . profession for a while. Then, during the hard times, she told me she had been offered a good contract for a single act in Australia. I advised her to accept it if she wished. She went away toward the end of last year. She returned to London and told of her experiences abroad. “We lived together happily until early this year, then she told me of another contract in Australia and China and she sailed again. 1 had not the slightest knowledge of Knowles or how she met him. I was not worried by the fact that the letters were addressed through a third person. Madge was so Bohemian, happy-go-lucky, and casual that 1 could easily imagine her enclosing a letter to me in one addressed to one of her many women friends. Whatever has happened on the Gold Coast I am not blaming my wife. She was the best woman in the w'orld. We were the truest and best of pals. In good times and hard times we were always pals.” Street broke down and sobbed.