TRUNK MURDERER

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1934, Page 12

TRUNK MURDERER

DASH FROM PENAL ISLE. 27 YEARS IN CAPTIVITY, One of the most notorious of trunk murderers r Vere Goold, an Irishman of ancient lineage, escaped from the French penal settlement, the “Island of the Damned." Goold, who has spent 27 years on the island, is now over 60 years of age, but he organised the escape of a party of younger convicts and spurred them on to success when failure seemed inevitable. He is now safe in Brazil after passing through the shark-infested waters of the Orinoco. It was in August, 1907, that a porter at the Gate Saint Charles, Marseilles, noticed blood leaking from a large trunk which had been registered to London by the Blue Train. He forced open the trunk and found the body of a woman cut in small pieces, but without head or arms. It was then discovered that a suitcase had been registered earlier an 3 sent on to Boulogne, also addressed to London.

The suitcase was seized at Boulogne, and in it were the missing head and arms.

Trunk and suitcase had been sent from Monte Carlo, but, as in trunk crime No. I, which is now puzzling the British police, the French detectives were absolutely in the dark as to the identity of the victim.

When it seemed that the crime would never be solved, chance brought to light the information that the two. grim pieces of luggage had been registered by an impecunious Irishman, Vere Goold. and his wife, who had been living on their wits in Monte Carlo, and who had been seen in the company of a wealthy Swedish woman known as Madame Liwey, who displayed jewels worth many thousands of pounds. The Goolds decided they must have the Jewels at any cost. Madame Liwey was invited to their flat and, after she had been plied with drugged wine, she was struck down and the body was packed into the trunk and suitcase.

The Goolds were arrested, tried, and convicted, but the Prince of Monaco de /lined the French Government’s offer or the guillotine. Goold went to the Island of the Damned, and Mrs. Goold to a French prison for women. From the very first day of his arrival on the island Goold planned to escape, but it was not until recent y, on the 27tb anniversary of the discovery of the body, that the attempt succeeded. Goold has been without news of his wife since they parted vhen he was about to sail for the Island of the of his escape. Friends had already starred a petition for her release on the ground tha+ she had served a longer term than is considered equal to a life sentence in most civilised countries.