MAN KILLED IN CABARET DANCER’S FLAT

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1934, Page 15 (Supplement)

MAN KILLED IN CABARET DANCER’S FLAT

Knifing Tragedy Is Sequel To Midnight Quarrel

'A CABARET girl’s alleged confession of the murder of her lover in self-defence was a startling development in a tragedy discovered at Montreal on a recent morning.

The dead man was William Owen, a 36-year-old Welshman, and the girl Lilian alias Dolores Lopez alias Jean Morel, a 25-year-old red-haired French-Canadian dancer living in a flat in St. Denis Street, provided for her by Owen. Her alleged confession is stated by the police to have been made to them. The first news of the tragedy was given to the police by Dr J. R. Hamelin, who was called to the flat by the girl at 12.15 a.m. Dr Hamelin said that when he arrived he found the man dying as the result of a deep knife wound in the shoulder, and he instructed the girl to telephone the hospital. The man died in about 15 minutes, and the doctor noticed that the girl had by then disappeared. He then informed the police. The dead man’s car was found about 5 a.m. badly smashed, having been in collision with a telephone pole. It was clear that the girl had taken it, and when she was found soon afterward her face was cut and bruised and her nose broken as a result of the accident. The police say that she made the following statement: . . “We were alone in the apartment when Mr Owen, who was thoroughly drunk, started to argue. When gave no answers he wanted to beat me, and began to choke me. “I was terrified and grabbed a a knife and stabbed him. He fell on the floor. I ran and got a doctor, and then, terrified I jumped into a car to seek i fuge at the home of an aunt in Montreal South.”

In Owen’s pockets two messages written by the girl were found. •Ctna tiaadt

“Billy darling, I have taken George and Walter home. I couldn’t let them taxi that distance. Wait for me. I love you.” The second read:

“I have gone home. For no reason you started hitting me in the face. Do you mean it? That’s what I want to know. In any case you had better be a good boy and sleep here to-night.”

Owen, who was a bond salesman for a firm of stockbrokers, and a married man, was at one time a member of Mr Lloyd George’s secretariat in Abingdon Street, London. Both messages were signed “Dolores.”