SISTERS’ SUICIDE

Taranaki Daily News, 27 February 1935, Page 7

SISTERS’ SUICIDE

JUMP FROM AN AIR LINER REVELATION AT INQUEST LETTERS LEFT PARENTS LOVE FOR CRASH VICTIMS By Telegraph-Press Assn.-Copyright. Rec. 5.5 p.m. London, Feb. 25. At an inquest into the death of the Du Bois sisters, who jumped from a Hillman air liner following news of the death in a crash of their lovers, the jury returned a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind. The father gave evidence that Jane was the dominating personality and her sister frequently gave way to her. Jane was very fond of Flying-Officer John Charles Forbes. The coroner read letters found in the plane. In them the sisters wrote alternate paragraphs. The first letter was addressed: “Darling Coert (the father’s Christian name), you have forgiven us much, will you forgive us this, as you must feel little of what we did when we heard of the flying-boat crash?” The letter continued in different writing: “Charles was engaged to another girl, but intended breaking it off. We would probably have been married this summer. There never will be anyone else for me.” The second letter read: “Mother darling—Don’t think we have done anything wicked. You must have known that the flying-boat crash would pull us over a line which was never well defined for us. I think you know Charles and I were going to spend our lives together. I must keep my part of the bargain. We have spent the day loaded down with half-crowns for the proletariat to drink to him.” Both letters were signed “Betty and Jane.”

The coroner commented that the girls were inseparably devoted to one another, and the younger was infatuated with Forbes. Undoubtedly Elizabeth agreed with her stronger-minded sister to jump from the plane. Mr. Kirtott,' pilot of the Hillman airliner from which the girls jumped and pilot of the liner from which the gold was dropped recently, is joining Imperial Airways as a probationary first officer. His sphere is undecided. Mr. Kirton considered himself the unluckiest pilot in England after the Du Bois tragedy. He left Hillman Airways because his contract had expired. The Daily Mail says an epilogue to the du Bois sisters’ letters is provided by Flying-Officer Forbes’ letters to his fiancee, Miss Kathleen Blakley, a dancing instructress of Watford, and a daughter of a doctor. She says she is greatly distressed at the suggestion that he was breaking off the engagement to marry Jane du Bois. Nothing he wrote in 14 letters from Naples indicated that the sisters were more than casual acquaintances.