MURDER OF HARRY FRAGSON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11000, 12 February 1914, Page 5

MURDER OF HARRY FRAGSON.

AGED FATHER'S CRISfIE, -

TEARFUL CONFESSION TO POLICE.

(From the "Daily Mail.")

PARIS.. January 2

Harry Fragson, the inimitable artist who has so often won applause on the French and English music-hall stage, died in* a Paris hospital to-night after being shot by his father. Narratives of the tragic happening were related to me to-night by a young servant girl, who was the first to discover the crime, and by the police magistrate who made the preliminary investigations. It appears that Fragson, whose real name was Leon Victor Phillip Pott, and who was an English subject, born in England forty-nine years ago, was shot by his father, Mr Victor Pott, a white-haired, tottering old man of .eighty-three years, owing to a disnute.

Fragson had been dining out, and when he returned home, to 56, Rue Lafayette, where he lived with his father, he found the door bolted. He rang twice before his father, who was at a table at the moment, answered. Tlie singer complained of the delay, and sharp words were exchanged. Suddenly the father rose from his seat at the head of the table, in which ho had sunk after opening the door, took a pistol from his pocket, hesitated for a moment, and then raised it, levelled it behind his son's head, and fired. GIRL'S NARRATIVE. One shot only was fired from, the pistol, an automatic weapon, believed to have belonged to Fragson. The bullet entered Fragson's bead behind the right ear, and ho fell to the ground. At that moment the maid servant knocked. She was bringing up a telegram addressed to "Mr H. Fragson." "Mr Victor Pott opened the door," she told me this evening, "and I saw from his face that something had happened. He beckoned me in and pointed to the floor of the dining-room. I looked past him and saw Mr Fragson lyiug groaning on the ground.

"'I have shot him,' the old man moaned, ' because he is a criminal. You had better tell the'police.' "

The maid ran . downstairs into the street, where she saw a policeman and told him what had happened. M. Dei'ert, the Police Commissary of the district, was informed and ho drove at once in his motor-car to the house. Fragson wae removed to hospital. M. Defert asked Fragson's father to follow him to the police station.

FATHER'S CONFESSION. At the police office in the Rue du Faubourg Montmurtrc, the old man, who was in such a pitiable state that a doctor had to be summoned to administer a stimulant, told a tragic story. The magistrate this evening repeatod to me the confession which had just been made to him by the father, a pathetic figure, scarcely more than five feet in height. "My son has lived with me in tho R.ue Lafayette for many years," the white-haired old man told the police official between his sobs. " Six months ago he fell in love with a pretty young artist and brought her here. I objected, but it was useless to talk to Harry; he would have his own wav.

"My life became such a misery that often I thought of putting an end to myself. To-night my son came in at about 8.30 and blamed mo for having bolted the door, which made me slow in answering it. I was tired of the dog's life I was leading, and took a pistol from my pocket,meaning to blew out my brains. At that moment Harry passed before me. and, in a wild, mad rush of rage, I lifted the weapon and fired."

Mr Neighbour, of the Paris Alhambra\ a close personal friend* of Fragson, told me that Fragson worshipped his father. After a successful "first night'' Harry would pick his father up in his arms and dance round with him. " For some time," he said, "the old man has been entering on his dotase."

in Wellington Hall, Belfast, comprising all denominations, synchronising with the assembling of Parliament. The Duke of Portland in the House of Lords, contributed a speech descriptive of Ulster's preparations, "which he watched recently. Sir Edward Oarson, interviewed, said that Mr Asquith's speech carries us no further. It is simply marking time. Nothing was said to induce tho Ulstermen to relax their preparations. AMENDMENT LOST. (Received February 12, 1.55 a.m.) LONDON, January 11. Mr Long's amendment, demanding that the Home Rule Hill should bo submitted to the people, was defeated by 333 voles to 225. O'Brienites did not take part in the division.