LIVING WITH THE DEAD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19807, 26 November 1919, Page 6

LIVING WITH THE DEAD.

STORY BY POE RECALLED.

LONDON, November 5. A tragedy reminiscent of a. story by Edgar Allen Poe has been discovered in a. King’s Cross lodging-house. An eccentric elderly man, passing as Dr Arthur Gooch, lived in tho same room as his dead wife for.months. The discovery was made through Gooch not taking in letters which were loft on the door-mat. The door was tried, hvu the knocks were not answered. Tho door was then burst in, and Gooch was found lying dead in bed with an empty bottle, which had contained prussic acid, clasped in his hand. His wife’s corpse was lying on a mattress, supported by chairs, and was in an advanced stale of decomposition. She was last seen in May. Gooch protended ‘ that his wife was ill. Ho completely deceived tho other lodgers by carefully locking the door when going out, _ and then calling out, j “ Good-bye, darling,” taking sympathetic messages from the lodgers, and bringing replies. Tho lodgers frequently comolained of a dreadful smell, and tho landload attempted to evict Gooch, hut he succcssj fully pleaded that his wife was too ill to ho moved.

LONDON, November 6. Additional details deepen the mystery of the Cross tragedy. A post mortem revealed that the wife died from natural causes.

Gooch was a devoted husband, but secretive in regard to his home life Nobody was over admitted to his bedroom, _ which was labelled “ "Waitingroom,” Fellow-lodgers say that Gooch and his wife always smelt of other. ' Gooch held a science degree from Oxford, and earned a comfortable income as a science tutor and in instructing many army and naval officers.

LONDON, o vein tier 8. It has been disclosed by the coroner’s investigation that tho couple had lived like hermits for many years. Gooch was described as a clever medical scientist and lecturer, but was a confirmed drug-taker, consuming great quantities of ehlorodyno and alcohol alternately. Ho left a letter addressed loathe coroner, saying that his wife had refused to enter a hospital, and they had decided to die together. The coroner’s finding was that the wife’s death was due to natural onuses! Tho doctor’s evidence was that she (bed about ten days before the discovery of the body of Gooch, who had been dead for three days when found.