WEALTHY WOMAN’S FATE

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 579, 8 October 1932, Page 22 (Supplement)

WEALTHY WOMAN’S FATE

BEATEN TO DEATH. 18-YEAR-OLD MURDER RECALLED. ISLE OF MAN TRAGEDY. Startling developments In. connection with- the murder at Douglas, Isle of Man, 18 years ago, of Airs. Frances Alice Quayle, may lead soon to the solution of a crime that has defied the police all these years. Mrs. Quayle, a wealthy woman of eccentric habits, was found beaten to death in her garden in April, 1014. Scotland Yard was called in at the time, but the detectives from London were defeated. Since then Manx police have never given up hope of finding the murderer, and from time to time conferences have been held and all the evidence in hand reviewed. Now comes the new turn in the investigations, which appears to point to the fact that the murderer is still on this island—which has a population of about 50.000 i>eople—though he was believed to have fled the day after the crime. Picking Up Clues. Police interest quickened recently, as a result of a statement made by a woman, and inquiries were set on foot. They have been difficult owing to the great lapse of time since the murder. Some of the investigations have centred round a wedding party and the guests who attended it. A domestic quarrel is said to have led to developments. A fight is said to have taken place in a lane behind the shop of the dead woman on the night of the murder, and it forms part of the new evidence. Forgotten, now it emerges as a detail of possibly great importance. Mrs. Quayle did not believe in banks, and her money was afterwards found hidden in biscuit boxes and hidden recesses in her grocery shop. It. was clear that Mrs. Quayle had been killed by a number of blows. Her skull was shattered, and injuries to her hands suggested that she had attempted to ward off the blows.

During early morning hours a policeman found a bunch of keys in a lane close by, and these were later identified as the property of Airs. Quayle_. Among them was the key of the garden door, which the murdered woman had apparently locked after her when she entered the garden. An extensive search for the weapon used by the murderer resulted in the finding on a vacant plot of ground not far away of an iron swivel with eye bolt, of- the type which is used to keep taut the stays of telephone poles. There was blood on the swivel and the texture and colour of pieces of hair found upon it left no doubt that this was the weapon used by the murderer. The police questioned a number of and others, but all gave satisfactory accounts of their movements. The late Sir Hall Caine approached Scotland Yard officers engaged on the case at the time, stating that he had had a vision of the murder. He described in detail what he saw in the vision, and gave an intimate account of the man who in his vision figured as a murderer.