STABBED TO DEATH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20470, 23 November 1934, Page 5

STABBED TO DEATH.

Englishman Killed in Girl’s Flat. CABARET ARTIST ARRESTED. (Special to the “ Star.”) MONTREAL, October 6. An Englishman was stabbed to death here in the early hours of to-day in the fiat of a cabaret girl, for whom he paid the rent. The girl was chased by police in motor-cars and arrested. The police declare she confessed that she killed her lover in self-defence. “ I stabbed him to save my life,” she said. “He tried to choke me. “ We were alone in the apartment when Billy got thoroughly drunk and j started to argue. When I gave no answers he wanted to beat me, and began to choke me. “ I was terrified. I grabbed a knife and stabbed him. He fell to the floor. I ran and got a doctor. *’ Then, very frightened, I jumped into the car to seek refuge at the home of my aunt.” The man was William Owen, aged 3S, whom the police at first thought to be a former secretary of Mr Lloyd George. It is believed, however, that he was once employed at the War Office in London. For the past three years Owen, a married man, had been a bond salesman for a firm of stockbrokers. Doctor’s Story. The cabaret girl is Lillian, or Dolores, Lopez, a French-Canadian, aged 22. The story of the events immediately preceding Owen's death was told by Dr J. R. Hamelin, whose home is near the fiat where the man died. “ Miss Lopez called on me early this morning.” he said. ” She said there was a man in her home wounded. When I got there the man was lying on the floor of the sitting-room with a knife-wound in his right shoulder. He died within a few minutes. When I looked round the girl had vanished.” I Two passages in the girl’s handwriting were found in Owen’s pockets. One read: Billy darling, I have taken George and Walter home. I couldn’t let them taxi all that distance. Wait for me. 1 love you, Dolores.

The second message ran: 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.—Dolores. In Stockinged Feet. The girl had driven away in Owen’s car. After a few miles the car crashed into a telegraph pole. A broadcast description of the girl resulted in her arrest, in stockinged feet, at Lougueuil, a few miles away. She had a broken nose and severe bruises. She is now in hospital, under arrest. She has admitted that on her wav to her aunt’s she stopped for a drink and was drunk when the car hit the pole. She was thrown out of the car and wandered, dazed, until she collapsed unconscious in a field, where the police found her. Owen came to Canada after failing to enter the United States owing to quota difficulty. A partner in his firm said : “Owen was a very clever man and one of our best bond salesmen. He himself stated that he had worked* for Mr Lloyd George. In what capacity it is not clear. ’ I hardly think he was one ol Mr Lloyd George’s secretaries.** Never Met. Lieutenant-Colonel William Hugh Owen, a friend of Mr Lloyd George and formerly one of his secretaries, has lived here since 1919. He said: I did not know this man. He. tried to see me when he arrived in Canada, but for some reason we never met.