A PALM BEACH SENSATION

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14771, 10 October 1921, Page 2

A PALM BEACH SENSATION

GIRL’S DOUBLE LIFE. ' The inhabitants of West Palm Beach, a fashionable residential suburb of the famous Florida winter resort, are amazed to learn 1 hat a quiet, pretty young woman who has officiated behind the counter o' the post office, and has been known to every citizen as a religious girl of spotless reputation, lias not only been leading a double life for months past, but is now in prison charged with theft and murder. The girl’s name is Lena Clarke, and she is the daughter of a Congregational minister, a member of Ihe local church, and closely identified with all its activities. Vet when she was supposed to be safely in bed she was leading a life of pleasure in audit resorts at Palm Beach, where she bad relations with all kinds of dubious characters of the upper and under world. Two Men Vanish. During ihe last 18 months thefts have been going on in the mail consigned to and from West Palm Beach office, which resulted in a loss of over £20,000 worth of money orders and other valuables. Post office inspectors watched for months before deciding that Ihe pretty young postmistress was the thief, and they breathed no word of their suspicions until recently, when they raided the studio where -she lived and wrote poetry. There they discovered apparently conclusive proof of her guilt. When site was arrested she, denied everything, and was released on bail. Two days later the town received a second shock, when a local restaurant proprietor named Miltirnore was found shot through (he head in an hotel at Orlando. Nobody connected Lena Clarke with Ihe crime except the police, who had Ihe girl under observation while she was on bail.

’faxed with causing Hie dealh of Miltirnore, Hie girl confessed everything. She admitted Hint the dead man had been tier secret, associate for many 'months, and that he had been tier accomplice in robbing Hie mails. Slo* told the police bow by promises she bad enticed him to tier room in (he, Orlando Hotel, and begged him In sign a statement admitting Ih;<I he was Imr accomplice. When lie refused to do so she shot him. A curious feature of (he ease, is that since Clarke's arrest two prominent men, one a president of the local hank, and the other a man from whom Clarke rented a studio, have disappeared.