READING MURDER.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17837, 9 October 1929, Page 6

READING MURDER.

MYSTERIOUS CRIME. MAN BLUDGEONED TO DEATH. (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian Press Association., LONDON, Oct. 7. The people of England are mystified by a tragedy in which Alfred Oliver, aged GO, tobacconist, of Gross Street, Reading, was found bludgeoned to the point of dealh in his shop, on June 22. His wife left the house at G. 5 p.m. and returned at G. 15 p.m. She found her husband dying. For three months the inquiries made by the police failed to lead to an arrest, but at the resumed inquest to-day a strange story was unfolded in the Coroner’s Court. Philip Yale Drew, an actor, aged 50, who was playing the part of a disguised detective in a play called “ r l’he Monster,” whicii was being staged at Reading at the time of the murder, sat and listened to a long succession of witnesses. They pointed to him as a man whom they iiad seen behaving strangely outside Oliver’s shop on the evening of the crime. Other witnesses said Drew was late at the theatre that night, and that lie afterwards explained lie had lost the trousers which lie usually wore on the stage.. A servant in a lodging-house said Drew asked for some benzoline to clean a jacket. He wa§ excitable and nervy.