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Case Of ThePhantomKillerPROBABLY the most important capture ever made by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was when Constable Grey arrested ••Virgil Watson on the road between Wakopa and Ban-nerman, Manitoba, on the afternoon of June 16th, 1927. A sigh of relief went up all over the North American continent.J7IGHT days earlier, in the name of Woodcots, a stocky man, with an unusually broad forehead and thick, protuberant lips, had engaged a quiet room, because I’m a very religious man oi high ideals,” at Mrs. Catherine Hill's boarding-house in Smith Street, Winnipeg.Mrs. Hill's impression of her new lodger was somewhat vague. After spending the night there, ‘‘Woodcots” left early next morning, presumably for his work.Later that day, when Mrs. Cowan, another lodger, went to call her tourteen-ycar-old daughter Lola, the girl could not be found. The police were notified, but without result.Returning to his home in Riverton Avenue at six o’clock that same day, William Paterson was surprised to find that his wife was not there to greet him. Thinking she was having tea with a friend, he gave his two children supper when they came in, and later put them to bed.At 10 o'clock there was still no sign of his wife. None of their friends had seen her, so Paterson telephoned the police. It then occurred to him to make a tour of the house.WENT DOWN ON HISKNF.F.Rbody was discovered under a bed. Again no description of the caller was forthcoming. Kvery available detective was set on the hunt but no cluc to the killer was unearthed.Fourteen days later, on June 24th, the body of Mrs. George Russell, of Santa Barbara, was found strangled in the now all too famib'ar circumstances. '1 wo months later fifty-two-year old Mrs. Mary Nesbit, of Oaklord, was found murdered in similar fashion.Five killings in six months, still with no clue to the murderer! The women of California were thrown into such a state of terror that, however innocent looking,' any man who knocked on the door of a house tenanted only by a woman was reported to the police. Hither frightened or satiated, the killer stayed his hand for two months. Then came two more killings at Portland, Oregon.STILL KILLING AND NO CLUE# ON October 19th the body of Mrs. Beata Withers (35) strangled, was found stulTed into a trunk in the attic. Jewellery, money and a coat had been taken. On October 20th Mrs. Virginia Grant was discovered dead inmonths, on April 22nd, 1927, Mrs.Mary McCornell was found murdered in Philadelphia. Then at points as widely separated as Buffalo, Detroit and Chicago there were four murders in a week.It was then that the Dark Strangler made his great nu?tal*e -—by crossing into t anada. Here the nature of the country w;i against him. He was up againt a more determined and better organised opposition.Further. Winnipeg i an unusually self-contained community. Strangers arc not difficult to trace. Within a few hours of the J murder of Lola Cowan and Mrs. Paterson, Winnipeg had mobilised every available man in the hunt , ior the Dark Strangler. iLong immunity, it was clear. (had made Earle Nelson—the «Dark Strangler’s correct name J—careless. Clues were plentiful. ■Sam Waldman, a second-hand 'clothier, remembered that oil the day Mrs. Paterson was murdered i a man had selected a suit, overcoat and shoes from stock, left ,his own clothes in part exchange. ■paid £6 in notes, and changed into his purchases in the room at the back of the shop.GAVE NELSON CHANGE IN A STREET-CAR# HE left behind him a Bililc, a fountain pen. and various papers—all o: which had been in the suit-ca.sc in Paterson’s house. The next clue to the murderer's whereabouts was supplied by a man named Hofcr. who within a few hours of the later of the two killings, gave Nelson change in a street-car.On the next day, Saturday, June 11th, Harry Harper rented a room at Regina from Mrs. Rowe, who may be accounted fortunate in coming out alive from the interview. Two days later Nelson changed his hat at Harry Barges' store, leaving as part payment one he had bought from Chevricr’s store at Winnipeg. There he had his cl«.s*st cape from recognition to date.With the name of Chevricr vaguely familiar from newspaper accounts of the murders, Farges miro ioni'd hi*; fiKlompr who
Newspaper Details
Hobart Voice
Hobart, Tasmania, AU
Sat, Aug 01, 1953
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
CA 12 Sep 2019
Other Publications Near Hobart, Tasmania
Hobart Colonial Advocate and Tasmanian Monthly Review and Register
Hobart Colonist and Van Diemens Land Commercial and Agricultural Advertiser
Hobart Hobarton Guardian or True Friend of Tasmania
Hobart Town Punch
Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemens Land Advertiser
