Spilsbury Freckles

Something white wobbling at the bottom of Brentford Canal attracted three small boys last month. Soon they fished out a slimy human torso. In England the next thing to do in all such cases is to send for Sir Bernard Spilsbury.

On his mettle nowadays is the Home Office's great criminal pathologist. Thrice in a twelvemonth Sir Bernard has failed to solve spectacular murder cases: The Brighton Trunk Crime No. 1; the Brighton Trunk Crime No. 2; and the Case of the Waterloo Legs--limbs which, as Lord Beaverbrook's blatant Daily Express never tires of repeating, were found under the seat of a Waterloo railway train wrapped in a copy of the Daily Express.

Scrutinizing the Brentford Torso last week, England's real-life Sherlock Holmes, exclaimed: "Look at those freckles!"

To others they might seem just freckles. To Sir Bernard Spilsbury the freckles on the Brentford Torso were scientific twins of the freckles on the Waterloo Legs.

As every English crime fancier recalls, the legs, though obviously male, had been femininely peroxided and powdered. Suspicion has been strong that the murdered man had been living with some other man who eventually slew him when threatened with blackmail. Last week Pathologist Spilsbury did much to dash this theory by discovering on the male Brentford Torso three long strands of hair unquestionably female. At the coroner's inquest, Sir Bernard, close-lipped as usual, dropped a quiet hint that he now believes the Waterloo-Brentford man, pieced together by his freckles last week, was murdered by a woman. Not a mystery of Spilsbury calibre but England's robustious crime of the week was the preliminary police court hearing at Bournemouth of Mrs. A. V. ("Lozanne") Rattenbury and her chauffeur charged with murdering her husband. Mrs. Rattenbury always referred affectionately to the dead man as "Rats."

Police arrived to find Mrs. Rattenbury tipsy in pajamas. "Anything you say may be used against you," they warned. Babbled Mrs. Rattenbury: "I did it. 'Rats' had lived too long! No, my lover did it. 'Rats' said I hadn't the guts to kill him. I know who did it. I'll give you -L-10. No, I won't bribe you."

Equally undecided was Chauffeur George Stoner: "Mrs. Rattenbury called up to me 'Come down and help me get "Rats" to bed.' I wiped up the blood at her instructions. No, I did the job myself."

In jail "Rats' " widow wrote as follows to her chauffeur and an obliging English warder passed the note: "Please write and let me know how 'Rats' is getting along. God bless you, my love."

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