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SHOT IN TUNNEL -

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SHOT IN TUNNEL YOUNG NEWPORT WOMAN MURDERED. Married Man's Suicide SECRET CORRESPONDENCE I A terrible double tragedy occurred in a Great Western Railway carriage in the Severn Tunnel late on Thursday night. The train was the five p.m. ex Portsmouth express. due to arrive at Newport at 9.30 p.m. Whilst the train was emerging from the tunnel at the Newport side the passengers in other compartments were startled by the screams of a female and the shots of a fn-e- arm. When the train was pulled up it was found that a 'man and a woman had been fatally injured, and on arrival of the express at Newport their dead bodies were conveyed to the mortuary for identification and the coroner's inquiry. The whole compartment was bespattered with blood, and all along from the com- partment there were pools of blood, which evidently had issued from both the injured persons Woman Shot Four Times Examination showed that the woman—a young, tail, handsome woman-had been wounded in four separate places, all around the neck and throat, and the man, who was apparently some years her senior, had been shot in the mouth, the bullet going right through and emerging at the back of the neck. When the train arrived at Newport the man's face was so discoloured with the powder and smoke of the firearm that he seemed to the railway officials to be a black man. The Man's Identity On the bodies being searched the man had a business card, which bore his name end address Arthur F Wintle, Expert in the fitting and erection of C" engines. Construction of wood-working machinery a speciality. 52. Mead-street Temple-gate, Bristol. There was also an em elope in his fosses- xion, wfiieh bore the addresB: Mr. A. F. Wintle, c/o Mrs. Coles, 52, Mead- street, Bath Bridge, Totterdown, Bristol. A Newport Woman The young woman had a letter-oard upon her which bore this address:- Miss G. Clark, c/o Tuplins' Restaurant, 52, Bridge-street, Newport, Mon. There was another address also found, maiir.-oly:- The Yews, Chepstow-road, Newport. STORY OF THE TRAGEDY I Young Railwayman's Terrible Discovery The story of the tragedy, falling into ohronological order, comes first from John Douch, a young railwayman, who aoted as front guard of the five p.m. ex Portsmouth- Oardiff train. He states that he believed he saw the man who had been shot ptanding on the platform at Stapleton Road Station. Ho was dressed in a light suit, with a Trilby hat, and asked if the train was a non-stop to South Wales. The guard told him it was and the paeeenger and the young woman then got into an empty third-oLase compare ment nearest to the engine. As the train was emerging from the Severn Tunnel on the Newport side he heard a female scream. and, to the best of his recol- lection, he heard four shots of a firearm. He shopped the train, and went back to the compartment, the floor of which was covered with blood. In his opinion, both the man and woman were then dead. The train was taken on to Severn Tunnel Junction Station, and there a further examination of the bodies was made, with the result that they were both found to be dead. A telephone message was sent to Newport Station to make the neoes-sary arrangements for the conveyance of the bodies either to the hospital-in the event of there still being life in them-or to the mortuary in the case of life being extinct. Positions of the Bodies Ticket-collector Wm. Jones, Newport, stated that he received instructions from his supei )r officer to be in readiness with an ambulajioe carriage on the down platform to meet the 9.30 p.m. train, as two persons were found to be shot. He met the train, and found in the first third-claes com- partment, next to the engine, the man, with his face very much discoloured, Bitting on the floor of the carriage, with his back towards the door. In the same compartment, lying on her back. was a woman, with her .head n-ear the man. The oompartment was bespattered with blood, and the floor was almost a pool of blood. A revolver was lying on the floor between the man and the woman at the right-hand side of the man, as though it had dropped from his hand. Both appeared to be then dead. With the assist- ance of other railwaymen, he had the bodies taken out of the train and placed on an ambulance to be seat to the mortuary. Bloodstained Revolver A number of the Newport police, who had been apprised of the matter, took the town ainbulanoe to the railway station, and, as both th" man and the woman were dead, took them to the mortuary opposite the Central Police-station, in Dock-street. There the bodies were washed preparatory to identification. The revolver," a new, silver-plated six- ehambered weapon, of small, neat pattern, was still smeared with blood when it was taken possession of by the police. All the chambers had been emptied. About an hour afterwards the body of the female victim was identified by her mother, Mre. Clark, of The Yews, Chepstow-road, Newport; by her young brother, and by her TTOele, Mr. Lewis. Miss Clark's fuh name was Catherine Edith Gwendoline Clark. She was 21 years of age, single, and lived with her parents at The Yews. Her I father is a retired master mariner, who had been cap- t n of the steamship Arofa until last voyage, when he became paralysed. Till August last Captain and Mrs. Clark and their family had lived in Bangor-road. Cardiff. They then removed to Chepstow- road, Newport, where they had living with them a family consisting of Miss C. E. G. Clark, who was the eldest child, two younger sisters, and two young brothers. A MEETING AT CARDIFF Secret Correspondence Between the Couple About an hour afterwards the body of the female victim was identified by her uncle, Mr. Lewis, who said he had heard of his niece's acquaintance with Wintle, who was a married man. Miss Clark, he said, made the acquaintance of Mr. vintle, who was some years her senior, in Cardiff in the summer of this year, and he appeared to have won her affection. Within the last few weeks the family had found that he was a married man, with a wife and two children at Coventry. Last week, Mr. Lewis believes, a magistrates' order was made qn Wintle for the support of his family, and this fact had very reoently been communicated to Miss Clark. "Had Mr. Wintle ever visited Miss Clark at her parents' house?" queried the interviewer. "No, it would not have done for him to do it." "But she appears to have received a letter from him addressed to her at Tuplins Restaurant, in Bridge-street, Newport?" Yes, we found that &he was getting many letters which did not come to the boube, and as she appeared to be in communication with him we suspected she was getting some secret letters." How do you account for her being in the company of Mr. Wintle on the journey from Bristol to Newport?" Mr. Lewis replied that Miss Clark had pre- viously been engaged at a. restaurant in Abergavenny. She had made an arrange- ment to go to Abergavenny on Thursday mor-n,ing by the 10.30 train from Newport, with reference to taking up a situation at Thornbury. She went by that train, and he supposed she must have met Wintle at Bristol. Asked if he thought Miss Clark going over to Thornbury was a bona fide errand, Mr. Clark replied, "Oh, yes, I think so. She had an appointment with a lady at Thorn- bury." Had Miss Clark been told that Mr. Wintle was a married man?" "Oh, yes, she had been told that." "And was she still enamoured of him?" "Well, of course, one sees now what the .result is." "Had you ever seen Mr. Wintle?" "No, I never saw him." Mr. Lewis spoke of Miss Clark as being an extremely pretty and very nice girl, tall, Sft. 7in. in height, of graceful manners, and well accomplished in many ways. Distress of Victim's Aged Mother Whilst Miss Clark's aged mother was engaged in the delicate and trying ordeal of identifying the body of her daughter at the mortuary she was most disiressed, and even- tually had to be escorted home with the assistance of Mr. Lewis, her brother-in-law, and one of her sons. Captain Clark. the father of Miss Clark, is paralysed, and naturally was unable to attend at the mortuary to see his daughter. There appears to be very little in the way of mystery about the matter. The young lady victim seems to have had some corre- spondence from Mr. Wintle showing that he had an unpleasant time with his lawful wife. So far as circumstances at present disclose themselves, there cannot be much doubt that an altercation took place in the railway carriage, and that Miss Clark was the first victim of the murderous weapon. Some tears had been felt for the result of the shock upon Captain Clarke, the father of the young lady, who is paralysed. He, ho ever, is reported this morning to be as well as can be expected. Captain Clarke and his family had for many years made their home at Cardiff, but removed to Newport about three or four months a.go. One of his sons is now at sea, and the other is engaged a.t Pontnewydd Tin-plate Works. Captain Clarke and the rest of the family were very wishful that Gwen, as the daughter was known, should have no further relationship of any kind with Mr. Wintle, who is spoken of as being about 32, and an engineer by pro- fession. The deceased man, it seems, car- ried on a secret correspondence with Miss Clarke, and addreesed her as "Dear Gwen." Interview with Wintle's Landlady Inquiries at Bristol afterwards elicited that a Bristol pressman had interviewed Mr. Wintle's landlady at 52, Mead-street, Temple It seems that Mr. Wintle was very reticent about hid family affairs, but from what can be gathered he was between 33 and 35 years of age, and was in business as a gas-engine expert. He had been a lodger with this par- ticular landlady since the middle of Septem- ber A nephew of the landlady saw Mr. Wintle, accompanied by a lady, going in the direction of Bristol Statiorn just before eight o'clrck on Thursday night. He had turned up at his lodgings at about six o'clock, bring ing the lady with him. The landlady described him as being of a jovial, higb, spirited disposition. He has a brother in London who is a well-known Socialist. His "Old Dutch" -ere seems no doubt that, in addition to wila-t her friends had told her about Mr. Wintle being a married man, Miss Cla-rlte had also in the course of his letters been told by him about his lawful wife. whom he referred to as his "Old Dutch." It was with a view of getting her away, as they believed, from his influence that her friends had arranged about her taking a situation out of Newport. But, as the result showed, she met him either in or near Br^tol a.nd accompanied him into the train, Wre the tragedy was accomplished. The inquest will be opened at Newport at 9.30 to-morrow (Saturday) morning.

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