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SHASTA CAFE

Open All Night Opp. Royal Bank

Nanaimo, B.C.

Compliments of

PLAZA HOTEL

Nanaimo, B.C.

VENDOME HOTEL

Corner Commercial and Bastion Streets
Three Minutes from C.P.R. Boat

MRS. J. W. SPRUSTON, Proprietress

Your Patronage Appreciated
Phone 1072-R Reasonable Rates

Nanaimo, B.C.

FOR SPECIALIZED LUBRICATION
Bring Your Car to

MALASPINA
SUPER SERVICE

Imperial Oil Service Siation
(Opposite Malaspina Hotel)
First Class Mechanical Repairs
Atlas Tires, Batteries “One Stop Service”
NANAIMO

BEST WISHES to B.C. POLICE

Bode T.
LOGGING
CO.

Choice “Old Growth Export Logs”
Mt. Benson Area

NANAIMO, B.C.

Page Forty-Four

What had been written on the ninth page
of the receipt book was an acknowledge-
ment of the payment of two shillings and
sixpence as commission for the sale of five
gallons of oil to “Cromer and Bartlett, Bold
Street, Southampton.”

The handwriting on this receipt, as
judged by a capital “F”, was the same as
on the two signatures of “Thomas” found
in the waste basket and in the garage litter.

Scotland Yard drew a complete blank
when they tried to find “Cromer & Bart-
lett, Bold Street, Southampton.” There is
no such street in Southampton; and a na-
tion-wide search by Scotland Yard failed
to find any firm by the name of “Cromer
& Bartlett.”

From this Scotland Yard concluded that
a salesman, perhaps “W. F. Thomas,” had
been working for Messiter; that the sales-
man had collected at least one commission
payment for a sale he had never made; and
the entry for this “sale” had been torn out;
and the likelihood was that on the other nine
pages torn out were similarly fake sales
recorded, indicating that other unearned
commissions had been paid by Messiter,
probably to Thomas.

Messiter’s garage was in such a quiet
neighbourhood and he had lived so isolated
an existence that no one knew whether any-
one was in his employ at the time of his
death. So with “W. F. Thomas” as their
only clue, Scotland Yard squads started out
on a house-to-house canvass of Southamp-
ton.

Eventually the Scotland Yard men found
a Mrs. Horne. She kept a cheap boarding
house in Cranbury Avenue in Southampton,
and remembered that about the time of Mes-
siter's murder there was a roomer in her
house by the name of Thomas. Living with
him was a blonde by the name of Lily, sup-
posed to be his wife.

This Thomas was a stocky, smooth-shaven
man with a scar on his jaw.

He had arrived with Lily on October 20,
some ten days before Messiter’s death. He
told Mrs. Horne nothing of his business.
The arrangement between Thomas and Mrs.
Horne was that he would pay the rent for
his room weekly. Mrs. Horne’s account
book showed that on October 27 a week’s
rent was due from Thomas, but that he did
not pay it till the afternoon of October 30,
which was the day of the murder. Three
days later “Thomas and wife” moved away.
“W. F. Thomas” left a forwarding address
for mail, “27 Chiswick Road, Birmingham.”

Although Scotland Yard sent a detective
to that address it did not surprise them to
find that no such address existed.

Another squad of Yard men had mean-
while found that a building contractor by
the name of Mitchel in Downton also had
reason to remember a man by the name of
W. F. Thomas, who, too, had a scar on his
jaw. A week or two before Messiter’s
death Mitchel had advertised for a chauf-
feur. This Thomas answered the advertise-
ment. Mitchel chose him for the job, which,

however, was not to commence before Nov-
ember 5.

Thomas asked to be taken on earlier, as
he had lost, he said, a wallet with all his
money. Mitchel advanced him some money
to help him out until he should begin earn-
ing.

On November 5, Thomas began working
for Mitchel. Several weeks later he disap-
peared—with nearly £150 of Mitchel’s
money.

Scotland Yard took Mrs. Horne, Mitchel,
the mechanic whose hammer had dealt the
death blow to Messiter, and Bowes, a gro-
cer who had a shop near Messiter’s garage,
to look through Scotland Yard’s extensive
photograph gallery of rogues. Bowes, who
said that he remembered seeing a stranger
in Messiter’s company on the day of the
murder, was not sure whether he saw the
stranger’s photograph in the collection. The
mechanic, too, would not swear that he
recognized the face of the man who had
borrowed his hammer and failed to return
it.

But both Mrs. Horne and Mitchel were
positive that in the photograph of William
Henry Podmore in Scotland Yard’s Rogues’
Gallery they recognized “W. F. Thomas.”

William Henry Podmore’s records
showed that he was at that moment serving
a six months’ sentence in Wandsworth
Prison for stealing money from a contractor
near Salisbury. Scotland Yard men went to
see Podmore.

He proved to be a chunky, smooth-shaven
man in the late twenties, with a scar on his
jowled square jaw; he had heavy features,
a sensual mouth and dark, heavy-lidded eyes
that did not match.

The police had no difficulty in finding a
blonde by the name of Lily who was as in-
terested in Podmore as he was in her.

Podmore’s record as a criminal went back
to his childhood when at the age of nine he
tried a bit of burglary and was put on
police probation for a year. Four years
later, for stealing a cash box, he was sent
to a reformatory. Four years after that he
resumed burglary and got three years for it.
Then came other thefts and other prison
terms.

Meanwhile he married but deserted his
wife while she was pregnant. There fol-
lowed a succession of mistresses; and at the
time of the Messiter murder Podmore was,
as has been said, living with his golden-
haired Lily.

_ Podmore was taken back to Southampton
for the coroner’s inquest, when he had a
change of mind and told his story.

Yes, he was “W. EF. Thomas.” Yes, he
had answered an advertisement of Messiter’s
for a salesman of oil. Messiter wrote him to
call at the garage for an interview. The
interview was a satisfactory one and Pod-
more, under the name of Thomas, went to
work for Messiter. On the day of the mur-
der Messiter was to meet at his garage
both Podmore and another applicant for the
job of salesman for Messiter, a man by the

THE

SHOULDER STRAP