Daily News from New York, New York • 44

a 0' tf rrr A Dm ex I a i tzi a tH XT! II ft ''y'V- iiiiii! It 1X7 V- i Cm I t. 'VL----v The late Evelyn Margaret Hamilton late Doris Jouannet I I 'V 1 IE i Victims of London's "Blackout Murderer Here are pictured three of the four women slain during the week of Feb. 9, 1942, a series of killings that launched the most dreadful reign of terror since the days of Jack the Ripper. Not until after an attempt at two more murders did Scotland Yard get the clue which led to the criminal London's fflmkout Murders' (Caused Lleign of Terror By PETER LEVINS. LONDON'S ghastly series of "blackout murders," as they came to be called, began and fortunately ended in the drear, chill week of Feb.

9, 1942. The killings, four of them, launched the mo st dreadful reign of terror, as well as the greatest manhunt, since the Jack the Ripper days more than half a century -J before. On Monday, Feb. 9, Miss Evelyn Margaret Hamilton, 40-year-old a woman of irreproachable character, was found strangled in a Marylebone air-raid shelter. She Mr: Evelyn Oatley, also known as Nita Ward ever, he was inclined to be boastful, so that he never was popular with his fellow students.

Gordon left school to work as a laboratory assistant with a chemical firm at Swiss Cottage, London. But this work proved too boring for his romantic and adventurous rature, so in 1935 he joined the RAF. Again he was successful, piling up 1,000 hours in the air. from the night before were still on the table, and the curtains had not been drawn. Then I tried the bedroom door.

It was locked. When I could eet no rerlv. I told the housekeeper, and then we called theT police." He said that, after the police broke in the door, he tried to enter the bedroom, but one of the officers held him back, saying, "Don't go in there." Presently they told him that Doris was dead. "I wish that I were dead, too," he said. Mrs.

Jouannet, when found, was unclothed except for a dressing gown. A stocking had been tied tightly around her neck, and she had been mutilated. Her handbag had been rifled of its contents, including a fountain pen with her initials, Once again, Scotland Yard deduced that the killer was left-handed, and that, therefore, all four crimes had been committed by the same man. They recalled two other mysterious murders months before, and wondered whether these, too, had been the work of the "blackout killer." In October, 19-year-old Maple Church nad been found strangled and raped in a wrecked building in Hampstead Road; and a few days later Mrs. Edith Humphries, 48, had been found dying in her home from Various wounds, including a fractured skull and a broken jaw.

These women, too, had been robbed. Sir Norman Kendall, head of the Criminal Investigation Department, called in all Scotland Yard commanders for a conference. He told them that this man must be caught, and quickly. Things had got to such a pass that women were afraid to venture forth at night; some screamed in terror at the very sight of a man. Prostitutes were particularly apprehensive, with the result that their turnover diminished alarm ingly.

(By this time the Yard had lad 1 had been hurriedly robbed Police experts declared that Miss Hamilton had been slain Ly a left-handed man. They deduced this from the marks tn the victim's throat. Next day, Mrs. Evelyn Oatley, 85, a former revue actress who had become a prostitute, was found naked and dead in her Wardour St. flat in West End.

She had been hti angled with a stocking, then mutilated with a razor blade and a t-an opener. The killer was, the police believed, left-handed. It appeared that the attack had occurred while Mrs. Oatley known t.rofessionally as Nita Ward and her guest were listening to the radio. No money was found on the premises, indicating- that she, too, had been robbed of whatever valuables she possessed.

With this atrocity, the reign of tt rror got under way, for the police vlmittcd that "a sadistic sexual murderer of a ghoulish type" ap-p-ared to be at large in the Women long accustomed to going about London's streets at all hours of the night and in the darkest blackouts now began to suspect every shadowy figure they tr w. This situation rapidly grew worse, for within 48 hours London heard of two more very similar murders. On Feb. 12, Mrs. Margaret Flor-rc3 Lowe, 43, was found strangled in her flat in Gosfield Maryle-brtne.

On Feb. 13, Mrs. Doris Jouannet, 32, wife of a London hotel manager, was found strangled in her bed at Sussex Gardens, As in the previous two ca --s, both had been robbed. The Lowe murder was discovered efi.T a neighbor noticed that a parcel had been lying outside the door, for several days, and that nothing had been seen of Mrs. Lowe, known locally as "Pearl." handsome woman," said a neighbor, "with a fine MRS.

JOUANNET's Paris-born husband, distressed not only by the fact that she had been murdered, but also by the fact that she had been picking up pin-money on the side through the rentage of her charms, told the following story: "I first met Doris six years ago. I was introduced to her by a friend at a restaurant in London. It was love at first sight on both sides, and we were married within three months. "We lived in London for a time. An annuity I had from France ceased when France collapsed, and I started business again and bought a cafe at Cornfield Road, Eastbourne.

My wife assisted me there." Woman Found Dead In Locked Bedroom He told of other positions he had held, and said he and his wife had been perfectly happy. 1 left home as usual (9 clock) on Thursday night, and my wife came with me to Paddington railway station," he continued. "She wished me good-night very sweetly and her last words to me were, 'Don't be late tomorrow, "I returned to the flat at 7 on Friday night, and was surprised to see that the milk had not been taken in. When I got into the flat I shouted, but there was no reply. On going into the sitting room, I found that the supper things decided that the killer was not a sex fiend, primarily, but a robber who recognized that prostitutes were his best victims.

Apparently he would offer an excellent fee, which he would recover along with whatever the victim possessed after his crime.) Meanwhile, Supt. Fred Cherrill, head of the fingerprint department at the Yard, had found sets of fin gerprints which linked up two of the murders. One print was on the can-opener used in the Oatley murder; it was from a man's left hand. Another print had been found on a mirror in Mrs. Lowe's flat.

Cherrill and his assistants went over the fingerprints of every criminal, big and little, in the Yard files. No luck. It appeared that this four-time, possibly suc-time, killer had no criminal record. Scotland Yard, famed in fact and fancy, once again faced a major challenge. NOW it has been remarked before that the murder-for-nrotit tvne of criminal is never inclined to change the pattern of his crime because so long as he succeeds he feels he must stick to his formula.

Contrarywise, the very similarity of his crimes tends to narrow his chances of escape, and once he makes a mistake, he is very likely doomed. So let us now tell about Gordon Frederick Cummins, a handsome man of the Royal Air Force. Cummins, a native of New East- wick, York, attended a country school at Llandoveris, and moved later with his father to Harlestone, Northampton. There he attended the Northampton Technical School, and did well in all subjects. How- will! lid, a main agaiiib inn uaiiic.

But he continued to be insufferable among his fellows. Tall and debonair, and affecting an ultra-cultured accent that sickened his fellow cadets, he liked to make believe that he was the "Hon. Gordon Cummins." On occasion, usually when he wished to impress a woman, he would produce a photograph of an equerry handing royalty from a ear at a public function. "That" he would say, "is my father. He makes me an allowance." Boasted of Hi Lavish Spending (Actually, his father was the superintendent of a school for delinquents.) Moreover, it never was his policy to admit that he had a wife, but he did have a most devoted and attractive wife, whom he married in 1937, when he was 23.

She, at the time of the murders, was the busy secretary of a London theatre manager, and was well known and respected in the West End. She saw Gordon only occasionally, because of the war. Cummins' associates in the RAP noticed that frequently he would be well stocked with money. He I boasted of how much he spent on.