Brighton's No. 1 & No. 2

That the Home Office has, in bland, knowing Sir Bernard Spilsbury a Sherlock Holmes who never fails, is a settled Empire conviction. Did he not send Crippen to the gallows, Crippen the first murderer ever apprehended by wireless? (see p. 40). Then there was Smith, "the Brides-of-the-Bath Bluebeard." To prove how easy it was for Smith to drown his brides in his tub without a struggle, did not Sir Bernard Spilsbury all but perform that feat himself?* Ever since the discovery last summer of Brighton Trunk Murder No. 1 (TIME, July 2) and Brighton Trunk Murder No. 2, most of His Majesty's subjects have been sure that Sir Bernard Spilsbury would enable Scotland Yard to solve both mysteries. Last week came the big surprise.

No pert newshawk but Scotland Yard itself numbered the Brighton murders in an official announcement after the second was discovered: "In order to prevent confusion and loss of public interest in the original Brighton trunk crime, it seems necessary, in view of what has appeared in one or more London daily papers, that the public should be definitely informed that the head and arms in the original Brighton trunk crime have not been discovered. . . . Again, as a means of preventing confusion, perhaps the original Brighton trunk crime should be Brighton Trunk Crime No. 1 and the discovery on July 15, 1934 should be known as Brighton Trunk Crime No. 2."

In all, more than 10,000 justice-loving Britons favored Scotland Yard with letters of advice and suggestion, but none contained anything really worth while. Plodding police work proved the No. 2 corpse to be that of 42-year-old Dancer Violette Kaye who had been living with a 26-year-old wavy-haired ne'er-do-well Toni Mancini, "The Dancing Waiter." He was indicted for her murder, tried, acquitted.

Nobody has yet been accused of murdering Corpse No. 1, a peculiar feature of the case being that Fleet Street publishers are pestered by a man who insists: "They found the letters F O R D on the brown paper around the torso, didn't they? Well my name is OFFORD and I've been in the white slave game, see? I'm not afraid of Sir Bernard Spilsbury or Scotland Yard. They'll never find out who that woman was, see? And they can't touch me until they identify her. You can't be tried for murdering 'X.' They've got to say who was murdered, see? And they won't ever find her head! Not ever. Now how much will you pay me for my memoirs?"

Thus far Mr. Offord has found no takers. With chagrin Sir Bernard and Scotland Yard's smartest inspectors told a Brighton Coroner's Jury last week that, as for Corpse No. 1, they have not been able to determine how, when or where she met Death, or who she was. As for Corpse No. 2, the acquittal of the Dancing Waiter has left Scotland Yard with no candidate for the murderer of Violette Kaye. Said imperturbable Sir Bernard Spilsbury, frankly baffled, "I find myself unable to reach any conclusion."

The jury last week wrote finis to Brighton Trunk Murder No. 1, returned a British "open verdict," meaning that that case also is closed.

Five days later two human legs were found under the seat of a train arriving at Waterloo Station and Scotland Yard was off on a fresh mystery. The Waterloo legs, according to Sir Bernard Spilsbury, are male.

* While witnesses watched fascinated, a trained nurse in a bathing suit lay down in Sir Bernard's own tub. Seizing her unexpectedly by the feet. Sir Bernard jerked and held her with her head under water. This sudden upending sent the water rushing up her nose, so completely stunning the nurse that she made no struggle, almost drowned, was resuscitated with much effort.

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