London has been startled by an unusual murder. A clerk,
named J. B. Tower, well-dressed, weakly, and with £7 in his pocket, attended a Watch-night service on December 31st, and at 12.30 p.m. quitted a friend who had accompanied him, to walk home alone to Dynevor Road, Stoke Newington. He went round by Elizabeth Road, and was then either allured or carried to a clump of trees in a field near the reser- voir. Here he was attacked, and evidently resisted desperately, but was strangled with his own neckerchief, and robbed of his money, a watch, and one ring, another being too firmly fixed to come off. He was then carried up the reservoir bank, to the edge of the shallow water, 8 ft. from it, and thrown into the deeper part. The body did not float, but a boy found a hat and coat near by, and the police, believing in a case of suicide, dragged the reservoir, in which the body was found on Wednes- day. The clerk, a young man of twenty-two, was of excellent character, and the first difficulty in the case is to comprehend how Tower had been allured into the field and under the trees. He may have been seized and carried, but he certainly was not injured, for the whole struggle took place near the trees. No• clue whatever has been discovered by the police, the story of a woman's brooch found near the spot being officially denied, and the only hope of detecting the perpetrators seems to consist in the possible pawning of the watch. Criminals usually have a strong reluctance to lose the profits of crime. It should be noted that the murderers waded some feet, and probably, therefore, wore high boots, as otherwise they would have disliked to be seen wet through. The murder has created a feeling of insecurity, but it is very rare even in the suburbs for a man who keeps to the roads to be murdered.
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