New Britain herald., 1925-09-01
EN0CH ARDEN WAS
 SQUTH|NGTON MAN Col. Jack LAacr0it in NtishbOr-
 ing Town for Three Months WIFE THOUGHT HIM DEAD
Bride Of War Days, Believing He Was Killed in Action, Married Walter J. Fitzpatrick, Who Kills Self Soon After Her Suicide.
(special to the Herald.l

Special to the Herald)
 Southington, Sept. 1-Colonel Jack Leacroft, the modern Enoch Arden, one of the principals in the tragic ending of Walter J. Fitzpatrick, manufacturer, and his wife by sui- eide yesterday. was resident of Southington until three weeks ago, according to former Sheriff James Lacey of North Main street.
 Leacroft with his wife arrived in Southington about three months ago, and took up their residence in Lacey's home near the center of the town. In conversation with him, Leacroft told MT. Lacey that he had been a colonel in the British army during the war and that in the sec- ond Marne offensive he had been badly wounded and gassed and taken prisoner.
 Reported Killed in Action.
 Subsequently he had been reported as killed in action because his in- juries received in battle had caused him to have an attack of amnesia and he was unable to tell who he was or anything about himself to his captors. He said that he had been a prisoner of war for about five years and it was only after long treatment In a German hospital that he had regained his memory.
 He came to Southington from New York He was married and he took up his residence at the Lacey home. According to Mir. Lacey, Leacroft was broken up from his experience in the war. He never mentioned his personal or family affairs, so that Mir. Lacey does not know of the Enoch Arden aspect of the case. MT. Lacey is positive that the man who rented his home is the same man who figured In the case which came to light yesterday.
 Leacroft left Southington three weeks ago with his wife to live in Miami, Fla. Since that time, Mir. Lacey has heard nothing of him un- til he read the account of the double suicide of the Fitzpatricks in yester- days paper. -..y .-.- Married Belgian Girl While colonel in the British army, Leacroft married Marie Louise Bernier, Belgian girl. The cere- mony was performed in 1917. Fol- lowing his disappearance in the army and hearing nothing from him, Mrs. Leacroft decided that he had been killed in action.
 Distracted, she came to this coun- try and met Walter J. Fitzpatrick. She obtained a divorce from Lea croft on the grounds of assertion and married Fitzpatrick in San Francisco in 1920.
 Some time after her marriage. as she was walking the streets of New York, she met Colonel Leacroft. He begged her to divorce Fitzpatrick and remarry him. He told her that he had lost his memory after he vas wounded and taken prisoner but upon regaining it and being dis charged from the army, he had searched for his little Belgian girl on the continent, in England and in the United States.
 Ex-Wifc Laughs At Him
 She refused to consider his sug- gestion, laughing off his request that she re-marry him. Upon this refusal Leacroft left her and 1t was later re- ported that he had married another woman. Evidently he came to southington following his second marriage.
 Mrs. Fitzpatrick was found as- phyxiated in her Kew Gardens apartment last Friday. A partially written suicide note left by her stated that life was not worth liv- ing" The New York police notified the Deland, Fla, police where Fitz- patrick was visiting on business. Yesterday the police of that city notified the New York police that Fitzpatrick had shot and killed him self few moments after he had received the telegram. It was