The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-08-22
By NEA Service

< *Iminutive, but nervy, young wom- An who had been in an airplane mn1v once before in her life, took off from London on 13,0OO-mlle night across open seas and burning neserts to Australia hallway Around the world.
 ~ Tn the same year aYoung news tbaperman, whose mother was
 professor of journalism in Miami: Tla. reached the age of 21 and .4urned to broader fields Of writing. ts Last February, fate-or some fnysterious and inscrutable destiny
 -drew these three lives together. seoon to be followed by grim trag- s@dv Ten weeks after their meeting sA sinister loev triangle developed sfhe young journalist was dead, the Aviator was charged with his mur- der and a half-hysterical woman sgas trying to explain to police how shhe had loved both men but found sit difficult to choose between the
 Sc so runs the thread of Florida's most sensational love triangle which has just been brought to -climax at Miami with the trial of Captain William N. Lancaster, 34. former British fighting pilot. on scharges of murdering Haden aClarke, 26-year-old Miami journal list, for the love of Mrs Jessie Keith Miller, world-famous Aus ,tralian aviatrix, his flying compan' sAon for five years.
 tfhat Clarke had committed suicide.
 Florida's sensational love tri- Angle closely resembles the Libby .sHolman Smith Reynolds "Ab'
 Walker tragedy in North Carolina ~ A man died, shot through the head in the middle of. the night. ! rfhe friend accused of murdering sanim claims 1t was a case of suicide sand the whole thing turns on the salleged love of two men for the sbame woman.
 yyaden Clarke, the journalist, t91ad been commissioned by Captain Iancaster and Mrs Keith Miller, rfamed flyers, to write the story of sfheir adventurous lives in book sform. He was working on the first sschapter, their daring flight from Ep0land to Australia he nev- ~er lived to write the last, for which s71is own mysterious death would have provided sensational climax.
 With all the keen imagination oi a novelist, Clarke perhaps could Enot have contrived fictional 'mur- Eder mystery" stranger than his saown.
 In court:
 During Captain Lancaster's ab- ssence, Clarke and Mrs Keith-Miller Eshad fallen in love while working A3on their book.
 Lancaster, hearing of their plans Flor marriage, wired them his best mishes and asked the couple to de- afer the ceremony until he could @return and serve as best man. Next day Lancaster flew in from TSt Louis, they met him at the Mi- sami airport and drove him to Mrs 2Keith- Miller's house where all tthree lived.
 At 3 o'clock the following morn -ing, Clarke was mysteriously shot
 Through the head-with pistol ~that Lancaster had bought in St 9Louis. Lancaster, whose bed was fin the same room, declared 1t was 1suicide, that he had been aWak- ssened by the shot.
 . Nearby were found two type swritten notes. signed in pencil with @IIaden Clarke's name. The notes tsaid he was Respondent, that he Twas committing suicide. x Lancaster and Mrs Keith Miller ss-were arrested, questioned and re- S*leased. She declared that Clarke
 had several times threatened to Lkill himself and that once they had sdiscussed a suicide pact.
 s Eleven days later Lancaster was ~again in Jail, this time on a charge ssof murder.
 i. A handwriting expert, employed kby the local prosecutor, had pro- rnounced the notes forgeries. They
 had not been written by Clarke. Lancaster then admitted he ssforged the death notes. He sx- explained that he had realized quickly that the circumstantial
 evidence was against him, that he .shad to do something. So, he said. ~fe wrote the two notes on Clarke's ~typewriter, tried to rouse the dying v suicide victim so he could sign
 them and, failing in this. forged s.Clarkes name. He said he was .sure Clarke would have signed sthe suicide notes, had he been able z Lancaster explained he had ~ebought the fatal pistol in St Louis ,Ito give to a Miami friend in return Mfor a borrowed weapon that he chad pawned in El Paso. He denied ~that his bed was unrumpled as -though he. had not been in at that .snight.
 Mrs Keith Miller said Lancaster had come to her room. awakened q her and informed her that Clarke @had killed himself.
  a By means of Captain Lancaster's salary, introduced at the trial, the ~prosecution unfolded a story of the
 British war flyers burning love for .sthe chubby little Australian avia- s@trix--who weighs only 90 pounds s4and so small that she has to be Hpropped into her seat with cush- wtons in order to reach the plane
 controls.
 Samples of entries Captain Lan- ascaster made during his western ~business trip--while Clarke and sMrs Keith-Miller remained in Mi- ami to write the book--are as fol- z lows:
 Thursday. March 10, San An. gelo, Tex-Wire from Chubbic. ' God bless her. How dear she is to mel" { "T'hursday. March :l, EI Paso, . Tcx.-No news from Chubbie. She . has disappointed me far moro than thls damned expedition"
 "Monday, March 2s, EI PasO, ! Tex.--Letter from Haden Clarke and Chubbie. Very disappointed. Looks as though chubbie just z dashed of Boto as c sort Of duty Iiaden iitte more enlightening, hope he Is keeping his promise 10 me.'
 ''Wedncstiay. March 90. N0gaIes. \ Arix.--NO news from Chubble. ]. Why aoos tho child not writer" | p-HuHseil shows mo two of Mrs ' "satuFday, April I, I.0s Angeles