The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-02-19
FOUR JUDGE WASHINGTON ESSAY CONTEST
WAS WRITTEN BY
GIRL HERSELF
Boston Paper Made That
State m e mt To-day
Tells of Another In
cident in Which She
Sought for Thrills

Boston, Feb -CP)-Interest
in the battling death of Elizabeth
Barrett Cook, pretty Boston heir
ess, deepened to-day with each
hour that the steamer Chinese
Princeton which she died in the
Mediterranean February re
manned overdue.
Introducing a sensational new
theory into the case, the Boston
Post says In a copyrighted story to-
day that Elizabeth herself wrote
the hoax cablegram which has
figured SO prominently In the in
vestigatoin.
Given to her by Captain Howard
Uncles just before the Chinese
Prince sailed from Naples Febru-
airy 4, the cablegram, said to have
been signed Helen James" false
ly told Of the death at Boston of st
George Tucker Arnold of Lynch
burg, Va, technology graduate and
Elizabeth's finance.
1t had been assumed that the
cablegram had been sent by some
mcddler and that the grief-stricken
girl, believing her lover dead, either
took her life or accidentally took
lief.
But the Post says Eliza beth, with
no thought of death, herself perpe-
trated the hoax 'in a. sympathetic
search for thrills--the thrills that
came when she was made the Do
ject of sympathy by her fellow
passengers. To substantiate the
theory the Post says 1t has learned
from passengers" who accom-
panied Elizabeth on an eastward
transatlantic crossing that she
tried to stage a similar hoax on
them.
The earlier, harmless hoax, ac-
cording to the Post, was perpe-
trated aboard the Fabre liner
Providence, enroute from Provi-
dence, f. L., to Naples, in Decem-
Der. When the liner locked at
Lisbon, the newspaper says, EliZ-
abeth visited a telegraph office.
After her return to the ship. it adds
a messenger arrived with message
for her, which he gave to the
purser.
1t was almost identical with the
present fatal cablegram. says the
Post, with the exception that 1t re-
lated the death of a mythical
sutton named Malcolm" The
purser knew it was faxed, the
Post declares, but nevertheless was
forced to deliver it to the girl.
OF Elizabeth's actions after re-
ceiving the earlier missive, the
newspaper says:
"She refused to be consoled by
passengers, who quickly learned Of
the girls supposed plight. She
kept to her cabin. She walked
the decks with a sorrow-lined face.
Then one night she perched on the
rail. She had screamed about
being through with life The pur-
ser who had read the cablegram
stood nearby. He feared II a man
moved toward her she would go
through with the suicide gesture.
Wisely he whispered to two Wo-
men. He told them to go toward
her quietly and take her from the
rail. The girl gave up the suicide
gesture. She permitted herself to
be taken from where she was
perched."
In the light of the new theory
increasing importance was placed
by Investigators OIL the unrevealed
identifying marks on the hoax
ca blegram, which Captain Uncles is
bringing to Boston with Elizabeth's
effects aboard the Chimes Prince.
II the cablegram was dispatched
from Naples, where the girl board
ed the craft, or from some nearby
italian city it would tend to sup
port the theory, it was stated.