Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1943-07-18
9 Steps
toMurder
BY THEODORE ROSCOE

@UPPOSE you are young housewife liv-
ing happily with your husband in the
- upper story of a comfortable, two-famiy
fat in pretty suburb.
Then suppose one evening no different
from a thousand and others-you retire
early Your husband, drowsy. falls asleep
almost at once and you, too, soon drift off
into gentle sumber
Suddenly-the cool dark tells the lateness
OF the hour-you are awakened by an inss-
tent knocking on your door downstairs.
Your husband rouses, disgrunted.
The knocking is urgent. Must be tele-
gram, or something for your neighbor below
whose front door adjoins yours. He must be
vFay-tehieht, for the knocking is loud and
he's a light sleeper; several times he has
complained about your playing the radio and
moving furniture.
Your husband slips into his bathrobe and
goes, grouchy and sleepy, to the upper hall
You follow, switch on the hall light and
watch him pad down the stairs.
He is half way to the door when - bang!
- there is a sharp, savage explosion
Your husband utters a cry
Another bang! Blood stains his robe He
sways against the Sidewalk then tumbles hor.
rihly down ia the stairfoot- and lies inert be-
fore the unopened front door.
There is no else in sight No one
there on the stairs! No one behind you in
the upper hall! No one but you and your
husb@nd anywhere in the flat!
Fors ting fear. you race down the flight
Of steps 10 his aid.
You had almost reached him when three
more gttnS1ts crash ont as II from nowhere.
Two bullets 20 splintering through the door
before your eyes The third strikes you. in
the hip You are fainting, falling. Crying
out. you plunge down beside your husband.
Somehow Won struggle to your knees, I'M
holt the door and sprawl across the threSh-
cd. There is no in sight You scream
out for aid and wonder If you are mad
So indeed did the stricken woman who
with her husband actually underwent this
terrifying experience in a quiet London sub
urb eleven years ago.
The victims were Mr.. and Mrs. Ernest Gapp
~ Moril1kc-on-Tham and the crime -
~ ID took place in the morning of May 4
1859 rs recorded one of the stIangcst
mysteries 20 ever battle the London police
Constabes summoned by neighbors in
answer 70 Mrs Gapp's cries must certainly
have thought themselves involved with an
owl phantom.
Arriving at the neat two-story brick
20 Sc some 10 minutes after the shooting.
Trey found frightened crowd milling around
the porch.
Sarah May Gapp sprawled PROSTATE on
her doorstep. IN the lighted vestibule her
husband. Ernest lay shot through the spine.
Appalled, nciChbors had been afraid 10 move
them afraid 10 enter the house.
To the police Sarah May sobbed out her
story. its details exactly as those related
You saw nobody on the stairway or hid.
ing IN the hall behind you p" constable asked.
The light was on There's no place for
anyone TO hider
The police were dumbfounded
Entering the house they were confronted
~ a close-walled stairway that assembled
from a small vestibule TO the upper hall Any.
one in the vestibule must certainly be seen
from above A shadow couldn't have con-
ccaled itself on the stairs.
The upper hall admitted 10 bedroom and
living room but the Gapps themselves had
occupied the bedroom. am with the hall
light on. a prowler in the living room would
have been revealed. Moreover the front stair
provided the only access or exit TO the up
stairs fiat
Scouting through the rooms the officers
were satis.cd no gunman had jumped from
window or remained in hiding. Was it pos
sihle the shots had been fired from the door?
1t was closed - bolted" Mrs Gapp
-6ttcd. Ny husband was hurrying down
The stairs
Aud he had been shot in the back Two
hlllcts had punctured the front door going