Cambridgeshire Murders by Alison Bruce

Author:Alison Bruce [Bruce, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Cambridgeshire Murders
ISBN: 9780752484136
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-02-17T13:00:00+00:00

10

A GOOD NIGHT OUT AND A BAD NIGHT INN

Hotels bestowed with the name Temperance in their title were traditionally advertising themselves as teetotal establishments; the revelation that alcohol played a part in the events which occurred on Saturday 1 February 1913 added irony to the scandal.

The Temperance Hotel was owned by Elizabeth Warnes who was 46. She had been born Elizabeth Barton and had grown up in the Romsey Town area of Cambridge. With her husband, William, she had spent several years running a sweet shop before moving to St Ives to become tenants of the Cow and Hare Hotel. It was not long before their marriage deteriorated and, after a series of rows, they decided to separate. Her husband moved away but Warnes remained in St Ives and took over the Temperance Hotel in 1909.

When her husband left, a German, Gustave Kunne, became her regular companion. At the time of his death he was aged 44. He and a fellow German, Frederick Finke, had both come from a village called Hohendodeleben, near Magdeburg, to work at Wootten and Sons’ chicory factory in Fenstanton. They were employed as driers and worked at the factory’s kiln. Kunne was married with four children – three girls and a boy – and when work was not busy he made visits home. In the summer of 1912 his wife had died and his children had gone to live with her sister. The last of his visits to his family had seen him arrive back in England on 12 October 1912. He had lodgings in Fenstanton but was a frequent visitor to the Temperance Hotel, often visiting both at weekends and during the week.

Lucretia Cooper was a servant of Warnes, and was known by her middle name of May. Saturday nights were her regular evenings off and she had been to the local picture palace accompanied by a St Ives man, William Walker. Walker had walked her back to the Temperance Hotel where they arrived shortly before 10 p.m. to find the hotel locked and the lights out.

At first they were not concerned; she had seen Warnes earlier in the evening in the company of Kunne and her brother-in-law, Thomas Allen. As far as Cooper had been aware the mood between the three had been good.

So she and Walker waited around for some time until eventually they decided to call upon a friend of her employer in the hope of finding her there. Having been unsuccessful it was just after half-past eleven when they returned. Only then, in an attempt to gain entry, did Cooper discover that the back door of the hotel was unlocked.

She said goodnight to her companion and made her way inside, heading straight for the ground floor tearoom, which was used by Warnes as a living room. Pushing the door she found that something was wedged against it from the inside preventing it from fully opening. She struck a match to help her see what the blockage was. To her horror she saw Kunne’s apparently dead body heaped on top of the equally lifeless body of Warnes.

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