New Britain Herald Newspaper, April 21, 1927, Page 15

Was It the Revelation of Her Convict Husband and His Crimes and of Her Own Sin-Stained Life . That Sent Evelyn Hustler and George Hinkins to Death Together--- The comfortable little home in the suburbs of Manchester where Mrs. Hustler lived what her neighboxs supposed to be the life of a respectable widow in well-to-do circumstances and where the double tragedy occurred LONDON. HAT specter from the past in- W truded at that last terrible mid- night meeting between Ewvelyn Hustler, convicted burglar's wife, and George Hinkins, her dreamy, artist lover? In the drowsy village of Moss Side, which is a suburb of Manchester, they keep asking each other that, as if they really expected an answer, although everybody knows the only two human beings who could answer died that night. Until the double tragedy, Eve Hustler was known to the kina 7 and unquestion- ing villagers as a pretty young widow of good repute. Hinkins was known as omc of those artist chaps. Tradesmen and artis: considered him temperamental and fan- ciful, if not a little bit balmy. But they would have said the same thing of Cel- lini or Whistler. Everybody knew the artist was court- ing the “widow,” and everybody ex- pected them to marry some day. Several weeks ago Hinkins made a late call upon his sweetheart, and they sent her little brother Eric to bed, and sat talkinz in the parlor for hours. In the morning, Eric tried the door and found it Jocked. After beating upon it and crying out in vain, he rushed across the road to the home of the Wilsons and told them some hing was wrong. Wilson and his wife final'- battered down the parlor door, and when they entered they found “ve and her lover dead on the floor, a revolver, with two empty chambers, lying a fev- inches from his hand. There was no possibility of mistaking what had happened. He had killed the womzn and then himself. Mrs. Wilson remembered having heard two dull reports some time during the night. Mourning the demure and popular lit- tle widow, her neighbors were preparing for the burial when detectives from London revealed that she was not a widow at all, but the “legally wedded wife” of Edward Hustler, a former burglar and sneak thief, who is serving a long term in prison. At one time she helped her husband in his *“‘profession,” and narrowly escaped conviction herself when he was caught by the police. After his incarceration, when the was left alone and destitute, she supported herself by selling her beauty in disreput- able resorts of London and Manchester. Hinkins, when he ‘“‘took up” with the widow of Moss Side, knew nothing of her past, or of the source of her income, those intimate with the two deelare. And during the months of their association she did not enlighten him. But the tableau disclosed when the Wilsons battered down the parlor door of Eve Hustler’s little house indicates that at the end she told him something of her story. How much and how frankly, nobody, of course, will ever know. Any more than they will know which of the tragedies that studded her life disgusted and discouraged Hinkins and drove him to the conclusion that life for either of them was not worth while. The neighbors, however, keep on speculating, for it is the problem that can never be solved that challenges the curiosity and the imagination of the true mystery lover. F Did Hinkins rebel when he learned that the woman he loved, and hoped to marry, sold her beauty regularly in the market place? £ Did he lose hope when® he found she was another man's wife? Did she tell him everything of her own accord, or did some false friend of hers betray her? \ Or did she, after talking it over with him, agree it would be better for both The curious haunt the vicinity cf the Hustler cottage in Moss Side, but echo gives no answer there. When first they learned the true char- acter of the past of the “widow” of Moss Side, her former neighbors were inclined to be uncharitable. They called her two-faced and a hypocritical hussy, and other names. But as the history of the unfortunate woman has been un- folded in its entirety, tite pathos of her life has caused a revulsion of feeling. No fly caught on the wheel ever was more hopeless than Eve Hustler, caught on the wheel of circumstance. A happy girlhood was the prelude to the unrelieved tragedy that darkened her later life. Born in Ancoats, near Manchester, she was of the comfortable middle class. While her parents were not they were well-to-do, and she wanted for little when she w: oung. When she was seventeen they ar- ranged for a modest coming-out party for their daughter, who was to be in- troduced to the not too snobbish society of the Manches- ter suburb. But on the night she was to wear her first real ball dress her mother died, and the girl became the “woman of the{_ house,” and the guardian of her little brother. Ancoats is a orovincial suburb, and was even more provincial when she was a girl. Allstrangers W ere mysteri- Jus, some sinister, some romantic. Particularly to a girl. Thus it was that when Ed- ward Hustler, a :oldier, journeyed down from Lon- don to spend a furlough there, he took the little place by storm and at once as- sumed an envi- able position in its unpretentious society. Hustler was good-looking and soft- spoken and plausible. His army uniform was made by a London tailor, and he spoke expansively of far-off places that the Ancoats natives had read of in geo- graphics. Within a month he was the most run-after young man in Ancoats, and the desired of all the young women of the place. The home-grown beaux could have been arrested for what they thought of him. The fragile and flower-like beauty of Iive Barker, as she was then, attracted him. The motherless girl was an easy conquest. . Carried off her feet, she awoke to find herself married to a man of whom she knew virtually nothing, except that he was handsome, and she loved him. After that he left the army, explain- ing that as he was married, he must start carning important money to meet the demands of his family. To the girl’s amazement, however, he did not proceéd to get a situation, but kept the most irregular of hours, slept most of the day, went out two or three nights a weck, and never seemed to worry about what the boss would say. Nevertheless, he always had plenty of money. When their baby was born, she in- sisted that he tell her where his income came from. He put her off with the half-hearted explanation that he occa- rich, The dead woman’s convict husband, Edward Hustler, now serving a long prison term for burglary B ciavpr o WARRIS © FARCINGDOY sionally got “good the and things” at race track was ¢ lucky gam- bler. A little bit later, though, Mrs Hustler discov- cred the truth. Hustler returned to their home late one night, pale, tired, with his right hand in a blood-snaked bandage. He refused to show her the wound, ing he had cut his hand with his pocket knife. He seemed apprehensive, and in- isted that the lights be put out at once, and that she should remember, if any- body called, that he had been at home all evening. Before he went to bed he threw a small, black bag, full of metal that rattled and clanked, into a dark corner of the cellar, saying he would “take that Junk away in the morning.” Once in bed, he fell into the sleep of exhaustion, while his voung wife lay awake, wondering about many things, hut especially about the small, black bag. After hours of reflection, she arose, barefooted and in her nightgowa, took a candle and descended into the cellar. The black bag was where he had thrown it. She opéned it and examined its contents by the wavering light of her candle There was a black would do for a mas| and skin-tight gloves; and the jimmy, bit and ctuer tools that cven the cent little wife and mother ry stituted the equinment of a burglar. That night, all doubt as tq her hus band’s profession hed, and knew she had married a criminal. Next day there was a conference in the living-room of the cotta with the wife pleading, cujoling, threatening. in handkevchief, that 1 low-vizored cap inno, wlized con she lie endeavor to make her hushand give ip crime and be the man she thought he when she took his name. But the ant and leisure-loving Mr. Hustler had no intention whatever of doing that thing. Al his life he had lived by his wits, walking dangerously, and he had no idea of becoming a humdrum house- holder, going to the office at eight each morning and returning at half-past five. “If you don't like it, my dear,” he said, tauntingly, “you may go back to Ancoats. I'll keep the boy.” He pointed out that she couldn't pet custody of the infant away from him without blackening the youngster’s name as the son of a burglar, and she saw the force of his contention. “Go to law and tell 'em what 1 neered. “See if it will do you and the kid any good.” His very lack of principle or fecling was his strength in his argument with the village-bred girl, and he won. Un- able to think clearly, she stayed on, hop- ing against hope that Hustler would reform, that something would happen to we her baby’s name and give him a fair chance in the world that had dealt <o seurvily with her Then the baby ve Hustler's unequal struggle 1 end took off her had | told her husband that in future his people would be her people and hi: ost as soon as she her ways. She turned his acconiplice, a clever job. In ter, London, at wide re- ways criminal, too, and w police believe, in i the aud the race tracks, they operated, they were the despair of the Hustler grew insolent, began to ke bigger jobs on his own, un- imated his ancient encmie ntlemen of the law, and fina victim of a chain of circum- stances she lecked the character to break loose from and who has now paid with her life for her years of folly and sin No effort wa who was regarded caught! wife, against th sent to St be there for a long After t gan to through the n sinning. ingeways Pr ime to come. support 1 men she met she had learned from hi of the money she moved out to Manchester, but now, she continued the o tice of never knew Not many of the made Moss ¢ still, sad her profession least entil i least un ¢ of the London day Mos ing hackmen of that s the only ones Side, according t who knew real profession. their comings and g always coming down on I ing the cottage early in t tipping their driver Among those Hustler home was Vm' had a Mane man, a London bar actor who was a friend The police came by the course of their inqu woman's past, but there will be embarrassed. T in the minds of th Hinkin Dr: kins, a Manchest the ideal of his i him and cheered t il ks, experience, she w cover him with the ers dealt out so freely when they s of him and rt. There still pe 1 »ivit that a carefree perhaps, unhappy and did not idicule that otl her s had been hers « George Hinkins, the struggling artist and devoted admirer of Mrs. Hustler, who is believed to have murdered her and then killed himself with the same weapon IMinkins became a regular visitor at her little house. As he lived miles away, never suspected the truth ht she got the money it would be hard to he never gave it'a mo- George had not much practical things of life h hat Hustler was dead, very much about according to Hin- She told him of her baby and he was sorry for her an unsophisticated ught he was wrong- his constant demands upon her time and her affection, and had been e rather hopelessly re the end. t marry on what?” he used to ask ves, in humorous despair. For Hinkins was n very good artist, small market for his He hesitated to go to his sweet- ty handed. ve Hustler Joved the man who ed her, most of her friends be- e, but not all of them. That she saw other men—men with money, who could for her smiles—while she was being t artist, events have v what her plans were, Any more than one can Hinkins’ plans. That is tion of this little prob- hout telling him friend that had di kins’ widow, t ing her by here was proved no one can wer scin Maybe, say some of those who like to v with the problem, Eve found that power to love had died that night she *d Hustler was a burglar, and led her because she scorned . again, he charged her with ting with other men and, apathetic, iraged, not caring what happened, told him she had, and why. be it was the discovery that his once beloved Mr. Hustler was not ie angels but with the wardens rnkeys that decided him to end 10, as suggested at the beginning, slooded artist killed when she re- to divorce the father of her dead tting the possibility that may never have known of her t all, he may have killed her be- cause he was without means to marry her, and jealously determined no other i should have her if he could not.