STRANGE STORIES

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 459, 1 July 1902, Page 3

STRANGE STORIES

IS JESSIE MINNS ECLIPSED ?

(.Per Press Association). AUCKLAND, last night. An extraordinary story has been told to the police by a 17-year-old girl who resides with her parents. h>ho states that she 101 l her home at haltpast seven last Monday evening to deliver a letter a quarter of a mile away She was accosted Iff three strange men, masked, with pistols in their hands. They ordered her to stand still, and dared her to call out or move, and made her undress; removing all her clothing except her hoots. They allowed her to keep her waterproof cloak ami umbrella. lhe Prjs ter ions trio were then, she sa'id, a hundred yards away. One of the men picked np her clothes, and ordered her to walk np a byway into the main street. According to the girl's story, the' men made the following statement ; “We have been playing ping pong until we were tired, and we agreed to have some fun with the first .woman game enough to come out in such weather as this.”

None of the men are charged by the girl with laying hands oil her. She did not call out, hut went on to a friend's house. .She was admitted in a nude state, her clothes being found in a parcel on the verandah later on. Inquiries by the police show that .the girl actually went to the friend’s house in the condition described by herself on the night in question, but as the night was very wet, comment is made on the fact that tiie clothes when found on tho verandah, were quite dry. There is a strong suspicion that she removed her clothes there before knodking for admittance. The story is doubted ‘by her father and friends, although her mother affirms her belief ‘in all that the daughter says.

A story somewhat similar is told in a letter to the Star, which, if genuine, 'justifies the belief in the story told by •the girl number one, the names, times, and localities being different, though both affairs arc reported as having occurred last Monday night. In the case just reported, the girl states that she was accosted by three masked men, who compelled her to strip herself of all clothing and struck her with the butt end of their pistols been.use she screamed. They gagged her, and left her with only an umbrella, not far from her own home, which she reached in the condition stated.

Steps are being taken to verify this story, which, unlike the former, has not been reported to the police. A reporter made a diligent search for the girl No. 2 at the address given —wh eh was a lane off Pitt street, but failed to discover her. It is presumed this case has no foundation in fact.