User:Sakurakaze/Hubert Chevis

Lieutenant Hubert G. Chevis of Aldershot Training Camp was the subject of a notable unsolved murder in June 1931.. His wife of six months had served him a dinner of Machurian partridge, and upon eating it, he claimed it tasted horrible. His wife tasted the bird and agreed with him, so the partridges were incinerated. Later that night, Chevis died of poisoning, and two grains of strychnine were found in his stomach. His wife was also ill from strychnine poisoning, but survived.

Three days later, after an obituary notice had appeared in the newspaper, Chevis's father received a Dublin telegram from a J. Hartigan at the Hibernian Hotel, stating only "HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY". Nobody of that name was found at the hotel, although a Dublin chemist had sold strychnine some weeks earlier to a man who was similar in appearance to the man who had visited the telegraph office and sent the telegram in the name of J. Hartigan.

Theories that surrounded his death included the possibility of accidental death from a partridge that had been poisoned in Manchuria in order to use as bait to kill foxes, while the telegram was a simple hoax. In the absence of evidence, an open verdict was returned at the inquest.