MOTIVE CLUE ONLY IN MURDER TRIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 19

MOTIVE CLUE ONLY IN MURDER TRIAL.

i —.— - SHOOTING OF MAN WHO STOPPKD "I INSURANCE PREMIUMS. M I Evidence as to suspected motive forms , tbe strange feature of one of the strangest ( murder trials of modern times, which took place ln Antwerp recently. This evidence of motive centres round I the discovery by the police that the victim '| of the crime, the husband of a young I woninn, who, with a man known to be I affectionately disposed towards her, la accused of the murder, had ceased to pay premiums on an insurance policy on his j life. Continued failure to do so would have resulted ln the forfeiture of tbe policy, jand it Is suggested'that he was killed In I order that the widow might secure £3300 | due to be paid on his death. j Colour Is lent to this deduction, it Is i believed, by the fact that the victim's | financial circumstances had recently become somewhat straitened, and that the wife .feared she would, therefore, have to forego i many luxuries to which she had become I accustomed. The crime took place on June 22 last, I when M. Paul Steinman returned with his [wife from an evening party to his villa at jHelile, near Antwerp. | Mme. Steinman went to her bedroom while her husband took his motor car to the garage. While he ln turn was about .to enter the villa, a stranger stepped up to 1 him, and without uttering a word fired a revolver twice, mortally wounding M. Steln- .; man. In a search for clues detectives found a revolver in a table drawer in Mme. StelnI man's room. They believed it to have been jthe revolver with which the murder was ;eoin_iittcd, and the discovery was succeeded by the arrest of a notary named van de Wouwer, alleged to entertain affectionate regard for Mme. Steinman, who was also arrested three days later. I The arrests created a great sensation In 'Antwerp, where the couple are well known. Mme. Steinman Is a handsome woman of twenty-eight, and those who know her hay refused to believe that she was an accomplice In so heinous a crime. Her fellowprisoner, a good-looking man of refined i manners, is also well known. The police theories are disclosed ln the act of accusation, which goes so far as to declare the case is not a love drama, not I a "crime passlonnel." but a most sot-Id | murder, committed for money. __ Steinman was assassinated because his financial position had become- Insecure, and because j lln case of his death his widow would be (entitled to claim the substantial amount Of J £3000 from the assurance company.