EVEN JUDGES GASPED.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 307, 28 December 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

EVEN JUDGES GASPED.

PARIS UNDERWORLD DRAMA. ORGY STORIES OF FOUR WIVES. WIDOW'S MURDER TRIAL. Seldom hag Paris witnessed a murder trial more complete with revelations concerning life in its underworld than that of Mme. Jane Weyler, a wealthy society woman, who was found guilty of killing her husband, Robert Weyler. During the last hours of the trial three former wives of the murdered man were called to the stand. The Court remarked that two of them had led decent lives. The third, Mme. Nancioni, said on the stand that she would make no statement unless the public were exluded. But the prosecutor was merciless. He said three words to her that made her change her mind. "He threatened me with' death," the witness pleaded. Remarkable sto/ies of debauchery were then revealed in which she had played a part. Even the judges on the Bench and the criminal lawyers gasped at the unspeakable morbidity of the disclosures. Some called it a typical Parisian murder trial. The deed was committed a year ago after a night of orgy in Montmartre. The. trouble started at a negro ball where Jane Weyler and her husband, Robert, selected a dusky couple' for partners. Alone in their luxurious home some time the next day the woman fired two shots at her husband because, she said, he had threatened to kill their' child. Then, as the man lay writhing on the bed, she sent a bullet into his ear—to shorten his agony, she stated on the witness stand. A fashionable audience filled the court room, all leaning forward and listening intently to the revelations. Mme. Weyler, who is 38, looked the picture of contrition. She wore deep mourning, with just a wee bit of white under the rim of her widow's bonnet to match the pale cream of her face. Her eyes were delicately pencilled to express black sorrow. Forest Debauches. A little mauve handkerchief spasmodically went to her mouth to be gradually torn to fragments by her strong teeth. Two big tears refused to roll down her cheeks. She was defended by Maitre Moro-Giafleri, a celebrated criminal lawyer. The judge opened the proceedings by stating that Mme. Weyler, a daughter of highly respectable parents, had two children by two former husbands when she met Robert Weyler, and attended midnight orgies with him in the Boulogne forest. "Jane Boyer was rich when she met Ro" rt Weyler," the judge went on, "and Robert was poor and degenerate. Jane was Robert's fourth wife." The judge stated that he reluctantly referred to the victim as an impostor and good-for-nothing, seeing that his father was present in the court-room. "The defendant alleges," he continued, "that her husband refused to lead a regular home life as husband and Wife should, and that he seemed happy only when he could meet his own wife clandestinely in doubtful surroundings. " The judge then called Mme. Eugenie Lecomte. The woman was richly dressed and literally covered with jewels. "Monsieur Weyler met madame in' my house," the witness said, "and then continued to visit my place with her. Often I arranged elaborate dinners for them and their parties." To a question by the prosecutor, Mme. Lecomte said: "Jane Weyler often told me her husband was cruel to her when she did not provide him with money." Asked why she fired the last shot into her husband's ear, Mme. Weyler said, "I wanted to end his misery." A verdict of guilty under mitigating circumstances was returned, and Mme. Weyler was sentenced to five years in prison. Evidently the jurors had not been swayed by counsel for the defence. They had not been moved by the exhibition of tragic grief on the part of the murderess. Instead, they had remembered how calmly she had notified the«poliee over the telephone that her husband was dead, and how painstakingly she had rouged her lips before accompanying the detectives to the police station on the day of the shooting. Dr. Truelle, a pathologist, who was one of the witnesses, said: "The woman is absolutely without any moral'discernment, is almost incapable of human emotion, but completely responsible for her actions." When the verdict was announced Mme. Weyler threw up her face, chin forward and eyes and said under her breath: "Thank you."