CATHEDRAL DRAMA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 85, 11 April 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

CATHEDRAL DRAMA.

SHOT ON ALTAR STEPS. Mrs. Blair, the Mexican wife of an Englishman resident in Mexico, committed suicide in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, in . dramatic circumstances. There were few people in church at the time. A priest going to the sacristy noticed a young and well-dressed woman sitting alone in one of the side chapels. He heard the noise of a shot coining from that chapel, and, rushing back, found the visitor lying unconscious beside the altar, with a bullet wound in her head. She was grasping in her right hand a small revolver, and in the other hand held a letter addressed to the Mexican Minister in Paris. She was taken to the Hotel Dieu Hospital, but died on the way.

According -to information given by the police, the woman's maiden name was Antoinette Reivoe. She was 33 years of age, and was married several years ago to a Mr. Blair, an English business man in Mexico. She is stated to have been somewhat of an eccentric disposition, and some time ago came to France. She arrived in Paris and took a room in a small hotel in the Latin quarter. She it? stated to have written to the Mexican Minister that finding life in Paris did not suit her she had made up her mind to end her life. According to the Exchange, Mrs. Blair left London recently, and went to Bordeaux, and then on to Paris. She had only 2/6 in her possession at the time of her death. Later in the afternoon the ceremony of purification of the cathedral after the desecration was performed, and the doors of the cathedral were subsequently closed.