BLONDE'S TRIUMPH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 249, 21 October 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

BLONDE'S TRIUMPH.

HONOUR CLEARED. POISONED HUSBAND DRAMA. CHEERING OF VERDICT. Recently Mrs. Jessie Costello, of Salem (Mass.), told her four children that within a month she would be with them again. And although she was charged with having poisoned Ker husband —Mr. William Costello, chief of tho Fire Brigade of Peabody —so that she could associate with another man, her confidence was justified. She was acquitted and now she is back with them again. Spectators in court dropped notes out of the windows to pass the verdict on to the waiting crowds—crowds of sympathisers, j who had kept vigil outside the building all day, and burst into cheering when the news was announced. Never Faltered. Mrs. Jessie Costello, a beautiful blonde, herself received the verdict with a smile. Not once during the trial had she faltered in her statement that she was innocent, never flinching when Eddie McMahon, a Peabody policeman, declared that she had been his lover. All day long she battled the prosecutor to a standstill. Time and again she reiterated that "upon the soul oi my dead baby I did not kill Bill, I loved him." Her explanation of the death of her husband was that he took poison capsules by mistake as a cure for stomach pains. Pale as ivory—her paleness accentuated by her black dress and convent collar— Mrs. Costello, the daughter of a Scotsman, remained cool and poised throughout the trial. She did not slake her thirst or wet her dry lips. She listened without a murmur to the prosecution's long denunciation of her as a "frivolous, extravagant, and immoral woman," who loved neither her home nor children, but was infatuated by a twenty-six-year-old policeman. Seething Fires of Rage. Her eyes blazed, but she did not betray her innermost thoughts, though one could • surmise the seething fires of rage she had for this man, as McMahon, who has become known as the "kiss and tell" cop, gave evidence about his relations with her. Mrs. Costello fiercely denied McMahon's story, and swore that he had been nothing but a friend.

Cross-examined by her counsel she denied that at any time she had stood before McMahon in the nude. She had explained her philosophy of life to Mrs. McMahon: "Listen, Mary, men are all alike, they've got to be catered to. My mother lived with my father 30 years and ciuerid to him. And Ive lived with Bill ten years and I'm still catering to him." And Mary said: "I'll be darned if I ever saw a man I'd cater to." Remarkable scenes were witnessed during the trial. Mrs. Costello's counsel wanted her nine-year-old daughter Anna to go into the witness-box. Mrs. Costello lost her temper and burst out: "1 don't care whether she corroborates my story or not. but I will have no child of mine dragged into this case." And to crown it r,ll Mrs. Costello has received a £ 10,000 offer to appear in vaudeville!