MURDER IN LAW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 307, 28 December 1935, Page 4 (Supplement)

MURDER IN LAW.

"WONDERFUL SACRIFICE."

GIRL BRIDE TAKES POISON

DEATH WITH INCURABLE ] I USB AND. "It's all right, darling, I am coming with you. You won't be lonely," murmured 22-year-old Bertha Stern, Jewish beauty, as she bent over her tuberculosisstricken and already-dying husband, and drank poison from the same cup that she had held to his lips a few moments before. She died two days later.

Said the Law (but not without protest from tlio East Hani Coroner's jury): She was a murderess a*d a suicide. Said the coronerfy\Dr. P. B. Skeels): This young woman has made a wonderful sacrifice. Although healthy and on the threshold of life she decided to go with the man for whom she had so much devotion. They entered the Great Beyond together. These are the facts revealed at a two-hour-long inquiry on which the law, the jury, and the coroner based their conclusions: —

Visited Him Every Day. On Christmas Day, 1933, the then 20-ycar-old Bertha Robbing became the bride of Michael Stern, B.Sc, 24-ycar-old, and with a brilliant future as a chemist before him. They made their home in Osborne Road, Forest Gate, London. On the Jewish Day of Atonement (October 7) Michael fell seriously ill. It became known that he had contracted tuberculosis. It was the beginning of the end. ... Clipping the table before him in the crowded court, Michael's father said that Bertha visited her young husband every day. Then, on October 21, came a telephono call from the hospital: "Only a few hours to live," said the doctors. Asked To Be Left Alone Together. Both Bertha and Michael asked Mr. Stern to leave the bedside, to leave them together. "I had a premonition something was wrong," he said. "I went to the door of the ward and saw her give him something from the cup. She saw mc approach, snatched it from his mouth, and drank the contents." The cup contained milk and enough arsenic to kill several people. Nurse O'Connor found Michael clasped in the arms of his girl-wife and heard her say: "It's all right, darling, I am coming with you." Bertha's In-other, Morris Rohbins, said she told him just before she died: "If I have" saved him ap hour's pain the rest of my life is well lost." "The Word Murder Is Horrible." More poignant evidence, and all eyes were on tiio jury as they filed back into their seats after the summing up. The foreman, obviously moved, told of their verdict that Mrs. Stern murdered her husband and then committed suicide while of unsound mind. He added:—"We have to record that verdict in accordance with the laws of our land, but we feel terribly distressed in having to come to those decisions. The word, 'murder' is horrible, and none of the jury would use such a word, especially in such circumstances." The coroner added his epitaph— A wonderful sacrifice."