“WRECKED” LIVES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 202, 23 May 1936, Page 22

“WRECKED” LIVES

Judge’s Strangest Case “You passed through life leaving a trail of wreckage behind you.” .So spoke Judge Dodson at the Old Bailey to a self-confessed double bigamist before passing sentence of eighteen months’ imprisonment. The man, James Tozeland Gascoigne, 53 years old, pleaded guilty to bigamously marrying Elsie Buby Schmidt, widow, and Miss Madeline Jackson. The judge described the case as one of the strangest he had ever heard. Mr. L. A. Byrne, prosecuting, said there were other charges against the prisoner of obtaining money by false pretences, but as he had pleaded guiltj' to bigamy lie would not proceed with them.

Gascoigne, Mr. Byrne went on, was married to his lawful wife in 1902 in Northampton. They lived together until 1917, and there were four children. In 1930 he “married” Mrs. Schmidt, and they had lived together ever since. It was in 1932 that he met Miss Jackson, and in 1933 he went through a form of marriage with her at a register office. Detective Sergeant Hinus said Gascoigne for many years had been doing magazine work, and had written a book entitled “Danger Ahead.” Mr. McClay, defending, said the legal marriage was most unhappy. Gascoigne separated from his wife in 1910, but in 1912, at his request, there was a reconciliation, and a new home wa's set up. In 1914 they separated again, and two years later there was another reconciliation, which lasted only a year.

One evening, returning from a theatre, Gascoigne found his house had been seized for debt, and he spent the night in a cafe. He had no work, became destitute, walked about the streets with practically nothing to eat. and slept in the parks. Miss Jackson told the judge she took divorce proceedings against Gascoigne, and obtained a decree nisi. Gascoigne bowed gravely to the judge as he left the dock.