RIGHT TO KILL

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 256, 25 July 1936, Page 22

RIGHT TO KILL

Love Thief Slain

“The man who.steals the wife of another is an Ishmael and every man’s band ought to be against him. specially that of the wronged husband. If in his anger the husband forgets himself to the point of slaying the love thief, it is no murder.” , This, in effect, was the unwritten law defined by counsel for the defence in a murder trial at the Seine Assizes, Paris. A young artisan, strolling in the Bois de Vincennes, the Epping Forest of Paris, came on his wife and her lover, Albert Gaston Pomet. walking arm-in-arm and exchanging tender glances) under the trees. “What are you doing here?” asked the husband, Adrien Anglade-

“You can see for yourself what we are doing,” retorted the wife. '

That time the two men were content with an exchange of heated words. There were other meetings, however, and each time matters moved nearer to the climax. “I could see they mocked me.” the husband told the judge, “and my blood boiled. I was not master of myself, so T whipped out my revolver.” The Public Prosecutor repudiated the idea that unwritten law ran in France for the benefit of wronged husbands and demanded a conviction carrying a severe penalty. The counsel for the defence asked the jury to pul themselves in the position of itis client and say how they would act' before rendering their verdict. After a brief consultation they found the accused not guilty.