TESTS WITH VERONAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 134, 8 June 1936, Page 11

TESTS WITH VERONAL

ANALYST'S EVIDENCE RETRIAL OF ERIC MAREO (?,y Tclogi'iiph— Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. The hearing of evidence for the Crown at the retrial of Eric Marco, charged with ' murdering his wife, Thelma Clarice Marco, entered upon j its second week in the Supreme Court j today. I Mr. Justice Callan is presiding. The j Crown case is being conducted by Mr. j V. R. Meredith and Mr. F. McCarthy, while the defence is again being conducted by Mr. H. F. O'Leary, K.C. (Wellington) and Messrs. Trevor Henry and K. C. Ackins. .Norman Ralph Blomfield, company secretary, who ran the business side Of' the "Duchess of Danzig" production, said that signs, of drinking increased in the Mareo home while he knew them. He never saw Mrs. Mareo drinking to excess, but Mareo was a pretty heavy drinker at times. Mareo telephoned to witness half an hour after his wife's death and in reply to a question said the cause was her appendix, adding: "Foolish girl, if she's had it out when I wanted shed have been alive yet." Kenneth Massey Griffin, Government Analyst, described various tests carried out with the organs and exhibits handed to him by the police. He gave the quantities of veronal which he found present. His tests showed that I six 5-grain veronal tablets, thirty grains, could be dissolved in half a cup of milk. He tasted the solution and it was like soda. Cross-examined by Mr. O'Leary, witness explained that in some cases he did not have the whole of the organ and took a portion only for analysis. It was usual to take a third or half and keep the other portion for a check analysis. - , Re-examined by Mr. Meredith, witness said that a normal healthy person should notice the taste of veronal fairly quickly. In the experiments he had noticed taste tests in one second. The luncheon adjournment was then taken.