WIFE’S MONEY LUST.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 4 January 1926, Page 9

WIFE’S MONEY LUST.

HUSBAND’S AMAZING ACT. Ferdinand Marek, 22, a young engineer and inventor, has been charged at Vienna with wilfully chopping off his right .foot with an axe, after insuring himself against accident and disablement- for nearly £40,000. The Angla-Danubian Lloyd, in Vienna, which effected the insurance, i>s contesting the claim. Marek was working on the terrace of his villa 'at Moedling, near Vienna, on a Sunday morning, shaping a model with a sharp, curved axe* when his screams brought his wife and others to find him with his right, foot hanging only by the skin. He nearly died, and spent several months in hospital. A police investigation was made, as a result of which he was formally charged with trying to defraud the insurance company, and his claim against them will be dealt with in the civil court after the criminal charge lias been dealt with.

The police statement is that Marek was so determined to find money to satisfy the ambition of hie wife, at whatever cost to himself, that he made false statements to the company about his age and profession, and that his conduct- throughout and the general circumstances indicate that he then risked death from the shock of self-mutila-tion.