STRANGE BIGAMY CASES

Hawera Star, Volume L, 13 February 1931, Page 5

STRANGE BIGAMY CASES

BUNGLE BY AN OFFICIAL REMARKABLE STORY RELATED HAPPY SOLUTION FOUND. 1 United I‘iwiis Association —By Klectno Telegraph Copyright.! LONDON, Eeb. 11. Two strange bigamy cases are reported from the Old Bailey. In the first case, Mrs Raie McLellau was prosecuted for marrying another man while her husband was alive. . Her story, found true, was a remarkable one. An official of the South African Government posted her a form referring to her “late husband, ’ who had not been seen since he went to Africa. She promptly married again, but the first husband reappeared. After tho judge had discharged the woman “as not only stainless in character.” lie expressed regret that she had been the “victim of a bungling Government department.”. The trio then met at luncheon. Both men wept. The real husband declared his intention to apply for a divorce and disappear. A bent threepenny piece was handed over to the wife. The lucky man shook the liand of the other man, who walked out. The -second case was equally remarkable. When William Chapman was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for bigamy, it was revealed that the real wife wrote Chapman’s letters to the other woman, because he was unable to read or write. These were in affectionate terms, dictated by Chapman. One letter, read in court, proposed that the other woman should live with the wife while “William was doing time.” The writer of the love letters exercised the privilege of not giving evidence against her husband. Thus the court was deprived of an interesting cross-examination.

“Amazing!” was tho judge’s only comment.