MODERN BLUEBEARD.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4011, 4 August 1931, Page 6

MODERN BLUEBEARD.

MURDER OF TWO WIVES. FRENCH DOCTOR’S GUILT. After a full week’s trial at Montpelier, which aroused widespread interest throughout France, Dr Pierre Laget was found guilty of having poisoned his first wife and her sister, his second wife, and was condemned to death. He was found not guilty of the third charge of having poisoned his own sister, Marie Louise. Laget was to be executed in a public place at Montpelier after having his Legion of Honour and his Croix de Guerre clipped from him. The prisoner, who is 46 years of age, occupied a prominent position among the medical men of tire, south of France After taking his degree in medicine at Montpelier, lie specialised as a dental surgeon in Paris. Then lie started practice at Beziers. In 1912 he married Sarah Alexandre, one of the two daughters of a rich Beziers merchant. During the war he distinguished himself on the field and was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour. Returning to Beziers. Laget developed there an important practice. His wife died in 1922, and two years later lie married her sister Suzanne. She died in 1929 with the same suddenness ns Sarah. At the end of that year the doctor’s own sister, Marie Louise, was seized with illness.

The prosecution gave cupidity as the motive of the murder of the two wives, and it was stated in evidence that after the death of his second wife the accused drew an insurance of £BOO.