MAREO RE-TRIAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 17 June 1936, Page 7

MAREO RE-TRIAL

EVIDENCE CONCLUDED addresses by counsel (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, 16th June. The re-trial of Eric Mareo, charged with the murder of his wife, Thelma Mareo, was continued this afternoon, v.'hen counsel addressed the jury. Mr O’Leary, for the defence, asked them to consider what would be the end of the trial for the man in the dock charged with murder, the penalty of which they knew. Would he be free to return to his children and his friends or would he return to the cell where he had been incarcerated? Veronal was not a murderer’s weapon, counsel went on. Records showed that deaths from veronal in the case of adults rose in the main from misadventure and suicide. What might kill one person might have little or no effect on another. A person setting out to murder by veronal could have no idea as to how much to give. The Crown selected the possibility that Mareo had given veronal to Mrs Mareo. He did it, the Crown said, at a lime when Mr and Mrs Mareo were said to be happy and when Freda Stark was present. The defence contended that the most likely alternative was that Mrs Mareo by accident or design took veronal herself. It was most likely and most consistent that she had some ‘ innocently on the Friday night; that on the Saturday she got up after the manner of persons under the influence of veronal, or even without getting up, and took the store of veronal, and that was what killed her. Mr O’Leary dealt next with the relations between Mareo and Eleanor Brownlee. He spoke of the quarrel which took place after a Dixieland party, when Miss Brownlee brought Mareo home drunk. That in itself was an indication that there was nothing improper between them. A man did not bring home his mistress into the bosom of his family. When he was allegedly murdering this woman, Mareo was drafting a letter to J. C. Williamson, Limited, asking them, to take over “The Duchess of Dantzig,” the play in .which his wife played the leading part. Thelma Mareo was essential to Mareo’s future projects, and yet the jury was asked to believe that he had murdered her. It might be suggested that Miss Brownlee was to take Mrs Mareo’s place, but she was not an actress.

PURCHASE OF VERONAL “To procure veronal Mareo' went to chemists who knew him,” said Mr O’Leary. “He told the detectives he was taking veronal and told others he was taking it. Are those the actions of a guilty man? Would he not have got rid of the stuff had he been guilty? All Mareo’s actions in regard to veronal were frank, and were certainly not those of a guilty man. As soon as his wife died he candidly admitted possession of veronal. He never hesitated. He thought that his wife’s condition was due to medicine he . had given her, and he was not; candid about that medicine because he thought he had committed an offence. I ask ydu to" contrast his actions over the corrective medicine, and his action regarding the veronal. On the one hand he was candid,’ truthful, and straightforward, and on the other he was not.

DEFENCE EVIDENCE ATTACKED Mr Meredith, in addressing the jury, attacked the defence’s evidence. “I am going to put it to you,” said Mr Meredith, “that that evidence has no bearing or practically none on this case. The whole case now depends on careful consideration of the incidents fTom the Friday night to the Monday afternoon when Thelma Mareo died.” .It. was surprising that it was necessary to bring people from Australia to prove Mrs Mareo’s drinking habits. There should have been plenty of people in New Zealand and in Auckland who knew her intimately. People who knew her in Australia and performed with her there said they knew nothing of these accusations. Dr. Giesen, who was called for the defence, put up the most amazing proposition He was a man who admittedly studied the case from the outset and advised the defence. He advised the defence that everyone was wrong, but he did not come to the last trial and give 'evidence, and it was only now that he got into the firing-line. Dr. Giesen’s theory was a contradiction of several reputable men who gave their evidence with certainty and-who were supported by textbooks. Surely out of the thousands of medical men in New Zealand there must have been some who would have come forward in the interests of justice to support Dr. Giesen. Mr Meredith had not finished when the court adjourned.

PUBLIC INTEREST (By Telegraph—Press Association) AUCKLAND, This Day. Lengthy queues of men and women awaited thv opening of the doors when the Mareo re-trial entered what was expected to be its last day. Mr Meredith, in his address said that the case was clearly one of veronal poisoning. If Mrs Mareo took it herself, it was either suicide or mis- j adventure. If on the other hand it was administered intentionally by ! someone else, then the act involved j that person in the crime of murder. The Mareos had been married for only 18 months and the bride had £SOO, of which her husband had dissipated £4OO. It was idle to say it was a happy marriage, as three bitter quarrels were known of. One was the occasion when Mareo came home from Dixieland drunk. After indulgence in liquor his restraint was lifted and his real state of mind was indicated. Mareo abused his wife that night and she replied that she would go out into the street if he would not give her back her £SOO. Then there was the mental attitude of accused on the night he was driven home in a drunken condition by Eleanor Brownlee. It was clear that Miss Brownlee came that night with the intention of stopping, for she was equipped with her pyjamas. She must have come at Mareo’s invitation. Later Mareo in a semi-dressed condition had ordered his wife out and said, “Eleanor will look after me.” Then there was Mareo’s accusation against his wife of perversion. By this time he had no social relations with his wife, who had beer, entirely supplanted by Miss Brownlee. Mr

Meredith referred to Mrs Mareo’s brightness with Freda Stark on the Friday night and her request to come early next day. That was a picture of Mrs Mareo, but what of Mareo? Counsel then outlined an incident of the weftihg and the handing of a' morbid-letter to Betty Mareo concerning her parentage. - ■ Mr Meredith lengthily described the incidents at the fatal week-end, and touching on the incident of giving milk, said that Dr. Giesen agreed that Mareo’s subsequent sleepiness, together with the fact that he could not be roused, was consistent with Mareo having had a dose of veronal before the: time Mrs Mareo was taken to the lavatory. Dr. Giesen agreed also that the condition of Mrs Mareo was consistent with a dose of veronal having been taken just before she went to the lavatory. . “Now gentlemen” said Mr Meredith, “you get this startling position: Just before the milk was prepared they apparently were both free from the influence of veronal, so you have it that at the same time two different people were showing signs of veronal. If Mrs Mareo got it at that time she got it only one way; it definitely must have been in the milk. Who had verj onal in his possession at that time? — Mareo. Who was out in the kitchen ! preparing the milk?—Mareo. Then taking the evidence of Mareo going under the influence, what possible ini ference can you draw but that when j Mareo prepared the milk he put ver- ! onal in it, took some himself, and gave I his wife a fatal dose.”

HIS HONOUR SUMS UP Mr Meredith concluded at. 12.20 p.m. “We are all human,” said his Honour in commencing his summing up to the jury, “and whatever efforts we make we are likely to err in handling I the great amount of material in this lease. If I should misstate anything it is your right and duty to help and correct me.” j. His Honour said it was for the prosecution to satisfy them beyor r 'l doubt that the charge had been proved. The jury would approach the matter with the same earnestness ancl degree of care as though their own lives depended on the right answer. The , whole case had to be tried to the I jury’s satisfaction on the evidence at . this trial as though Mareo had never been tried before. j His Honour had not concluded his summing up at Ihe luncheon adjournment.