THE DUNEDIN TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 11543, 30 November 1900, Page 5

THE DUNEDIN TRAGEDY.

ALLEGED MURDER OF A HUSBAND.

TRIAL OF MRS. FOGO.

[BY TELEGRAPH.PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

Dpnedin, Thursday. The trial of Sarah Fogo for the murder of ! her husband, Thomas Fogo, commenced at the Supreme Court this morning. The Crown Prosecutor, in opening the case, referred to the unhappy state of the Fogo household, through the intemperance of the deceased, and briefly outlined the evidence regarding the actual occurrence of September 29. Ho pointed out that the deceased, besides being stabbed, had the mark of a blow on the back of the head. The indications were that this blow as inflicted with a silver-knobbed bamboo stick, and the medical evidence suggested it was given before the knife was used. He put it to the jury that if evidence was presented to them, as he anticipated, it would be tueir plain duty to return a verdict of guilty of murder. He emphasised the us© of the knife, and of accused going from the bedroom to the kitchen for it. Even if the man had nagged at the woman until fehe had struck him first with a stick, what excuse could be made for her action in gaing deliberately downstairs, possessing herself of a knife, returning, and using it. Surely there was ample time for reflection; and if, as she said, she acted in self-defence, why did she return to the room? Moreover, why had she snibbed the door when the Husband had been reduced to a dazed condition by the blow on the head. Counsel quoted authorities to show that malice was io be presumed where the instrument, or manner of retaliation was greatly inadequate to the offence given, and cruel and dangerous in nature. » Dr. Closs described the wounds received by the deceased, and the results of the postmortem, his evidence being on the sime lines as in the inferior Court. When the witness first saw the accused, she was very much excited. She first said, "It was all your fault (meaning witness' fault). You should have told my husband to stop drinking. I did it in self-defence. If I had i.ot done it, I would have been a corpse myself." She repeated that several times in the bedroom. She may have said, while : n the bedroom, " I am prepared to take the consequences. If I had not done it, I might have been lying there a corpse instead of him." While in the parlour she said, "1 hit him on the head with a walking-stick, and did it."

Cross-examined by Mr. Sim, witness said it was quite possible that worrying over her husband's habits, together with the want of sleep., might produce in the accused an acute state of nervous prostration. A sufficientamount of fatigue and exhaustion from want of sleep would produce almost any brain condition, closely allied with that of a monomaniac. Accused had evidently gone through a very severe ordeal, and naturally the reaction had set in. Mental enfecblement and confusion were generally expected after such an ordeal.

Andrew Lees Fogo, son of the accused, repeated his former evidence, describing Hie spectacle in his parents' bedroom, when be burst in the door. His father was standing upright against a wardrobe, while his mother was in the centre of the room, with a black-handled knife in her left hand, fell© said if she had not struck him he would have killed her, or words to that effect. Witness eased his father's body to the floor. At that time he could feel the heart beating, and saw 110 blood, but on returning to the bedroom, after telephoning for Dr. Gloss, he found the heart had ceased to beat.

Cross-examined by Mr. Sim, witness ssid tiiat two days before the occurrence Lis mother had told him she had not slept for 11 days. He had several times heard his father threaten his mother. Witness had urged his mother to obtain a separation, but she had declined, on account of the exposure which would be entailed. The knife which his mother had in her hand was usually kept in the kitchen. Witness looked for it on the night before the occurrence, but it was not in its usual place. He did not think his mother could have gone downstairs without his hearing her. Georgina Agnes Togo, daughter of the accused, said in correction of her formalevidence, that on the day before her father's death she took a black-handled knife upstairs, and had not taken it down again. Miss Coates, gaol matron, gave evidence as to the accused having told her she wr-nt from the bedroom to the kitchen to get the knife. Dr. Emily Siedeberg deposed to waving examined the accused. She found no bruises upon her.

Sergeant Gilbert was also examined. He stated, in reply to Mr. Sim, that Mrs. Fogo's servant had made a statement to him that she remembered Miss Fogo taking the knife away. This closed the case for the Crown. No evidence was called for the defence. The Grown Prosecutor, in addressing the jury, suggested that, on the part of the accused's children, a sort of mental effort was unconsciously going 011 to recollect circumstances in her favour. The only possible de-fence was that the want of sleep had affected (lie accused mind, but lie submitted it was reasonable to suppose that accused, seeing the condition of things in the home, and possibly nervous for her own safety, and that of her children, determined to end it with her own hand by taking her husband's life. Mr. Sim will address the jury, and the Judge will sum up in the morning.