TRAGEDY IN PARIS FLAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15504, 10 January 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

TRAGEDY IN PARIS FLAT.

HUSBAND FOUND SHOT,

WIFE CHARGED WITH MURDER.

At midnight on June 23 last the concierge of a building of "luxurious Paris flats was awakened bv the sound of a revolve. - shot. A short silence, and then four more shots rang out in quick succession. The concierge threw open his window and looked out. thinking that murder was being done in the street. A few minutes of uncertainty, and then the bell of the telephone which connects his lodge with the flats oi the tenants Tang sharply. He heard the voice of Madame Poeckes, who with her husband, the eon of a wealthy silk' manufacturer, occupied a flat on the third floor. The voice was firm: "Come up quickly," it said, "my husband lias killed himself."

The concierge went up. M. Poeckes lay dead on the bed—his feet on the pillow, his head at the footwith five bullet wounds through the head and body. There was no sign of a struggle, but the dead man's hands were covered with blood. Tne concierge noticed that Madame Poeckes, who seemed strangely calm, wore her hair elaborately dressed, as though she had not lain down at all that night.

The account of the tragedy she gave first to the concierge, then to the [dice, was this : —Before going to bed her husband had drunk a large quantity of brandy in the dmingroom. He showed signs of considerable excitement. At eleven o'clock she lay down and fell asleep. Suddenly she was awakened by a sharp sound at her side. She thrust out her band, and touched the cold stock of a revolver. She gripped it, and another shot rang out. Then, realising, she says, that her husband was attempting to commit suicide, she struggled with him for the possession of the weapon. In the struggle the other chambers were discharged. A Modified Account.

This was Madame Poecke's first etory; but, pressed by the questions of the examining magistrate, she began to modify it. She confessed that perhaps it was she who pressed the trigger in the struggle; nay, more, that it was perhaps she who held the weapon all the time. But 6he could not be sure. Her memory of the tragic night was so confused. She might even have fired in self-defence in the belief that her husband threatened her life. In view of the unsatisfactory nature of her evidence Madame Poeckes was arrested on a charge of murder.

Brides the confusion of her account of the tragedy there were other presumptions against Madame Poeckes. She had, it appears, never been happy with her husband, whom she is believed to have married without love and without respect, bat with the definite intention of " mas- | tering him." A few weeks before the tragedy there had been rumours that she wished to sue for divorce, and that in spite of the approaching birth of a second child. A few weeks ago her trial began before the assizes of the Seine. Madame Poeckee is a short woman, with a fair complexion, and she wore a big black veil. Her father-in-law had been summoned to the trial, but he failed to put in an appearance. After the indictment had been read the judge questioned her. Your family was very rich. You were very happy in your home, were you not, and not anxious to get married —Yes, that is true. My family was very good to me. I loved them, and I also loved my husband. I adore him. Judging from the indictment, I should i say that you were a very intelligent woman, very self -possessed, not easily subject to sudden emotion, and not very sensitive. Your brother-in-law, M. Remond, an attorney at the court of Besancon, has said, however, that you were given to lying and that you had a vicious temper? —I must have appeared more vicious than I was in my temper. My brother-in-law knew very little about me. "A True Believer." Your father-in-law said that yon were cross, that you were not religious, and not romantic. Yet he docs not seem to be very hostile to you, and lias refused to lodge a complaint?— l loved my father-in-law very much, and he has no idea how much I love him still. I was also a true believer. I belong to a very religious family. Perhaps I did nob go to church as much a« some of my relatives, but if I had had no religions faith I would not have been as good a wife and mother as I have been. Your husband also was the son of a rich tradesman. He was not a paragon, but he was a good business man. He was perhaps timid, nervous, olten in bad health, and restless. When very young he lost his sister, who was killed in an accident with the man to whom site was engaged. He then became very ill and had to be treated in a sanatorium 7—That is true. When you were engaged to him did you not express some fears as to the temper of your fiancee? —He was capricious like a child, but he was kind and gentle. You were not happy after yonr marriage, and you thought of suicide?—l was afraid of my husband. He developed a very erratic temper. One night he slapped me, another time he tried to strike me with a lamp, and on another occasion he lay down with a hatchet alongside him. Question of Divorce. There was a recess, and then the judge asked .- You told your friends that you were very unhappy, and you spoke of divorce? —I never intended to ask for a divorce, but I did think of a temporary separation.

You told one witness that your husband ' inspired yon with terror, that he made your blood boil, and that he wanted to kill everybody ?—lt ie true my husband had threatened the nurse and nivself with his revolver. He had put the "barrel of his weapon under my nose and said : "You see what this is.. This is what we kill dope with." You did not tell this to anyone ?— took great care not to. I did 'not wish to grieve my parents or my father-in-law. Can you tell us what happened on the night of his death' A witness tells us that about ten o'clock he heard first one shot, and then after an interval of about thirty seconds the other shots were fired? —All this was so rapid that I can say nothing precise. Your landlord was awakened. He called some passers-by and telephoned to the concierge. It was only then that you came to tell him what had happened"?— I wae overcome and helpless. My teeth chattered, and I could not stand on mv feet. I was paralysed, and incapable of finding the button for the electric light. I have only a vague recollection of what happened. v\ lien you appeared to the witnesses there was no bloodstains on you ''. I cannot explain it. When the police commissaire arrived you told him a different etory from what you had told the landlord I always told the same story. The police commissaire never questioned me. You said that when you were awakened by the first shot you thought that your husband was firing at you, and you tried to jnatch. the revolver from him '! It was then that the other slots went off —That is quite true. I seized the revolver frantically, and the shots struck my husband, because he was so close to me. It was all very unfortunate, but it is the truth.