WIFE'S CRIME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23601, 9 March 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

WIFE'S CRIME

JgECAUSE Mrs. Jacintha Rogers, daughter of a general, could not bear the thought of her officer husband going abroad she shot him as he slept and then shot herself. At Teignmouth, Devon, the other day, an inquest was held on Mrs. Rogers and her husband, Captain Thomas Rogers, and the jury decided that Mrs. Rogers' mind had been disturbed by acute depression. They were both 35 and were married 12 years ago in East Africa. Their only child, .Mary Hose, is seven. Thev were devoted to each other, and they were ideally happy living at Brookvale Cottage in the village of Shaldon, near Teignmouth. until —until war came. "Too Sacred" Captain Rogers went away to join his unit. Each night he and his wife spoke on the telephone; every day they wrote to each other. The coroner told the jury that on January 22 Mrs. Rogers wrote a letter to her husband beginning, "My very own beloved." "1 am not going to read this letter," the coroner said, "because it is too sacred ;t document. . . ."

Shocking Sequel to War Worry

But when the jury foreman asked a question he read this paragraph from the letter:— "If a woman can't stick up for her husband when he is in the depths of despair she is not worth a pin." Mrs Rogers feared that her hitsband's rheumatic complaint would become serious it he went abroad. He arrived home on leave on January 30. On the day he should have returned to his unit he was found dead. - Mr George Vosper, a friend, went to Brookvale Cottage because he was puzzled at seeing the blinds drawn. He knew there was a secret panel in the cottage door, and this gave him entrance. Captain Rogers was in bed, as if asleep; his wife clutched a sporting gun. Mrs, Bogers was the daughter of Brigadier-General L. G. F. Gordon.