"RED MAX" MURDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23204, 31 May 1937, Page 11

"RED MAX" MURDER

SEQUEL IN PARIS COURT FRENCHMAN FOR DEVIL'S ISLAND DEALER IN WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC (From Our Own Correspondent) (ByAir Mail) LONDON, May 1. The " Red Max" Kassel murder in Soho, London, on January 23, 1936, reached its sequel in a French court at Paris on April 29/ 1937, when Roger Vernon, a 36-year-old Frenchman, was sentenced to 10 years' hard labour on Devil's Island. Vernon escaped from the island in 1927 after serving one year of a seven-year term. He has to serve, therefore, 16 years. The jury found that Kassel, who was known to have lived on the proceeds of prostitution in Canada and in London, was murdered after premeditation by Vernon, who had been involved in white slave traffic. Vernon's mistress, Suzanne Bertron. upon the proceeds of whose prostitution Vernon had lived, was acquitted of complicity and set free. THE INDICTMENT The indictment against Vernon stated that he had first met Kassel, who had been expelled from France and Belgium, in Montreal. It continued: " Vernon and Suzanne Bertron, after staying in Paris, Marseilles, Italy and Tunis, returned once more to London, where Vernon went into the motor trade with a Frenchman, Pierre Alexandre, and had a garage in Soho square. According to the police, the two accused were also concerned with the white slave traffic and had a number of apartments in the West End, where they lodged French prostitutes. "When his mistress was receiving clients on the second floor, Vernon, who lived on her prostitution, used to retire to the third floor by the stairs. They had a servant, Marcelle Aubin, of French origin." At this time, the indictment continued. Vernon again met Max Kassel, who was carrying on in England the same immoral trade as in Canada. He borrowed £25 from Vernon, who repeatedly asked for repayment in 1935. Vernon, in agreement with Suzanne Bertron, decided to get Kassel to come to the house. The woman wrote asking him to come without mentioning the reason. He came, but refused to pay. The indictment went .on: "Then the accused induced the servant, Marcelle Aubin, whose writing resembled that of Suzanne Bertron, to write a letter to Kassel, asking him to come to the apartment. Kassel came to the rendezvous. Vernon had gone up to the third floor. According to instructions, the servant brought Kassel to the third floor, and she and Suzanne remained on the second floor in the kitchen."

Describing what followed, the indictment said that, after hearing several shots, the two women went upstairs and found the men standing in the dining room. Kassel shouted: "He fired on me." All forced the victim downstairs, and Vernon remained

alone with him in the bathroom until his death. Vernon then summoned Pierre Alexandre by telephone and obtained his assent to removing the body in his car. FIVE BULLET WOUNDS The two men wrapoed the body in a blanket, took it away and placed It near a hedge in the suburbs of London 'St. Albans), returning at seven in the morning. Meanwhile, Bertron, assisted by the maid, washed away all traces of blood in the flat and put everything in order. The indictment concluded: "The body was discovered about 10 in the morning of January 24 by a carpenter, who was going to work at St. Albans, and who informed the police. The victim bore the trace of five bullet wounds. Suzanne Bertron remained at home on January 24, but on January 25, the morning papers having revealed the discovery of the body, she left immediately for Paris, where she rejoined her lover. The two accused were arrested in Paris on February 1."

At the trial Vernon was examined by the judge. He described his escape from Devil's Island. He related that the supervision was not strict, that he collected some hundreds of francs by catching butterflies and selling them to sailors. A fellow prisoner constructed a primitive canoe, and Vernon, with two other convicts, had no difficulty in reaching Caracas, where he found work in a kinema. He went to Canada, bought the identity papers of Charles Lacroix, came to London and married under that name. He met "Red Max" Kassel in Cai Kla. Later he separated from his wife, met Suzanne Bertron in Paris, and brought her back to London with him. VERNON'S VERSION Describing Kassel's visit to the apartment, Vernon said: " When Max arrived he was furious. Cursing and swearing without any explanation, he struck me in the face, and my head rang like a bicycle bell. He knocked me down into a chair, and throwing all his weight on to me, tried to strangle me. I was armed with my pistol. The entire charge went off." There was tense silence for a minute. Then Vernon said: " There you are, that's how it happened." Maitre Legrand, for the defence: The corpse bore the marks of six bullets, five in the front. The judge interposed quickly: But the sixth bullet hit him in the back—how do you explain that. Vernon? Vernon: I do not explain it. I do not see how he could have taken a bullet in the back. .fudge: When you arrested you had only very slight contusions. This fact, confirmed by Dr Paul, is difficult to reconcile with the savage attack you have just described. And Max was unarmed. Vernon: He hammered my head with his fists. He needed no weapon to get the better of me, he had fist like sledge hammers. When the judge indicated that his examination of Vernon had finished, Vernon was deathly pale; sweat was running down his face. " I did not mean to kill him," he said, and sat down.

THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR M. Guyenot, the Public Prosecutor, doubted the story that Vernon had lent Kassel £25. ' He said: "The probability is to the contrary. Max had a relatively stable position, whereas Vernon lived from hand to mouth. It is more likely that Max came to get money owing to him by Vernon." Kassel was a strong man, he continued —possibly brutal —but the English police stated that they had never had a charge against him of violence. After describing Kassel's long death agony, the Public Prosecutor continued: " Does not such cruelty on the part of Vernon give reason to believe that an ancient hatred existed between the two men? It is as though, having waited a long time for his vengeance, the murderer wanted to enjoy it to the full —right up to the last gasp of his enemy? " The Public Prosecutor said the theory of self-defence put forward by Vernon was unlikely. "When you fear a man you do not shut yourself up with him," he said. " Max was supposed to have gripped Vernon by the throat. But medical legal evidence reveals that the bullets were not fired point blank, and this excludes a body-to-body struggle. Vernon did not fire in self-defence. Before the verdict was announced Suzanne Bertron was asked to speak. She spoke amid absolute silence in a very low voice. " I did all I could," she said, "to prevent the two men meeting, and afterwards if I did not denounce Vernon it is because I could not do so. I love him."

Practically the only dramatic scene in the trial occurred after Vernon had been sentenced. As the guards were slipping the handcuffs on Vernon, his wife. Esther Odde, who had attended all the proceedings, ran up to him, crying: " Let me kiss him." She then embraced him tenderly, and Vernon, who remained completely unmoved, allowed himself nonchalantly to be kissed.