TRIAL OF ERIC MAREO

Southland Times, Issue 22915, 13 June 1936, Page 8

TRIAL OF ERIC MAREO

SUPREME COURT CROWDED DEFENCE WITNESSES HEARD DOCTOR DISCUSSES VERONAL (United Press Association.) Auckland, June 12. The Supreme Court was crowded this morning for the retrial of Eric Mareo, aged 49, a musician, who is charged with the murder of his wife, Thelma Clarice Mareo, by administering a hypnotic drug. Mr Justice Callan is presiding. The case for the Crown is conducted by Mr V. R. Meredith. With him is Mr F. McCarthy. The defence is again conducted by Mr H. F. O’Leary, K.C., of Wellington, Mr Trevor Henry and Mr K. C. Aekins. Dr T. L. Padget, of Wellington, Inspector - of Private Hospitals of the Department of Health, gave evidence that he had not practised for the past twelve years, but had practised at Stratford and Palmerston North for 30 years. A statement that had been read during the Mareo case caused him to offer yesterday to give evidence. The statement was that if a patient lapsed into unconsciousness through an overdose of veronal and recovered that patient would not relapse and die. The statement reminded him of a case which came under his notice 20 to 25 years ago. A woman lived near Hawera and had been a patient of his at Stratford. When he was called in she had been in a fairly deep coma. The history of the case given to him was that she had been given veronal two nights previously. Witness thought that 10 to 15 grains had been given on medical advice. The first dose was not effective and the second was similarly administered the next evening. The cumulative effect of those two doses was to cause a coma. When the witness arrived the woman was in a comatose condition, but while he was there she was roused and recognized him and talked. She seemed to be recovering. Witness could not remember what treatment had been given to the woman but he thought that they had prescribed strychnine for the heart. They thought she was recovering, but she relapsed into unconsciousness, and although under constant medical attention, the coma increased and she died from veronal poisoning. “I was satisfied that she was in a state of coma because of the veronal,” continued Dr Padget. “She may have had the limit of 40 grains in 20-grain doses, but I cannot remember exactly. I think it would be impossible for her to have a third dose. Her husband was very fond of her, and there was no question of criminal intent. The veronal was given on that occasion hypodermically. Action of Drugs. Replying to Mr Meredith witness said that he agreed that drugs of the barbituric acid group acted fairly certainly, but he did not agree with the statement that they acted with rapidity. He would recommend a dose to be taken an hour or two hours before a patient desired sleep. The patient to whom he referred was between 50 and 55 years of age. Her general health had been good, but he had not seen her for some time before her fatal illness, and she may have deteriorated physically during the interval. No post-mortem examination was carried out and he was unable to tell the Court of the woman’s organic condition. The patient was in a condition of coma, with a brief intermission in which she was awake for about 36 hours. Her appearance was dusky, and her breathing was laboured. Witness roused her he thought, by speaking to her and probably moving her. He thought it possible that the other doctor might have given her strychnine before witness arrived, and this might have assisted her to awake. Re-examined, Dr. Padget said that he found no organic disease of the heart or lungs. To Mr Justice Callan witness said that when roused the woman did not become at all lively. She was drowsy and spoke in a drowsy way. Irene Alice Riano, a widow, of Melbourne, questioned by Mr Henry, said that she met Thelma Trott in 1931 with a variety company. Her daughter and grand-daughter joined the company. She saw Miss Trott again in Melbourne in 1933 when her family joined the Ernest Rolls Company. She remembered Mrs Mareo telling her that she could not sleep without sleeping powders. One night she had a bottle of veronal, which she said was the best thing on the market for sleeplessness. She had once said she would kill herself because life was not worth living. Witness had discussed with her books dealing with certain aspects. Visit To Dressing-Room. Mrs Riano remembered Mrs Mareo saying that if the Ernest Rolls Company did not take her to New Zealand she would kill .herself, and they decided to take her. While in Auckland Mrs Mareo came to witness’s dressingroom and asked if witness could give her some powders or something. Mareo was standing in the doorway and said: “I wish you could try and convince Thelma to be a homeopath, because something will happen if she doesn’t stop taking so many sleeping draughts.” Witness said that she remembered Mrs Mareo drinking at the Crow’s Nest Cabaret in Wellington and being under the influence. To Mr Henry, witness said that she was very fond of Miss Trot. There had been a difference between her daughter and Mareo over the latter playing the music too fast, but no difference with Miss Trott. Cross-examined by Mr Meredith, witness said that when interviewed by the police in Melbourne, she may not have mentioned Mrs Mareo showing her a bottle of veronal. A policeman just came to the door, asked some questions and took notes in a book. “He took us by surprise, and I didn’t think that it was important to tell him everything I knew.” Mr Meredith: I put it to you that he asked straight out whether Thelma Trott took veronal. Witness: I do not remember that. He was not asking me questions. I was to tell him. Mr Meredith: Do I understand that he stood there mute, while you told him about Thelma? Witness: He asked some questions, a lot particularly about dates. Mr Meredith: Then you purely voluntarily brought out these things about her drinking. Love of Justice. Witness: I did it out of my love of justice. I thought it was my duty; Mr Meredith: Did not your love of justice and duty impel you to tell the police about that bottle of veronal? ■ Witness: I am not sure that I did not tell them. Mareo had said to her before he was married that Thelma was taking too

many drugs, asking witness to break her of it.

Mr Meredith: If what you say is correct, it follows that Mareo knew that his wife took drugs? Witness: Yes, I suppose so. Mr Meredith: Would you be surprised to know what when his wife was unconscious and the doctor asked him whether his wife ever took drugs, he said “No?”

Witness: Perhaps Dope and drugs are two different things. Mr Meredith: Would you be surprised if he said in answer to the police that his wife did not take drugs to make her sleep, but took alcohol? Witness: I don’t know whther I would be surprised. John William Beattie, a school teacher of Hunterville, said that in November, 1931, while in Dunedin suffering from a nervous breakdown, he consulted two doctors, who prescribed veronal to induce sleep. He took veronal for about a year. For a time one tablet was enough, but later he had to take two. He used to take them about half an hour before he went to bed. Occasionally they didn’t have any effect, and after tossing he sometimes got up and took two more. At the time he was suffering from a duodenal ulcer. He remembered one night taking two tablets with tea. About ten o’clock he escorted some visitors to the tram and retired about 11.15. The veronal had not had any effect. About midnight he took two more tablets. He remembered distinctly that there were eight left in the box. He went to sleep and did not remember anything until the morning. He then remembered his wife trying to awaken him, but he just sagged and went into a deep sleep. At dinner-time his wife again tried to rouse him, but he sagged again and went to sleep. “Like A Drunken Man.” “About 7.30 that night my wife was able to rouse me with difficulty” said witness. “I was just like a drunken man. We went for a walk. My speech was very thick. When I retired at 10 o’clock I decided to risk one tablet. They were kept in the bathroom. I found the box with the lid on, but there were no tablets. I concluded that I had taken them myself on Saturday night. My wife has never taken veronal in her life. Mr Justice Callan: You conclude then that between 10 o’clock on Saturday night and Sunday morning you took 60 grains—l2 tablets. Witness: Yes. The effect wore off on Monday. On another occasion, witness said, he found himself in the bathroom. A bottle fell into the washhand basin and roused him. He was satisfied that he was after more veronal, but he had enough will power to force himself away from the bathroom, where it was kept. ’On the way back to bed he entered the wrong bedroom. Witness said that he had never seen Mareo until to-day, but he thought that this experience of veronal might be valuable, and had therefore written to the Court. Moira Esme Meissner, a married woman of Havelock North, said that in September, 1930, she had collapsed. She had been sleeping badly for six months before barbitone was prescribed for her by a doctor and pills were obtained Witness described taking the pills. During the night she remembered waking up, as though in a dream, and feeling for the pills, which, she thought, were on a pedestal by the bed. She remembered getting up and searching the room. The next thing she remembered was bumping into a telephone and then she found herself in the bathroom. She remembered getting on a high stool to reach the medicine chest. She opened the cupboard and searched for the pills, which she eventually found. She did not know that the pills had been shifted to the bathroom. Witness could remember taking them but could not remember how many. Franz Meissner, husband of the previous witness, described putting the pills in the bathroom and later finding the box empty. He had given his wife only two pills. Witness said that his wife had been asleep for about four days. The Court adjourned until Monday, after having heard the evidence of the wardrobe mistress in “The Duchess of Dantzig” operatic production, Alice Frances Smith, who said that on the final night Mrs Mareo smelt of liquor. The- last witness for the defence, a medical man from Wellington, will be heard on Monday,