“A DEATH PACT.”

Taranaki Daily News, 14 September 1926, Page 12

“A DEATH PACT.”

SYDNEY FLAT TRAGEDY. BELGIAN CATTAINo TRIAL. FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER. Sydney. Sept. 1. That the tragedy in which Ruth Alma Brandt lost her life in a Darlinghurst flat, on July 12, was not the outcome of a death pact, hut was nothing less than cold-blooded murder, was the allegation raised hy the Crown Prosecutor at the Central ‘Criminal Court to-day. when Maurice Strymans, aged 38, a Belgian sea captain, was arraigned on a charge of having murdered the woman. According to the accused, the shooting was accidental. in opening the case to the jury, the Crown Prosecutor said that the woman, who lived apart from her husband, had been also known by the names of Ruth Clarkson and Ruth Strymans. On the day of the tragedy the woman had been happy and contented apparently. She and Strymans were in the flat when a mechanic called to repair the telephone. He was away for 45 minutes, when he returned the police were present. The woman was stretched out on the floor, dead, with two bullet wounds in the head. In the meantime Strymans, who, the Crown alleged, had done the shooting, had surrendered himself to the Darlinghurst police. From his story it might be suggested that there had been a death pact between them. Even if this were so, he was not excused, and there was only one dead —the woman. In a signed statement to the police Strymans related that, after a conversation between him and the woman, he took her in his arms and kissed her. IJe then fired two shots from a revolver at the back of her ear. She sagged and fell to the floor. SHOOT ME—AND BE HANGED!” His statement added: “She said, ‘lf the worst comes to the worst we can die together. You can finish me and give yourself up and get hung. It e won’t be separated very long, and 1 don’t want you to kill yourself. Commenting on this, Mr. Coyle said: “He took her advice, and didn't kill himself.” “I suggest Strymans was financially worried,” Mr. Coyle went on. On his own admission Strymans had been asked to resign from his ship. Mrs. Brandt, like many other foolish women, dressed above her means. Strymans had been misled as to her actual station in life—he thought she "was well-to-do, the Crown suggested. Then came the climax; he found she had no money. There was something behind the tsagedy. Was he disappointed at the discovery that this vain, poor creature had deceived him as to her means. Or was he jealous of her? The Crown submitted that there was no word of acquiescence from her which induced the shooting. In a long statement from the dock Strymans said that he arrived from Melbourne two days previous to the shooting. Mrs. Brandt had urged him to come by telephone and telegram. On the way over he scut her several messages not to worry. A WORRIED WOMAN. On the Monday morning, while he was in the flat, she received a telephone message, which*made her very distressed. She said that it was a man named Whipp who had rung up. She said that she had been worried and persecuted by Whipp to marry him. Previously she had said that Whipp had put up her people to tie up her money. “The old devil has got us beaten,” she said to Strymans, addressing him as “Snookee.” The woman began to cry, Strymans declared. She said that he did not know what she had gone through during the last two years. He tried to reason with her. She continued to cry. “Maurice,” she said, “you always told me that you would do anything for me. Let’s finish it now.” He drew the revolver, thinking that the sight of it would bring her back to her senses. She clutched him by the head, and pulled him towards her, and the revolver went of twice. When the woman fell he gave himself up to the police. Recalled by the Crown. Kate Jean Clarkson, mother of the dead woman, stated that her daughter had no money that could have been tied up by her people. Crown Prosecutor: Had she any property at all?—No. Counsel addressed the jury. Strymans was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. He received both sentence and verdict without emotion.