WIFE'S MONEY LUST.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 December 1926, Page 13 (Supplement)

WIFE'S MONEY LUST.

HUSBAND MAIIWS HIIHSELF. Ferdinand Marek, a young engineer and inventor, aged 22, will be charged at Vienna early in the New Year with wilfully chopping off his right foot with an axe, after insuring himself against accident and disablement for nearly £40,000. The Anglo-Danuhian Lloyd in Vienna,, which effected the insurance, is contesting the claim. Marek was-working on the terrace of his villa at Moedling, near Vienna, on a Sunday m- rning, shaping a model with a sharp, curved axe, when his sereams brought his wife and others to find Jiim with his left foot hanging only by" the skin. He nearly died, and spent several months in hospital. A police investigation was made, as a result of which he was formally charged with trying to defraud the insurance company, and his claim against them will only be dealt with in the civil court after the crijninal charge has been dealt with. The police statement is that Marek was determined to find money to satisfy the ambition of his wife, at whatever cost to himself, that he made false statements to the company about his age and profession, and that his conduct throughout and the general circumstances indicate that he then risked death from the shock of selfmutilation.