SHOT BY A MOTH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19959, 17 November 1934, Page 22

SHOT BY A MOTH

ASTUTE ITALIAN DETECTIVE The case of the Princess Caravella, at Naples, is probably unique. After giving - a dinner-party she retired to her room to snatch a little rest before the following dance. Very shortly afterwards she was found dead in bed, shot through the heart. Her husband was arrested on suspicion, for he was noted for his jealous disposition, and it did not seem possible that anyone else could have been in the room. It might have gone hard with the Prince but for the shrewdness of a Naples police officer. This officer on carefully examining the bed chamber, found one of the very large moths common in Italy lying on the floor with wings badly singed by the lighted candle which had stood on a bedside table. He also noticed that i the pistol was lying on this table in such a position that it pointed to the Princess’s heart, and that some of the powdery dust from the moth’s wings showed plainly on the trigger. It was deduced from these signs that the moth had burned its wings, had fallen on the table, fluttering and spinning, and that its wings had struck the lightly-sprung trigger and fired the pistol. On this evidence, the Prince was acquitted.