AFTER A DREAM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20610, 26 December 1936, Page 4

AFTER A DREAM

RIAN KILLS HIS WIFE Remarks made by a wife in a dream and overhead by her jealous husband were quoted at an inquest on the couple at Hull recently, says the “Daily Telegraph.” Benjamin Thomas Body, 26, lorryman, and his wife Doris, 25, were found dead in their home in Somerset Street, Hull.

The jury’s verdict was that Doris Body was wilfully murdered by her husband, who committed felo de se. Dr. Watts Waters, police surgeon, stated that Mrs Body died from asphyxia due to strangulation and throttling and her husband from coal gas poisoning. He thought the strangling was done with a woman’s silk stocking, which was produced, and with the hands. William Edmund Body, a Labour member of the Hull City Council and brother of the dead man, said the couple appeared very happy. A note in his brother’s handwriting was read by Dr. Norman Jennings,, the Coroner, as follows: “Good-bye, dear mother. I cannot stand defeat any longer. I am very sorry for causing you this/pain, but if I had done less L would not have been a man. See you later. Ben.” Dared Not Dance Frederick Rastall, father of Mrs Body, stated that his daughter was married last May. He knew she was not happy, and thought it must have been because of her husband’s jealousy. When they were courting she refused to go to dances because she could not dance with anyone else. Evidence was given that Body and his wife attended a dance on the night before the tragedy. A man who worked with Body said he found a note written in an invoice book left in his lorry. It read: “There is no good left in the world.” John Gibson, another Workmate, declared that last week Body had been depressed and had said he thought his wife was not true to him while he was at work. Body told him he was awake In bed on the Wednesday night when he heard his wife say she was a fool for loving

him all these moons. He asked what she meant and she replied, “You heard me.” Next morning he taxed her with this dre in and she said she was asleep. He replied,

“But you answered my question,’ and she said, “I do not know. I cannot remember.” A lorryman who garaged his lorry at the rear of Body’s house denied that there were any grounds for the suggestion that he had been associating with Mrs Body. Such baseless rumours might break up his home. Dr. Jennings remarked that he did not think there was any ground for them.