A SILLY BET
“ LIKE A RUSSIAN NOVEL.” “ This rather squalid sort of business is more reminiscent of some Russian novel than what you would expect in the East End,” said Mr R. L. Guthrie the East London coroner, at a Stepney inquest after hearing a description of whisky drinking bets which cost the life of Isaac Volcovitch aged 58, a skin merchant, of Fournier Street, Stepney. Hyman Schneider said he was with Volcovitch and three other men, including a Mii Prooth and when an argument about a business deal had been settled, Voscovitch took a bottle of whisky and filled a big tumbler to the brim. Volcovitch bet a pound that he would finish the bottle. Another botle was fetched, and Volcovitch said: “I will bet you £2 I will drink the second bottle.” Schneider said: “This is madness,” and wanted to stop him, but Volcovitch started drinking the whisky, and ended by pouring it into three glasses. One of them struggled with him and prevented him drinking from the glasses. Dr Francis Louds, of St. Peter s Hospital, E., said death was due to muscular degeneration of the heart accelerated by acute alcoholic poisoning. A verdict of death from misadventure was recorded.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAIPO19340519.2.90
Bibliographic details
Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3468, 19 May 1934, Page 12
Word Count
203A SILLY BET Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3468, 19 May 1934, Page 12
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Waipa Post. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.