Frenchman’s Letter To Friend Before Committing Suicide

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 November 1949, Page 6

Frenchman’s Letter To Friend Before Committing Suicide

AUCKLAND, Last Night (PA).— The day after writing to a “dear friend," a woman in Paris, a Frenchman, Jean Venot, aged about 45, walked into the sea at Piha and shot himself dead. His body was found the next day, September 17, lying at high-water mark. In the letter, Venot wrote that he planned the suicide, and “having been a great traveller it is natural that the ocean should be my grave, and it is to the Tasman Sea, west of New Zealand, that I bequeath my body.” The mystery that developed after Venot’s body was found in circumstances that apparently might have meant murder, was exploded by the letter which was produced at the inquest into his death this afternoon. On September 15, Venot wrote of his pending suicide to Mlle. Paullette Lacaze. She wrote back a week after Venot had killed himself, pleading him not to do so. With this evidence before him, the coroner, Mr. A. Addison, returned a verdict of suicide.

Venot’s letter to Paullette Lacaze began: “By the time you have received this I shall no longer belong to this world. I am very sad to have to let you know this terrible news, but my silence would have been proof o£ cowardice on my part. Alas, after a good beginning, circumstances told me my mission in this world had come to an end, besides which I am a victim of the war, and surviving was my great misfortune. In this country I have had every opportunity to succeed and, as the result of in-i comprehensible occurrences, I failed miserably. My decision was not made in a moment of despair, but ripened and reflected on as each event occurred. -To those who may inquire about me, you have heard nothing. Silence must reign over my memory."