FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): Berlin, May 20. – Berlin appears
to have imported for itself what the French have called “crimes of passion,”
and to have extended their range far beyond the French example. A series of
recent murders of men by women have been so lightly punished that the entire
Berlin press is criticizing criminal and authorities severely.
A conspicuous case of some months ago aroused the press to
protest. A young woman, informed by her lover that he did not care for her any
more, invited him to a farewell walk in the Tiergarten and shot him in the back
of the head, killing him instantly. She was brought to trial, not on a charge
of murder, but of manslaughter, and the public prosecutor admitted the
existence of the mitigating circumstances under a paragraph of the penal code
are present “when the defendant at the time of the commission of the action was
in such a condition that he did not realize what he was doing, or suffering
under a pathologic disturbance of the senses through which his power of
decision was made impossible.”
This condition, the state admitted, was present, due to the
young woman’s anger at being deserted. The sentence was for a year and a half
to the penitentiary.
~ Most Striking Instance. ~
The most striking of the whole series of “crimes of passion”
was the most recent. The woman in the case lived in an aristocratic quarter of
Greater Berlin in apartments paid for by an admirer. The man began to show a
coolness toward her and finally informed her that he intended to sever
relations with her. She demanded the payment of a considerable sum, which was
refused. Thereupon she invited him to a restaurant for a farewell supper. In a
corner of the room, behind a screen, she drew a revolver from her muff and shot
him four times. He was in a hospital for weeks, and still carries one bullet in
his body.
In this case, too, the woman was charged with attempted
manslaughter, which involves a much lighter penalty than attempted murder. It
was proved on her trial that she had told her servant girl that she intended to
shoot the man, and that no woman is punished any more in Berlin for killing a
recreant lover. She had also written in a similar vein to relatives and
friends, and after the shooting she boasted to her servant that she had sent
four bullets into her victim.
The jury acquitted her, and the spectators in the court room
applauded so long and so loudly that the judge ordered the room cleared and
threatened fines or contempt of court.
The Kreusseltung, fairly represented the views of the entire
press, comments:
“It is utterly past understanding how such a person could
win such sympathy that the acquittal should be greeted with frenetic applause.
… It is perfectly plain that such verdicts, which we have seen repeatedly in
the recent past, signify a danger to the security of the empire.”
In administering the oath to a jury which began work, a
Berlin judge referred to the recent crimes by women and warned the jurors
against permitting sympathy in such cases to warp their judgment.
[“Excuse Women Who Murder Men – Acquittal of Female
Criminals By German Juries Has Stirred Berlin Authorities and Newspapers,”
syndicated (AP), The Spartanburg Herald (S.C.), Jun. 2, 1914, p. 2; The ellipsis
“…” in the next to last paragraph appears as in the source text.]
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FULL
TEXT (Article 2 of 2): They have got out of the habit of executing women in
France. For the past 10 years they have been about xxx murders a year in
France, two-thirds of them being crimes of passion, as the French call them.
Rarely, indeed, is a murderess executed. There is a very notorious case that
may be recalled, that of Mme. Lamberjack, the wife of a well-known automobile
manufacturer. She had been divorced from a former husband for 12 months, and
the former mates, accompanied by their attorneys, were to meet for the purpose
of arranging for an equitable division of the furniture. In the presence of the
witnesses Mme. Lamberjack drew a revolver and shot her ex-husband. She even
pursued the wounded man into the garden and there emptied the contents of her
revolver into his body. Her defense was that she loved him too much to see him
married to another. She was acquitted.
Another
case was that of Mme. Poeckies, who kept a small school in the suburbs of
Paris. One night as she and her husband were returning home together a, couple
of gunmen opened fire and killed the man. At the trial it was proved that Mme.
Poeckies had hired them
to commit the murder. She said that her husband was a man of dissolute
character and had been unfaithful to her. She was acquitted. France does not punish her murderesses
because the average Frenchman is very impressionable, and pays more attention
to the emotional appeals of the defending counsel than would the average
Canadian juror. On account of this
forensic eloquence reaches a high pitch in France, and scores of murderers are
saved every year for no better reason than that they have eloquent advocates.
In
France the judge is not the stem master of the court-room that he is in English
countries. At the trial of Mme. Steinheil, who was accused of having murdered
her husband and her mother, a contingent of youthful barristers behaved
outrageously,. making it impossible for the jury to hear the voice of the
public prosecutor, and jeering whenever he made a point against the prisoner. A
French trial, according to a recent observer, resolves itself into a triangular
duel among the judge, the prosecutor and the lawyer for the defense. Sometimes
all three speak at once. The judge frequently interrogates witnesses. The
public in the background applauds, hisses, laughs and otherwise takes a hand in
the proceedings. Emotion decides the issue. If the murderess looks repentant,
and weeps becomingly, she will frequently be acquitted without the jury leaving
the box. In view of the great political influence which Mme. Caillaux can
command, it does not appear likely that she will pay any severe penalty for her
crime.
[“French Women Who Kill – Do Not Expect to Suffer the
Penalty, and Usually Escape.” (From the Toronto Mail and Express.), The
Burlington Free Press and Times (Vt.), Jul. 30, 1914, p. 11]
►SEE ► Chivalry Justice in France in 1930
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