WIFE ACCUSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

WIFE ACCUSED.

TWO ARRESTS FOR MURDER.

DOCTORS SOLVE MYSTERY.

An Englishwoman, Mrs. Pernetta, wife of an Italian, Hugo Pernetta, has twice been arrested by the Berlin police on suspicion of being concerned together with Johannes Gleissner with the death of her husband, who was found shot in May of last year. Both suspected persons have now been finally released, it having been established that Pernetta committed suicide in a fit of depression. A scene in a film scenario written by the dead man played a part in the chain of circumstantial evidence against Mrs. Pernetta and Gleissner, for the scene described a man's suicide, and his farewell letter was couched in exactly the same terms as the actual farewell letter left by Hugo Pernetta on his desk. Suspicion arose that the letter was in fact the film manuscript to which Pernetta's signature had been added by his murderer. In May of last year Pernetta was found dead in his flat, a revolver by his side, and a farewell letter on lis desk in which was written: "I have lost my honour, my fortune, and the love of my children. Therefore I am committing suicide." Police investigations showed that the revolver belonged to Gleissner, a business friend of the deceased, who declared he had once lent it to Pernetta, who had never returned it. The farewell letter, it was believed, had been torn out of the film manuscript which Pernetta had written. Both Mrs. Pernetta and Gleissner were arrested, but were speedily released for Jack of evidence. Subsequently, however, the public prosecutor ordered their rearrest and at the same time the exhumation of Pernetta's body. The medical examination resulted in the final release of Mrs. Pernetta and Gleissner, for it was discovered that the bullet wound which caused Pernetta's death was a typical suicide's wound, and that death had taken place within two hours of a meal having been eaten. Witnesses were forthcoming to prove that neither Mrs. Pernetta nor Gleissner were with Pernetta within two hours of the time at which he must have committed suicide.