LATE CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 10 April 1931, Page 5

LATE CABLE NEWS

GUN-GIRLS’ HAUL. HOLD-UJ? IN AMERICA. NEW YORK, April 2. Two gun-girls, one of them swinging I two revolvers, were responsible for a hold-up which gained them LoO in a week-end which was featured by death and crime in many aspects. Chicago recorded 13 hold-ups and two murders. A gang held leisurely possession of a depa 43 'lent store for eight hours, and got £7OOO. In Detroit a man confessed to slaying six persons of one family. At Newark a degenerate assaulted a young married woman after drugging her ten. An older woman assisted him in the ghastly crime. The woman was mutilated by means of the practices of barbaric sects. When she recovered consciousness several hours after, she staggerer] to the window and threw out a milk-bottle, thus attracting the police who broke into the place.

TIGER’S END. SCRATCHED TO LAST. LONDON 1 . April ?. Tlio Battleship Tiger. one of Admiral Beatty’s famous “Cat” squadron, which fought at the- battles of the Dogger Bank mid Jutland, tvhen she was hit 21 times, will arrive at Davenport in readiness for scrapping. In her last commission with the Atlantic fleet, the Tiger fired her 13.5-inch guns, and fin, ally, a fortnight ago. as proof that slm was not dead yet. her last salvo made a “straddle,” which was as good as the newest warship could have done. STERN AVENGER. “BETTERFLY” AI ORDERED. LONDON. April 2. “I killed a frivolous little doll, pretty and powdered like a butterfly,’ wrote Piero Martinucci, a young Italian, alter lie bad stabbed bis wife to death with four strokes with a knife. Before the murder Martinucci took his wife to a restaurant, where he sax. trembling and sobbing. But they toasted each other in champagne, and left for their flat in Bavswater, apparently reconciled. Then Martinucci approached the Anglican curate who had married them last year, and suggested a divorce, say" ing that his wife had been unfaithful to him while lie was away, and was unworthy to bear bis name. He considered that the clergyman who had married thorn should unmarry them. The clergyman advised Christian forgiveness, but Martinucci killed his wife the same night. "When he was arrested on a charge of murder, lie said: “I am glad I did it. It is an old custom in our land.” At the end of the (rial. Mr justice Humphreys said that Matiimicci had a rather beautiful nature, because he took such a high view of the sanctity of the marriage oath. The judge added that he would not express any opinion upon Martinucei’s view that a wife who merely kissed another man was false to her marriage vows, because she was. mentally, an adulteress, and that she is no longer her husband’s if her heart is elsewhere. Martinucci was certainly not insane. The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter, instead of one of murder. The judge, citing Afnrtinuoci’s “terrible provocation.” agreed with the verdict, and sentenced him to seven years.