PEARL BURKE

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 21 August 1919, Page 4

PEARL BURKE

The throwing out, by the Grand Jury, of the bill of indictment against Pearl Burke for aiding and abetting Jessie West to commit suicide at Whangarei, will be approved by everybody. In his charge to the Grand Jury on the previous day Judge Chapman plainly showed that his sympathies were with the accused, pointing out that Jessie West was evidently much the stronger minded of the two girls, and that Pearl Burke had played a passive part in the tragedy. The jury evidently took the same view, and returned -" no bill." His Honor fully concurred, and Pearl was discharged from custody This poor girl has passed through a trying experience. Wtiile on the way to Auckland to appear at the Supreme Court she collapsed altogether, and she is never likely to forget what has happened to her. A very regrettable feature of a strange case is the part that spiritualism appears to have played. It was tabletilting and the interpretation that the unhappy Jessie West seems to have placed on the movements of the table that apparently lead her to do away wih herself. People who meddle with the mysterious "ism" should be very careful what they are about lest it turn their heads.