POISON TRIAL SCENE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4434, 1 April 1930, Page 1

POISON TRIAL SCENE.

WOMAN'S BITTER OUTBURST.

“WANT NO OTHERS TO ESCAPE.”

The appalling' spectacle oil a woman only recently condemned to oeath giving evidence for the Crown against her former friend, a woman accused of murder, in a determined effort not to go alone to the gallows, was seen in the court at Szolno'k, Hungary, recently, when the great trial of the 30 peasant women from the village of Nagyrev for the murder of 50 men and women was resumed.

The accused woman, Maria Varga, aged 41, was charged with poisoning her husband, Stefan Jolyart, who was blinded during the war, her- lover, Michael Ambrus, and theiattev’s grandfather. 'Maria Varga admitted that the apparently fatal doses had been administered in every case by the terrible and haunting figure of Suzanne Sazekas, the village midwife and counsellor of death. She said she had no knowledge that poison was being given. She believed the midwife a good doctor and simply asked for her professional services. The determined stand taken by Maria Vai’ga in declaring that she had no knowledge whatever of the nature of the medicine, coupled with the evidence of her mother that Stefan was far from well, and often spoke of suicide as a merciful release from his affiliation and increasing infirmity, and the fact that Maria did not inherit as the result of the death of Abrus’ grandfather, caused the spectators to predict an acquittal. Her position seemed to be still further strengthened by the evidence of Dr. Szczedy, who visited Stefan, and who said the unfortunate man might have died from the result of a stroke.

But the last witness, Maria Szendi, was called at the close of the day. This once beautiful woman, condemned to death for the murder of her husband and only son, whose dramatic confession in Court, with its dread' result, was still fresh in tbe minds of the spectators, was accompanied by gendarmes and still clad in her finery. She took the oath and looked calmly at the cringing figure of the prisoner in the dock, and spoke direct to her.

“Yon know very well,” she said, “that it is not true to tell the Court this nonsense about. Suzanne. The whole village knew her evil reputation. We all knew when the shadow of ‘Aunt Suzanne’ darkened the door of any village home some unwanted man or woman very soon died.” The murderess then described the death of Stefan, speaking brutally and dispassionately of his agony. The crowd shuddered when she described his symptoms.

“T have killed my own husband and my own son. I know how they died,” she said, calmly. “I have no ulterior motive or intent in coming here,” she concluded, with a smile. “I have been condemned to death for my crime, and T am simply here to tell the truth. I want no other murderess to escape.” Maria Varga was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment with hard labour for the murder of her husband, and was acquitted on the other charges. The public prosecutor appealed against the sentence, demanding the death penalty.