UNDERWORLD VICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 857, 28 December 1929, Page 10

UNDERWORLD VICE

PARIS SECRETS PROBED WOMAN TERRORISED Never have the secrets of the underworld of vice in Paris been probed so deeply as they were recently by M. Warrain. the judge presiding over the trial of Mine. Weiler, who is accused of having murdered her husband last year. Intimate details of the disreputable houses frequented by the late At. Robert Weiler in Paris, to which it was allaged he terrorised liis wife into accompanying him, were given by the police and by the women who run them. Mme. Weller lay, a crumpled, black heap. In the dock, but every now and then she raised her face to reply to some scathing question of personal morality put to her with brutal bluntness by the presiding judge. Finally. Maitre de Moro Giafferi, her counsel, rose and said:

‘‘l will answer the question for my poor client. Yes: she was debauched and soiled by her husband, but she was terrorised by him into immorality.” Two of Robert Weiler's former wives, who divorced him, gave evidence. One of them, Mme. Debersy, declared that Weiler frequently had fits in which he grew very violent. She said: "I swear by all that I hold sacred that he simply terrified me when he was like that. He made immoral suggestions to me. and X decided to ask for a divorce.” Robert Weiler's second wife, whose name was withheld, described with tears her husbands sudden fits of erotic mania, and his efforts to force her to accompany him to houses of illfame. “Did you consent?” asked M. Warrain. The witness flamed up in protest. ' [ a mouly a witness and you have no right to torture me like this,” she cried. "Do you want to ruin the honour of a woman?” “You must answer my questions, madam.” replied the judge. "I will do so if you order the court to sit in camera,” she said. No, madam. The court has decided that everything must be said in public,” declared M. Warrain. “I Will Leave” "Then I will leave the witness bar!” i —and she turned as if to go away. But the ushers motioned her back, and the judge Slid severely: ‘‘You cannot leave the court until you have given all the evidence you have sworn to give.” For minutes the painful scene continued. The woman clung to the bar and ejaculated: ‘‘l will say nothing—l nothing! ” But French justice can be pitiless ! on such occasions, and finally she i sobbed out: t was only 19 years old. What

could I do? My husband threatened me with his revolver and made me obey his violent suggestions. The examination of these witnesses was interrupted by violent scenes beA * alue de Moro Giafferi and the Public Prosecutor.