WHITE SLAVE WIFE.

Taihape Daily Times, 4 October 1918, Page 7

WHITE SLAVE WIFE.

ACQL t v-MJJRDER. After hearing her painful story of her life with her husband, and of how he was shot, an Old Bailey jury stopped the murder trial of a Frenchwoman, Bertha Carbuccie, aged 23. For some time she had lived with a City merchant, Oliver Richard Goodman, at Staines, and her husband, invalided from the French Army, had lived In the house as her brother. Mr .Goodman, who was unaware of the relationship, in cross examination by Sir E. Wild, K.C., the woman’s counsel, said she seemed to be in the mans’ power. Sir E. Wild: In fact, a white slave? —So it would appear. Mr. Goodman sometimes gave her £3O or £4O at a time, as well 'as jewellery. Were you aware that the money and Jewellery went to Xavier (the husband’s name), —No. Hortense Bianchi, the woman’s sister, said she received a letter from the ‘dead man’s brother Jules threatening both her and the accused with the Corsican vendetta if she gave evidence Xavier used to get money from his wife. Sir Archibald Bodkin (prosecuting): He lived on her, you mean? —Yes, in Hondon and 'America. The defence was that the wife shot her husband in defence of her ovn life. “At the age of 17 this girl.” E. Wild said, “came under the influence of this man, who first ruined her and then kept her for his own interdfas, He was a moral vampire, fattening on this woman and others. When in Buenos Aires he kept fourteen women in a house and took half their earnings.” Mrs. Carbuccie, in the witness' box, said that she was the daughter of a Boulogne butcher, and came to London when 17. She met Carbuccie, who induced her to go to music halls to meet men. On the night of the tragedy there was a quarrel. Suddenly he Jumped at her and struck her. She screamed for mercy and he went to the bookcase as if to get a knife. He attacked her and she picked up a pistol lying on a shelf close to her chair and it went off. Inspector Haig said Xaxier was of Corsican origin. The police had reoeievd letters signed by Jules and the family demanding that justice be done 6r they would do it themselves. The jury intimated that they had enough. Wc .Justice Coleridge: If you think that the act of the prisoner was necessary in her defence, that is excusable homicide and your verdict should be not guilty. The jury said that that was their verdict. The woman was discharged and as 3he left the dock weeping, the judge observed: “I wish something could )e done for this poor woman.”