Murderer Saved by his Frenzy

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 369, 25 February 1937, Page 8

Murderer Saved by his Frenzy

67 WOUNDS PROVE INSANITY

Excessive violence in committing murder was accepted as evidence of insanity at an Old Bailey trial. Claude Ivor Vaissiere, 36-year-old shipping clerk, of Onslow gardens, South Woodford, England, was accused of the murder of his young wife who was found dead in the house after neighbours had heard screams. He was ordered to be detained during the King’s pleasure. The jury were absent for only seven minutes. Vaissiere, described as a model husband, declared he killed his wife to save her suffering. He bad embezzled his firm’s money, and his guilt had been discovered. There were 67 wounds on the body, 19 being in the region of the heart, and Mr J. F. Eastwood (defending) made this a main plank in his case. * <Why should a husband who was so devoted to his wife kill her and inflict nmy more injuries than even the brutal murderer whose object is robbery?’ 1 he asked. “My case is that something snapped in the man’s brain and he was not responsible for his actions.” Mr Eastwood found support for his theory in the evidence of Detectiveinspector Powell, who declared that in his long experience he had never known a case in which so many injuries were inflicted. Dr. Alexander Baldie, a divisonal police surgeon and an expert in mental cases, said he had known only one murder where such injuries were inflicted and in that case the person responsible was never discovered, so far as he knew.

Dr. Hopewell Ash, Harley street mental specialist, said the exceptional brutality of the murder indicated an exceptional emotional upset. Dr. William Henry Stoddard, another specialist, said the history of insanity and drunkenness in Vaissiere’s family was consistent with epilepsy and mental instability in the accused. Mr Justice Macnaughten: Is drunkenness a sign of mental instability?— Yes.

Dr. Grierson, medical officer of Brixton Prison, said that he found no evidence that Vaissiere was insane, either now or at the time of the crime.' Mr Frank Pardoe, father of Mrs Vaissiere, said he had come to court to. speak for Vaissiere. “I could not have wished for a better husband for my daughter/’ he said.