A SENSATIONAL MURDER TRIAL IN FINLAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2371, 18 June 1892, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL MURDER TRIAL IN FINLAND.

A Swedish correspondent writes (says the Pall Mall Gazette of 15th May) as follows : —" A sensational trial has just ended in Finland, with the result that the wife of a professor at the State School was subjected to the extraordinary sentence of being beheaded and burned on a beacon for having poisoned her husband. The wife's character, as it has been revealed during the trial, is fully like some Ibsen's creations. professor's home seems to have been a real ' Doll's House,' and his wife resembles Nora, but is of a far lower type. She was the daughter of a well-to-do peasant, who was anxious that hijk~daughter should rise to a higher rank, and he defrayed the expenses of her education at a ladies' high school. She was charming and beautiful, and the professor married her when sho was only 18 years old. The professor treated her as a child, and used to play with her,yery often. She seemed to be very fond of him, but apparently she liked still better the company of some students, and she would not mind to kiss them sometimes. The professor used to complain that she and the boys were so very noisy and disturbed him in his studies. He was even dissatisfied because she wasted much money, especially on sweetmeats. It grieved him much when he found out that she had borrowed money from different persons, but for all that he loved her to his last moment. When suspicion arose that the wife had given her husband poison she denied the crime, aad tried to make people believe that he had committed suicide, but on the last day of thecal she confessed her guilt. The wife said that the only motive slia had for the crime was that she had come into difficulties by borrowing money and even forged her husband's name on a cheque, and she hoped to get money by her husband's death, who was insured f>r .11500. She had always been very fond of hi in,bat never loved him deeply. He hid hmv kind to her, but lately often scolded her because of her lavishness. After a long consideration she had decided to take his life, audit would be, she thought, as easy as thi"T blowing out of a caudle. At a chemist's shop she got a capsule filled with strychnine and some capsules filled with quinine. The first time the wife thought of giving her husband the poison lie had been so kind and loving to that she ' had not heart to do it, and afterwards she prayed that tho temptation should be taken away from hor. For some days she did not think of it, but the temptation overcame her another day, when her husband also had been extremely kind, and taken part in her games. When they had finished their supper the husband promised her a nice cake if she were up before he went to school in the morning. The'professor had already gore to JjwJd, when he called her and askedlpr quinine, f Then the 'devil enticetT me',? confessed the prisoner. ' 1 lost all sejfcontrqfj 'fetched/ t.hcs strychnine gave- it to my husband h\ a glass of water, Kissed, hini/went out t« the serya.nts, \x\ th<j kitchen j told them laughing that I had made a bet with my husband, and wanted to be called at 6 o'clock in the morning.' After this the wife went up to UW bedroom, undressed, herself jo, great liasie, and pui some pillows over hor head so that she could not hear tap sorqanjs of 'her lyj 'She, deiuetj she had been unfaithful towards herhusband; she had felt a childlike love to a young student, but this had not been the| motive for crime. ' During the triaj tlje grisqnerkljowed'inimh self-possession, She looked like an innqcent schoolgirl, and. many believed that sho was the viotdjtfi of the most cruel and unfounded suspicions."