FATAL INJECTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 May 1938, Page 9

FATAL INJECTION

DEATH OF AN ACTRESS. AN INFECTED NEEDLE. LONDON, April 25. Valeria Homolka, aged 24, died from blood poisoning after an injection in a thigh to relieve colic. This was revealed at the inquest, when a finding of death by misadventure was recorded. This young Hungarian actress was the wife of Oscar Homolka, Austrian actor. “There is no evidence to bear out any suggestion that the drugs which were injected into her thigh were infected.” said the coroner. “It seems that the cause of infection was on the needle." A bacteriologist said the remains of the drugs were sterile, but lie was inclined to think that the needle was infected. "Possibly it was coughed on." he said. “This is not easy to guard against if the needly is exposed. It might have been coughed on by anyone in the house, or by the patient herself."

One of the two doctors who attended the case said the drugs had been used on other patients without harmful effects. The syringe had been sterilised and its vita! parts had not been touched.

Before she married Oscar Homolka the victim was the widow of Baron Hatvany, an Austrian. In Europe she was called. "The Girl with the £1.000.000 Eyes." Her dying wish was to see her husband act in the London premiere of Karel Capek’s play. “The Power and the Glory."