Although New Zealand had been on the international entertainment circuit since the 1860s, according to a local musician in 1934 'in this remote corner of the earth' celebrated musicians invariably caused 'a great stir in the community'.¹ This seems to have been particularly so in the years just before Eric Mareo's arrival in Wellington, at least judging by the popularity of visiting companies. According to one historian, the 1920s was a 'golden age' for touring companies with 'a greater variety of stage shows in New Zealand during the years 1920 to 1930, than ever before or since'.²

Moreover, even classically-trained musicians such as Mareo would have performed popular works to not always exclusive audiences. Although some cultural historians have argued that this period, the so-called 'Modernist' era, was characterised by what is often called a 'great divide' between 'mass' and 'high' culture, the musical world from which the Mareos had come was far less divided.³ As well as having conducted classical music, Mareo had, for example, performed in British music halls. Besides, this 'great divide' was far less pronounced in a country of only about one and a half million people. The country could not support either a professional theatre or orchestra and, according to Adrienne Simpson, the widening of the gap between 'high' and 'comic' opera 'occurred more slowly in New Zealand' than most other Western countries.⁴ A musician like Mareo could therefore expect to enjoy both the cultural prestige of the classical musician and the popularity of the entertainer.

And Mareo was a particularly versatile and energetic musician. As the musical director of the famous Australian musical company the Ernest C. Rolls Revue, he had arrived in page 14Auckland in September 1933 with Thelma Trott and 200 tons of theatrical equipment. The company performed two extravagant revues — one, according to a reviewer, 'filled with snappy dancing, some really spectacular scenes, and some comedy hits of hilarious quality'.⁵ After touring the North Island with this company he married Thelma, left the company, returned to Auckland, secured the services of 45 musicians, and rehearsed and conducted the first performance of the Mareo Symphony Orchestra. In the course of several concerts, the orchestra performed such standards from our classical repertoire as Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth symphonies, the latter with a choir of 150 voices, Ravel's Bolero (which had never been performed in the southern hemishere, and which Mareo needed to transcribe from a gramophone recording), and Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole with the noted New Zealand violinist Vincent Aspey as soloist. However, more surprising was the orchestra's performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, a piece which was 'acclaimed by critics and public alike to the dismay of those musicians who had contended that Mareo was lowering the prestige of his orchestra in performing it'.⁶ Less than a year later Mareo had formed the Mareo Operatic Society and staged Ivan Caryll's The Duchess of Danzig, a light opera set in the Napoleonic period and featuring Thelma Mareo in one of the principal parts as a washerwoman who befriends the 'Little Corporal' 'when his fortunes were at their lowest ebb, and who later, as the wife of one of his great generals, becomes the Duchess of Danzig'.⁷ Just after the last performance of The Duchess, Mareo was employed by the St James Theatre to conduct a pared- down orchestra during the screening of films. At the time of his arrest, he was collaborating with a judge of the Native Land Court, Frank Acheson, to adapt his novel Plume of the Arawas, a historical romance set in pre-colonial New Zealand, into a £20,000 movie. Mareo claimed to have 'written over seven hundred works, many of which are recorded for the gramophone'.⁸ These works were both 'serious' and 'light' and were published under seven different names because, as he told a reporter, 'in England, they won't allow you to be versatile. They page 15think a man who can write a symphony ought not to be able to write light stuff'.⁹ Like some kind of modern-day Proteus, Mareo was not only keen to assume any kind of musical role but he was in a country that apparently provided him with that opportunity.

It seems his audiences were not disappointed. The New Zealand Radio Record reported that the first performance of the Mareo Symphony Orchestra 'was an outstanding success musically, and was a triumph for Mr Eric Mareo… who proved that his great courage and determination to form such an organisation was well founded'.¹⁰ It then went on to observe that the second half of the concert was broadcast live by a local radio station to an audience who 'were agreeably surprised at the high standard of the orchestra's work'.¹¹ The Mayor of Auckland had promised to introduce Mareo and his orchestra at this concert but had been detained in Wellington. Nevertheless, he 'sent a telegram, which was read, expressing regret for his absence and commending the orchestra and wishing it every success'.¹² About nine months later the premiere of The Duchess of Danzig was equally well received, the New Zealand Herald commending 'the sureness of principals, chorus and ballet', the 'lavish and spectacular scale' of the 'general staging', the 'strength' but not obtrusiveness of the orchestra and concluding with the observation that 'Mr Eric Mareo… was responsible not only for the musical direction, but for the general production of a most successful performance'.¹³

Even offstage, Mareo made a strong impression. Just prior to the first performance of his orchestra, a reporter from the Observer found that 'Mr Mareo is a genial soul… [who] amused me for an hour recounting some of his varied musical experiences'. These included a couple of no doubt well polished stories about a thirsty cornetist who was always 'harf a pint flat', a polite request distorted by members of an orchestra to an indignant bassoonist to 'hold yer — row!!' and a cheap champagne dinner for fourteen in inflation-ravaged Leipzig just after the War.¹⁴ Not only was Mareo adept at self-promotion but he was able to flatter the locals. He told the Radio Record, page 16for example, that '[w]hen I came here first I immediately liked the city, particularly your fine harbour, as I am a keen yachting enthusiast'.¹⁵

More importantly, Mareo was able to inspire confidence in the local musicians. Even after the trials the Observer reported that a 'man who worked with him described him as "a sublime optimist"'¹⁶ (a frequent observation) and that a 'prominent musician' is reported to have said that

[h]e was a genius from start to finish. He could get you to do anything. He had a capacity for making any player, even if only a moderate performer, think he was really good, and we played for him like people possessed. He showed us new interpretations of old works, and there was an undeniable thrill in playing for him.¹⁷

The Mareos' Life Before the Fatal Weekend

Nevertheless, there was clearly another side to Mareo's professional life. The Duchess of Danzig had not been a financial success and its director was receiving no income at the time of his wife's death. Mareo's last job (according to the theatre's manager) had been 'to bring back some of the glamour of the days when depression was unheard of by conducting an overture during 'the several tedious minutes' in which audiences would otherwise suffer through the 'credit titles'¹⁸ at the St James Theatre. Since this was now the period of the talkies it is unlikely that audiences would have greatly appreciated the anachronistic supplement of live music. Moreover, as Ngaio Marsh famously observed, with the onset of the Depression, '[a]ll over Australasia one seemed to hear the desolate slam of stage doors'.¹⁹ Thus Mareo's job at the St James lasted only six months. Two weeks after losing this job, Thelma was dead.

As the Crown made clear at the first trial, the apparent glamour of Mareo's life in fact rested on an unhappy marriage. Indeed according to the Crown's main witness, Freda Stark, the Mareos' marriage was all but over: page 17

After the play [The Duchess of Danzig] finished we had a party out at Dixieland [on 13 October 1934]… It wasn't a very pleasant evening. We left before it was finished. — I mean Thelma and I left. We went home — to No. 1 Tenterden Av. When we got there we went to bed. In Thelma's room. I was staying there for the weekend. I remember the accused coming home — about an hour after us. Mrs Mareo and I were in bed when he came home. He was very drunk. He burst the door open. He came in and swore at Thelma. He said 'You bitch, you have insulted me in public. Here was I looking for my bloody wife and making a b—fool of myself. He told me to get out of bed, and go into Betty's room. I went to get out of bed but Thelma clung onto me. I did go into Betty's room. I was there only a few minutes when I heard a row in the front room. I heard a bang and Thelma came running down the passage to my room with Mr Mareo following her. She was crying, and holding her face. She said to me 'Don't let him get me.' I think Graham came into the room too while she was there and Mr Mareo, but I couldn't be sure. Mareo tried to bring his wife back to her room but she clung onto the bedclothes and wouldn't let go.

Mr Mareo went back into the front room himself and we followed. He said 'Look at you, you dirty drunken bitch. I used to drink tea till I met you. You b— prostitute, get out into the streets where you belong.' Thelma said she would if he would give her back her [savings of] £500 [that Mareo had spent]. He said 'I can't, it will take me two years to pay it back.' He said 'You bought me with your £500.'

Mareo's condition at that time was that he was very hysterical. Graham was there in addition to Mrs Mareo and myself. Graham had to hit him in the chest - like to knock him down on the bed to quieten him. After he had quietened down Graham took him into the next bedroom. I stayed in with Thelma. For about - not more than half an hour. Then Mr Mareo came in and said he was quite all right and wanted to go to sleep. After that I went back to Betty's room and spent the night there. The Mareos were in their own room.²⁰

A few months later, on the Saturday night of 17 February, the Mareos had another argument. Again Thelma and Stark were in bed together when Mareo came home drunk. On this page 18second occasion, however, Eleanor Brownlee, who had been assisting Mareo with several of his musical and theatrical projects, accompanied him. Mareo came into their bedroom and, according to Stark, said

'I'm shot.' 'Eleanor has brought me home.' He meant he was drunk. Mrs Mareo said 'She can't stay the night. You knew Freda was staying here.' Mareo replied 'Oh, she can sleep anywhere.' He then left the room and went to the bathroom. Mrs Mareo and I went out to see Eleanor. We got up and went out to see what Eleanor was doing. She was in the sitting room, in her pyjamas, making up a bed between two chesterfield chairs. There was conversation. While that was going on we heard a bump — out by the bathroom. Thelma went down to the bathroom and we followed. I did not see the accused. I knew he was in the bathroom. Thelma went into the bathroom. She did not stay in there. Mr Mareo told her to get out. He said 'Eleanor can look after me.' Miss Brownlee pushed her way into the bathroom then. Thelma said 'You can't come in.' She said Mr Mareo was undressed. She did go into the bathroom. Mrs Mareo said then 'Oh, well, if that is the case I will leave' and she walked out of the bathroom. She said 'Oh come on, Freda, we won't stay the night here,' so I took her to my place in Prince Street. As she was going out of the door she said 'This is sufficient grounds for a divorce.' She said 'Oh, did you hear her call him Eric?'²¹

The next morning Thelma and Freda returned to the house with a suitcase and the intention of packing the former's possessions, but instead stayed the night. The following day Mareo gave Thelma a letter from Eleanor Brownlee apologising for the events of the previous evening. After reading the letter, Stark testified that Thelma said, 'That doesn't alter the fact. She won't be allowed to come to the house again.'²² Even before this incident, Thelma had chastised her husband for his relations with Brownlee when he had been employed at the St James Theatre. According to Stark, Thelma had objected to 'Eleanor doing Mr Mareo's washing and cleaning out his dressing room at the Theatre… [o]n a number of occasions'.²³ Thus, according page 19to A.H. Johnstone for the Crown, Mareo planned to replace his wife with Eleanor Brownlee:

A very experienced man of the world found a young girl who could be an extremely useful assistant, whose mission in life — at that time, at any rate — seemed to have been to perform every possible kind of service for him, menial or otherwise. He seemed almost to have cast some spell upon her. Her qualifications were similar to those of his own wife. They were both university graduates and they were musicians. Was it not that his own wife was now an encumbrance? And so, at the end of March, we find him [having lost his job at the St James] out of employment, married, an addict to drink, taking veronal every day, £500 of his wife's money spent… His wife was nothing to him sexually or financially.²⁴

One month after the bathroom incident on 20 March a Dr Walton called on Thelma at home because '[s]he was in a highly nervous irritable worried condition' and prescribed her a sedative.²⁵ Four days later Mareo surprised Thelma and Stark in bed for a third time, when, according to the latter,

[a]ll of a sudden he burst in the door and said 'what are you doing?' He seemed in a very excited state and he had been drinking. When he calmed down he said 'Oh, Thelma I want to tell you something.' He said 'Freda, hurry up and go home.' I went home.²⁶

Two days later on the Friday afternoon of 22 March Thelma visited Dr Walton at his consulting rooms. Dr Walton testified that Thelma's 'nervous condition' had deteriorated even further and that in particular '[s]he seemed to be unhappy in her married life. She said that her husband had made to her some unjust charges — untrue charges of some kind of perversion. She denied it'.²⁷ These charges had presumably been made on the third occasion when Mareo had surprised the two women in bed together. In one of his statements to the police, Mareo confessed that 'I did call my wife a Lesbyan [sic] on one occasion when I page 20found my wife in bed with Freda Stark' but he did not specify on which of the three occasions he had made this accusation.²⁸ Soon after this consultation with Dr Walton, Thelma went to visit Mareo at the St James. Stark was also at the theatre and according to her she found Thelma

in a very nervous state and… lying on a couch. She was very very pale and was trembling. Mr Mareo said to me 'Oh, all she needs is a feed'. As she got up to powder her face he wanted to give her a drink of brandy or whisky and she refused it.²⁹

Six days later on 28 March Mareo lost his job at the St James. At about this time his daughter, Betty, left home after having quarrelled with Thelma, and Mareo purchased twenty-five veronal tablets. On 6 April he bought twelve more tablets of veronal followed by a further twenty tablets five days later from another chemist.

At the start of the trial the Crown called a number of witnesses to prove that Thelma had been in good health before the long weekend of her death. Stanley Porter, an insurance agent, testified that when he visited her on the previous Monday Thelma was doing some washing at the end of the verandah in the washhouse and 'seemed in her usual spirits'. Thelma asked Porter 'if I would be going anywhere near the Post Office and if so would I post a letter for her'.³⁰ On the same day a grocer's assistant by the name of Kenneth Bark called at the house in the morning, took a written order from Thelma, and delivered it later that afternoon. Bark delivered another order three days later and on both occasions found Thelma 'in her usual spirits'. Boris Thornton, a butcher's assistant, also saw Thelma 'once or twice' that week and told the court that '[s]he seemed to be in good health, just as usual'. Finally, Hubert Smith, a violinist in Mareo's orchestra, thought that Thelma 'seemed to be in good health' because she was able to climb onto a verandah rail and pick beans.³¹

page 21

The Fatal Long Weekend: Friday

On Friday 12 April Betty, who had left home about two weeks earlier, returned to Tenterden Avenue and was told by her father that Thelma was not well. Betty and Thelma passed each other once in the corridor but did not speak. At about six o'clock that evening, Betty, Mareo and Graham had a tea of reheated fish and chips. Betty then visited the neighbours. Upon returning she noticed that Thelma had cleaned all the dishes and gone back to bed. Just before she left, Mareo gave Betty a sealed letter with the instructions 'Only to Be Opened in the Event of My Death'. Betty said that '[a]t the time he was writing that letter and when he gave it to me I noticed that he was very worried'.³² In the letter Mareo informed her that she was the 'legal' daughter of another man in England called Mr Gray. He concluded the letter

… if anything happens to me communicate with Carn, solicitor, 13 Thames Street, Kingstone-on-Thames, England. I solemnly swear that what I am telling you now is the absolute truth. Altho' I have made a failure of my life I have tried to do the best I could for you, so think kindly of me if you can, sweetheart. I love you: God bless and protect you always — Your loving Daddy.

P.S. – My advice is to take this letter to a solicitor and get his advice as to how to proceed, as it must be possible thru' a birthmark or records in the doctor's book or the nursing home to prove what I have told you.³³

According to the Crown, this letter was

important, as it showed his frame of mind on that night. On our submission it is a letter of farewell and indicated that the writer intended to do away with himself. It showed that the outlook was bleak enough for him and after straightening out the affairs of Betty nothing mattered.³⁴

page 22

Between half-past-seven and eight o'clock that evening Stark arrived at the house. Thelma was taking a bath. According to Stark, Thelma

sang out to me 'Oh, I won't be a minute'. While I was waiting I had a conversation with Mareo. He told me that Thelma thought she was pregnant, that he had bought some medicine for her, just to show her that he was looking after her. He told me that the chemist wanted to charge him - I'm not sure if it was £2/10 or £3 – for the medicine and he told the chemist that he couldn't afford it, because he was Mareo from the St. James orchestra. Because he was out of work. The chemist had said 'If that is the case I will let you have it for £1. When he was talking of her thinking she was pregnant he said 'She is silly. She is only four days overdue, and in any case it is impossible.'³⁵

While Mareo and Freda were talking, Thelma was still in the bath. After finishing her bath she and Freda went into her bedroom. According to Stark, Thelma did some 'leg exercises', Mareo came into the room, and Thelma took some of the medicine that Mareo had just purchased from the chemist. Thelma asked Stark to come and stay the weekend and Mareo asked her to arrive early because he would later be 'out on business'.³⁶ Having promised to return the next day, Stark left and the Mareos went to bed. According to Mareo, Thelma slept in the double bed and he in the chair next to her 'in case she wanted me'. He justified this unusual sleeping arrangement by claiming that '[a]ll my married life to her, if I came home from the theatre and found her drunk, I let her sleep on the bed while I myself slept on a sofa in the dining room'.³⁷

Saturday

Upon awakening on the Saturday morning, Mareo found that Thelma 'still appeared in a drunken sleep and [he] did not wake her up'.³⁸ Mareo then took a bath. Thelma must have risen from bed because Mareo's son, Graham, testified that he heard a page 23'couple of bumps' and went into his stepmother's room to find her 'swaying' in her dressing gown, 'clutching the dressing table drawer' and saying 'something about some curry' that 'didn't make sense'. Graham called out to his father and they both put Thelma back to bed where she soon fell asleep.³⁹ Mareo then left the house on business to return at about 1.00 p.m. Graham was at home during this period looking after his stepmother except for some time after 11.30 a.m. when he left the house. Thelma was still in bed when Graham left.

As she had promised the previous evening, Stark returned to the house at about 3.00 or 3.30 p.m. on Saturday. It is not entirely clear what happened after Stark's return because her account differed significantly from that given by Mareo and Graham. However, since the Crown's case depended largely on Stark's evidence we will, at least for the moment, stick to her version.

According to Stark, Mareo and Thelma were in the bedroom when she arrived. She did not see either of them until 'about half past five' when Mareo emerged from the bedroom to go to the bathroom. He was, she testified, 'very unsteady on his feet and lurched once against the wall', but she did not smell anything on his breath. In the passage Mareo told Stark about the events of the day and she then went into the bedroom to see Thelma, who was 'fast asleep' and 'breathing as though she was in a heavy sleep'. A little later she asked Mareo whether they should call a doctor and '[h]e said oh, it couldn't hurt her to sleep a little longer, but if she wasn't awake soon he would send for one. He said he couldn't get a doctor or he would get into trouble for getting her the medicine that she had had [for her overdue period]'.⁴⁰

Mareo, Graham and Freda then had tea. Afterwards, Stark checked to see if Thelma was awake and Mareo received a phone call from Eleanor Brownlee asking him if he wanted to go out for a drive. 'That's just what I need, a blow in the fresh air', he told Stark; '[i]f Thelma should wake, tell her I have gone out on business.'⁴¹ Just before leaving, Stark asked him again if he should call a doctor, and he said he would if she wasn't awake by the time he got home.

page 24

Half an hour after Mareo left, Stark was in the sitting room and heard her name called. She went and said, '"What do you want, Thelma?" and she said "Freda, I heard your voice". She was awake but she seemed as though she had been in a very heavy sleep and was dazed. Her eyelids were very heavy and her speech wasn't distinct.'⁴² Mareo returned about half an hour later at approximately ten o'clock and Stark suggested to him that they try Thelma on some smelling salts. Mareo and Freda managed to support Thelma in a sitting position and give her a drink of water.

Graham then went to a place called the All Night Pharmacy for smelling salts or sal volatile. While he was gone Stark and Mareo 'told her funny stories to keep her awake. They were funny stories and limericks. She knew what they were because she laughed.'⁴³ About half an hour later Graham returned and Freda gave Thelma three doses of sal volatile. Recovering somewhat, Thelma chewed a toffee given to her by Mareo and they then played a game which involved Thelma looking at all the objects in the room and naming them: 'She started off with the dressing table and chair and then she closed her eyes. Mr Mareo said "Open your eyes and look at them" so she opened her eyes and started off again to name them. She named them.'⁴⁴

Soon after this game, Mareo and Graham left the room. Stark's account of what happened next needs to be given almost in full because according to the Crown this was when Mareo murdered his wife:

[Graham] brought in a cup of hot milk and gave it to me. He went out again then. He brought in another cup for himself. I did not want the milk. I didn't drink it.… Graham threw the milk that was brought for me out the window.… Mr Mareo came into the room next. He brought a cup of hot milk in with him and a plate with a slice of dry bread. I was sitting on the bed then, with Thelma. At that time I had let her lie back on the pillow. When Mareo came in with the milk and bread we sat her up in bed again and first of all Mr Mareo broke off a piece of dry bread and gave it to her. She was chewing it rather slowly so I said to him I thought it would be rather doughy for page 25her to eat. She chewed the mouthful that she had and swallowed it. I then gave her a drink of the milk. I held it in my own hand and she drank not quite half a cup. She wasn't capable of holding it herself. Then I spilt some of it round her nightgown so I handed it to Graham to see if he could do better. When I gave her half the cup she did not do anything then. When Graham had given her some more from the cup he handed the cup back to me again. Then when I was giving her the last lot she was getting very drowsy and she closed her teeth and wouldn't have any more. This was given to her from the cup direct. No spoon was used.

Just before we gave her the milk she said she wanted to go to the lavatory. After she started going off to sleep — after I had given her the milk-so I thought I had better take her out before she went right off to sleep. So I asked Mr Mareo to help me to take her outside. He did not do so. He couldn't stand on his feet very well — he fell across the bed, so I asked Graham to help me take her out. Graham and I got her out of bed and put one arm round our shoulders and our arms round her back so as to support her. We sat her on the bed first and then put her arms around us. She wasn't capable of walking on her feet — she was dragging them, so we practically had to carry her out.

When we got to the lavatory I went inside with her.… Mrs Mareo used the lavatory.… By the time I got Graham to help me back with her she had fallen fast asleep. She was taken back to her room in the same way that we had taken her from it. We were away from the room altogether not more than ten minutes.…

When we were taking her out I did not notice any odour from her breath. No smell of alcohol.…

When we got back to the room Graham and myself put her back to bed. She just lay back on the pillows. She was asleep by then.⁴⁵

According to the Crown, while Mareo had been in the kitchen heating the milk he had deliberately laced it with a lethal dose of veronal.

Incidentally, in his final address to the jury, Johnstone (the Crown Prosecutor at the first trial) did maintain that he had 'proved conclusively' that Mareo also administered veronal to page 26Thelma on the Friday night as well, but for a number of reasons the Crown's case focused almost exclusively on the Saturday night and the cup of milk. Two members of The Duchess of Danzig cast, Mrs Freda Evans and Miss Doris Bransgrove, testified that they had read about Thelma's death in the newspaper on the following Tuesday and had decided to visit Mareo together that day to offer their sympathy. Both women told the court that during this visit Mareo told them that he had given Thelma veronal on the Friday night. However neither Mareo nor any other witness could confirm that he had either given Thelma veronal or said that he had. Moreover under cross- examination by the Defence both Mrs Evans and Miss Brans- grove revealed that they were close friends and neighbours, that they both disliked Mareo and admired Thelma, and that they had not thought to tell the authorities about their 'sympathy' visit until the police visited them more than a month later. Mareo's counsel, O'Leary, asked Mrs Evans whether theirs had been 'the visit of two curious women' and she replied rather unconvincingly '[n]ot necessarily… We went to see Mr Mareo in his time of grief. – Q. The man you didn't like? – No'.⁴⁶ However, even if these two women were to be believed, it was plain that administering a sleeping draught such as veronal to a mildly unwell woman was quite a different matter to giving an apparently very sick woman barely capable of staying awake the same drug disguised in a cup of milk. While the second action might well be murder, the first might be at best (or worst) manslaughter. Besides, only the second of these actions had been witnessed by anyone other than the accused and the deceased. Thus while the Crown maintained that Mareo had given Thelma veronal on at least two occasions, proof of the murder charge largely depended on Stark's testimony cited above and the logical inferences that could be drawn from it.

After Thelma was assisted back from the lavatory, Stark said she told Mareo they should call a doctor but 'Mareo said that a few hours sleep wouldn't hurt her and it wouldn't hurt her to sleep until morning'.⁴⁷ The whole household went to sleep, Freda in bed with Thelma and Mareo in a chair beside them. Stark page 27said that she could not sleep that evening and that she heard Thelma 'breathing very heavily' and making a 'gurgling sound in her throat'. She called Mareo for assistance but could not rouse him. Nevertheless Stark, who was worried that Thelma 'was going to be sick', managed to sit her up in bed even though she remained asleep.⁴⁸

Sunday and Monday

The next morning, when all but Thelma had woken up, Mareo left the house for a ten o'clock appointment. Just before he left Stark said she asked him 'don't you think we had better get a doctor. Thelma has been asleep practically two days' and he replied '[i]f she is not awake by the time I get home I will call a doctor then. A couple of hours more won't hurt her'. Mareo returned at about one o'clock and Stark told him, 'Thelma isn't awake yet, and I think you had better get a doctor straight away.' His response according to her was 'Oh, it's all right. I rang up the chemist, and he said that the sleep was due to nervous exhaustion, and that Thelma could sleep for two or three days, without any ill effect, and that she would wake up feeling very weak but wanting food'. Stark insisted that 'Thelma's breathing very heavily' but Mareo thought that 'that's just the way you have her lying-on her back' and so they shifted her onto her side.⁴⁹

The rest of the afternoon Stark attended to the comatose Thelma while Mareo slept in a chair beside the bed. At around six o'clock Graham, Stark and Mareo had tea and at about seven o'clock Stark prepared to leave. When she was ready she told Mareo that 'Thelma has been sleeping nearly three days and I really think she should have a doctor'.⁵⁰ Mareo promised to call a doctor if she did not wake up in the next few hours and Graham accompanied Stark back to her house.

On Monday morning Stark called Graham. Then at one o'clock Graham rang her and she went straight out to the house: page 28

I met Mr Mareo first when I went out. He said 'Go in and see her'. I did. She was in a terrible condition. She was blue in the face, and perspiration had dried on her face, and there was some brown saliva that had run down her face and caked in her hair. She was just gasping for breath. I said to Mareo 'Oh, why didn't you get a doctor', and with that I ran out to ring up from Mrs Knight's next door. I didn't wait to hear any reply from Mareo before I went.…

After having rung him [the doctor] I went back to the house. I went into the bedroom where Thelma was. Mr Mareo suggested that I should wash her. I did so. When I had done so the doctor called — Dr. Dreadon. He got there about three o'clock. While I was washing Mrs Mareo the accused did not assist me. After I had washed her he came in and helped me to put on a clean nightgown. When I was doing that I noticed the sheets were wet and had bloodstains on them. Mareo and I came to a conclusion about the stains. He said she had just come on unwell. I thought that too. We moved her onto the clean side of the bed. Then Dr. Dreadon arrived.… Dr. Dreadon looked at her and opened her eyes and he said 'Oh, it looks like veronal poisoning'. He asked accused if there was any of it in the house. Accused said 'Yes'. He said he had been taking it to make him sleep. He said that he kept it outside - I think it was in a suitcase — outside in the washhouse. I said to him to go out and see if any had been taken. He went out and came back with an empty bottle. He showed it to the doctor and said that it had been practically full.⁵¹

Dr Dreadon then called an ambulance. Despite treatment at the hospital, Thelma died about two hours after her admission.

Soon afterwards, Eleanor Brownlee drove Mareo at his request to a telephone so he could inform a number of people of the news, then to the Herald office to make a death announcement, the undertakers, and the Clarendon Hotel for liquor. About an hour and a half later they returned to Tenterden Avenue where they met Stark, Graham and the detectives. Mareo told one of the detectives, 'I have had a double whiskey and I have a bottle of brandy in the car to make me sleep tonight. I feel like doing myself in.'⁵² When asked by Detective Meiklejohn how page 29his wife came to have so much veronal, Mareo replied, 'Do you think I am a murderer?' Questioned about his own veronal consumption, Mareo also asked, 'Do I look like a drug addict?'⁵³ Detective Meiklejohn then brought Stark into the room and he said to Mareo

'Miss Stark has stated that she asked you to call a doctor for your wife several times'. [Mareo] said, 'I don't remember that, my dear'.…

I mentioned about the bottle of dope [the medicine purchased from the chemist because of Thelma's concern about her overdue period].

I said 'Miss Stark has stated that you told her you had bought a bottle of dope from the chemist for your wife' and he [Mareo] said [to Stark], 'You are mistaken, my dear.'⁵⁴

After this conversation, Mareo took the detectives out to the washhouse to show them the empty veronal bottle. Handing over the bottle to Detective Meiklejohn, Mareo confessed, 'I feel like a criminal.' On top of the suitcase containing the empty veronal bottle were three empty whisky bottles and an empty pill box from which, according to Stark, Thelma had taken the medicine purchased from the chemist when her period was overdue. Mareo identified this as 'the box I got the veronal tablets in', but he could not account for how it had got there. They all then went back to the front room of the house where Mareo read his first statement in which he referred to Thelma's drinking and he said, 'I feel like a cad saying all this about my wife but I've got to protect myself.' He also asked the detectives, 'Is there anything in this to hang me' and confessed, 'I feel like going and hanging myself, bringing all this veronal into the house.'⁵⁵

Tuesday and Later

Eleanor Brownlee left Tenterden Avenue at about eleven o'clock on Monday evening. According to her, Mareo and Graham arrived uninvited and unannounced at her rented room at about page 30half past two the next morning where Graham slept on the bed and she and Mareo in chairs. The next day they went back to Tenterden Avenue. That morning Stark claimed she received a phone call from Mareo in which

[h]e said that he knew how I felt over Thelma's death — he knew how much I would miss her, and he would miss her too. And he told me to stop crying, or he would be crying too. Then he said 'Fritters dear, you'll have to be careful what you say to the detectives or you'll have a rope around my neck'. And he said 'The next time you give a statement tell them that you weren't in a fit state when you gave your first statement.'⁵⁶

The same day Mrs Evans and Miss Bransgrove made their visit and Mareo told them that he was going to take a veronal tablet and have a good sleep. Mrs Evans testified that she said

'Surely you won't take a veronal tablet when you know the way Thelma suffered' and he said 'Thelma suffered no pain.' He said he hadn't got a doctor before because he was so used to seeing Thelma 'Canned'. We left shortly after. Just before we rose Mr Mareo said he was really frightened and would we help him if he needed us. Then as we were leaving he grasped the arm of Miss Bransgrove and myself and said 'They won't hang me will they?' When we arrived there — before he said 'Thank God she wasn't insured', he said that Graham and himself had walked the streets, all night.⁵⁷

Eleanor Brownlee stayed with Mareo and Graham at Tenterden Avenue for two days after Thelma's death. A few days later Mareo and Graham moved out of Tenterden Avenue and went to a flat in Waterloo Quadrant where Brownlee often visited. She and Mareo continued to work on a scenario for the film Mareo was planning make. According to the Herald's summary of the Crown's closing address

As soon as Mrs Mareo died, Miss Brownlee was installed at No. 1 Tenterden Avenue for as long as Mareo remained there, page 31and later her room at Wyndham Street was constantly at his disposal — all this without any fee save the expectation of a problematical return from a film production.⁵⁸

The detectives returned to Tenterden Avenue for the last time on 19 April, Good Friday. An inquest into Thelma's death had been held a few days earlier on the Tuesday at which Betty had testified that Thelma drank excessively. This had been reported in the Auckland Star and on Good Friday Detective Meiklejohn 'commented to accused that it was a pity that she said what she did. I said people were commenting and saying that she did not drink as much as what was said. Accused agreed that that was correct.' Betty then came into the room and kissed and hugged her father while he said

'You will visit me at the prison, won't you Betty?' She said 'Of course, Daddy.' Mareo then said, 'Why did you say all that about poor Thelma'. He said that to Betty. She said 'They told me I had to, and I did it to protect you, daddy'. He commented that she should not have said so much.⁵⁹

After the detectives had left Betty later confessed in court that she

did something in relation to the bottles there that afternoon. I took off two labels and threw them away or burnt them. One bottle was like a small aspirin bottle. I think the label had on it 'Barbitone' or something like that. I took that label off and burnt it. I am not sure what I did with it — I threw it away somewhere. I don't know what the other bottle was — a sort of medicine bottle. It had on it some sort of red label I think. I did the same with that label as the other. I threw the bottles out. I did this because I knew that veronal had been found in the house and I thought the chemist would get in for a row. You are not supposed to buy that stuff and I threw the labels away because I thought the chemist would get in for a row. Mareo was out of the house that Friday. I don't think he was in the room when I did that.⁶⁰

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The police later found these bottles in the backyard as well as the remains of an insurance policy in the name of 'Thelma'.

The detectives visited Mareo at his new address and Brownlee's place on several other occasions, finally reading Mareo the warrant for his arrest nearly five months after Thelma's death, on 2 September 1935. Mareo responded, 'Really, on what evidence, this is ridiculous. What evidence have you got?'⁶¹

The only other evidence relevant to the Crown's case was the report of the government analyst who examined portions of Thelma's body as well as her mattress and bedding, and the coroner's report on the post-mortem examination carried out the day after her death. According to the coroner, Dr Walter Gilmour, a pathologist at Auckland Hospital, Thelma died of uncomplicated veronal poisoning, 'probably' from a dose of 'at least 100 gr'.⁶² Dr Gilmour thought that Thelma had one dose of veronal on either the Friday night or the Saturday morning and the fatal dose on the Saturday night because it was impossible for a patient to awaken from a comatose state and then relapse into a fatal coma. On the evidence of Stark and Graham, Dr Gilmour thought that Thelma was not in a coma when she drank the milk and would have fully recovered if she had not taken or been given another dose. During the trial two other doctors with limited experience in the treatment of veronal poisoning were called to give evidence. They both confirmed Dr Gilmour's conclusions.

Thus the Crown's case was reasonably straightforward. While Thelma was recovering from at least one poisonous dose of veronal, Mareo contrived the administration of a fatal dose disguised in a cup of milk so that he might replace his wife with his mistress, Eleanor Brownlee. '[T]he possibility of a third finding' other than murder or not guilty of murder, manslaughter, was, the Crown argued, 'not here'.⁶³