Mareo's Motive

In his final address to the jury, Johnstone maintained that although the Crown had shown that 'the accused had tired of his wife' the jury were 'not bound to assign any motive'.¹ Yet, while it is true that the Crown does not need to prove motive, it may logically have some bearing on the question of whether the accused intended to kill (which is murder) or was reckless as to the consequences of his or her actions (which is manslaughter). It is easier to prove that an accused intended the consequences of certain actions if they can also show that he or she had some kind of motive for achieving those consequences.

However, even the Prosecution seems to have been confused about Mareo's possible intentions on the weekend in question. page 34As we have seen, they argued that the letter Mareo gave Betty revealing that he was not her 'legal' father demonstrated that he 'intended to do away with himself. But why would a man intending such an action also be planning at the same time to murder his wife and replace her with his mistress for financial gain? It is possible that Mareo could have been both suicidal and coldly plotting his wife's death, but this seems rather unlikely.

Yet, even if he had not been intending suicide, the nature of his relationship with Eleanor Brownlee remained unclear. Both Brownlee and Mareo firmly denied that they were having an affair, the latter, according to Stark, rather unkindly telling his wife that 'he couldn't possibly be in love with Eleanor as she had no personality and looks'.² Stark also testified that Thelma had objected to Brownlee doing some of Mareo's washing and cleaning his room at the theatre but Mareo maintained to the police that Thelma had said about the washing '"[o]n second thoughts I think it will save me a lot of trouble" or words to that effect and there the matter ended'.³ Brownlee even said that on the first occasion Thelma had actually asked her to clean Mareo's ties and evening vest since she did not understand how to use starch.

Of course there was the bathroom incident after which Brownlee had written at Mareo's request:

Dear Thelma,

Mr Mareo told me tonight that you are still upset over what occurred on Saturday evening. I am very sorry if I was partly the cause of your distress. May I assure you that if I appeared to intrude it certainly was quite unintentional, and I very much regret having caused you any annoyance.

Believe me, yours sincerely,

Eleanor J. Brownlee ⁴

It is telling that Brownlee only apologised for intruding into a domestic dispute and did not feel it necessary even to allude to any suspicion of an affair between herself and Mareo. Indeed, O'Leary maintained that when Stark and Thelma left the house after this dispute 'the presence of Miss Brownlee there was just page 35an excuse'. According to the Herald's summary, '[h]is Honor interposed to say there was no evidence to bear out that suggestion. The evidence showed, on the contrary, that the cause of the quarrel was Miss Brownlee's going into the bathroom'.⁵ However, this assertion of Mr Justice Fair's does not precisely accord with the evidence of either Stark or Brownlee. According to Stark, Thelma initially said that Eleanor could not stay the night because, presumably, 'Freda was staying here' to which Mareo responded, 'Oh, she can sleep anywhere.'⁶ Thus Thelma's initial problem with Brownlee was that she would inconvenience their sleeping arrangements. And, according to Brownlee (whose account differs significantly from Stark's), she only went into the bathroom after she had heard Thelma call out hysterically.

In reality the only evidence that Mareo and Brownlee were having an affair was the fact that they spent so much time together. Yet while it was rare for men and women to work so closely together during the 1930s, at least as equals, some workplaces — such as theatres — were obvious exceptions. On the vast majority of occasions, Mareo and Brownlee were simply working together, either on the scenario for the film or on theatre business. They had first met because of Brownlee's desire to learn orchestration, and she had initially paid Mareo for his tuition. No one ever suggested that they met in secret, and after Thelma's death they still continued to meet openly. Mareo and Brownlee might have thought that the best way of keeping their affair secret was to conduct it as publicly as possible. Yet, while in one of Edgar Allan Poe's stories a character conceals a letter by using it to visibly plug a hole in a wall, it is rather unlikely that they would have chosen to conceal their relationship in such a manner. Betty's response to O'Leary's inquiry about noticing 'any signs of undue relationship between Mareo and Eleanor Brownlee' seems spontaneous and therefore probably reliable: 'Good heavens, No.'⁷

Of course there is nothing in the trial that definitely rules out the possibility that Brownlee was in love with Mareo and that he knew it. Since Brownlee was the daughter of well-off Aucklanders, it might have been that the bankrupt and page 36unemployed Mareo was anticipating a large dowry. Nevertheless, it is a courageous or extremely desperate man who would risk being hanged on the assumption not only that a woman seventeen years his junior would marry him, but also that her parents would approve of the marriage and dispense with some of their fortune accordingly.

Besides, Stark's evidence that the Mareos' marriage was all but over was contradicted by other testimony. Some degree of tension or conflict in their marriage was only to be expected: both were out of work, one was visiting a doctor for a nervous condition, the other drinking heavily and taking veronal, and they were living in an unusual household. Mareo's daughter and son were respectively only eight years and twelve years younger than their stepmother. Thelma and Betty did not get on because Thelma objected to Betty doing the housework and usurping her position as 'mistress of the house'. Thelma's 'bosom friend' had taken up almost semi-permanent residence and there were often, according to Betty, other 'theatricals in the house when the shows were on'.⁸ In their different ways, both Mareo and Thelma would have been difficult to live with. Thus it is not surprising that they quarrelled. However, Graham could only remember his father and stepmother quarrelling on two occasions and on both of these they were drunk. Stark even told the court that after Thelma had gone to see Dr Walton, Mareo

and his wife seemed to be getting on quite all right. The weekend before she died I went out on the Saturday night and we played cards-that was the Saturday night, it would be 6th April. Mr Mareo, Thelma, Graham and I were there. We played cards.⁹

Later Stark would also remember that Mareo had been teaching them all German.

In addition Mareo stood to lose something by replacing his wife with Brownlee. On the weekend of Thelma's death, Brownlee was writing a letter on behalf of Mareo to the J.C. Williamson Theatre Company in Australia proposing that they page 37fund a light opera company in which Thelma would be the leading lady. Mareo was also promoting his film scenario to potential financiers on the basis that she would be its main star. As O'Leary pointed out to the jury, Thelma 'was a necessity to him if his programme was to be carried out. What use would Eleanor Brownlee, not suited for the stage, have been to him in this connection? Thelma, on the other hand, was essential for the work.'¹⁰