Mercy Murder

A young grass widow, a middle-aged baron who was her father, and a preacher whom she made her confessor formally presented themselves before a Copenhagen magistrate last week. The young woman deposed herself to be Fru Else Wille Bang, 32, not domiciled with her husband since seven months after her marriage, for a period (after the separation) a student of singing in Paris, now of no occupation. She wished to impeach herself for the murder of her invalid mother, the Baroness von Dueben, and at the same time arrange for exculpation.

Denmark was startled by so naive a culpa mea. The astounded magistrate asked for particulars. These, as Fru Bang stated them for record, caused discussion all over the world. For, like the young man who shot his invalid mother in France (TIME. Nov. 18, 1929), Fru Bang poisoned her invalid mother for mercy to her body. But unlike the young man, to whom God was "only a religious belief," she was concerned with the salvation of her mother's soul. The baroness' ailment, the two women believed, was incurable. Her suffering, they perceived, was unbearable.

Stated Fru Bang very simply: "I gave mother eternal life. Once she tried suicide and I was afraid she would make another attempt and lose eternal life. Therefore I had to do it. I gave her an overdose of her regular medicine."

The preacher, Rev. Johannes Engel, contributed: "We all thought the Baroness had died of natural causes. Fru Else came to me. ... I was obliged to tell the Baron. . . ."

The Baron von Dueben: "We implored her not to go to the police. We tried to impress on her that the death constituted something between herself, her mother and God. . . ."

Fru Bang silenced everyone and declared: "Should I meet the man I chose for my husband, I would have to tell him and he would shrink from me. Nor could I conceive children, who one day might ask me whether rumors were true that I slew my mother. The only way for me is to confess publicly and regain my peace of mind and soul."

Expressions of sympathy and commiseration were heaped on Fru Bang last week from far & wide. The Danish Minister of Justice. C. Th. Zahle, who is responsible for her just trial, sympathized: "To me there is no evidence of criminal temperament in this case. But, on the contrary, love and pity for suffering. The new Danish penal code contains a provision for reducing the punishment to a minimum in cases where the sufferer asked assistance to die. Unfortunately for Else, however, the new code does not come into force until 1933, and the code of 1866, which is still in force, is rather severe."

Minister Zahle rued this statement, which seemed premature when the late baroness' physician came forward and declared that the melancholy baroness' only physical ailment was gallstones. Her body was ordered exhumed, her daughter remanded-for examination of her mentality.

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