Truth (Sydney, NSW : 1894 - 1954), Sunday 20 June 1943, page 15

'I Saw Vile, Putrid Face In

Mirror,' Says.
jWife-SIayer,
PAUNT and hollow cheeked, Herbert ^9H
\ George Ott (31), sheet metal worker, V
|\ stood with bowed head in the dock at 1

?\ Central Criminal Court last week and

heard the grim death sentence pronounced on him i

,for the murder of his pretty, slim, 25-years-old wife,

\ Doris May Ott, whom he strangled just six weeks
after were married. Several times during
his trial, Ott, apparently overcome by
emotion, sat with his face buried in his
\ handkerchief. Telling his version of 0
\ of
when Mrs. Ott was found
dead on a bed in their room
St.,
at 83 Great Buckingham
Ott, in a calmly spoken
told
how he had become convinced, despite assurances by doctors,
that his wife had T.B. and he feared that she might be
brought pain and suffering. He himself had experienced the
ravages of the disease and had been in three institutions.

ONE I LOVED'
'ONLY
DO notknow what happened, but I ever loved.'
I I have a vivid recollection of a Ott said that he remembered that
vile putrid face the night of her death his wife
face staring at me, a on
when I woke I was staring at was lying on the settee and had a
and up
T.B. From then
myself in the mirror,' said Ott. if haemorrhage from
'I could never have done this on he could remember nothing until
been in my right senses, for he found himself looking in the
I had
I loved my wife, the only woman mirror.
loved.' 'It came as a great shock to me to
I ever

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Truth (Sydney, NSW : 1894 - 1954), Sunday 20 June 1943, page 15 (2)

me K.C.) said that if

'It came as a Crawford, even
learn from my wife's symptoms that Mrs. Ott was in the weakest possible
she was suffering from T.B. I be state of health, it was not within Ott's
gan to worry over my wife's health right to take her life.
and this was aggravated by worry After the death of Mrs. Ott, the
over my father, who, before his death Crown said, Ott called at the Red
last week, had been an inmate ol fern Police Station and there made
Callan Park,' he declared. a confession of his crime. He said:
'I went through hell in three 'She is better off now. I had been
sanatoria. I have been nearly thinking about it for weeks, and in
mad with worry since I saw my wife's tended to do her in and then fix
X-rays. I have seen pain in many myself. I knew what was up with
hospitals, but I have never seen pain her. I knew she was in for T.B.
like my wife suffered. and I did not want her to go
'Before I went home on the night through what I went through.'
wife's death. I rang sister
of my my Dr. Stratford Sheldon, who made a
to inquire after father's health. examination of Mrs. Ott,
my post-mortem
She told me there was no hope for said that he bad found she had a
him. That was added worry on my tubercular condition of both lungs.
mind. Since I was 14 I have had There was a little activity on one side
epileptic fits through over-study. but the other lung was inactive.
mother spent hundreds of Dr. Sheldon said that when he ex
'My
trying to without
cure me, amined Ott at the Redfern Police Sta
pounds
any result. When I was about 17 tion he appeared to be quite normal.
the boys used to chip me about my 'He was smoking a cigarette and was

physical condition. Nothing seemed apparently perfectly calm. He said,

worth while and I tried to com 'What do you want to examine me
'

mit suicide. for? I was quite sober,' the doctor

declared.
Did you :

Suicide Attempt Mr. F. C. Hidden (for Ott)

know that the dead woman weighed
'I fired a shot at my head with between five and six stone? —

She was
my father's revolver, but I did not thin.
know the charge was a blank. But
The doctor said that Ott had told
I still carry the scar on my forehead
him that he had suffered from epi
from the charge,' said Ott.
wife's
lepsy and had taken pills for this
'About 10 days before my complaint.
death I ran out of some special tab
Mr.Hidden: Did he tell you that
lets which my doctor had ordered
of he had been an epileptic since he was
me never to be without. Because
14 and had been in Parramatta Men
the war I was unable to obtain any
tal Hospital?— No.
and was gradually getting more ner
vous every day.' Did you know that while await
verdict after ing trial he has had two fits? No.
jury brought in
—

The a
a few minutes retirement and, in pro Would an epileptic fit be a form
nouncing sentence, Mr. Justice Herron of mania? —

He would not know

said that in his opinion it was the what he was doing.
only possible action they could have Referring to his conversation with ,

taken. Ott on the night of his wife's death,

'Whether or not you were acting Dr. Sheldon said that Ott was sober
from a sense of compassion for and collected in his speech and
your wife, real or imaginary, it is showed no signs of having had an epi
for others than yourself to judge,' leptic fit.
said his Honor. 'The law does not Mr. Hidden submitted that Ott was
take into account nor recognise the not guilty because he was insane at
right to take life. The law does the time he committed the crime.
not allow any person to be a law The Senior Crown Prosecutor (Mr. T. S.
unto himself.' Crawford, K.C), instructed by the Deputy
Clerk of the Peace (Mr. P. W. Vizzard), re
Referring to a statement made to Crown for the
presenting the Solicitor,
the police after he had killed his wife Crown; Mr. F. C. Hidden and Mrs. A. Ber
that it was a 'mercy killing,' the nard (instructed by Parrish, Patience and
Senior Crown Prosecutor (Mr. T. S. Mclntyre), for the defence.
K.C.) said that even if
Crawford,

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Truth (Sydney, NSW : 1894 - 1954), Sunday 20 June 1943, page 15 (3)

DORIS MAY OTT, 'who, six t

I
weeks after her marriage, was
I
strangled by her husband, now
I
sentenced to die on the gallows.

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Truth (Sydney, NSW : 1894 - 1954), Sunday 20 June 1943, page 15 (4)

Meet 111111
Jean Hunter, 'W&
of the Tivoli lllli
BaUet. Reason *§§!
lor the is ?;?
rope
not plain, but who %
wouldn't like to
have this glamorous
girl on a string?

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