FRANCE: Queer Justice

Thrice last week, jurists were titillated at the queer workings of French Justice:

Rent Free. For five years Mr. & Mrs. Hadley Beck, U. S. citizens, have lived rent free in Paris, by tying up their houseboat to docks along the Seine. They have even escaped dock rent by moving their boat a few yards every fortnight.

But last week French Justice was avenged, when smart Mr. & Mrs. Beck applied for a Paris divorce. They were told that their mode of life did not constitute a "fixed residence," and that at least one of them would have to reside ashore for at least six months before they could apply for a French divorce.

Female to Guillotine. Not for 41 years has the head of a woman been legally detached in France. Though murderesses have abounded, one and all have successfully pleaded: 1) Faithlessness of the murdered man; 2) Insanity; or 3) Beauty. But last week there was sentenced to the guillotine in Paris a Serbian murderess, Junka Kures, neither insane nor beautiful, and unbetrayed.

With Satanic cunning Junka Kures had strangled a little girl, Carmen Bruniaux, and then so arranged her that the child should appear the victim of a male attack. Righteously and furiously incensed, a male jury and judge condemned Satanic Junka Kures to have her head detached.

Apologetic Jury. So many French juries have recently acquitted murderers of both sexes that, last week, the foreman of a Paris murder jury which had acquitted a confessed murderer (male) apologized as follows to the Court:

"Juries are often embarrassed when they have to render their verdict because they have not a sufficient influence on the choice of the sentence to be passed. . . . We consider that the solution of the difficulty can be found in closer collaboration between Magistrates and juries."