Mystery: A truth blurred by fug of drugs, passion and sex

Auckland society girl Thelma Trott (left) was murdered by musician husband Eric Mareo (right), according to her alleged lesbian lover, nude dancer Freda Stark (centre).

An occasional summer series on great New Zealand crimes and the mystery that still surrounds them 

It's 1935 and a young Auckland actress named Thelma is dead, poisoned. Her 45-year-old musician husband Eric Mareo is convicted of her murder - in two separate trials.

The prime witness for the prosecution was the dead woman's supposed lesbian lover, Freda Stark, the woman famous for dancing at Auckland's Civic Theatre naked but for a g-string and a coat of gold body paint.

Case closed, then? Not according to some. A 75-year-old man named Rex Mason - who was the Attorney General at the time of the case - decided to write a book about the murder, and the flamboyant musician found guilty.

But when Mason died aged 90, his book lay unfinished.

So what was it about this crime that meant an experienced legal mind could not work it out after 15 years? And what was it that prompted Charles Ferrall, co-author of the 2002 book The Trials of Eric Mareo, written with Rebecca Ellis, to tell the Herald he is "almost certain Mareo didn't do it".

There are different versions of what happened on that weekend in April 1935 in Eric and Thelma's well-appointed Mt Eden home.

If you go by the testimony of the Crown's star witness Freda Stark - and the jury did - then Thelma Mareo's worsening state was a direct result of Eric Mareo dropping a large dose of the drug veronal into her milk. Then, said Stark, Mareo continually refused to call a doctor for help.

By Monday morning, according to Stark's testimony, Thelma was blue in the face and gasping for air, so Stark called an ambulance. But it was too late and Thelma died two hours after reaching the hospital.

The other popular story is that Mareo did not poison his wife at all, and that the troubled woman overdosed on a drug she had been known to take to help her sleep.

It is a messy situation, given that Mareo was known to abuse the drug as well. As Charles Ferrall puts it: "Drugs are floating around, alcohol's floating around, and then someone dies."

What made Freda Stark's testimony more interesting - and this was not reported in the papers at the time, presumably because of its taboo nature - was that Stark was a lesbian whom Eric Mareo claimed he had caught in bed with his wife several times.

There is argument as to whether Stark admitted to being a lesbian during the trial or not. While Stark - who died in 1999 - claimed in later interviews that she did indeed come out during the trial, others say that just did not happen.

Charles Ferrall says it goes against logic that a jury of the day would knowingly accept the evidence of a lesbian, with the concept of homosexuality often being demonised at the time.

The question, then, is, did Mareo poison his wife or was it a suicide by a depressed woman with a known history of drug and alcohol abuse? And, if the latter is true, did Freda Stark lie?

"The doubt there was extraordinary," says Ferrall, "I think there were two reasons why people thought he did it. First, he was what people at the time perceived as a 'dodgy foreigner' and second I don't think anyone believed his charge that his wife was lesbian - people thought he was just bad-mouthing her."

Eric Mareo, born in Sydney to Viennese parents, was a man who stood out in New Zealand society of the time.

Women loved him, and he had married five times.

Tales of the successful orchestra conductor sauntering around depression-era Auckland sporting a tuxedo, gloves, a cane, and a foot-long cigarette holder meant Mareo instantly stood out from the crowd.

Especially in a social climate where the Herald of the day reported that 'the idea that all musicians, artists, and actors are temperamental, inconsistent, and eccentric in their private lives is a fallacy' but the idea had 'increased rather than diminished during the last few years'.

The combination of celebrity and murder was irresistible fodder for the papers of the day and the case captured the imagination of the public. The newspaper Truth wrote at the time of trial: "Each day queues of eager people have lined up outside the court before opening hour, and on occasion overflow from the women's section has found standing room at the back of the court downstairs. Public attendance became greater when Freda Stark gave evidence."

Was justice done? Eric Mareo served 12 years in Mt Eden prison for his supposed crime. Says Ferrall: "Why, when you've got an incredibly weak case against someone, does he get convicted twice, and why does most of the public believe he is guilty? I'm almost completely sure he didn't do it. But of course there's a chance he did."

So with no concrete answer to the question 'who killed Thelma Mareo?' we are left pondering Eric Mareo's last words as he left the court after the jury's decision: "I've been sentenced on the lying word of Freda Stark."