GERMAN LOVE DRAMA. EX-OFFICER ON TRIAL.
FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. BERLIN, Tuesday.
A dramatic scene was witnessed at the court house of Zwickau this morning, when Lorenz Köhn, an ex-officer of Hussars, and a member of a very well-known Berlin family, whose sister is married to a Count Bismarck, was called upon to answer a charge of murdering his sweetheart, Margarete Müller. Before him on a pedestal on the judge’s table, thrown into strong relief by the dark panelling of the room, stared the bleached skull of the woman he is accused of killing. Bullet-holes in the forehead and temple recalled the manner of her death. The prisoner, whose boyish appearance belies his 25 years, winced nervously as his eyes, wandering round the court, encountered this grisly exhibit.
The case is a strange one, and the evidence against Köhn is entirely circumstantial. When the snows melted last spring the girl’s body was left exposed in an almost impenetrable thicket in one of the loveliest spots of the Erzgebirge. Beside it lay a magazine pistol, from which two shots had been fired. Apparently it has been established that the weapon belonged to the prisoner. It has also been discovered that he had sold furs, jewellery, and other objects belonging to her. Late in the winter they had stayed as man and wife at a fashionable holiday hotel in the neighbourhood, spending the time in long rambles together. At last he returned from one of these excursions alone, and told his fellow-guests that he and his companion had quarrelled and agreed to part.
This is the story he now pleads in defence. He asks the court to believe that Fraulein Müller was thrown off her balance by the parting, and, having in some way possessed herself of his pistol, took her own life. The sale of her effects in his own name he explains by saying that she presented them to him before they went their separate ways. In reply to the charge, Köhn said, “I feel myself to be innocent.”
During the lengthy examination with which the proceedings opened Köhn preserved his self-possession completely and replied to all questions promptly and clearly. It appeared that on the morning of March 24, the day on which the tragedy must have taken place, he went out, taking with him a large shovel. He explained that he intended with this implement to clear a path through the deep snow for Fräulein Müller, who was afraid of getting wet feet. In the afternoon they went out together, he again carrying the shovel. On their way they called at the station to send a telegram ordering a room at a Dresden hotel. Köhn admitted that before going out Fräulein Müller wrote to her relations saying she was endlessly happy with him. It was put to him that this letter was in conflict with his story of repeated quarrels which had ended with a final breach. He stated, however, that her object in writing in these terms was to silence her relations, who opposed her connection with him. Prisoner stated that the cause of the dissension between Fräulein Müller and him was his infidelity to her and refusal to marry her. He also said, however, that her object in writing in these terms was to silence her relations, who opposed her connection with him. Prisoner stated that the cause of the dissension between Fraulein Muller and him was his. infidelity to her and refusal to marry her! He also said, however, that she had engaged herself to marry, but had assured him that this would not interfere with their relationship.
Köhn said that before they went out together she got from him the key of their joint travelling trunk, and he assumed it was then that she took his pistol. When they separated he reminded her that she had no money, whereupon she removed her earrings and asked him to give her sufficient to pay her fare to Berlin, which he did. He believed that she would return to the hotel, and in the evening he inquired of several persons whether she had been seen. Under crossexamination he admitted that when it was suggested to him that he should inquire at the station he replied that to do so would be purposeless. He also admitted having said to one witness that he knew quite well that Fräulein Müller had returned to her mother. All the false and misleading statements made by him to various persons that evening he accounted for by his disinclination to draw attention to the fact that the woman was not really his wife. He was still under examination when the Court adjourned.