SENTENCED TO DEATH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 134, 19 March 1931, Page 5

SENTENCED TO DEATH

BURNING CAR TRAGEDY.

AN INSURANCE FRAUD. i TWELVE YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT. (United Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.5 p.m.) BERLIN, March 18. Eric Tetzner was sentenced to death for murder in connection with the death of an unknown man whose body was found in a burnt ear at Helen,sburg. He was also sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for attempted murder of a man named Ortner, and attempted fraud on an insurance company. Tetzner’s wife was ‘sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for complicity in the attempted fraud. It was revealed that Tetzner, who is commercial traveller, previously managed to insure his mother-in-law for £SOO a month before her death from cancer. The prosecution submitted that the easy success of that case induced Tetzner to stage his own death.

The Helensburg police found on the roadside a burned ear, in which was a charred body, which was identified and buried as that of Eric Tetzner, whose life was insured for £7OOO. The police became suspicious and watched Tetzner’s wife. They overheard her telephoning to Strasburg, where they arrested Tetzner. He at first confessed that lie picked up a tramp, knocked him insensible with a spanner, and then set fire io the ear. Later, Tctzner pleaded that he accidentally ran over and killed the tramp. He then conceived the idea of the insurance swindle. The police unearthed a witness named Ortner, who on November 26 accepted Tetzner’s invitation to a ride. He was later attacked with a spanner, but escaped.