A Viennese Murder.

Auckland Star, Volume XIII, Issue 3704, 24 June 1882, Page 3 (Supplement)

A Viennese Murder.

THE UNJUST VERDICT OF ELEVEN JUKOKS AND THE CONSEO.UKKCES THAT FOLLOWED IT.

The Vicuua correspondent of, tho London News writes :—A vcry'rcmaikaWc instance of an unjust sentence, caussd by the verdict of eleven jurors out of twelve, was cleared up this week. It is, indeed, the general topic of conversation hero. On the 3rd of A pril, nearly four years ago, a girl was found dead in her room, with an empty glass lying near her on the ground,.and with marks on her neck that showed she had been throttled hy a strong hand. She was healthy and tall, and known among her friends for her saving disposition; but her little hoard of money and. jewels was found intact at tho lot'om of her trunk. Her room having a door which communicated with the room of another girl of the same character, with whom she had often quarrelled, and who was known to envy her ns being by far the prettier of tha two, suspxiou at once fell upon this neighbour, one Kate Steiner. She was arrc3tcd,togethcr with the landlady of both girl* and a hairdresser who had been on a v'sit to the murdered girl on the previous evening. It seemed impossible that these three women, with only a glass door to separate them fr.mi the murdered girl, should have heard nothing more than ono stilled scream, should havo seen nothing beside* a very young man who came homo with Kate Bnllogh on the night beforo the murder, and left witbout auy one having observed his leaving. It was therefore concluded that the threo had committed the murder, and Kate Stoincr in the couisc of the proceedings behaved so ill aud was so impertinent to judge, counsel and jury that she forfeited all sympathy, and impressed tho audience with a vague sentiment that she was capable of anything- even murder. All that could be proved against her was that Kate Ballogh'a door, wh eh communicated with the stairs, wns found locked from the inside, she having entered the room from her own apartment when she found the corpse. She admitted that in her hurry to get out aid call some one she might have inadverteutly locked the roar, and that she knew she had not succeeded in opening it and ran back to her own room to fetch tlie landlady. Tlih locked door was considered the most compromising proof of all, and Kate Steincr's continually repeated impatient words : "Don't ask tue such a lot I I did not do it! 'I hat is all I will say—l did not do it 1" impressed tho jury that sho must be a hardened sinner, and she was found fnilty, not of manslaughter, but of murder, y eleven of the jurors.

sentenced.

When the sentence of death was announced she turned pale, and all her anguish found vent in one terrible cry, after which she regained her presence of mind and abused tlie Court, taunting the Judge so far as to cause him to pronounce three days' arrest in a dark cell, though the Austrian law does not admit of any punishment added to the sentence of death. Dr Neuda, who had carried on the defence, firmly believed in her innocence, and appealed ou her behalf to the High Court. There she was found guilty of manslaughter, and her punishment was reduced to six years' imprisonment. The young man who had been with the murdered girl that last night of her life was never found, although both tho landlady and Kate Steiner described him minutely; but _ his not coining forward caused no surprise, because it was a very disagreeable matter, in which none but a man of very st ong moral courage would have cared to expose himself to the public eye. All that was known and recorded of him was that according to Kate Ballogh's own assertion he gave her ten florins, and that in the morning he asked her to make him some coffee. She had done this, and told the landlady so, of whom she borrowed some sugar. A fortnight a_o Kate Steincr's mother nnd sister were tried for stealing, in concert with the father of the family who lias since escaped to New York, 33,000 florins from tho coffer of an old miser who had been their lodgerfor some time. The women were found guilty, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. The same day that this sentence was published in the papers a young soldier named Waschaner, serving his time in a provincial town of Lower Austria, told his superiors that he could live no longer unless he unburdened his conscience of the load that had weighed upon it for nearly four years. He confessed to having committed the murder for which Kate Steiner had suffered imprisonment so long. The story wai disbelieved at first. The father of the man, a highly esteemed Imperial Councillor, was communicated wit ii, and at first denied the charge altogether, because his son had always been with him at Znaim. But afterwards he re mered that the youth_ had run away from home with forty florins and hai been met by a relation at Vienna and taken home, aftT being three days only in the Capital. These three days included the date of the murder, 3d April, 1878.

THE CONFESSION.

The father admitted that since the return from that escapade the young man had not been the same; 'hat he studied very little and devoted his time to out o^door exerc'se. He was so negligent iv his studies that he did not even pass the examination for becoming a one year volunteer, but had to enter military sci vice last October for fhree years He confesses to having murdered Kate Ballogh in the following manner: Tired of life, he had come to Vienna with the determined purpose of committing suicide. He had prepared some prussic acid in a bottle, which he always carried in his Eocket. On the second day of his stay here c was accosted by a girl in one of the chief thoroughfares and accompanied her home. The next morning he asked her to prepare him some coffee, simply to make her busy in another part of the room. While she was attending to the coffee machine he mixed some of the pruss:c acid ia a glass of water. Then he turned to the window, as if to take farewell of the world. When he returned to the table he saw Kate Ballogh, in hr morning gown, with her golden hair streaming down her back, in the act of drinking tho poison. By the time he had reached her she had reeled and fallen and was shrieking in her agony. He feared lest he should be taken for her murderer, and knelt down beside her, pressing his heads upon her throat to keep her from crying out. The pressure and the poison soon killed Ihftf, and he ltft the room and the house without being seen by any one.. Prussic acid has the effect of suffocation, and when the doctors found the marks on the girl's throat they concluded that she had been throttled and did not look for any poison in her body. AU the statements made by the young man were disbelieved here and ascribed to a partially deranged miad, but a detailed examination in the presence of the youth's father revealed the truth,and Kai c Steiner was called for. She is greatly changed from four years ago, not only physically hut also morally. Her" high spirits are sub-d-d, she is quiet and polite, and promises to lead a different life in future, if only she can obtain work of some kind. She has promised herself that if ever her innocence was brought to light she would never murmur against her fate, however hard it might be, She has been set at liberty,

having swo-n not to leave Vienna for the present. She will have to act as witness in tho case against the real murderer. The authorities allowed her to see her mother before tlie latter was token to prison. The scene was of course most touching, the daughter vowing she would willingly stiller her mother's punishment for her. A subscription has been opened in her behalf, anil some one has proposed that the public should sign a petition to the Emperor to grant her mother a pardon on the score that the daughter suffered imprisonment innocently.