MOTHER'S AWFUL CRIME.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 215, 7 September 1912, Page 17

MOTHER'S AWFUL CRIME.

A appalling tragedy -was revealed in Berlin recently, when five children of a concierge in the suburb of Steglitz were ■found dead on mattresses in an empty flat. On bursting open the door of the ibathroom lihe police foond the mother lying iface down, in the bath, which was filled with water. She was restored to consciousness, but is still unaible to sp«ik, and lies in a precarious condition in the hospital.

It appears that the drunken (husband had, In a fit of rage, destroyed all the furniture in 'the two rooms which they occupied on the ground floor of a fine ihOTjee. He also injured "the nioirCfafold baby, and to save -herself and the children from further maltreatment, the desperate 'woman took them to an empty flat and drowned them one by one. She carried them to another room, dressed them in their best clothes, and 'then returned to Uhe bathroom to drown, herself.

The previous evening the mother had tried to poison herself and the children by putting lysol in tlclr coffee, but the Dclg-h----'bours administered antidotes, and tihey were saved.

The father is an unemployed unemployable, and tb/e woman kept li-erself and the five children by acting as concierge on the magnificent salary of 10/ monthly ■with "free (ruarters."

The police found the Qnisbacd in the concierge quarters, ■where ihe iad locked himself In whilst he bargained with a secondhand dealer for the sale of itShe furniture and the dead children's clothes. Even orderly Berliners were so infuriated that they wanted to lynch hinu