A MYSTERIOUS FORCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 168, 16 July 1921, Page 19

A MYSTERIOUS FORCE.

DRIVES "WOMAN TO STEAL. "When I stood before a jeweller's window and saw the glittering jewels a mysterious irresistible force drove mc into the shop to steal." Such wns the only excuse which could be given by a wealthy society kleptomaniac who was the defendant in an amazing case before a Berlin court. ' Fran Liesbeth Strict- belongs to a rich provincial family, is highly educated, and frequented the best society in the capital and elsewhere. Three years ago she committed a number of thefts in Berlin and Drcs'Sen. She visited high-class shops where her perfect manners aud fine clothes disarmed suspicion. Giving herself out as Countess Baudissin or Baroness yon Stork she asked to see expensive jewels, and while examining them would steal some. She then went to the next jeweller's shop and sold what she bad stolen. Her thefts were eventually discovered, and she frankly confessed, being able, she said, to give no other excuse than that she wns the victim of some mysterious power and could not control herself. As she was a wry wealthy woman she had no need to resort to theft to obtain such things. Since the discovery of thefts in 1018 she has beeu under the observation of numerous medical experts. One of them declared at the trial that she was, at one time, enthusiastic about founding a home for the 'blind, and she resorted to thefts in order to secure the necessary funds. He was convinced the state of her mind was such that she was quite unaware of having done wrong, and was surprised to hear her actions described as theft. Another doctor gave what he called a picture of her soul, and said she had a curious " psychic lack." She was wholly unconscious of wrongdoing, and made no effort to conceal what she had done. Her family doctor said that in her youfh she suffered from "soul phantasies," and he said she had "a degenerate psycho-pathological constitution." Two years ago, after committing the thefts, she married a high official. She is now perfectly happy and has a child who is in every way norma!. Strung© to relate, her own mental abnormality has quite vanished since marriage. The court gave her a verdict of acquittal.