EX-MURDERER WHO MADE GOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 106, 5 May 1923, Page 19

EX-MURDERER WHO MADE GOOD.

SUICIDE ENDS YEARS OF REFORMATION. Condemned to death for murder, which in Belgium means penal servitude for life. Released after serving nearly thirty yeara in prison. Ten years of honest toil. Dismissal, disappearance, and suicide. Such is the lite story of Leon Teltzer, whose horty has just been washed up by the sea at Ostend. It was in ISS4 that Leon Peltzer and his brother Arniand were found guilty of the murder of a lawyer nnmed Bernays. Arinand Peltzei was the lover of M. Ilernays' wife, and there aiuc a time when he decided that the inconvenient husband must be removed. The lawyer nnd Arinanrt Peltzer were negotiating the purchase of a house, and one day when they were visiting the property the two brothers murdered Bernays. Knowing her relations with Artnand Peltzer, the police questioned Mine, lieriinys, but she was able to prove that she had no connection with or knowledge uf the crime. Then the print of a boot In blood was found, The boot was identified as being that of the brothers Peltzer. Tui-y v.-ere arrested, tried, and found guilty. The sentence nf death was. ns usual, com muted to penal servitude for life. Three years later Artnand Peltzer died in prison without confessing his share In the murder. Hut Leon, who had confessed, in the hope of receiving better treatment from his gaolers, lived on to complete twenty-eight yenrs. During that time he cained the friendship of the chaplain of the prison, with whom he kept up a correspondence after his release in mil. , .

A free man once more. Leon Peltzer went to Ceylon, when- lie obtained employment with a Belgian firm on a plantation. Etit after two years his health broke down, and he returned to Belgium.

He was given employment in Brussels by th same firm for whom he had worked In Ceylon, and for some years he proved himself an energetic and faithful servant But at the beginning o f 1022, perhaps because of his long years of imprisonment, he began to take advantage of his position. In May. 1022, his employer had had enough, and dismissed the ex-couvtct, who then went to Osteud. Hearing, however that Peltzer was tliroatenlnpr suicide the employer sought him out, brought him back to Brussels, and on his promising to mend his ways, gave him his old position. But the man could not settle down now and in a few days he disappeared. Nothing more was heard of him until about three weeks later, when he called on his old friend, the prison chaplain.

He told the chaplain that he was at th.> end of his tether. He could not obtain employment, and was goinj; to commit suicide. All the persuasion "of his friend could not Induce Peltzer to. change hi-, mind, and, after leaving with the chaplain what money he possessed for distribution to the poor, he took his leave. That was the last time he was seen alive A fortnight later bla dead body was found on the beach at Ostend.