"SUICIDE BEST."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

"SUICIDE BEST."

JEALOUSY AND GRIM REVENGE.

Giim revolutions of the hopeless abandonment of three youths and a 16-year-old girl, made at the Berlin trial of Paul Krantz, an 18-year-old schoolboy, on a charge of murder, hav» horrified even the most cynical of Germany's sophisticated public. Excitement almost amounting to hysteria was aroused by the trial, and w lieu the public prosecutor withdrew the murder charge against Krantz, declaring he would, however, proceed with a ch.nge of manslaughter the enthusiasm of the crowds gathered outside the courthouse knew no bounds. When Krantz left the court after this announcement he was pelted with bouquets of flowers and given a tremendous ovation.

~ fa'jl Krantz, Hans Stephan, Gunther Scheller and Hilda Scheller—all between trie ages of 16 and 19—were schoolfellows. But they wer£ not merely close friends.

These children had formed themselves into a society in which promiscuous relationK were practised. The secret was kept trom the parents by mutual threats of exposure. All those concerned in the case belonged to well-to-do middle-class families, and the tact that their terrible secrets remained so long undisclosed is partially due to the habits of laxity of their parents. But what lias most shocked public opinion is that the mother of the unhappy youth, whose death occurred only a few months ago, has issued invitations to a children's fancy dress ball to take place after the terrible trial in which her daughter was the chief witness. When Mr. Scheller was away from home Paul Krantz used to stay at the Schellers' house. Here be became the victim of Hilda's allurments. ihe next night Hilda invited another youth, Hans Stephan, to stay with her. Krantz, who had been stimulated to a state of intense excitement by Hilda, was thereupon cast into a fury of jealousy by the girl's treatment of Stephan. He and Gunther Scheller, Hilda's brother, then began to plan revenge. Bearing in mind the rule of their " secret society " that " all members who are deceived by their men or women friends must avenge themselves on their rivals," Gunther and Krantz spent the night drinking liqueurs and plotting murder.

A pact was made by which Krantz was to shoot Hilda and Gunther to shoot Stephan. Then Krantz was to kill Gunther and himself commit suicide. Their plans completed, the two youths wrote a number of letters, which showed strongly the influence of alcohol, and afterwards burst into the bedroom. Gunther at once shot Stephan dead and then shot himself. Krantz, apparently stujJified by the realisation of what was happening, made some attempt at suicide, but was prevented in shooting himself by Hilda, who tore the revolver from his hand. The gilr calmly admitted that she and her friends constantly discussed suicide as "the best thing to do with life." It is a significant fact that while the depravity of the four children involved in the case was disclosed by the crime, it was hinted that the evil ramifications of the "society" extended further and involved others.