VIOLENT CRIMINAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 170, 20 July 1928, Page 7

VIOLENT CRIMINAL.

Death Sentence On German Murderer. UNCONSCIOUS OF OUTRAGES. (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) BERLIN, July 19. At Coburg yesterday the bandit, Hein, who created a sensation by his crimes early in the year, was sentenced to death in respect of each of two murders and to 15 years' imprisonment for manslaughter, attempted murder and attempted manslaughter. Hein's curious defence was that he was unconscious of his crimes at the moments when he committed them.

Residents of Coburg, policemen and a detachment of the Reichwehr, on February 4 last, formed a cordon round a wood «t Coburg, in which was an armed criminal named Hein, suspected of robberies and four murders. A police sergeant who jumped off his bicycle attempted to arrest him, but was shot through the head. Hein rode off on the bicycle. A second police officer overtook him, and Hein took ambush in a ditch. He exchanged a fusillade until his ammunition was exhausted. Hein, who is thought to have been wounded, escaped.

The bandit and an accomplice raided the post office at Ohligs at Christmas and shot two officials. The accomplice, Larm, was arrested. Hein afterwards shot two policemen, who were trying to arrest him, and killed one of them. Next day Hein was arrested at an inn at Weingarten. He complained that he was starving. The manhunt was the most thrilling in German criminal history, thouands of searchers having aided the police.