WOMAN BEHEADED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 237, 7 October 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

WOMAN BEHEADED.

HITLER EXECUTION ORDER.

SEQUEL TO MURDER CHARCES

Mis. Eras Thiemo, a widow, and two accomplices, were beheaded at Torgati prison last month j'or the murder of the woman's son. The accomplices were Willy Berndt and Otto l'ietschke, labourers. J Irs. Thiemo was the first woman victim of Chancellor Adolf Ilitler's revival of the axe as the instrument of execution. .Ludwig Buechler was executed in the prison yard at Butzbaeh, Hesse, at the same time, for tho murder of a member of the Hitler youth organisation.

The executioner was unmasked, but wore black robes. On the scaffold with him were two assistants. The victims' necks had been shaved, and as they mounted the scaffold the State's attorney read the verdict condemning them. The assistants then tied their hands and placed their heads on the block.

The State's attorney called: "Executioner, do your duty." The axe descended.

The triple beheading in one flay culminated a sordid story of thieves falling out. Mrs. Tliieme, her 29-yqar-old son, Berndt, 21; and l'ietschke, 24, were associated in petty thievery at Scgrehna, Saxony. Mrs. Thiemc and the son had frequent violent quarrels. Mrs. Thiemc, 54, mother of five children, persuaded the two young labourer thieves to shoot her son, promising them money. The shooting was carried out on June 8, 1032. They were convicted of murder, arid the death sentence was passed in December, 1932.