MYSTERIES IN CRIME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 76, 30 March 1935, Page 4 (Supplement)

MYSTERIES IN CRIME.

DEATH STALKS' ON A BRIDGE

VIENNA SENSATION THAT BAFFLED THE POLICE—STRANGE WAYS OF A PROFESSOR—SUICIDE THEORY THAT SEEMED CERTAIN—INQUIRY TAKES A SENSATIONAL TURN—EFFICACY OF BALLISTIC STUDYTWO REVOLVERS THAT SHOT DIFFERENTLY.

(By K. U Hadfield,

the well-known criminologist.—All Rights Reserved.)

; This is the first of a series of six articles dealing with mysteries and • ■ crimes taken from the records of Paris, London, Vienna, New York and ; J San Francisco. The crimes chosen for this powerful and enthralling scries > i hava been selected for their mysterious features and the difficulty or ! J impossibility of solving them. J ' Thi articles are brilliantly handled by the author, and he gives a ■ I most interesting picture of the different ingenious methods employed by the \ ; police of the great oitios dealt with.

Crossing one of the chief bridges over the Danube at Vienna one wet stormy night, a policeman stumbled over the body of a man lying on the pavement. Brief examination showed that he had been shot through the heart. Ten feet away lay a revolver, a little further an empty wallet, and strewn about at a further distance were papers obviously taken from the dead man's pockets. It seemed clear that this was a case of murder and robbery. The detectives in charge of the case discovered that the victim was one Hans Voegel, a manufacturer, and that at the time of his last walk across the bridge, he had been in possession of a large sum of money, together with bonds and papers connected with his business. Apparently he had been waylaid by some ruffian, shot down and robbed, and it was accepted that the storminess of the night had prevented the shot being heard by any policeman or any struggling figures seen in the flickering light of the street lamps. Voegel was insured for a large sum, and the insurance company was an interested party to the investigations. One or two

crimes of a similar character had been committed within recent months, due, it was thought, to the number of unemployed young men recently discharged from the army who had been forced to crime for subsistence. As the insurance ' companies had been hard hit they were using their influence to urge on the police the necessity of making arrests and assuring the guilty being punished. Unofficial Helper Called In. The police called in one of the unofficial helpers, Professor Picard, a man who had made a scientific study of crime and had previously been of great assistance to them in various ways. One of the first things that interested the professor was the revolver witli which the man had been : shot. It was of an old type, and whilst the surgeons were extracting the bullet from the body, the professor was putting the revolver through a chemical process of his own. 1 After treating the interior of the barrel with certain chemicslls, Professor Picard went into a strange stoxy with the detective. "What lies behind this discovery I do not know," he said, "but I can tell you that this revolver was not fired last night; it was fired not less than four days ago!" * The detective stared at the professor, in amazement, thinking that the scientific man had let his science go to his head. "Impossible!" he said. "The man died last night. His blood was still warm when he was found." "No doubt he died last night," was the reply, "but the shot in that revolver was not fired last .night." , The detective was on the point of saying in strong language that he had never heard anything so ridiculous when one of the ballistic experts who had been examining the bullet taken from the body entered his office also in a great state of excitement. "Here is something strange," he said, "the surgeons have taken a .48 , bullet out of the body but the gun was a .32!" Professor Picard smiled. Here was proof of his contention. The police found themselves faced with a very odd problem. The body of the murdered man lies on the ground. The gun lies near . him. But the gun does not fit in with the wound and was not fired at the time of the murder. What were they to make of it? A Professor's Proposal. Professor Picard's reputation had been so increased by his discovery about the gun that the chief detective asked him to co-operate even more closely the case, and the first thing the scientist (lid Mas to advise, the advertising of the numbers of thq lost bonds. "But," said he, "advertise three of the bonds with their correct numbers and say eight false numbers." The police did not understand his object, but they carried out the plan, and placed a watch on the banks. Sure enough, in. answer to the advertisements, there 1 walked into a bank one morning a weedylooking youth of the sneak thief type, who told the cashier that he had come to claim a reward in connection with three of the bonds which had been advertised as missing. He had hardl.v said what he had come for before a policeman's hand fell on his shoulder and lie was arrested. At the police station a detective began to cross-examine him. "If you don't tell me all you know and where you got those bonds. I'll see you swing for murder," he said in effect. "Murder!" the wretch screamed in terror, protested that he knew nqthing of murder, and had only taken the bonds to the bank to oblige a friend. "Where is this friend?" "f am meeting him at Mauer's in half an hour." Quickly the detectives made their preparations. Disguised aud armed, they sat about in Mauer's cafe, while their chief

[with the arrested man at his side lurked in an inner office. Soon the "friend" arrived ai;d sat down at the table. Suspect Under Arrest. One look at him was enough. The detective knew him as a petty thief and had no fear of him as a desperate criminal, liable to shoot at a sign of danger. He strolled over to him. "Well, Schneikert," he said. "You know me?" The man paled, but did not move. "You are under arrest. You have been in possession of stolen bonds, come along. Don't make a fuss." In this way the police put behind the bars two men connected with the stealing of Voegel's bonds, but there was as yet no explanation of the mystery of Voegel's death.

Again, therefore, the police turned to Professor Picard, to learn to their chagrin that he had left Vienna and had gone to the mountains for a holiday. However, so implicit was the faith placed in him that the authorities decided to get into touch with him on the long-distance telephone. When all that had happened so far had been explained, the professor's advice as to what to do next was asked.

The reply was that the professor would ring up in half an hour. At the end of that time Professor Picard telephoned as promised, but it was to make a strange request. "I want you to go," he said to the detective, "to the exact spot on the bridge where Voegel was found and examine closely the balustrade for marks. Come back and tell me if you find any rccentiymade mark, however small." Detectivcs Puzzled. Puzzled but obedient, the detectives went and there sure enough on the top of the balustrade they found a nick in the stone as if it had been hit by some hard object. Once again they telephoned to Professor Picard. The scientist was quite pleased with himself. "My deductions and observations are working perfectly," he said. "Now go back, get boats and drags, and search the bottom of the Danube beneath the bridge." This in turn was done, and though the police had 110 idea what they were going to find they were certain that something highly interesting would come to light. At the end of an hour's dragging the grapnels brought up a .48 revolver. Nor was this. all. To the butt of it a cord was attached, and to the end of the cord was attached a heavy piece of metal. "Voegel was not murdered, as you sec now," said Professor Picard when this find had been reported to him. "He committed suicide. You had better inform the insurance company at once, or they will be paying out to the relatives needlessly." Theory of Suicide Ruse. Professor Picard was right in every respect. Filial investigations proved that Voegel had been in difficulties for some "time. Hard hit by the state of the country alter the war, he had struggled 011 for some time, maintaining 'an air of prosperity, but had come to the end of his tether at last. Wishing to leave his family provided for, he had though out a way of committing suicide so that it should look like murder, knowing that his insurance policy did not covcr the risk ol suicide. He had fired the .32 revolver a few days .before his final act, and had procured another revolver, to which he attached a cord and weight. Taking money and bonds with him at night on to the bridge he had scattered them about, thrown the .$2 revolver down some feet away, .so that it should look as if it had been dropped by an assassin in flight, and had then got to work with the other revolver. Throwing the cord and weight over the balustrade of the bridge, lie had shot himself through the heart, reckoning 011 the weight immediately snatching the gun from his fingers and hurling it into the ■water below. Knowing that there had been several attacks 011 lonely pedestrians | at night witliiu recent times, he counted 1 on his death appearing to be the work of robbers. 1

Unfortunately for his highly ingenious plan, lie did not seem to have known enough about firearms to realise the difference between a .32 and a .48; nor did he reckon on the scientific aids to detection which the police of to-day number Njhmongst the forces at thendisposal.