Murdered man was miserable sadist — wife

Press, 12 April 1978, Page 9

Murdered man was miserable sadist — wife

'NZPA Melbourne Frederick Krope, the father of Miss Australia, Gloria Krope, was a sadist, and a compulsive gambler, which resulted in one of his children attempting suicide and another having a nervous breakdown, Krope’s wife told the Melbourne Coroner’s Court yesterday. Mrs Josephine Krope, told the Court that her husband would not give Gloria a party when she won the Miss Australia title in October, 1977, because it would cost money. Mrs Krope also told the Court that one Christmas. Krope gave his children only i an orange and a shilling leach. The Coroner (Mr H. W. Pascoe, 5.M..) and Mr B. M. Gillman, S.M., were holding an inquest on Frederick Krope, who was 55. They found that Krope! died from the effects of multiple bullet wounds un--lawfully, maliciously, and feloniously inflicted by William Frederick Krope — Krope’s son — in ■ December last year. Mr Pascoe and Mr Gillman directed William Krope to stand trial at the Suprem Court in Melbourne on May 1 on a charge of murdering his father. In a signed statement read to the Court, Mrs Krope said that her husband had continually gambled before they were married but had promised to give up gambling if she married him. Mrs Krope’s statement said: “We were always in debt. He would always deprive the children of necessary and unnecessary? things. “Life dragged on with my! husband still gambling. He would always pick on the I kids. He was always hitting • Bill.” Mrs Krope said that her husband forced William to i work in a garage at the |back of their house before 'and after school. She said that William had never had a holiday. i

Mrs Krope told the Court that her son worked with his father in the garage, making things out of wood, to finance her husband’s gambling. She said that the family lived on the money she earned. She also said that in July, 1976, William Krope moved into a flat and later that month he was found in the flat in a sleeping bag next to a kerosene heater with his wrists slashed. Mrs Krope said when she told her husband to see their son in hospital he told her: “I am not going near him — I don’t have a son.” She said that William then moved back home, but had told her “Why didn’t I die? I don’t want to be here with my father again.” Mrs Krope told the Court she told William on December 21, last year, that I she was going to kill her! • husband because: “I can’ti I take any more.” i She said that later that] 'night “Bill came in the; i house and got a gun.” She 1 said she went out into the i kitchen and her husband! came into the house. ! “I heard a shot and my I husband hit the floor. ! “Bill then emptied the i gun. His father was still 'moving.” She said that William then reloaded the magazine of the .22 rifle and emptied the magazine into his father again. Answering a question (from Mr Frank Galbally, for William Krope, Mrs Krope! said that her husband bored holes in a wall to the bathroom and that he sometimes watched Gloria and Rosemary when they were having a shower. ’ Mr Galbally: He was a very' cruel man? | Mrs Krope: Sadistic. Had he been in the army! in the war? — Yes. What; army? — Hitler’s army, i When Mr Pascoe asked i 'William Krope if he had; anything to say, Krope re-. iplied: “I am not guilty.” I