MOTHER-IN-LAW MURDERED.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 20, 18 October 1907, Page 7

MOTHER-IN-LAW MURDERED.

$ — DEATH SENTENCE. '''' f - ■ VICTIM SUMMONED BY' TELEPHONE. BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPTRIGHT. London, October 16. Tho appeal of Dr. Carl Hau against tljo sontonce of death passed upon him , lias been rojected and tho' sentence ; has been ''con-. Karl Hau, aged twenty-six, a German-Ameri-can lawyer, was charged with: murdering his mother-in-law, Frau Molitor,' widow of Privy Councillor Molitor, on November 7, 1906, on the promenado at Baden-Baden,, for the - purpose of obtaining possession'of her fortune' of J250,000, to : which his wife became entitled (>n her mother's deatlh Whilo he was awaiting his trial, bis .wife committed suicide, leaving a will that her child should assume another name—which action was. construed'.'to meau that she believed her husband guilty of murdering her , mother. Itwwars r ,also'-.al-leged that Ilau had his wifo's sister and with other women. Evidence was given that on tho day of the murder Hau went to Baden-Baden and telephoned' Frau Molitor that it was urgently necessary that sho should call at the post office in, connection with a mysterious telegram which she received in Paris. Frau Molitor started for tho post offico with her daughter Olga, and 1 a few steps from the villa was shot dead. The assassin (led, and Olga Molitor cried "Help!" It was further alleged that Hau took a train which started from Karlsruhe twenty minutes after the murder was committed, having meantimo taken off. a wig and false beard. Dr. Hau comes of a good family. His father was formerly a member of the Reichstag. Ho studied at the universities ■of Berlin, Freiberg, and Bologna, and when nineteen years of age married Fraulein Lina Molitor, who was six years older than himself. Tho young couple immediately proceeded to America, where Dr. Hau soon established himself as a lawyer at Washington, and became a' member of the most fashionable clubs. In Now York ho becamo acquainted- with President Roosevelt, Mr. Pierpont Morgan, Mr. Rockefeller, and in his professional capacity represented the Standard Oil Company m its action against the Chinese Government, winning thoreby a princely fee.; :Whon an American syndicate, headed by . Mr.. , Rockefeller, started operations in the Near East in 1905, Dr. Hau was despatched- as; an, emissary to. Constantinople. His influence at Constantinople was, it is said, undermined by his boing denounced as an anarchist to Fohirn Pasha, Chief of tho Sultan's secret police. (Feliim was sentenced this year to exilo, on. tho repre-, : sentations of the Powers, which.accused him' of' oxtortion.) • , . . ~