KRIVITSKY’S DEATH

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 119, 13 February 1941, Page 8

KRIVITSKY’S DEATH

Authorities Hold Case Open

NEW YORK, February 11.

The “Daily Mirror” in a copyright feature article quotes M. Alexander Kerensky (Russian Prime Minister of 1917) as alleging that General Krivitsky, whose body was found in a hotel room in Washington, was murdered on the Kremlin’s orders by “the Soviet’s most vicious murderer, whose favourite tactic is to drive a man to suicide by threatening to torture his family.” In spite of the foregoing and many other theories, the authorities accept the coroner’s verdict of suicide. Nevertheless, they are holding the ease open.

Krivitsky’s lawyer, Mr. Louis Waldman, who earlier stated it was certain that the general had been murdered, conceded after examining the note found-in the hotel bedroom that “everything looks like suicide,” but said that he did not accept the authenticity of the notes pending further investigation. A police handwriting expert said he had no doubt that the entry in the hotel register and the notes were written by the same man. The Coroner, tyflile giving suicide as the verdict, said that he would leave the case open till Mr. Waldman’s suspicions had been proved or disproved. [A message published yesterday stated that the Coroner’s certificate was issued under the name of Walter Poref. alias Samuel Ginsberg. Other persons identified the body as that of General Krivitsky, who purported to be a former Soviet espionage chief and was the author of articles on the internal workings of the Kremlin.]