DARING BANDIT CAUGHT

Evening Star, Issue 21036, 25 February 1932, Page 6

DARING BANDIT CAUGHT

AMAZING EXPLOITS midnight; motor chase. 'A midnight motor car chase in Berlin recently brought to book a picturesque and original bandit, Heinrich Kasprick. For weeks he had terrorised, singlehanded, the district known as the Spreewald, which the River Spree traverses by a hundred channels. Liberated from a long term of penal servitude, Kasprick returned to his native village, Byhleguhre. For some time ho kept himself by poaching, but during one of his nocturnal prowls he was challenged by a gamekeeper, whom he shot and wounded. Kasprick escaped, but he had been recognised, and the police were once more on his track. On December 12 the gendarmerie learned that Kasprick was again at home, and they surrounded his house in considerable force. Several of the men entered. Kasprick ran up into' the garret, climbed through a skylight on to the roof, and jumped to the ground over the beads ,of the astonished gendarmes beneath. As he dashed through the garden they fired a volley after him, but it was dark, and he escaped again. On Christmas Day came the news that Kasprick had spent Christmas Eve, the greatest of German festivals, at his home in the village. But a greater surprise was in store. On the evening of Boxing Day a strange man, singing merrily, entered one of the village inns. He was attired in a huntsman’s uniform, with top boots, and wore _ a shaggy beard. In spite of this disguise, he was quickly recognised as Kasprick, but the two formidable-looking pistols at his belt enforced respect. Taking a seat at the table, the bandit greeted his acquaintances jovially. He remarked that anyone who attempted to win the reward of 500 marks (£25) offered by the police for his capture had better put his affairs in order before doing so. No one made the venture.

Kasprick stayed' in the inn for half an hour and then sauntered down the village street to a dance hall. Here he went straight up to the platform from which he repeated his threat against “ traitors.” At his command the band then played his " favdurite song,” as he called it, ‘ The Flower of Hawaii.’ He sang this song loudly, and then walked out of the hall.

When Kasprick was run to earth he was in the motor car of a local doctor, whose daughter he had saved from drowning some years ago.