GHOSTLY DEATH

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 February 1937, Page 11

GHOSTLY DEATH

MYSTERY OF HAUNTED CHAMBER In the art of murder —and the ghastly business does at times come under such a classification —the Latin, the Teuton, and the Slav are more fantastic and bizarre than the more unimaginative Anglo-Saxon, (writes Lester Crawley in the Winnipeg Free Press). It is amidst the Old World capitals that are to be found the curious, odd, strange, and monstrous in murder. Scientists and psychic specialists from all over Europe were summoned not so long ago as medico-legal experts by the Assize Qourt of Upper Silesia to help to solve one of the weirdest death mysteries in the annals of German crime—a man killed by a “ghost.” The case was that of Anton Holberg, a debonair young squire of a large estate,' who was found dead in his bed in the haunted chamber of the old-world castle of Zustadt. Circling his neck were the distinctive markings of a thin cord suggesting strangulation. Yet there was no evidence of the presence of a second person in the room. The door was locked with the key in the inside and the bolt shot, while the windows were fastened from the inside 1 . For centuries this stronghold of the medieval barons had been associated with a ghost, supposed .to haunt one chamber only. Challenged to put his scepticism to the test by sleeping alone in the chamber, which had not been occupied for many years, the young squire accepted, and retired to the room shortly before midnight. All the household were asleep when, ip the early hours of the morning, precisely at the time when the ghost is supposed to start its wanderings, a cry w r as heard in the haunted chamber. When the aroused family rushed to the spot and forced the door, the occupant was discovered there dead, with a mark around the throat closely resembling that tradition associates with the visitations of the hooded monk. Following an autopsy, performed by the pathologist of the police labratory of Silesia, aided by a distinguished medicolegalist of Berlin, the medical man announced that death was not brought about by any sudden stroke of either heart or brain. They were willing, however, to accept the theory of death from a sudden paroxysm of dread terror, but for the fact of the clear outline of strangulation marks around the neck. And then there was the cry of terror in the small hours of the morning! Though the police held firmly to the theory that Holberg was the victim of a cunning murderer who, for all the bolted doors and windows, knew some way of getting into the haunted chamber, the court held that, in view of conditions within the room, such an explanation was not reasonable. Some of the psychic specialists testified that, in their opinion, the young squire had come to his death through a “ghostly agency.” They contended that the power for good or evil of the ghost was real and that it had once more manifested its power, by visiting with death the man who scoffed the legend. WELL-PLANNED MURDER ? Some medico-legal experts appearing in 'the case explained the tragedy as limply due to a mind which, keyed up to the highest point of excitement when left alone in the room, had imagined the arrival of the ghost. The .cry of agony they put down to the fact that in his nervous and excite.ible state the man had perahps come nit of a none-too-peaeeful slumber and imagined he saw the ghost bending over him.

Though the Coroner’s Court has accepted a tentative verdict of “death Tom an indefinable cause,” the Siles’an police are adamant, in their belief that Holberg was the victim of a cun-ningly-planned murder. Through having dinned into his ears a whole series of weird and terrifying stories concerning the evil machinations of the hooded monk of Zustadt, the young German was literally frightened to death. As the police have pieced the strange story together, the youthful Silesian squire went into the haunted room in a trembling and overwrought state. He was taunted with the significant intimation that, if he failed to make good his boast about sleeping in the illomened chamber, he might be branded as a coward by his friends and neighbours. The clear-cut markings of a thin piece of cord pulled taut around the neck of the victim were, so the police declare, made by one of those present at the dinner on the night of the tragedy. It was during the coffee and liqueurs session, while the discussion about the ghost was at its height, that the strangulation demonstration was made on Holberg with a piece of cord taken Tom a window shade. So violent was the demonstration that it left a visible “rope burn” weal around Holberg’s neck. It was immediately after this that the youth retired to the haunted sleeping chamber. Since those present at the dinner denied that any demonstration of strangulation featured their ghostly discussion, the Coroner’s Court, informed the police that he could not entertain their version of the death, adding, however, that he would keep the case open, pending further inquiries. Murder by fright, or murder by suggestion—that’s the theory upon w’hich the police of Silesia are w’orking to clear up the mysterious death of Antony Holberg. , The police say that they have discovered a most likely motive for the crime, which they will reveal at the proper time.