REVOLTING CRUELTY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 76, 25 February 1930, Page 8

REVOLTING CRUELTY.

FIENDISH TREATMENT OF BROTHER. LONDON, Feb. 22. A case of fiendish cruelty, even ieclipsing the Mout Sevello case, is (reported from Berlin. Following the receipt of an anonymous letter, the police discovered on a. farm near Frankfort, on the Oder, a creature that once was a man, with long hair and fingers an dtoes resembling claws. The creature is fifty-five years old. His brother, a wealthy farmer, kept him for twenty-five years in captivity in a back loft, the window of which was not only barred, but also plastered ■up. He was fed with pigwash, and when found was in the filthiest condition. He was utterly naked, and unable to speak an intelligible word. He resembled an ape rather than a human being. As his rescuers entered Ins prison be shrank back, covering his face with bis hands, and uttered a series of pitiable, inarticulate sounds. He could not walk, and had to be carried to hospital. When fed on a dish of bread and milk, he plunged both hands into the basin, and tho nurses had to feed him with a spoon like a baby. AVhat makes the crime worse is that his mother’s will specifically allotted the wealthy brother £6OO to help maintain the half-witted son. The brother was arrested after he bad threatened three detectives with a shotgun. The doctors sav that the victim has suffered so much mentally and physically from his confinement that it is impossible that he will ever be an intelligent human being aga*n.

Tho Mont Sevello case referred to in the message was reported on Saturday. A ■woman aged 30 was Locked up for three years in a small, dark unheated cellar, which was in an indeseribaly foul condition. The unfortunate creature was clothed in a few rags which had to bo sonked in water before being cut off with a pair of scissors. She is the merest skeleton and her hair is quite grey. Her scanty food supply was pushed through a small hole in tho wall, ilor parents were arrested.