KRANZ CASE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 14 February 1928, Page 5

KRANZ CASE

APPALLING REVELATIONS

(By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Australian & N.Z. Cable Association)

BERLIN, 13th February. Revelations in the Kranz case continue to appai the public. The frivolous indifference and brazen mendacity with which Hildegarde Scheller answered the questions of the VicePrefect' of Police is regarded as most shocking when it is remembered that her brother and boy lover were killed practically in her presence. The girl’s callousness is partly explained ;n a discovery made by a policewoman who went to the Scheller home to inquire regarding Hildegarde’s antecedents. She found the girl’s father bentover a table, head in his hands. He was not bowed down by,grief, however, but solving a crossword puzzle. Elinor Ratti, a girl friend of Hildegarde, who visited the house on the night of the murders, was ruthlessly cross-examined, when she attempted to exonerate Kranz at the expense of Scheller.

Kranz was visiting the house of a schoolboy friend named Scheller, others present being a third schoolboy named Stephan and Scheller’s sister, Hildegarde. aged 16, the girl’s parents being absent.

The boys sat up at night drinking liqueurs and talking of love. • The discussion finally turned on death, and Scheller proposed that all four should die.

Scheller shot Stephan and committed suicide, and he was about to commit suicide when the girl snatched the revolver.