WOMAN “SCARLET PIMPERNEL”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 1 December 1938, Page 10

WOMAN “SCARLET PIMPERNEL”

RESCUES CONDEMNED MAN _ IBy Air Mail—Special Correapoudeutl LONDON, sth November. At the eleventh hour a condemned man has been rescued from a German prison by a daring coup worthy of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Now a small army of Nazi detectives is scouring Germany while others are on guard at all the frontiers in the hope of capturing a mystery woman who is believed to have organised the escape. The man she freed is Gustave Kellerman, who was born in Alsace under German rule, but belongs to a family that has provided France with two eminent soldiers. Kcllermau was arrested last month and put on trial on a charge of high treason, the allegation being that he had la lien under the spell of a woman and was spying in the interests of France. Sentence ot death by beheading was passed On the day before the execution, three people arrived at the Moabite Prison in the uniform of the Nazi secret police, and the officer presented a signed order for the delivery of the condemned, who was wanted for a final interview with the President of the People's Republic. The trio played their part well, and as the order seemed above suspicion, the prison governor handed over the prisoner, the visitors saying that they would return with him in the afternoon after the rising of the special court. That was the last the governor saw of the prisoner and escort, but when night arrived without news, lie telephoned the court and learned that no such order had been issued and that nothing was known of the escort. The best detectives in the service were immediately told off to trail the quartette and bring them back dead or alive, and the governor was suspended trom office with the intimation that Hitler would hold him personally responsible for the escape .

Ihe police are now certain that the “officer of the escort was a mystery woman who has given them a good deal of trouble lately by aiding French and British spies in Germany. They allege that she is a British subject using many names and many identity papers, and they claim that her real name is Mildred Batten. The escaped prisoner is said to be her lover whom she was about to marry when he was arrested.