SHOT BY MISTAKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13485, 11 May 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHOT BY MISTAKE.

RUSSIAN GIRL'S POLITICAL' CRIME. n ■ .'■■■'■'■ LENIENT SENTENCE. Although the crime took place so long ago as /last/September, it was not until the end of, March that the old Swiss town of ,Thun was the , scene T of a remarkable murder trial, in which the tragedy of a girl revolutionist's mistake was ; mixed up with the drama of Russian political assassinations. . , '//

The prisoner was Tatiana Leontieff, a pallid, slender girl, with brown hair and bright, dark-blue eyes. Amongst those in court were her father and mother, the former ; having being a governor of a Russian province. ;'/■'./ .;, '

Tatiana Leontieff committed the sensational murder on September 1 last, at the Jungfrau -Hotel, ; Interlaken. i> Her victim was a Frenchman named Muller, a, wellknown Parisian, aged seventy-three. While the dining-room of the hotel was crowded with guests she suddenly drew a revolver, and shot him /dead., She was staying at the hotel under an. assumed name, and stated, after she had been deprived of her weapon, that the man she had killed had been condemned to death by the Russian.' Revolutionary committee. It caused some surprise that M. Midler should have been mixed lip in Russian politics, but it subsequently transpired '< that the woman had mistaken him for M. Durnovo, Russian Minister of y the : Interior, who had been staying a month previously at Interlaken, but at 'a different hotel. As to her own identity, the assassin refused any information, but the police discovered that she was the daughter. of M. Leontieff, > ViceGovernor of Tourgai. Tatiana had been known to the police in Russia, but 'was permitted to leave the country, in order to enter a sanatorium -in Switzerland. * At school she was an intelligent, highlygifted pupil. She was also a \ pretty and charming girl. Between the ages of 15 and 16 she came into contact with a num-! ber of Russian students and refugees at Lausanne, and imbibed their revolutionary ideas. ■. ;;," ;. ~' /...-• ; : \: , ~/"/ ■; During the winter 1904-5 Tatiana was at j St. Peterburg, staying with her uncle, who is ; a Court Chamberlain. - There she was 1 an eye-witness, of the terrible scenes of i January 22, Vladimir's day, when Father Gapon's workmen were massacred before the Palace. '.', / At that time the murder of General Trepoff was being plotted. Tatiana was personally acquainted with the Trepoff family, and took an active part in procuring bombs for his destruction. /':/"/' ; '-/ THE TRIAL. .' < _' After the story of the crime had been related, in court, prisoner gave evidence. She said she was a member of the Russian revolutionary party, and the task had been assigned her of assassinating M. Durnovo. The President: "Do you regret having killed an innocent man in M. Muller?" ' " Yes, but I do not take it to heart, for M. Muller was a capitalist and no friend of the people," answered ; prisoner. Some Russian students had intended to garland the bench on which prisoner was to sit with flowers, but were prevented. . A sensation was caused by the prisoner declaring that she had refused to make any statement at the perliminary inquiry into the murder because she had been ill-treat-ed. According ■to her statement the examining magistrate wished to have her photographed for the tenth time, and she refused. Whereupon, in spite of all she could say, the magistrate and all the gendarmes tore off her dress, the gendarmes holding her hands, while the magistrate took her by the throat, She then spat in the magistrate's face, and said that she would answer no ' questions. - _ ; A. gendarmery corporal explained as she resisteu being photographed force was used, and it had been necessary to hold her hands. / "

The next witness was the magistrate Lauener himself. He first denied using violence towards the .girl. . . ; I.; "Why did you not mention the incident in the dossier?" asked: the president of the j court.—Lauener.' was so confused by this question that he could give no reply. }/;,''Did I not spit in your face?" demanded the girl."Certainly not," replied Lauener. •■■'/' . .-./ .'. ; ''; - ■-; ./ ; -'' : ..;-

■ The girl drew herself up in the dock, and in tones of contempt exclaimed, " I would like to repeat the operation, you coward." The president interposed with the remark, "I consider the act was done," and added that he would report the magistrate's conduct. _ :■■' The magistrate retired from ; the witnessbox discomfited, arid, his place was taken by the governor of the prison, who said that Lauener ordered the girl to be deprived of water or books, including the Bible./ ! -Mile. Masson, of Lausanne, gave details of . the mental / condition of ■■; the accused, i She said that Leontieff informed her that once when she saw on a table a bouquet of roses she could not restrain herself from eating them.' ."- ■;- ■*:; : ■ , - ;; ; : '- - ! A painful sensation was caused, by the I prisoner's heart-broken parents breaking down under the strain. Tatiana Leontieff was then found guilty of the murder of M. Muller, the retired Parisian banker. - The jury added, however, that there were extenuiting circumstances,, and that she acted in a condition of "diminished freedom of .: will" —referring to - the plea that she was controlled by a revolutionary organisation. . Accordingly, sentence of four years' imprisonment was passed, to date from: the time of her arrest, so that | only three and a-lialf years remain, with banishment from tho canton for twenty years/and a nominal fine of one franc. Although the family of M. Muller demanded no compensation, a civil process for the nominal damages of one franc was uecessary, in order that they might be represented at the trial. - >