COWARD OR BRAVE?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13727, 18 April 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

COWARD OR BRAVE?

ROMANCE OF TWO TRAGEDIES. Captain- vox Goknen, who murdered his fellow officer, Major Schoenebeck, at Allenstein, on Christmas Eve, committed suicide recently in his cell in the military prison at Allenstein, the town in which the murder took place. Ca.ptain von Goeben cut open the veins in the back of his neck and his wrists with a knife, which was brought in with his dinner.

The circumstances surrounding the suicide point to the conclusion that the opportunity was deliberately offered Captain von Goeben to escape the gallows by ending his own life, partly out of consideration for him and partly to avoid the disgrace to the officer's regiment caused by the sentence of death which would have certainly been passed on him. Not only has Captain von Goeben escaped the gallows, but all the scandalous revelations which, owing to the circumstances of the crime, would nave been inevitable at the trial, are now avoided.

Captain von Goeben, it will be remembered, shot Major von Schoenebeck dead on the stairs of the former's bouse on Christmas Eve. The captain, who was a friend of the major, had, earlier in the evening, dressed himself as .Santa. Glaus and given toys to the major's children. He had pretended to leave the house at 11 o'clock, but had remained in the hall and then hid in Frau von Schoenebeck's bedroom. Later the major heard footsteps on the stairs, and on going to investigate was shot dead by Captain von Goeben. The murderer subsequently confessed that he committed the crime because he was in love with Frau von {Schoenebeck, On Captain von Goeben's person were found two letters, in which he made a full confession of his guilt and expressed terrible remorse, at the same time declaring that he committed the crime under the influence of Frau von Schoenebeck. He believed that he must have been mentally deranged at the time, but as the brain" specialists had found that he was mentally normal he saw that he was a real criminal and was no longer fit to live after bringing such disgrace on the Prussian Officers' Corps. Captain von Goeben had also made a mostdramatic confession to one of the specialists who examined him. He stated that in November last he bought for Fran von Schoenebeck enough arsenic to kill 200 people, but when it came to taking her husband's life the woman's courage failed h"v. Finally, on Christmas Eve Frau von Schoenebeck made Captain von Goeben swear to her under the Christmas tree at her house that he would kill her husband, and that night Captain von Goeben got into the house. He met Major von Schoenebeck, who was armed with a revolver, in the dining-room, and he tried to explain his presence, but the major, without waiting to hear what ho had to say, pointed his weapon at him. Captain von Goeben, however, shot first, killing him on the spot*