CASTLE TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13781, 20 June 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

CASTLE TRAGEDY.

BARONESS SHOOTS HER HUSBAND. A terrible domestic tragedy is reported from Dortmund. Baroness Wanda von Ruexleben, it is stated, shot her husband in the family castle at Buddenberg, and then attempted to commit, suicide. The baroness, who was only twenty-six years of ag-?, was married last November to Baron Udo von Ruexleben. who belonged to the old Thuringian nobility, and was nine years his wife's senior. The wedding was solemnised at the Emperor William Memorial Church, Berlin, under circumstances of unusual brilliancy, officers of the Guard forming an escort for the and many members of Court societv being present. But the marriage which promised so well did not turn out well. Baron Ruexleben neglected his wife, and, it is alleged, sought feminine company elsewhere. On the other side, the. baroness, who was a tall blonde of unusual beauty,/had, even as Wanda von Strombeck, a reputation of making somewhat extravagant claims on life. She was wont to declare that she would only marry a prince, or, at least, make quite an exceptionally dazzling match. At the age of twenty, without the knowledge of her family, she published a volume of love poems. These compositions were of so ardent a nature that her relatives, when they got -wind of the matter, bought up the entire edition. - Still another version is that the couple suffered severelv from financial embarrassments, whether because of the wife's extravagance or the husband's liberality to the friends to whom the baroness objected, is not clear. CRISIS KXrECTKD. It is certain, however, that the baron anticipated a. crisis, for in his study was found a letter, in which he had written: — "My wife seems to me rather queer; one never knows what may happen," and proceeded to make certain testamentary dispositions with regard to the schloss. He is also reported to have expressed fears that his wife would shoot, him. His forebodings were justified. He went out to spend the evening with a friend, Baron von Romberg, on an adjoining estate. It is said that the wife asked to be allowed to accompany him, but that her request was somewhat roughly refused. Soon after midnight the baron returned. lie entered his wife's boudoir, where she was awaiting him, and a violent altercation broke out. Finally, the baroness fired with an automatic pistol at her husband, one bullet entering his jugular vein, another piercing his neck, and two others striking him in the legs. The baron's cousin, Baron von Poseck, was the first to be aroused by the shots, and when he rushed into the corridor the baron fell reeling into bis arms, gasping, "The woman has shot me." Those were his only words before, he bled to death. Meanwhile, two more reports were heard, and the servants, rushing into the boudoir, found the baroness lying on the floor, still clasping a Browning pistol, and with two bullet wounds in the region of the heart. Her condition was so serious that a doctor, who was fetched from, the neighbouring town with all speed., pronounced at once that her life could not be saved. > Sho declared that her life had become unbearable, and that her extreme unhappiness and despair caused her to commit ♦this desperate act. "I loved him too j well," she exclaimed, "and he loved an-' lather woman." -