ALLEGED THREATS TO KILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

ALLEGED THREATS TO KILL.

"GESMAN SPY" IN COUET.

TELEGRAMS TO HIS WIFE.

A man -who has' recently earned some notoriety, Karl Gustavo Hentschel, teacher of languages, figured in another extraordinary case a few weeks ago. when he was charged at Chatham with having sent telegrams to his wife, Patricia, threatening to murder her, on October 22, and with having on October 21 threatened to shoot her. On Octiober 21 Hentschel gave himself up to the jLondon police as a spy. and on November 18, after several remands, the charge against him under the Official Secrets Act was withdrawn, and he was set at liberty. He was rearrested in London on November 22 on an information laid by his wife.

Richard Saunderson, a clerk in the Accountanfe-GeneraTs Department, General Post Office;, London, produced the original telegrams which* were handed in at the post office—one at the Central Telegraph Office and the other at London Bridge, South-Eastern Railway. Inquiries were made with regard to the other telegrams, but the originals could not be found. Arthur Edgar Kimber, overseer at the Post Office, Chatham, stated that he made search for certain telegrams which had been delivered. They were handed to aim to trace. They had. passed through the Chatham Post Office. He sent them to the secretary at the General Post Office. London, ana fee had not seen them since. I The magistrate inquired who was responsible for this extraordinary conduct. The telegrams were actually evidence, he thought, in the custody of the court. Mr. Passby : They were handed by tne police to the Post Office, and they yet© sent to London.

The Magistrate: They were in evidence when Mrs. Hentschel received them, and they were shown and produced to me. They -were conveyed to the Post Office, and the Post Office proceeded to lose them', .It is a most extraordinary state of affairs. There were plenty of complaints of people losing private letters, but I never heard anything like this sort of thing. , Witness said the telegrams were not exactly lost, but they had got- into the wrong channel. Prisoner Shot At. Witness produced the- original top copies of three telegrams, all dated October 22. Mrs. Hentschel, who is called "Pat" by her relatives and intimate friends, identified these copies, and said they were delivered to her in person, and she opened them. One was addressed to her at Weybridge as follows: — t "Have tried to get you on telephone. even with aid of polka Impossible. Can only tell you if you do not turn up: at home within twenty-four hours, God help your babies." ,\.. : ~ The second telegram was addressed to Riley, 82, Pagitt Street, : Chatham: Tell Patricia to stop her madness. Charles absolutely desperate. Will do for her one way or another. No chance after 10 p.in. to-night." In reply to Mr. Button, witness said her husband returned from Australia on September 23, and, last letter she received from him was written -in fairly affectionate terms. She believed he was staying with her.mother up to Septemberi 29. and that day he went to London under an assumed name,' and remained 'there up to October. He told her/that he was being shadowed by foreigners. During his stay in London he wrote to her at Weybridge, asking her to return, to hjm. ■ * Mr. Button: Are you aware -that on the night of November 20 or early in the morning of the 21st he was shot at while coming across the lines from Gillingham? ; The Magistrate: Shot at? v V '•■'-■ v Mr. Button: Yes. .. , , . •.;'.' ■, Witness: . I heard it afterwards-. ■- Emily Alice Pelling, wife of George Pelling, an er^ineroom'.artificer' in the Royal Navy, stated that Mrs. Hentschel was her sister. .•„■'.■ She heard prisoner threaten"'lo shoot his wife and a t man. .v German Secret ■ "Agent;' Suv '. y? *\ j Cross-examined *>y Mr. Button, witness |6aid her husband, was ■.-'£ gunboat; It I was true that a Captain Fells, 'a foreigner, had visited at her house, out she did not i know that he was in the German secret service. , ;.,-..',; v :..:■_<>' , ":.„4- 't\<i j Mr. Button: , May I take it that on- No[member 20 and 21 this man was : behaving: more like a madman than anything else, j through (bin* '?—Yes. '""',' , V . i Pohce-aergeant' "Ransley ' said .;' accused '"'■ came to the Rochester police station about 8 p.m. on November 21, and asked whether :he was right in carrying a revolver, seeing that he had a gun license. Prisoner I was sober. Witness,asked him where the revolver was, and he produced a revolver, and said it was' loaded ■'• in ten chambers. Witness asked why; he was -carrying a : loaded jevolver, and,accused replied* <T want it ,for my own protection. ' As I was; crossing Chatham Lines this morning at a quarter, to one I was shot at." Witness said, "Do you suspect anybody?" and accused replied, "Yes, Captain Fells, from the secret service of the German Navy. : If I had bad this ; instrument I could have i stopped him. I could stop'anybody at 200 yards." : - ■* :U - j..j 1 Edith Riley, a young . woman, sister to; Mrs. Hentschel, gave corroborative ' evi- : dence as to the. revolver incident on No- -\ vember 21. Accused said, "This is for! Gilbert and Pat." . ?]

Li reply to Mi. Dutton, witness said Captain Fells had not been staying at the hoai*. She had not seen him there since September. The Magistrate: When is he next expected? (Laughter.) • Mr. Dutton: He was reported dead, and he came there again. Witness: No.

After evidence of the accused's arrest had been given, Hentschel was committed for trial at the Kent Winter Assizes, which will be held at Maidstone in, Fabeuary.