GERMAN BANDIT SHOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20088, 27 October 1928, Page 13

GERMAN BANDIT SHOT.

REFUGE TAKEN IN VILLA.

LAST BATTLE WITH POLICE.

CLEVER DETECTIVE KILLED

Australian and N.Z. Press Association. COLOGNE. Oct, 25

Tlic escaped bandit. Johann Heiddcr, who escaped after lie and four other men had tried to rob a bank at Glad bach and had killed five of their pursuers, was discovered in a largo villa near Cologne.

There lie had contrived to remain during the day, unnoticed and wandering from room to room, dodging the occupants, until a maidservant aceidentnly discovered him in the cellar. When she gave the alarm the bandit cut the telephone wires and barricaded himself in a second floor bedroom.

Over 100 gendarmes were soon at the spot, arid the owner of the villa and hia family were removed to safety. The police donned bullet-proof clothing and began to search the house. When the.* found the room they hacked a hole in the door, but it was heavily barricaded with furniture. '

Tlicy summoned him to surrender, but Heidder replied with a pistol shot. The police returned the fire through the hole, Heidder then fired on the police in the street, who replied with carbines. After Heidder had killed a policeman the police hurled three grenades into the room. Heiddcr feigned surrender but fired again, upon which the police shot and inflicted seven wounds in his head, chest and stomach. A curious feature of the case is that the, bandit scribbled affectionate letters to his father, brothers, sisters and fiancee while behind the barricade. To his father he wrote that the time was passing quickly and that the police were already coming. "Thank you for your kindness" he wrote. "Help mother by kindness to bear the terrible blow." He also wrote to the Public Prosecutor asking him to be lenient to the third man, who was captured on Saturday, saying that he seduced the third man into the crime.

The police victims include Philip Volmer, a brilliant detective, responsible for the arrest of Frank Swaboda, who murdered a New Zealand soldier at Mullieim, in 1919.

The crime for which Swciboda was sentenced was the murder of a Ncfw Zealand soldier, Lance-Corporal Cyril Cromar, 15th Ota go Infantry, on February 7, 1919. Swaboda fled to unoccupied territory the day after the murder, and it was six years before he was traced and brought (o justice. The case caused considerable interest in this country, and was given prominence in the press. The trouble arose over the New Zealander's friendship with a German girl, Swaboda, who was then 19 years of age, went out on an expedition with the intention of preventing German girls from consorting with British soldiers. About 8.50 p.m. the party were walking along the Rhine bank where they found LanceCorporal Cromar and another soldier with two German girls. Swaboda passed some comment to which the New Zealander took exception, but the Czecho-Slovakian put a stop to any argument by drawing a revolver and shooting the other. The sentence of death which was delivered by the German Court was commuted to imprisonment for life by the General Officer Commanding in Chief of the Rhine Forces.