SHOT AT THE WHEEL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20958, 22 February 1930, Page 3

SHOT AT THE WHEEL.

BARON WHO DROVE A TAXI. SCENT AS MURDER CLUE. BAFFLING GERMAN CRIME. One of the most baffling crime problems ever presented to the German police has caused a sensation in the neighbourhood of Berlin. “ Expert detectives, with the assistance of bloodhounds,' have up to a few weeks ago been beaten in the hunt for the slayer of Baron Ewald von Sohalepansky, the exofficer son of extremely wealthy parents, living in Wiesbaden. A workman, proceeding one morning along a main road which traverses a stretch of lonely flat country on the outskirts of Berlin, encountered a taxicab standing with the headlights on. He went up to it. and saw the chauffeur leaning, apparently asleep or drunk, over his wheel while the taximeter still ticked on. He shook the man, thinking to wake him,' and, to his horror,. found he was dead. t , • The workman summoned the -police, who, on arrival, found that the chauffeur —who was the Baron of Schalepansky—had been shot from behind, and had been dead about four hours. Two bullets from a revolver of tiny calibre, such, as is used frequently by women, had neatly punctured the nape of his neck, causing instant death. .

Hr Scholz, chief of the Prussian criminal police, and- two famous detectives, Chief Inspector Werneburg, and Dr Bartsch. answered the telephone call of the workman and motored to the scene of the crime, ; where they , were, faced with a dramatic problem. What' had happened was easily reconstructed: A fare must have taken the taxi in Berlin and expressed the wish, to be driven to some distant place.. That the car had, come a long ,\vay was shown by the fact that the clock indicated 30s. Arriving at a desolate corner, the passenger had silently plid aside the glass window separating him from the dnver, and had then fired a small calibre revolver twice behind the latter’s ear. ISo quickly did it happen that the chauffeur had hardly moved, and had not stopped the engine. In his death agony he had put foot on the brake and brought the taxi to a standstill. The passenger then robbed the victim and disappeared in the darkness.

One puzzling feature of the crime was that nowhere in the mud around, the cab, or in the vehicle " itself, could the slightest trace of a human being be found. Only a vague odour of perfume from the cushions told of the mysterious passenger who had been the unfortunate taximan’s last fare.

“ It seems incredible that tha murderer in stepping out of the taxi cab, should have left no footmarks in the mud,” Dr Bartsch stated, “yet this is fthe case. The perfume is our only clue at present/’ The fact that the murdered baron is known to have led a double life adds a further complication to the case. An educated and handsome man of 33, he had won distinction in the war. His father is a well-known doctor in Wiesbaden named Pordom. ' After a business failure, he quarrelled with his family and went to live with an aunt, Baroness ocnalepanßky, a landscape painter, who ad °Pt e d him, giving him her name. , Z 7 earning a livelihood as a taxidriver, the baron found time to mix in the society to which he had been accustomed. Earning good money, he kept on working so that he could freely keep up a good appearance. He preferred to work during the night; so that he could dress in time to mix with fashionable people at public and private lunches and teas, where he was alwaysa welcome guest. , The baron it is stated, visited London with an idea that there was a prospect of a marriage with a rich English woman. He soon returned disconsolate, as the woman chose another. He should have had many marks in his possession when he was shot and robbed, for he was nearing the end of a 24-hours shift which, he had_ told his aunt, he proposed to work in order that they might have funds for Christmas. •