HIS OWN MURDERER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21951, 12 May 1933, Page 10

HIS OWN MURDERER

MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE

STRANGE CASE IN POLAND

All the classic stories of miscarriages of justice pale into insignificance when compared with the unprecedented experience of a former Stepney tailor who spent 12 terrible years in the salt mines ot Poland expiating the crime of killing — himself. ' . ~ A dramatic errand to Cracow shortly after the war and an exchange of identities with an old comrade-in-arms placed the tailor in his frightful predicament. It was only by a chance that he escaped the death penalty. Thanks to the intervention ftf the famous pianist, M. Paderewski, the true state of affairs has now been brought to light and the Londoner released from his living tomb. Pale and broken in health, a shadow of his former self, Michael Volmski.U former member of the Jewish colony m the East End of London, who was eraployed as a tailor in Stepney, has staggered forth to freedom from the salt mines of Poland after the most amazing miscarriage of justice on record . Volinski was working at his trade in Stepney when the war broke out, and, being a Pole, with no sympathy for Kussia, he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. Afterwards he transferred to the Polish units raised in the German and Austrian parts of the ancient kingdom to fight with the Allies. ;.. , The war over, he returned to the Jiast End of London, but hearing rumours concerning the conduct of his wife, who had gone to Cracow, he decided to. pay her a surprise visit. Fearing that quick recognition might put his wife on her guard, he sought for some form of disguise, ills plans were favoured by a chance encounter in Paris with Samuel Liptnitz, a former comrade-in-arms, with whom he exchanged identities. The two arrived in Cracow together; but Volinski was now known as Samuel Liptnitz. Unfortunately, while Volinski, under his assumed name, was keeping watch on his wife, the real Liptnitz drifted into the underworld of Cracow, and was there murdered in the course of a drunken brawl. The body was badly disfigured, and identification would have been difficult but for the fact that the clothes contained Volinski's papers. Furthermore, the latter's wife identified the dead man as her husband. . Satisfied that it was Volinski who had been murdered, the police sought the man who had accompanied him to Cracow. The real Volinski was soon in custody. On him was found the only, property he had retained when he made the ' changeover " with Liptnitz—a gold watch and a bank book. That seemed to be damning proof of his guilt, and he was arrested at once on the charge of murdering Michael Volinski—himself! His vehement protests that he was the man he was accused of slaying were ridiculed as an impudent invention, and when the jury found him guilty the judge severely admonished him for trifling with justice by setting up such a defence. The only real evidence against him was his owr. property and his association with the other man before the crime. That appeared convincing enough. Still, there were some who were not convinced, and it was only their agitation that prevented the death sentence being enforced. Volinski was sent to penal servitude in the salt mines. He remained iii servitude for 12 years before f.he truth came out through the avowal of the real murderers of Liptnitz. As a result of the intervention of the famous pianist, M. Paderewski.a full inquiry was ordered, and Volinski has now been restored to liberty.