MONTE CARLO TRAGEDY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19894, 23 March 1939, Page 2

MONTE CARLO TRAGEDY

MURDER AND SUICIDE (JOUKLK’S track; FATE FEARS OF MADNESS The Prince of Monaco’s carabiniers broke into a flat in Monte Carlo not long ago and found there the bodies of Gerson Wreschncr, an American author, and his wife.

Mrs.y Wreschncr lay on her bed covered with a white sheet strewn with faded white carnations. In the next room her husband bung by a tope from a hook. Both had been dead nearly three weeks.

Lieutenant Garrtis, who leads the princes’ wliite-gioved. fcathcr-hcl-meted bodyguards, told this story of the tragedy:—

“The Wreschners came to live in Monte Carlo in 1936. Several weeks ago they took this small flat.

“Both were aged 61. They lived quietly, and neighbours suspected nothing when they did not appear for a week or more. But to-day, uneasy, they warned us, for Ihe front door of the flat was locked, though file windows were open. “We broke in and saw first the untidy bedroom and the mass of withered flowers, and then the body of Mrs. Wreschncr. She had been shot through the head. "Then wo saw her husband He had climbed on to a chair, put a nc-ose around his neck, kicked the chair away, and at the same moment had shot himself through the temple. Letter to Lawyer The revolver, of Spanish make, had fallen to the floor. On the bureau was a letter he had written to his lawyer, Mr. Carl Larsen, of Copenhagen. It said:— “ ‘My wife is going mad, like her mother. I didn’t want to put her in an asylum, because 1 believe she might suffer there. “‘So I shall wait until she is asleep, and then I'll shoot her. After that I will take my own life. “ “Her mother died in an asylum after several years of suffering. Recently her brother became mad, and he, too, is in an asylum. Kathryn was telling me often that she feared I lie same fate. " ‘She was constantly in tears, refused food for several days, and was frightened to see her doctor for fear of what ho might say. Constantly she said, "Why can’t I die?”

“‘She was affected, too, by the crisis, and 1 think it is better it we die together. We arc happy. “ 'We are not sentimental. We don’t care where we will be buried. We arc just like thousands of others who are tortured every clay.’ “There is a break in the letter here, then the writing goes on: ’Kathryn has just died. I told her I had done that because I loved her. Death is easier than life.’ ” Bom in Denmark Wreschncr closed the letter asking for forgiveness, signed it with a steady hand, and added this footnote lo the caribiniers: “I just want us to be buried in a hole. Please send a copy of this letter to Mrs. Manning, ot Beacon street, Newton Centre, Massachusetts. United States.” Wreschner’s passport showed he .was born in Romders, Denmark, on April 7, 1877, but subsequently became an American citizen. His wife was formerly Kathryn O Bricn, of Boston, Mass.