SON’S CRIME FOR LOVE

Southland Times, Issue 20525, 29 June 1928, Page 8

SON’S CRIME FOR LOVE

SICK MOTHER POISONED. REMARKABLE GERMAN CASE. A remarkable case of matricide from motives of charity has set the Berlin criminal courts a difficult problem. The woman was suffering from an affection of the heart, with grave complications and was discharged from one of the 'leading hospitals as incurable. For months she lingered on at home, suffering agonies of pain which made sleep almost impossible and there came a time when she could not swallow a particle of nourishment, so that she was threatened by death from starvation.

The son and daughter of the woman nursed her devotedly, sitting up night after night at her bedside, and during these weary vigils she repeatedly implored them to put an end to her intolerable and hopeless sufferings. Early one morning in June, 1925, after a sleepless night passed with his mother, the son decided to release her from her torments. As an apprentice to a dentist he had access to poisons, and he gave the unhappy woman an overdose of a soporific dissolved in a glass of water. After drinking this she tranquilly fell asleep and passed away. In spite of the benevolence of his motive, which is not questioned, the fact preyed upon his mind, and some time back he attempted suicide. It is characteristic of the case that this act was attributed by the son’s relations and friends to grief at the death of his mother, whom he was known to love devotedly. The true reason was disclosed only a few weeks ago when the gossip of servants brought suspicion on the young man, who is now only 26. He was examined by the police and without a moment’s hesitation admitted what he had done. He will be tried for murder, but, as is very unusual in connection with capital charges, it was ordered that he be left at liberty until the hearing.