MURDERED EGYPTIAN PRINCESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 726, 27 July 1929, Page 20

MURDERED EGYPTIAN PRINCESS

Twelve Years’ Sentence for Baron

Accused of the murder of a "beautiful Egyptian princess, Captain Felix Gartner, the son of an Austrian Field-Marshal, appeared in Court at Vienna. Gartner, who was divorced by his rich English wife, shot the Princess dead at a concert. He had been infatuated by her beauty but, on her father’s orders, the princess had rejected his suit. Gartner teas sentenced to 1:2 years’ penal servitude.

ELIX GARTNER, who bears the title of baron, is 49 years of age. He followed his father’s profession as a cavalry

officer ancl after the war lived on an estate that belonged to his rich wife. Family quarrels soon resulted in divorce, however, and through extravagant living the Baron fell into financial difficulties. He later made the acquaintance of

Mrs. MacGarvev, the rich widow of an English manufacturer, and per3ua de d her to marry him. He obtained considerable sums of money from this wife and the two lived for a time in Vienna, but the Baron met the

Egyptian Princess Zizi and fell desperately in love with her. His English wife, discovering this infatuation, obtained a divorce, and the Baron was thus free to prosecute his suit with the Princess, who was a prominent figure in Viennese society owing to her great beauty and intelligence. Among the witnesses who gave evidence at the trial were the ex-Minister Prince Mouleb Pasha and the Princess Nini. the late Princess’s father and sister. The Baron endeavoured to show the Princess in a bad light, and informed the court that she was sensuous and excitable.

Once, he said, she kissed him in a cafe before many guests. On being remonstrated with she replied, “When a man loves a woman he must be happy if she kisses him before the whole world.” According to the Baron, the Princess frequently boxed his ears in public. The Baron informed the court, further, that the Princess gave

him cause for jealousy. In distraction he drank heavily, and that led to disaster.

A suggestion reminiscent of the Svengali of “Trilby” was made by the Princess’s father, Mouheb Pasha, formerly Egyptian Minister of Finance, later Diplomatic Representative of Egypt in Persia, and now a senator. After requesting that Gartner might be removed while he gave liis evidence. for he could hardly speak with him in sight, the prince stated that he had mple means, and that his daughter received what money she wished.

When the prisoner had been conducted from the court the prince repeated how he received a somewhat childish letter from the baron, asking for the hand of the Princess Djidji. The result of the Prince’s inquiries in Vienna was that he warned his daughter to discoutinue acquaintanceship with Gartner; but the latter persisted in his attentions, and seemed to endeavour to hypnotise her. Prince Mouheb pleaded that the crime and its motive deserved exemplary punishment, and begged that the report of the doctors might be read before the whole world. Te report, read in court, was taken by the public to indicate that the late Princess liad successfully resisted the alleged wouldbe hypnotiser. When Gartner was brought back into the dock he looked as if the whole proceedings bored him.

After sentence had been passed Gartner said, “When my beloved Zizi died I thought, now I will weep no more, but gladly suffer for my beloved.”

The hundred women in court sobbed, but every man smiled sceptically. Capital punishment has been abolished in Austria, and a sentence of penal servitude for life was not imposed because Gartner was partly intoxicated at the time of the murder, and also because of the absence of previous convictions.