ANXIOUS FOR DEATH.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 December 1924, Page 7

ANXIOUS FOR DEATH.

MURDERER CONDEMNED

REMARKABLE GERMAN CASE.

YOUTHS DONE TO DEATH

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Dec. 21, 5.5 p.m. London, Dec. 20. The Berlin correspondent of the Daily Telegraph states that the Meath sentence was passed twenty-four times on the Hanover vampire, Haarman, "who was accused of the murder of twentyseven youths, the court holding that the three other cases were not proved. Some alienists estimate his atrocious and loathsome crimes to number at least fifty. Haarman in most cases made most detailed confessions. He spent days on the grim narrative of hew he cut up the bodies and disposed of the fragments. Judgment was pronounced under unparalleled circumstances. The police had received news that a notorious fanatic was en route to the court with the avowed intention of shooting Haarman after sentence was passed in order to prevent any appeal for mercy. Every person entering the court was searched for arms, and when the judges entered armed gendarmes took up their position in front of the dock.

Haarman listened to the sentences without wincing, and replied: “I accept the judgment fully and without reservation. I am not mad, though often in a state when I know nothing. Make it short. Deliver me from life, which is a torment. I will not petition for mercy or appeal. I have made things easy for you. Make it easy for me.” Haarman will long puzzle criminal psychologists. The evidence indicated that in ordinary life he was goodnatured and friendly; yet the bulk of his grisly narrative was delivered in a tone of cheerful complacence. He spoke for hours of the foulest and most atrocious things without revealing a trace !of moral consciousness, but faltered when he mentioned his mother.