MAN WHO KILLED FAMILY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143770, 19 April 1912, Page 5

MAN WHO KILLED FAMILY.

HOPELESS CONSUMPTIVE. Tho murderer of Julius Schultz (.1 Berlin jeweller), his wife, and daughter, ha* just been caught at Zittau, in Saxony. He is a young locksmith, named Oswald Trenkler. The cr nio was perpetrated on January 17. Trenkier's arrest was entirely due to his own impudence, while he was trapped in examination by the Berlin Commissioner of Police into betraying himself. Ho saw an advertisement in which a dealer offered to buy secondhand jewellery. Trenkler answered, but as several of the articles ho mentioned as being desirous of selling corresponded with those on a list of jewellery which had been stoh r. at the time of the murders the dealer communicated with the police, and Trenkler was arrested. Many of the missing articles were discovered in his room at his father’s house in a villiago near Zittau. In the ashes of the stove were also found remains of the price tickets on which Schultz’s name was still legible. Yet when examined by the Berlin Commissioner Trenkler persisted in denying that he was the murderer, and accounted for his possession of the jewellery by saying that he had bought it from a stranger. For hours he adhered to this story, hut at last, when practically worn out, the Commissioner rapped out, “What did you do with the bank-book?” Unthinkingly, Trenkler answered, “I burnt it!” When he realised how hopelessly he had incriminated himself Trenkler made a full confession. He said he loft home on January 16, intending to go to Goerlitz and consult a doctor about his lungs, hut was persuaded by a fellowtraveller to sock admission into one of tho Berlin hospitals. Finding himself on tho following day penniless in Berlin, he decided to attempt a. robbery. and fixed upon the shop of Schultz, where ho had bought one or two articles on a previous visit. When he entered the shop no one else was there, hut Frau Schultz came in as he was in the act of rifling the cases in the window. He tried to make off, hut was stopped by the woman, who seized his arm. Picking up the hammer, which was lying near, ho struck her on the head and killed her. Tho daughter then came in. and, seeing her mother lying on the floor, screamed and endeavoured to reach tho street. Trenkler declares that he only struck her a fatal blow after she had refused to listen to his entreaties that she would allow him to escape. Finally Schultz himself appeared, and was dealt with in the same, way as his wife and daughter. After ransacking the shop and securing the bank-book, which enabled him to draw money, Trenkler quietly returned to his home. Tho doctors state that Trenkler is in the last stage of consumption, and cannot live more than three weeks. He has tried to hnn.g himself in prison.