THE BERLIN SENSATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20072, 14 February 1928, Page 7

THE BERLIN SENSATION

KRANZ ON TRIAL

Callous Indifference of Murdered Boy’s Sister

CURIOUS MENTAL OUTLOOK By Telegraph—Per Presa Assn.—Uo«»yrigfttj Received Feb. 13, 8.55 p.m. (A. & N.Z.) BERLIN, Feb. 13. The revelations in the Kranz case continue to appal the public. The frivolous indifference and brazen mendacity with which Hildegarde Scheller answered the questions of the vice-Prefect of Police are regarded as most shocking, when it is remembered that her brother and boy lover were killed, practically in her presence. The girl’s callousness was partly explained in the discovery made by a police woman who went to the Scheller home to inquire regarding Hildegarde’s antecedents. She found the girl’s father bent over a table, his head in his hands. He was not bowed down by grief, however, but was solving a crossword puzzle. Elinor Ratti, a girl friend of Hildegarde’s, who visited the house on the night of the murders, was ruthlessly cross-examined when she attempted to exonerate Kranz at the expense of Scheller.

Kranz, aged 18, was a scholarship winner. He was visiting the house of a schoolboy friend named Scheller, others present being a third schoolboy Stephen, and Scheller’s sister, Hildegarde, aged J 6.

They sat up all night, drinking liqueurs and talking of love, and the discussion finally turned on death. Scheller proposed that all four should die. He wrote a letter “to the universe,’’ beginning: “Dear universe—a single portion of your organism perishes. Don’t worry. Time will roll on.” The letter ended with an intimation that Stephen and Hildegarde would be killed, and the others would commit suicide. Kranz states that Scheller shot Stephen and committed suicide, and he was

about to commit suicide himself when the girl snatched the revolver from him. Some of the evidence suggested that Stephen’s being found in Hildegarde’s bedroom precipitated the tragedy.