GIPSY CANNIBALS

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

GIPSY CANNIBALS

GRUESOME SLOVAKIA TALE, S • At the end of September, or, at latest, the beginning of November, a case is to. be heard before, the.Assizes at Kaschau, in"; Northern Slovakia,'against 103 gipsies. which will be unique in the annals of crime. No fewer than 110 witnesses have been cited. ' ',•.' * ■ The .band w-ae, led by one Alexander Filke. During the, examination the mem- ; here confeesed to twelve eases of murder.. At first they would give no. information about what was done with the corpses of the victims', but, on thu seventh examination, Filke,-a young gentleman who would, it seems, commit a crime for a few cigarettes, said, after a long pause, in rather disheartened manner, "I feel ashamed; but I confess that we ate our victims." .. , , Filke went "on to inform the judge that they had eaten.at least five corpses", whidlil had been i expertly cut to pieces, packed in large bags and boiled : or roasted, as desired, by the' women;' folk. . At first the authorities refused to believe the story,, but. human bones were discovered,: and' four gipsy women .'testified, -that they, had been forced to cook the corpses.. ~.-.. . . .;'■.- . ' The men who were allowed to .spsiik to journalists -do not show- fche slightest trace of remorse. They'are quite illiterate, and never went to school or to church.. , ' •..'•■. ■-.'■

disked '-why they committed murder, Filke answered:. "Sir, we are murderers and bandite; we stole wherever we could find eonvething, and we murdered whereever we could murder." it is significant that the oldest o£ the "boys" is 22 years o£ age and the youngest; 16.. . /