POISON BY POST.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 765, 14 March 1910, Page 5

POISON BY POST.

CHARGE AGAINST. A'.LIEUTENANT. NEW DEVELOPMENT IN THE .. VIENNA TEIAL. ■• By Telecraph— Press Aesoclation-OoDTriitht Vienna, March 12. Thero has been an amazing development in the Vienna poisoning trial, in which Lieutenant Hofrichter stands accused of poisoning a number of officers. The has now, it is alleged, been mado that" Hofrichter,.. under the assumed name of Di\ Haller, endeavoured to drag an innocent girl. . ■ . ■ A letter addressed to "Haller" was opened at the dead-letter, office, and found to contain poison.. ;/ ■ " ■ ■,

THE EVIDENCE,

■ A lieutenant of the lAth Infantry Regiment, named Adolf Hofrichter, was arrested on November 27 at Lihz, and brought under escort to Vienna on suspicion of having;sent through the post capsules of cyanide of potassium to members of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff. "The Times" Vienna correspondent stated.that the circumstantial evidence against Lieutenant Hofrichter appeared to be almost overwhelming; nevertheless, certain circumstances tended to support his asseverations of innocence. "The gravest suspicions (says Reuter"s Vienna ooirespondsnt, writing at the time of the ooourrence) are directed against a certain first lieutenant stationed at Linz. As a precaution, and in epite of his denials, the officer has been placed under arrest. The most serious evidence against Mm is the' fact that he w.as in Vienna at the time of the poisoning, in ■spite of his having obtained six. days' leave to go. to • another station, and ,that he has been identified as the purchaser of capsules, boses, and envelopes similar to those sent to the officers, and that boxes of the same kind were still in his. possession when. arrested. The arrested lieutenant was. fifth on the list'of'officers for staff preferment. Suspicion foil upon him because he had sent to a comrade at Linz a present in a box identical with those containing the capsules sent to tKe other officers. He is a well-known photographer, and,'as such, would have access to prassic acid."