AN OFFICER'S CRIME.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 854, 28 June 1910, Page 5

AN OFFICER'S CRIME.

♦ I ATTEMPTS TO POISON HIS SENIORS. TWENTY TEARS' IMPRISONMENT. By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright. Vionna, June 2G. Ex-Lieutenant Hofrichter, -found guilty bf attempting to poison brother officers in order to ensure his own promotion, has been sentenced to twenty years' rigorous imprisonment. ■He is considered responsible for his actions, but his mind is thought to bo somewhat diseased. CLIMBING THE SOCIAL LADDER. AN ODD WAY. It was announced in Vienna at the end of April that Lieutenant Hofrichter, who was arrested last November on suspicion of having attempted to poison a number of staff officers, had made- a general confession of his gnilt. Lieutenant Hofrichter is stated to have assigned as a mclivo for tho crime his desire to improve the position of his wife, whom ho had married while provisionally attached to. the General Staff. After having lost in November tho hope of continuing the career of a General Staff officer ho had attempted to removo by poison twelve- of the officers who had actually been, or seemed likely to be, preferred to him. Ho is alleged to havo described tho preparation au.l posting of tho twelve letters containing capsules of cyanide of potassium, together with a circular advertising the capsules as a nerve tonic. The only point on which Lieutenant Hofrichter is said to have been reticent is in regard to the quarter from which his supply of poison was obtained.