BERLIN MOTORISTS DEATH,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1729, 21 April 1913, Page 3

BERLIN MOTORISTS DEATH,

WIRE STRETCHED ACROSS THE ItOAD. A great sensation has been caused by an outrage on tho Hennigsdorf Road on March 3, jvheroby llcrr Phinlz, a Berlin jeweller, and his wife were killed and. one of their daughters injured. The police iuclino to the belief that the fiendish trap into which Herr Piuntz's motor-car ran was set by robbers, who expected to be able to take their victims at n disadvantage after wrecking their car. A number of arrests on suspicion have already been made in connection with tho affair, and handsome rewards are being offered for the apprehension of the criminals. The Opel automobile firm has offered 500 marks, the Imperial Automobile Club has promised to give 3000 marks, and the sums offered, by various leading motor firms bring tlie total amount offered up to 20,000 marks.

A wire nearly one hundred feet in length was stretched across the roadway. It was no thin wire of tho piano or telephone typo, but a length of cable as thick as one's finger, or thicker, such as is employed on shipboard or in the running of lifts. It was drawn across the vnart at such a height from th<> ground as to suggest that the miscreants' plot was a murderous one.

Herr Phintz was at. the wheel of Iho car, and with him were his wife and I lioir elder daughter. Two other- daughters were tiding in the rear seat. TTfe car ran into the trap at a good spend, with iho result that the unfortunate jeweller was nearly decapitated, tho wire inflicting a terrible wound in his throat. Frau Pluntz nnd tho daughter sitting with her wcro both struck by the wire, which cut them and hurled them out of tho car, and the former's fall was so violent that her nenk was broken. Her daughter's injuries are comparatively slight. Tho two other daughters instinctively ducked their heads when iho wire struck those in front, and escaped uninjured.— "Central News."