DESPERADO AT BAY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 140, 10 December 1929, Page 18

DESPERADO AT BAY

"TERROR OF SILESIA"

FOUR-FOLD MURDERER

A dramatic struggle and a bullet from a police pistol have ended the career of' Fritz Vieluf, "the terror of Silesia/ as he was called. He was one of the most dangerous of the desperadoes whose malefactions have since the war from time to time kept whole districts pf Germany in trepidation, writes tho Berlin correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph." Though only 23, he was known to have committed four murders, and was suspected of many more. For eight months he succeeded in eluding the pursuit of the police, although he held such contempt for them that during this period he owned a motor-car and actually had himself photographed in it. The first of Vieluf's known crimes was a robbery at a pawnshop in Breslau. On that occasion he was surprised by the police, but managed to get away with a bullet in his body. Shortly after, in the same town, he and an accomplice strolled into an out-of-the-way public-house, and shot dead and robbed two cattle dealers, who happened to. be the only persons in the place at the moment.

POSED AS NOBLEMAN. The miscreant next appeared in the neighbourhood of Gorlitz, vrhere he killed and plundered a chauffeur on the high road. A bank messenger whom he shot at in the streets of DresdeE escaped with a wound, but the robber secured a bag containing a sum equal to £750. With this money he bought a car, and for some weeks lived a gay life in Berlin, frequenting pleasure resorts and giving himself out as a wealthy nobleman. When his funds began to run low he left the capital and cropped up at Baden-Baden. Here he perpetrated a number of petty frauds, but the ground soon became too hot for him, and in June he disappeared. Nothing is known of his doings between that time and the exciting climax to his sinister drama. The day before Vieluf was killed a policeman noticed a shabby and furtive figuro skulking about among the fashionable crowd on the promenade at Ems. He accosted the stranger and asked for his identification papers. The man replied that he had none, but acceded with apparent willingness to the demand that he should go to the police station for further investigation. On the way, however, he made a sudden bolt into the vehicular traffic on the roadway. The policeman followed, but before he could catch up with the fugitive the latter turned sharply on him and shot him dead.

• • EXPRESS TRAIN EPISODE. Some of the holiday-makers and water-drinkers now took up the chase, but the murderer kept them at bay with his revolver till ho reached the railway line, which he crossed just in front of an approaching express. The train caused a momentary cheek to his pursuers, and enabled him to gain the woods.

The local police were reinforced by a detachment sent from Coblenz, and the whole countryside was raised in a hue and cry for the murderer; It was not, however, till the following- morniiig that he was rounded up. After a running fight with revolvers a police-' man succeeded in grappling with him, and a desperate struggle, ensued. With his left hand the policeman gripped the murderer's right, whiph held the so-often fatal revolver, and strained every nerve to maintain his grip. At length, however, the criminal succeeded in wrenching this arm free, and his antagonist, feeling that his only chance was to get his own shot in first, fired with immediate fatal result. Only when the dead man's papers were examined was it discovered that he was none other than the notorious Vieluf, whom the police of all Germany have so long sought in vain.