THE CHELSEA TRAGEDY.

Evening Star, Issue 3031, 6 November 1872, Page 4

THE CHELSEA TRAGEDY.

In the midst of social controversies, we at Home are reminded by a terrible tragedy at Chelsea of those fierce destructive forces which ravage human nature, stronger than all prudent calculations, and beyond the power of public opinion. Two young Germans, named Nagel and May, came from Berlin to London, their own account says, to escape the conscription, another because they had been discovered in defalcations at home. They brought with them a considerable sum of moeey—rumor says L2oo—and spent lanshly till it was exhausted.. Leaving a respectable hotel, they went to live at a disreputable house in Chelsea, and followed for a few days the round of fast amusements with two girls whom they had met at the public gardens, and one of whom was a German. it was ou the Friday that they took up their abode at this house, and on the Wednesday shots were heard in the room which they occupied, and on the door being burst open, Nagel was found dead and May terribly wounded. They had agreed to die together, and each bad taken off his coat and M-aistcoat, hut they had only one revolver between them. Nagel, therefore, fired at May, as the medical evidence appears to prove, and then shot himself. May was not killed, as Nagel supposed, but has since been removed to the hospital, and although the ball has not yet been extracted, it is thought he will recover. In that case ho will by English law have to be tried for murder ; for when two conspire to commit suicide, if one survives, he is held to be guilty of murder. A letter was found in May’s handwriting, with a postscript by Nagel, bidding farewell to the girls, anil stating as the reason of the fatal act that their money was all gone, and that they were without relations. It is a pitiful, vulgar tragedy, in the continental style.