BERLIN TRAGEDIES

Evening Star, Issue 19792, 16 February 1928, Page 6

BERLIN TRAGEDIES

MURDER CHARGE WITHDRAWN STARTLING TURN OF EVENTS KRANTZ A PUBLIC HERO. Pros* Association—By Telegraph—Copyright BERLIN, February 15. (Received February 16, at 9.5 a.m.) There was a surprise on the resumption of the Krantz case, the prosecutor declaring that they would withdraw the murder charge and subsitute one of manslaughter. The bench granted the withdrawal, which meant the accused’s liberation from custody pending the hea.-iug of the lesser charge. The decision tr r >sformed Krantz, who apparently did not unde) stand. He had been hanging limply over the dock in a pose of exhaustion and dejection; but he straightened up, smiled, and made a bolt for the door. The judge had to remind him that the lesser charge was not finished. When it became known, a great crowd collected, and on Krantz’s reappearance at the afternoon session, accompanied by his parents, ho was surrounded by cheering people, endeavoring to shake hands with him. Women wept, and even scattered flowers over his head. To-day’s evidence was directed to show that Krantz was impressionable, and that he was more likely dominated by the actual murder and suicide of Scheller.