SPY’S SUICIDE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3984, 17 July 1915, Page 7

SPY’S SUICIDE.

NAVAL BECHETS AND IN VISIBLE INK. DRAMATIC OLD BAILEY TRIAL. LONDON, .May 2b. The trial at the Central Criminal Court of the-man, Anthony KucpfcrJe, on charges of espionage, was brought to a dramatic and unexpected conclusion by the suicide of the prisoner. For two days he faced from the dock three, judges—the Lord Chief Justice and Mr Justice Avory and .Mr Justice Lush—and a jury, and when the Court adjourned on Wednesday, after sitting in camera throughout the day, the case for the defence v as well advanced. Kuepferle’ had given evidence, and had submitted to crossexamination by tho Attorney-General. He was taken back to Brixton Prison, and although under practically continuous observation tie managed to take his life in the early part of the morning.

lie committed, .suicide by tying to the ventilator the bla<k and white scarf which he had worn throughout the trial, and fastening it round his neck. J 1 is feet were six to nine inches from the ground, and a thick book which had been given to him from the prison library indicated bow he ha'! hoisted himself.

Kuepferle left a last message, written on a slate. It was a remarkable .statement: he admitted that lie was a soldier, and did not wish to be hanged. Written in English, it ran; “To whom it may concern, —My name is Ktepferle, born at .Soliingen, by A restate (a town, in Baden, in Southern Germain). i am a soldier, with the rank which -I do not desire to mention. In regard to my behalf lately I can say 1 have had a fair trial of the United Kingdom, but I am unable to stand rhe strain any longer and fake tho law in my own hands. I fought many battles, and death is the only savior tor uie. I would have preferred death to be shot, but do not wish to ascc-nd the scaffold, us (here followed a symbol or mark). And hope tho Almighty Architect of this Universe will lead me in the unknown land in the East. 1 am not- dying as a spy but as a soldier. My fate I stood as a man, but cannot be a liar and perjure myself. Kindly, 1 shall permit to ask to notify mv uncle, Ambrose Droll. Sollingen, Arostate, Baden, and all m.y estate shall belong to him. What I have done I have done for my country. I -shall express my thanks, and may the Lord bless yours all." At the bottom Kuepferle signed his name, and on the back of the slate was written: “My age is 31 years, and I am born 11th June, 1883.” THE CHARGES.

The allegation made by the Attor-ney-General was that, in an apparently innocent business letter, the prisoner had written between the lines iri German, in invisible ink, certain important facts as to the disposition and movements of His Majesty's warships and forces. He was a thirdclass passenger on the White Star liner Arabic, which left New York c-n 4th February, and reached Liverpool on 14th February. During the voyage prisoner had conversations with one of the first-class stewards, and took the opportunity of letting that steward, and seemingly everybody else with whom he came in contact, know that he was an American subject, and that he had a passport. This passport was only secured bv prisoner ten days before he embarked. It contained his oath that lie desired it for use m visiting England and Holland for commercia 1 business." The Arabic came up past the southern shores of Ireland, through the Irish Sea, and so to Liverpool. In the course of sir h a journey a man like the prisoner. .- >gcd in the work of a German spy. had an opportunity of observing the ships or war he passed, and seemed to have qualified himself to recognise those vessels, judge of their typos, and record what was significant about their dispositions. After a day in Liverpool, during which time he posted a letter to Holland, lie crossed to Dublin, and then came to London. SMART I)ETK-CT iV F WO RK.

"By that time," said the AttorneyGeneral. "so swiftly and so efficiently does o’ur service work which keeps a check in the interests of us all, that, the suspicious correspondence, two days after the letter had been posted, had been stopped, opened, exposed, and translated, and the authorities were already on his track.” He stayed at Evans's Hotel, in Etistomsquare, when Ire clianged his quarters to the Wilton Hotel, Victoria. The police, who were ready to arrest him, came to Evans’s Hotel ten minutes after he had gone, leaving no address. There again. >o swiftly did our system of detection work, that in this great metropolis before twenty-four hours were out Ire was found:

“Art inspector from Scotland Yard found hint at the hotel, and told hint he was going to detain him as he had good grounds for believing that hej was engaged in espionage. lvuepferle answered, ‘Here is my passport !’ and 1 he produced this famous American document. His luggage was examined, and in his valise were some interesting things. There were sheets of writing paper and envelopes similar to the one containing the secret letter. and there were also two lemons, one of wlticlr had had part of the skin removed. There was also a bottle of formalin in the handbag, purchased from a Brooklyn chemist. ‘■'The juice of a. lemon, more particularly if it was used in connection with formalin, was a well-known fluid used for the purposes of invisible writing. “While in B fix ton Prison lvuepferle wrote a letter intended for another German prisoner in an adjoining cell. In this he said: ‘I shall not admit or say I am a soldier, or that I know anything of military matters. Ob, it I could only be at the front again for half an hour.’”' A FAIR TRIAL. The Attorney-General said that, inaddition to wlfiat had been proved as regards the posting of the letter in Liverpool on 15th February, which was the subject of the charge, theie were two other letters written and posted by this-man to the same address. Both were intercepted by the j authorities, ‘ both ' contained secret j writing, both, were examined and deciphered, and: both contained informa- ] tion calculated to be useful to the enemy. The prosecution thought it right,' in order .that Kuepferle should have, what- ho had acknowledged m

.his last statement he had had,, a fair trial, that the jury' should be invited t-o consider only one letter, though, of course, the other letters might have been mentioned later in the trial. Tho second letter was written in Dublin, at the hotel to whicli. it had been proved Kuepferle went. Addressing the jury, the Lord Chief Justice said, from the public point ot view, it certainly must be a satisfaction to know that in a case of this kind the detection of a spy was so swift and so thorough. Pointing out that Kuepferle wrote that he had been to the front, and was longing to be there again for half an hour, the Lord Chief Justice said: “He used the expression that he intended to meet his fate—referring to the end of this trial —-like a soldier. You will remember that in cross-examination administered to him yesterday by the Attor-ney-General he denied making the statements he had made in the document. He has himself said that he could not continue to perjure himself, and to deny that he was a soldier, and that seems to he the thought tliat impressed him'most, and led him t-o make the writing on the slate. 3