GERMAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 January 1922, Page 3

GERMAN NEWS.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION ARISTOCRATS ON TRIAL. FOR ATTEMPTING MURDER. BERLIN, Jan. 18 A sensational trial is proceeding at Gorlitz, in Silesia. The accused are Countess Schlieffer, one of the oldest noble families in Prussia, a tall, beautiful woman, aged 50; her sons Hanz and Siegfried, typical Prussian noblemen; along with four others. They are accused of attempting to murder Count Schlieffer, a multi-millionaire, the head of the family, and Ins sickly son George.

The Countess and her sons were miserably poor. They hi ied Bruno Resell, a village grocer, and Bruno Grosser, a locksmith, to assist in mur. dering the Counts Wilhelm and George. There was a sensation in the Court when Hanz, evidently in order to shield his mother, confessed to the. crime, and said he had promised to pay Resell £SOOO directly he inherited the Schlieffer estates. He stated that lie and Resell had devised several plans, including the use of dynamite; to blow up the Schlieffer Castle, and also the hiring of forty Communists to massacre the ancle and cousin. An accomplice revealed the plot. AVhen Rosell was arrested, there was enough dynamite upon him to wreck a train.

A MURDER PLOT. (Received This Day at 1.5 p.m.) ' BERLIN, Jan 19. At Schlieffer trial, Hans Schlieffer » „ a ve evidence that he was always ** against murdering the old Count, because that would only mean his son would inherit the fortune. He wanted to murder the son and paid Roessel twenty-six thousand marks out of half a million promised to he paid, when ho inherited the estates. Roessel went twice to Schliefferburg to carry out the plot, but failed to do so, because circumstances were unfavourable. Hans informed his mother of the plans and ’ B he opposed the murder. Roessel subsequently demanded more money and Hans could not comply with the demands. Roessel then sent another of the prisoners prepared with a plan to B boof the Count Und his son. They did not eventuate and the accomplice dis- , dosed the plot.