Countess’s Trial.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 March 1922, Page 4

Countess’s Trial.

BERLIN, Jan 13

The trial of the Countess Eleanor-' von Sehieffen. her two sons, and other persons accused of conspiring to imir dor Count Georg Wilhelm von Sehieffen will begin on Wednesday at Gorlitz, Silesia. The accused persons have been in a Berlin prison since their arrest last April. They were taken to Gorlitz today.

The tale to be unfolded in court would seem to lielong to the times) of the Borgjas rather than to our own. Count George Wilhelm is head of the Sehieffen family and owner of Sehieffen Castle, in Maekonburg. He has no children, atnd the heir to his money and estates is the Count Hans Heinrich, eldest son of the Countess Eleanore.

It is alleged that she conceived the ideal of getting the property for her son by hiring ruffians to murder the present owner. To this end she and her sons, with Fraulion Rmnpf, her com panion, sought the help of a greengrocer named Rossel and it is said, promised him a, reward of 26,000 marks (about £3O) for the murder of Count Georg Wilhelm. The countess is even said to have suggested a plan for blowing up the castle of Sehieffen, and it is alleged that she provided explosives and weapons. Rossel told his secret to a student and offered him 5,000 marks if lie would waylay the count m a. forest and minder him. The student pretended to agree, hut went straight to the Count and warned him of his danger. The count laughed and said that the Countess Eleanore and her sons were his best friends, hut the student spoke so earnestly that he placed the matter before the Berlin police. A detective mnd e , friends with Rossel, who lot out the secret over a. bottle of wine. The result was that trie greengrocer, a, young smith whom he liad induced to help him, the countess, her sons, also her companion were arrested. All the prisoners declare that they are innocent..