ACT OF REVENGE

Hokitika Guardian, 11 April 1932, Page 2

ACT OF REVENGE

A SHOOTING DRAMA

LONDON, April 7

The drama of a brother’s desperate act of revenge was told in the market town of Weis, Austria, when Manuel Godoy, secretary of the Guatemalan Legation in London, explained why lie killed his brother-in-law, Herr Reinhardt, a German business man, 'at the little village of St Georgen, last October. Godoy was acquitted and was immediately released. My unfortunate sister Julia had bad luck with men,” the dapper little diplomat began. “Her first husband robbed her of her dowry, and she divorced him. Her second husband, Reinhardt, was a parasite, who lived from insurance swindles. As I had promised my mother on her deathbed to look after my sister 1 tried in vain to persuade her not to marry Reinhardt:

“When J got a telegram: ‘Very unhappy. Don’t know what is happening to me, your loving sister,” I immediately left London for St Ceorgen, where Reinhardt had taken my sister, ‘God has sent you to me. Mv husband is trying to kill me,’ were her first words when I arrived. “Reinhardt refused to send for a doctor or take my sister to a sanatorium. lie would not allow her to eat and forced her instead to swallow does ol ether, When I brought her a glass of milk she seized it like a hungry animal that had not been fed for days.

“I lost all self-control, and. mad with rage and despair, drew my revolver, which, as a Guatemalan, I always carry with me, and lin'd repeatedly at Reinhardt like an automaton, until be fell.

“After that I dashed into my sister’s mom. ‘Now everything will be all right.’ si' l ' whispered. ‘1 will save you and take you to a decent home, I replied. Rut it. was too late. ‘1 be shock was too liuieli for her. She s'liih info a trance, became delirious, and two hours later she died.” Without, exception, every witness called at the trial testified tlmt, Reinhardt had ill-treated his wile. A inid-

wife stated that he had opened nil the windows when she had influenza. •‘lt' will be a good thing when she’s dead,” lie remarked to another witness. Olention was made of a gypsy prophecy forecasting Julia’s death, and it was further stated that Reinhardt had proposed to marry the', governess of his children, Kraulein Schielbel, after his wife’s death. “If (Jodoy had not killed Reinhardt we should Imve done so,” sairl witness after witness from the village of St. (ieorgeu.