GRUESOME DEVICES TO EX TORT A MURDER CON FESSION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 392, 2 June 1908, Page 3

GRUESOME DEVICES TO EX TORT A MURDER CON FESSION.

Berlin, April 15

The examination of the man Heider, who is charged with murdering the youth Blechert, whose dismembered body was found in the Tiergarten, began to-day. According to the methods of German justice, the purpose of this examination is to extort a full confession of the crime before the public trial begins, thereby facilitating the public prosecutor’s work.

Heider was brought handcuffed before the Magistrate, • who recounted to him bit by bit all the overwhelming evidence collected against him. The prisoner obstinately denied all knowledge of the crime, and found more or less reasonable explanations for every compromising indication mentioned to him.

When the examining magistrate declared that one of Blechert’s fingers was found in Heider’s fireplace, the prisoner sprang up and shouted excitedly, "You cannot possibly have found anything, because I burned nothing there.” Then he relapsed into silence, and refused to answer any more questions.

The magistrate then resorted to another device to obtain the desired confession. Blechert’s mutilated head had been reconstructed by medical experts and embalmed. This gruesome object was placed on a table in the centre of an adjoining room, and two policemen suddenly seized Heider and dragged him towards the room.

When the door was thrown open, the magistrate exclaimed, "Took at the head of your poor victim!”

Most prisoners, however obstinate they may be, break down at this step of the preliminary examination and make a confession. Heider, however, although obviously horrified, remained silent. He turned pale, and trembled, and then, endeavoured first to cover his eyes with his manacled hands, which was impossible, and then to turn away.

The two policemen fortunately prevented him from moving, and .he was compelled to look straight 4 at the decapitated head while the examining magistrate continued his inquisition. But Heider remained firm, and was finally conducted to his cell without further result.