MONTE CARLO TRAGEDY

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 164, 29 March 1939, Page 1

MONTE CARLO TRAGEDY

MURDER AND SUICIDE COUPLE’S TRAGIC FATE FEARS OF MADNESS The Prince of Monaco’s carabiniers broke into a fiat in, Monte Carlo not long ago and found there the bodies of Gerson Wreschner, an American author, and his wife. Mrs. Wreschner lay on her bed covered with a white .sheet strewn with faded white carnations. In the next rcom her husband hung by a rope from a hook. Both had been dead zieaxTy three weeks. Lieutenant Garrus, who leads the princes’ white-gloved, feathor-helmot-ed bodyguards, told this story of the tragedy:— “The Wreshners came to live in Monte Carlo in 193 G. Several weeks ago they took this small Hat. “Both were aged 01. They lived quietly, and neighbours suspected nothing when they did not appear for a week or more. But to-day, uneasy, they warned us, for the front door of the fiat was locked, though the windows were open. “We broke in and saw first the untidy bedroom . and the mass of withered flowers, and then the body of Mrs. Wreschner. She had been shot through the head. “Then we saxv her husband. He had climbed on to a chair, put a noose around his neck, kicked the chair nway, and at the same moment had shot himself through the. temple. Letter to Lawyer. The revolver, of Spanish make, had fallen to the floor. On the bureau was a letter he had written to his lawyer, Air. Carl Larson, of Copenhagen. Jt said\ “ ‘My wife is going mad, like her mother. I didn’t want to put her in an asylum, because I believe she might suffer there. “ ‘So 1 shall wait until she is asleep, and then I’lL : shoot her. After that I

will take my own life. ' " " : '■. 11 ‘Her mother died in an asylum'ov' after several years of suffering. Recently. lier brother became mad, 'and! -he. too, is in an asylum. Kathryn was telling me often that .she feared the * same fate. •• • ‘She was constantly in tears, refused food for several days, and was frightened to see her doctor for tear of what he might say. Constantly sho . ' said, “Wliy can’t I die?” “ ‘She was affected, too, by the crisis, and, I think it is better if we die together. We are happy, ‘• ‘We are not sentimental. We don’t care where we will he buried. We are just like thousands of others, who . are tortured! every day.’ “There is .a break in the letter here, - then the writing goes on‘Kathryn has just died. I told her I had done that because I loved her. Death iseasier than life.’ ” Born in Denmark. Wreschner closed the letter asking for forgiveness, signed it with a. steady hand, and added this footnote to the caribiniers': “I just’want- us to be buried in a hole. Please send a copy of this letter toi Mrs. Manning, of Beacon Street, Newton Centre, Massachusetts, United) States.” Wreschner’ s passport showed he was born in Romders, Denmark, on April 7, 1877, but subsequently became an American citizen. His wife was formerly Kathryn O’Brien, of Boston, Mass.