A THIRTEEN-FOLD MURDERER.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 15, 30 December 1862, Page 3

A THIRTEEN-FOLD MURDERER.

{Liverpool Mercury, October 20.)

The Criminal Court at Ctistrin, in I'omernnia (Prussia,) has for ii fortnight been occupied with :i case which nrr.y bo srtirt to be without precedent in tho nnnals of Prussian crime. A workman nnraml Karl Maasch has been accused of having been concerned in thr> commission of IS murders niut many hundred robberies of which crimps ho confesses lii:nsclf ■ruilty. The number of his transgressions is, however, probably tar greater than that indicated in th.> crowded list already mado nut against him. Amon^r mortem criminals, Dumollard alone, who was executed snm;' months iijjn in France, can be compared in the enormity of his crimes with the monster Maasch. Not only was Maasch, like. Duinnllnril. L-iiilty of the moht cold-blooded cruelty in the numerous" murders which he seemed ty take a fiendish (lelisrht in perpetrating, but tho hedious mamier in which he treated tin; still warm bodies of his. female victim* sinks him far below the level of the savage <>r the brute.

Knrl Maaseh wns, it nppcnrs, the loader of ft bnnd i.>f wretches consisting "f himself, his brother Martin, liis mother, nn old but active woman, and two l;ibourer.'<, numed Mc-bis and Kohlsehmidt ; mid nil these persons were placed ut the bar. Their burglaries nnrl murders had fnr five years kept in almost continual alarm the population uronnd Sodlin, I'yritz. I.imd.-.lier/.-, mid Stargardt. One of the most horrifying atrocities which they committed whs on a. night 'in May, ltf<>l, when Karl Mansch find some of his band broice forcibly into the house of a miller named Haumgnrt, at Carsdorf, murdered the miller mifl his wilt;," his daughter, two sons, and a maid, and robbed tin; house of everything that was portable mid valuable, including, it was believed, a considerable sum of money. The murders, too, were committed in a manner so atrocious ns to rouse the population into a frenzy, and the most persevering exertions were made to obtain n due to the guilty parties. The ablest detectives of Berlin were sent to aid the local police; but the only person to whom suspicion pointed, an assistant who slept in the house nnd who was the only one who escaped death, was at last set free under the conviction tuat he was innocent. A strange incident, however, at length occurred. Two farm labourers of the village of U'arsin, near St.irgnrdt, were one morning walking together on their way to their work, in the fields, when it came on to Vain. For the wake of greater shelter against the wet one of them proposed that they should proceed to their destination for the rest of 'the way by a path lending through the woods. This being agreed on, the peasants had not been ten minutes in the forest when one of thsin espied at some distance through the trees the upper half of the body of a man sticking- up out of the ground. Their hearts leaped to their mouths. One immediately started oft" with all the speed he could put forth, while the other, more self-possessed, retreated more slowly, keeping his eye fixed on the object in question," which gradually sank out of sight into the earth. The peasants instantly made known to the owner of the estate the strange thing they had witnessed. The police were sent for, and a number of persons, with all despatch, proceeded to the mysterious spot which was pointed out by the labourers At first, it seemed as though the men must have deceived themselves, or were carrying on a practical joke, for, at the spot indicated there appeared to be nothing like a hole in the earth, as the grass covered the ground all round about On closer investigation, however, a slit was found in the grass in the form of a square. It was but. the work of an instant to discover that this was the top of a trap door, covered with turf. On forcing this open and descending, a lsirge cavity was discovered, irom which however, the late occupiers had already fled. The hole itself, which was roofed with trees overlaid with turf, wns divided into two rooms, the walls lined -with boards— n, stove, two or three beds, a ladder, victuals, and cooking utensils being present nnd making a very snug underground dwelling. In addition to these articles there were present great quantities of objects identified as having been stolen from various houses in the neighboring country in which burglarious robberies and murders had been committed. Axes, firearms, nnd other weapons, ns well as it consider! ble number of thieves' tools, were likewise found. -The police now found themselves on the right track. Various circumstances, the description given by the peasants of the occupiers of the cavern, as well as indications found in the cavern itself.led to the suspicion that the person so seen was none other than Hie notorious Karl Friedrich Mansch, who was conjectured to be the lender of a band of robbers who had so long infested the neighbourhood. Against him and his crew the search was henceforth specially directed. jUansrh had for some time been a labourer on the estate of Derzon, near Pyritz, in which neighbourhood he was born. He was nw er married, and had

been punished frequently for theft, He was a scoundrel of the lowest modes of life, and sprang: from a family hereditarily criminal. He had fled from the pltice mentioned abpve. on account of the discovery of new thefts committed by him, and hnd not been seen there for several years. At first the efforts of the police to take him were completely foiled, as he was strenuously aided in hia concealment by the rest of the band, consisting for the most part of his family. His mother and brother (Martin) lived together at Schonon, near Pyritz, about six English miles from the retreat in the forest. They and Martin's wife were speedily seized nnd thrown into prison on suspicion. In their dwelling were found an axe, on which traces of blood were still discovered, and a quantity of articles belonging to the Same robberies as did those found in the hole in the woods; so that nt length those who had committed the Baumgart murders were in the hands of justice, if we except their leader, Karl Maasch. On a microscopicnl examination of the three axes from the hole and the fourth found at the house of Martin, unmtstakeable traces of this horrid six-fold murder were perceived. On one nxe stuck a small portion of human brain ; on nil four human hair, mingled with clotted blood. The hair agreed completely with that of the murdered persons, and thnt of the servant-maid was identified with particular clearness. On one of the axes there still clung red woollen threads precisely similar to those of the material of which Mrs. Baumgart's nightcap wns made, and which she wore on the night of the murder. Another fixe still retained traces of the children's bedclothes. The wife of Martin sealed her guilt by hanging herself in prison, after having been accused of participating ih the Bnumgart murders. The principal party, however, etill remained at large ; he had been driven from the Soldin country by the exertions made to enpture him. What, however, the police could not achieve with their ntmost endeavours was njrain left to be accomplished by a happy accident. One beautiful summer's evening, a citizen of Frank - fort-on-the-()der observed a drunken man in the public streets behaving himself in a very Bhameless manner, (in addressing some words of indignnnt remonstrance to him, he received an answer of the very coarsest description, and wns compelled to call a police-sergeant. Against the latter the stranger pointed a loaded pistol. He was, however, finally overpowered and taken to the lock-up. A quantity of arms, thieves' tools, and money were found on him, and it appeared that in the earlier part of the evening he had been treating several workmen whom he met quite accidently on the road to the town -with copious potations of brandy, and had himself become intoxicated. He finally confessed that he was the Jong-sought Karl Maasch, and had only just come from committing a fresh murder and robbery, in which he hnd taken the money found on him. Near Hackelburg, two days before, a commercial mnn had been shot in the forest, and robbed of his money; the horses had galloped on to the villnge of Harkelsburg, drawing behind them the vehicle containing the lifeless body of the merchant. Maasch, who confessed to this murder, wns delivered up nt Soldin to the authorities engnged in investigating the Baumgart murders.

In the course of fhu trial not loss than 140 vitticssos were cxnminfd, mid prent numbers of depositions were rend, Karl IMnasch confessed to have committed tlie thirteen murders himself, find soupht to have liis fi'llow-prisoncrs acquitted on this ground. If this request seems like the onn briprht spot in the conduct of the chief criminal, yet it wns of no avail npainst the proof adduced that three of his comrades had assisted him in one or more of his numerous murders. Karl and Mnrtin Maanch, their mother, and Leibip, were found puilty of murder mid robbery, nnd condemned to death; while the fifth prisoner, Kohlsehniidt, who was convicted of robbery only, escaped with several years' imprisonment.