A REMARKABLE CASE OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 116, 20 December 1879, Page 2

A REMARKABLE CASE OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

A somewhat remarkable case of eircumstantial evidence came to a close at I Vienna recently. .On the s6,tb,' of July last an unmarried seamstresss in that city, LeopoUine Haensel, sent for a neighbour, Juliane Halkiewlca, to ask her to be sponsor to the child of which she expected to- be delivered in a f ew 'weeks. She was in.goocl spirits, showed her tho baby-linen she had prepared, and as she was about to loavo took a flask from the cupboard, poured out a Honorglass full,-and.iuvited Juliane to drink it. Thb latter; after some pressing, put hor lips to it, but see it down again, saving that it' 6melt disagreeable. .Leopo!dino said " ho," .meaning her lover, had given her the flask, and eho drank it off at ono draught. She then exclaimed, "It has n queer taste! When I last drank it on Thursday (two days, previously), it was good. It must have got bad from settling," ' She Wok sonio .water to got rid of tho taste, but' in $ fow minutes' complained of feeling ■ ill,' fell into her friend's arm, bccame'unconscious, and shortly afterwards expired. Tho theory of suicide being excluded by her offering the liquor to her friend and all the circumstances, the police searched for the lover, whom sho had described as I a journeyman tailor working in a parti- I cular establishment; has. been married, hut without children, and as having tho Christian uanie of Leopold. Their suspicions fell upon Leopold AVinkeler, who perfectly answered this description, whose trepidation and language on bin arrest seemed to fore shadow u confession, but who denied all knowledge of tho deceased. A number of witnesses,however, proved that ho repeated visited her, had J induced hor to tako measures to procure I abortion, hut without effects nnd had | sent hor a Now Year's card, with a request that'sho would not send her own I in return. Two neighbours also stated 1 that a few hours before the poisoning he visited the deceased, and was alone in her room for a fow miniUos while sho fetched water and a bottle of wine- Tho putting of tho poison into tho Hqnoibeing thus fixed to a particular day and' hour, the accused attempted an alibi, but without success, and several witnesses testified to his miserly habits (17,000f. in] bonds wore found in his possession), to his quarrels with his wife, nnd to his immoral overtures to to his maidservants. After a '.-threedays' trial he was convicted by a majority of eight to four, nnd sentenced to death, lie received the verdict at first with composure,- but was presently overcome, just as when arrested, and was removed unconscious to''' his coll, but on recovering was taken back to hear tho sentence. But for the deceased having drunk the liquor in presence of a friend, to whom she had first offered it, her death would doubtless have been attributed to suicide to avoid the shame of bearing nu illegitimate child, and tho murderer could not have dreamt of so unlikely an accidental means of detection.