“THE THIRD DEGREE.”

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3584, 21 September 1920, Page 6

“THE THIRD DEGREE.”

AN EXTRAORDINARY CRIME. The police of Chicago are to-day pointing to the confession of Carl Wanderer, a former lieutenant of the American Expeditionary Force, who killed his young bride in cold blood in order to secure funds to enable him to rejoin the Army, us- a complete justification of the “Third Degree,” the method so frequently criticised and. so widely used in the States. Once the suspicion had fallen upon the husband he was taken to the police headquarters, and for sixteen hours all the arts and devices so well known to detectors of crime were brought to bear upon him. The inquisitors stopped at nothing short of physical torture, and gradually the stubborn denials of the suspect grew fainter, and finally the constant mental torture applied to the victim’s weakest nerves and exhausted brain saused him to break down completely, and to give full details of one of the most extraordinary crimes in the records of the public.

According to Wanderer, who served in France antj was decorated with the Distinguished Cross for Bravery and the Croix de Guerre, and- promoted from sergeant to a first lieutenaey for gaid'antry in action, he got tired of married life, and in order to get back into, the army he shot and killed his young wife, who was about to become a mother. To avert suspicion from himself be deliberately killed the unknown stranger with whom he had conspired to stagefake a robbery. The night before the murder Wanderer persuaded his wife-to draw.£.3oo from the bank to be used for “hospital. purposes.” He then confesses to hiring an unknown tramp to follow him and his wife from the theatre and pretend to struggle with him in the doorway of their home. * The programme was carreid out without a hitch, but the moment the strange youth entered the tfobr Wanderer drew army revolvers and commenced Shooting. “It was very dark,” said << anf f I hit my wife first and then 'turned both revolvers on the man and fired ten shots at him in order to give the impression I had been in a fierce battle with a hqf!d-up man and that my wife had been -shot in at) exchange of bullets. When my wife dropped I thought it would be a good thing to say, ‘Are you hurt, honey? ’ I heard her say, ‘Car!, I’m dying,’ and I knew' the plan that far at least had worked.” Afraid that bis hired “robber” would talk when

the police arrived. Wanderer, after firing many bullets into his body, picked him up from tire floor and beat bis head on flic marble flooring until he was unconscious. Suspicion was a'r first directed toward the husband when the revolver found in the dead stranger’s hand was traced as belonging originally to Wanderer’s cousin. According to the neighbours of the young couple there was nothing in the life of either which caused one to suspect a tragedy.