ROYAL HOMICIDES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 190, 1 August 1908, Page 3

ROYAL HOMICIDES

GRIM STORIES OF EUROPEAN COURTS. 11l the old days Royalty thieved and swindled and murdered pretty much as they liked. They are not supposed to do such things now—perhaps because they are much more strictly looked after. But even in these modem times Princes of the. Blood Royal have taken the lives of their fellow-men. It is always an accident, of course; at least, so the official journals say, i: they say anything at all.

Only the other day an aged Servian peasant received an official notice that his son, a privato in the Servian Army, was dead, and that the body was being sent home for burial. Nothing was said as to the. cause of death, and when the coffin arrived the old man insisted on having it opened. On the lid being removed, the soldier's family weio amazed to find a bullet wound in the body. Suspicions of foul play wero aroused. Inquiries were made, and at last the truth was dragged from reluctant officials.

An officer, they said, had been practising with his revolver, and, seeing the soldier with a cigarette in his mouth, he had betted that he could knock the tobacco asli from the tip of the cigarette. He raised his revolver, fired—and missed. " Who was the officer—the man who murdered my son'f the old man asked. They tried to put him off with »ll sorts of explanations, but at last he forced them to answer his question. "It was His Highness the Crown Prince!" Last July a hunting party, which included the Emperor of Austria, went to shoot at Mitten Waisscnliach, near lschl. In a surprisingly short time they returned to Iseiil, one of the party having been injured. An "inspired" communication was later sent to the Press to the effect that Baron Krieghammer, Minister of War for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, [ had fallen while shooting and injured himself.

The Baron, who was an old man of soventy-ftve, lingered for some time in great agony, but ten days after the accident ho died. The public accepted the official account of the affair and promptly forgot about it. Some weeks afterwards the facts began to filter through from Court circles, and without it actually becoming public property, the real story of that fatal hunting expedition was whispered cautiously about in Vienna. The true facts were simply that, about a quarter of an hour after the party had started, the Emperor's grandson, Prince Goorge, of Bavaria, fired the fii'nt shot, hitting Baron Ivrieghanimer in the thigh. The Minister fell to the ground with a groan. Francis who rushed to Ids assistance, found him lying in a pool of blood. The unfortunate Minister was carried back to lschl, where attempts were made to remove (lie bullet. The official version of the accident was only issued when it was seen that the Baron's case was hopcloss, and that recovery was impossible.

If ;i motorist who runs down ami kills anyone may be classed as a murderer, then at tin- present moment a murderer sits on a European throne. While travelling iu his motor-car at Pernorsdorf, the King of Saxony ran over a farmer named Stareke. The man was killed almost instantly. King Frederick, who was one of the principals in tlio must unpleasant Royal scandals of recent years, was urged to grant some compensation to tho dead man's famliy. With truly regal magnificence, his Majesty generously offered them sixty pounds! The final tragedy of Ludwig 11. of Bavaria lias never been satisfactorily explained, and as both the chief actors are dead, jt must ever remain a historical mystery.

Briefly, Hie affair happened iu this way: Ludwig had been pronounced mad. He was deposed and taken by Dr. Von fiudden, a specialist in insanity, to the Castle of Berg on the tako of Starnlllll'g. One evening the King and the doctor went out walking together—and they never came hack. Some hours later their bodies were found floating in the lake. No one knows how they came there. " Inspired communications'" said that Ludwig had thrown himself into the lake, and that Dr. Von fliulilen had lost his life in trying to rescue him. Bui how, then, can °«e explain the scratches on Von fluddon's face and the bruise, as though from the blow of a fist? The King must have hated him, for it was lie who, with diabolical tactlessness, told him bluntly that he was mad.

Terrible tilings were whispered. The storv most widely believed was lh.it Liulwia: had drowned his companion, and then, in a frenzy of madness, plunged into the lake.