A DIABOLICAL CRIME.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 320, 11 January 1909, Page 4

A DIABOLICAL CRIME.

IiOYEKS LED INTO A DEATH-TP.AP. A ghastly triple tragedy, the facts oi which point conclusively to the perpetration of a singularly diabolical double murder and the subsequent suicide of the murderer, has just come to light at Cassel (Prussia). It was noticed thai for some time the shop of a voting piano dealer, named Meister, had been kept closed, and eventually some relatives of the man iif question persuaded the police to make investigations. The door was forced open, and inside was found the dead body of the proprietor, with a bottle which contained poison lying by his side. A strong smell of gas permeated the shop, seeming to conic from a room in the rear, and, fearing that there were still discoveries to be made, the police olh'eers turned their attention to this room, the door of which was locked, and after several attempts, succeeded in forcing an en trance. When at last the door gave way it fell back across what was immediately seen to be the dead bodies of a young man and woman, their clothes torn, their hands bleeding, and everything giving a plain indication that a fearful struggle had taken place. They had been suffocated by gas, and had evidently been dead for some time. From the tirst it was clear that a terrible crime had been committed, but it was only when an examination had been made of papers and letters t'oinid on the premises that the true story of what had happened became evident. It appears that Jleister had been engaged to the young woman, but that she had recently left him, and "kept company'' with the man who was found dead with her. The small back room in which the two bodies were found had been curefully arraiigedas a veritable death-trap. The proprietor of the shop had screwed down the window, which was already strongly barred ou the outside, and had ?.o padded round every crevice and means of ventilation in the room as to render it practically airtight. He had then removed the tap of the gas bracket after turning off the gas at the main. His plans prepared, he invited the young woman and his rival to come and talk the matter quietly over with him, and on their arrival he showed them to the little room at the back of the shop, asking them to wait until he had finished some work upon which lie was at the moment engaged. The door once closed and silently locked on the unfortunate couple, Moisler turned on the gas at the main. It is probable that his victims did nol rcali-c what was happening until the gas was pouring into the room through ♦he broken gas bracket in such volumes that they were quickly rendered help-' loss; but the broken and scattered furniture, and the condition in which the bodies were found, showed plainly enough what an awful struggle they had made to escape or to attract attention before they finally fell lo the ground unconscious, locked in one auntliers' arms. Whether the murderer waited until the cessation of the noise from the back room told him that his victims were dead, or whether he swallowed poison immediately after sending them to their doom will never be known. His own death was probably a more peaceful one than that of his former lover ami his rival.