THE VIENNA SENSATION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 380, 4 May 1910, Page 5

THE VIENNA SENSATION

FKAU HOFRICHTER TURNS ON HER HUSBAND. By Cable—Press Association —Copyright. Vienna, May 2. Prau Hofrichter has been released. She is now convinced of her husband's guilt in connection with the attempted poisoning of officers, and is deeply hurt with his intrigues with other women. The greatest excitement was caused in Vienna last November by the discovery of an attempt to poison forty officers of the Austro-Hungarian stall'. The method employed was simplicity itself. Numerous junior captains of the general staff received toy post letters containing circulars describing a wonderful medicine effecting an instantaneous cure ot nervous debility. Two sample pills were enclosed, with the instructions that each pill was a dose, and should be taken without delay, as it would not remain effective long. It was added that further supplies could be obtained from the inventor, Charles Francis, the address given being Post Box 5, Post Office, Vienna.

Among others who received the letters was Captain Madder, a '.promising officer, thirty years of age. When he received the circular he, showed it to his (brother officers, who joked him about it, though one warned him against trying unknown pills. The captain, however, took the box home with him, and the same evening he suddenly fell dead in his lodgings. At first it was thought that he had died of syncope, but the post mortem examination showed that his stomach contained a large dose of cyanide of .potash. Suicide appeared to be out ol the question, and his comrades then recalled the incident of the .pills. A military chemist then made an analysis of some of the pills, and each v;as found to contain many times a fatal dose of cyanide. The police and military, authorities immediately began a search for clues, but the name Charles Francis was, of course, found to be an, assumed one, the only person in Vienna having that name being the United States Ambassador. The style of the circular, written with a copying machine, indicated that the writer was accustomed to official military correspondence, and the, handwriting on the envelopes also sug-l gested that the writer might be an officer, as a similar hand was taught in the military schools for writing the names of places in maps. The envelopes and paper were of the ordinary character. It was curious that most of the officers who received the poison passed out of the war school in 1905, and it was thought that the author of the crime might be a jealous contemporary. Others presumed that the perpetrator might be the agent of a foreign power like Servia. A well-known doctor gave the opinion that the author was a lunatic. Subsequently Hofriehter was arrested in connection with the affair, his motive being to secure his own promotion, which was threatened by a new staff appointment. There was a startling development during the trial. It was alleged that a discovery had been made that Hofriehter, under the name of Dr. Trailer, endeavoured to drug an innocent girl. A letter addressed to '"Hal'er" was opened at the dead letter office. It was found to contain poison.