The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-03-22 00:00:00

REWARDS for SAVING LIFE at FIRES'

At a meeting of the trustees of the Royal Society
for the Protection Life from Fire, held in London,
the following rewards were presented:
Mr. Thomas Bartlett, of the Sutton Volunteer Fire
Brigade, received a handsome Testimonial on vellum,
for his prompt and efficient services in rescuing a
woman from the second-floor window of a grocer's
shop at The Pavement, High-street, Sutton, on the
night of the 2nd June, 1883.
For very great help rendered in rescuing the in-
mates of Southall-park Lunatic Asylum, on the night
of the 14th August, 1883, Police-constable Arthur
Daughton was presented with a Silver Medal and £5;
Wm. Webber and J. A. Abbott, both of Southall, a
Silver Medal each; W. H. Fear, jun., of the Red
Lion Hotel, Southall, an illuminated Testimonial on
vellum; and Mrs. Alice Price £lO.
Three members of the Metropolitan Police Force
received money awards for services rendered in saving
life from fire at Northcote-road, Battersea, and
Deacon-street, Walworth.

Too LITERAL.—" Mother, where's Bill ? " "
son, do not let me hear you say Bill again. You
should say William." "Well, mother, where's
William?" "In the yard, feeding the ducks."
"Oh,
yes, I see him now. But, mother, what makes
the ducks have such broad williams ? " "Go out to
your brother directly, you little scamp, or box
your ears."
LONDON TO YORK BY WATER.—The possibility of
going direct from London-bridge to York by water is
not often contemplated by inhabitants of
.the metro-
polis, yet it appears not only to be feasible m prospect,
for the establishment of a direct weekly steamer to
run between London and York is being practically
considered in the city of the white rose; and if the
Corporation of York will only enlarge one lock on the
Ouse, some of its enterprising citizens are prepared to
at onco initiate a new service. Residents by the
Thames will welcome this prospect of a fresh holiday
route, York being a city of so many historical. and
antiquarian charms that the opportunity of making
sea trip thither could but prove most attractive.—
City Press.

THE EXTRAORDINARY MURDER
TRIALS IN VIENNA.
Writing on March 14, the Vinna correspondent of
the Times says:
The trial of Hugo Schenk, Karl Schlossarek, and
their alleged accomplice, Karl Schenk, who are ac-
cused of killing or attempting to kill several persons,
began yesterday before a court of six judges. The
indictment charges the prisoners with attempting to
murder a miller named Todbera on April 8, 1853;
with having drugged and robbed a coachman named
Kaiser on .April 21, 1883; with having on May 21,
1883, poisoned and robbed Josephine Timal and
thrown her body into the water; with having on July
13, 1883, murdered Katharina Timal by cutting her
throat; with having on August 5, 1883, murdered
Theresia Ketterl; and with having on the evening
of December 29, 1883, with an axe, killed a woman
unknown.

To-day the public crowded to the trial. It was re-
volting to hear Hugo Schenk, with modulated voice
and in well-turned phrases, relate his monstrous
crimes, smiling all the time. He complained of
having suffered bodily and mental torture in prison,
and said that he was forbidden to write his memoirs,
with the proceeds of which his wife was to pay his
debts. The President explained that he had been
given paper and ink on condition of not making bad
use of them, but he had written to a young woman
to send him poison in order to commit suicide. A
female friend of Schenk was examined. At the end
of the examination she rose, deeply moved, and
staggered towards Schenk, offering him her hand; but
the President warned her not to go near him, and to
be on her guard.

The Vienna correspondent of the Standard gives
the following particulars of this remarkable series of
crimes:

The chief of the accused, Hugo Schenk, is a good-
looking man, of gentlemanly appearance. He is 45
years of age. His father was a judge's clerk, and he
himself studied in the Artillery College, and subse-
quently served in the army. At the age of 21, how-
ever, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for
swindling, and three years ago was again convicted of
a similar offence- and condemned to two years' im-
prisonment. In prison he made the acquaintance of
his accomplice, Karl Schlossareck, a blacksmith, who
was serving a term of eighteen months for theft. The
two appear to have planned together a series of fresh
crimes, Schenk, who knew something of chemistry,
promising great results from his knowledge of narco-
tics. The latter left prison before Schlossareck, and
while waiting for his companion presented himself in,
several newspaper offices for the purpose of calling at-
tention to a new narcotic of his invention, composed
chiefly of cyanide of mercury. At this time he was
associated with his brother, Karl Schenk, a married
man of 33, and on Schlossareck's release the three
formed a sort of partnership for carrying out their
plans.
The system adopted was as follows: They carefully
scanned the advertisements in the Vienna papers, and
entered into correspondence with such of the adver-
tisers as offered a small capital or a security of a few
hundred florins, inducing them to come to Vienna
with the money, and then murdering and robbing
them. They appear at first to have tried the plan
with men, but finding this somewhat dangerous had
resort to servant girls and such like defenceless
persons. The first-case brought against them is that
of a miller's man, named Podpera, who advertised for
a situation, and offered five hundred florins security.
They induced him to come to Vienna on the pretence
of getting him a place in Moravia. They then accom-
panied him some distance on his way, partly by rail,
and finally on foot, carrying with them revolvers and
a bottle of drugged brandy. Passing through a thick
wood at night, they attacked Podpera, firing three
shots at him. He was, however, a strong man, and
vigorously defended himself, succeeding finally in
making his escape. Three weeks later they were
more successful with a coachman called Bauer, whom
they led away on a similar pretence, and robbed of a
hundred and seventy florins, leaving him insensible.
After this they turned their attention to servant
girls, for whom they advertised, or whose advertise-
ments they answered, offering them marriage, this
plan of match-making being very common here,whero
such advertisements form a regular feature in the
local papers. Hugo Schenk generally called himself
an engineer or small manufacturer, and being a hand-
some fellow of good address, soon gained an influence
over the poor girls, who left their situations at his
bidding, bringing with them their savings bank books,
jewellery, &c., and followed him blindly. He then
led the victim away to some lonely and romantic
place
carefully chosen beforehand, his two
,com-
panions accompanying him as relatives or friends.
The girl was then stupefied with drugs, murdered,
and the body concealed. The first victim appears to
have been a housemaid, named Josephine Timal, who
was taken to the Gevatterloch, a romantic spot in
-Moravia, where her senseless body, bound and
weighted, was thrown into the lake, the three
scoundrels securing by this 236 florins of savings and
a gold watch. Catherine Timal, a relative of Jose-
phine's arrived in Vienna a few days after the crime,
intending to be present at the wedding. She was also
inveigled to a remote spot on the Danube and her
throat cut, her body being disposed of in the same
way as the last. Twelve hundred florMs were secured
by this murder.
Another case that has been traced by the police is
that of Teresina Ketterl, who left her master, Baron
Buschmann, and accompanied Hugo and his accom-
plices to the Syrian Alps, where she was shot, and her
body thrown clown a ravine. In this case they secured
nearly two thousand florins, besides jewellery. The
last charge of murder brought against them is
that of Rosa Frenchly, a cook, whom they
killed in the Wolf's Valley, near the Danube,
and whose body was thrown into the river. The
life of one of their victims, Josephine Eder, a
ladies' maid, was spared only because they expected
to make use of her for further thefts. She was, how-
ever seized by the police and sentenced, only a fort-
night ago, to seven years' imprisonment for stealing
her mistress's jewellery. She declared that it was im-
possible to resist Schenk, and that she was compelled
to do whatever he told her.

The trial was concluded on Saturday, all the
accused being found. guilty and sentenced to death.
Schlossareck and Karl Schenk were sentenced first.
When Hugo Schenk was asked if he had anything to
say, he merely said, in a firm voice, "I am satisfied
with the decision of the Court, and shall lodge no
appeal. lam prepared to die." It is rumoured that
the death sentence on Karl Schenk will be remitted
t 4, penal servitude for life.

A LADY CHARGED WITH THEFT.
In London, at the Marylebone Police-court, Louisa
Trevelyyn, 43, was charged on remand with stealing a
lady's jacket, value 45., the property of Charles
Brown, a master chimney sweep, living at 10, Little
Brook-street, Munster-square. At the previous exa-
mination of the prisoner it was stated that she was
the wife of Colonel Trevelyan. On the night of the
28th of February last she was accommodated with a,
room at the prosecutor's house, but her conduct
was so strange that she was afterwards requested
to leave, and it was alleged that she then took the
jacket away. The defence was that the prisoner asked
for a cloak that she had left in the prosecutor's house,
and that, in reply, the jacket was thrown out to her.
Police-constable 88 S now said that when he was called
to the prosecutor's house to eject the prisoner, she was
talking to the prosecutor in the passage about a book,
and walked out of the house with the jacket openly
on her arm. She appeared to be perfectly sober, and
asked him to direct her to Victoria Station. It
was then three o'clock in the morning. She was not
disorderly, and behaved in a perfectly lady-like
manner. The prosecutor was re-called, and expressed
the opinion that when the prisoner came to his house
on the night of the 28th ult. she was not sober. The
cloak she was now wearing was left at his house for
sometime, and was supposed to have been given to
his wife. She did not tu,k for that, but for a dic-
tionary. She always acted like a lady when not under
the influence of drink. Mr. Cooke said that there
was no doubt whatever in his mind that the prisoner
went to the prosecutor's house while under the in-
fluence of drink. He thought it also quite possible
that while in that state she took the jacket under the
impression that it was her own cloak. Ile did not
believe, however, that any jury would convict her of
theft, and he should therefore discharge her.