The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-26 00:00:00

Remarkable Trial for Poisoning,

A remarkable trial for murder by poison has just
been held in Berlin. The accused were the widow
Knothe, aged 47, and a working mason named Stein-
mann, 27 years old; the victim was Knothe's hus-
band, a colourmaker, in comfortable circumstances.
The poisoning had been carried on for a long time
before death ensued, and the circumstances of the
case showed atrocious deliberation and a most deter-
mined purpose, on the part especially of the woman,
who appears to have been infatuated by her passion
for her accomplice, with whom she had for some
time carried on an adulterous intimacy, and from
whom she had obtained a promise to marry her
should she become a widow. The appearance of the
criminals made an unfavourable impressiont.pon the
persons present in the court. The woman is a little,
thin person, with a pallid countenance, prominent
cheek-bones, and a hoarse voice. Steinmann has
rather regular features, but his countenance, bearing,
and answers all betrayed great stupidity. The death
of Knothe took place in November last year, and
although the symptoms, as decided upon the trial,
certainly seem to have been of a suspicious nature,
the doctor in attendance suspected nothing, was mis
led by the wife, who described her husband as hav-
ing been addicted to the abuse of ardent spirits, and
gave an ordinary certificate of death. Two days later
an anonymous letter which he received, and at once
handed to the police, led to an examination of the
body, in which a quantity of arsenic was found. In
the judicial investigation that ensued it transpired
that for upwards of a year, during which time
Steinmann had lodged in the Knothes' house, there
had been frequent quarrels between the husband and
wife, the former suspecting her intimacy with the
mason, and insisting that he should quit the house.
When arrested, the accused at first denied their
guilt, but, it having been proved that shortly be-
fore her husband's death the woman had bought a
pound of arsenic, Steinmann made a confession, which
she afterwards, in all essential points, confirmed.
It appeared that they had tried various kinds of
poison, and that the attempts were for a long time
unsuccessful. "lf I had but hemlock or night-
shade!" the woman often exc:aimed. Not having
them, she tried aquafortis for about three weeks, in
such doses as she could venture to give, mixed in
her husband's drink, but she succeeded only in
making him ill. She then thought of quicksilver,
and scraped it off a looking-glass, mixing it with
sour kraut. As this did not suffice, she took Stein-
mann with her to Frederick's-heath, in the neigh-
bourhood of Berlin, to pluck hemlock, which she
next day put into her husband's soup. Nightshade
was sought for but could not be found, and at last
she thought of arsenic, which finally proved effec-
tual. In the course of his confession Steinmann
declared that he had never loved Knothe, and had
no intention of marrying her, but, as her husband
had a good business, he reckoned on profiting by it
after his death. The woman, on the other band,
said that from the first moment she had seen her
paramour she had conceived a violent passion for
him, and that she loved him more than ever now
that they were shortly to die together,. Never-

theless, she endavonreed to make it appear that it
was not she but Steinmann who administered to
her husband the dose that determined his death.
The two wretches were found g ilty of murder, and
condemned to the scaffold. Decapita' ion is the mode
in which capital punishment is still carried lut in
Prussia. It takes places within the precincts of
the gaol, in presence of a certain number of per-
sons invited as witnesses.