The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-05
/ GERMAN VILLAGE TRAGEDY
Trial of Seventeen Year-0ld Peasant
Charged with the Murder of
a Child Of Four!
KIDN APPI N @
Curious Results-Gypsy Bands Arrested On tho
Charge of kidnapping Gypsy Hays
Flogged in Order 10 Make Them Con-
fss-restimony Of q Berlin Opera
songstres About tho Gyp-
les-conAicting Evidence


songstreS About tho Gyp-
Conflicting Evidence
BERLIN, Dec. 10, 1878.
Rarely indeed have We heard OF such in
teresting and curious murder trial as one which
took place at the university city Of Grlefswald
Pemerana, on the 4th inst and was concluded a
day or two ago. The trial refers to a most re-
markaDle village tragedy, ana in the proceedings
connected with 1t We are introduced now and then
Into curious phases OF German peasant life and
legal methods. The facts OF the murder are as
5ellows:-On the oath Of June in the year 1872, we
must picture to ourselves the farm premises Of q
certain Herr Boeckler, at Treuen, q village in
Pumerania- Herr Boeckler was q wen-to-do
man, had a comfortable home, handsome wife
and beautiful little grl-chd, OF four years Of age,
and two sons, few years older. About the farm and
the farm premises were men and women laborers,
and on this afternoon there was an old man, named
Dure, engaged in matching the roof OF one
Of the barns; married woman, named
Drews, whose business was to feed the
cattle, and a stable boy, Fitz Carl Martin
Schutt, II years OF age, q rough, uncultvated
being of violent temper anG bad moral character.
The two boy children were at q duck pond some
distance from the farmhouse, with some of their
little village piaymates, and at four O'Clock their
sister Anna, bright-eyed but shy little creature,
approached, with her hands full Of "butterbread,"
which she divided among her favorites. While the
children were playing there, the stable boy Schultz
approached the pond. he was at the time attend
ing the roof thatcher, Dure carrying to the old
man straw whenever he required it, and willows,
which had been placed in the village duck pond to
soak. Schutt approached the children and told
hrtle Anna that he knew Of a birds nest with five
nnaa n thing.
having great fondness for young birds and
knowing Fritz since the time she could remember,
took his hand, and the two went away together in
the direction of the barn which Dure was engaged
IN matching. This was the last time the little girl
was seen alive Schurt returned to his labor OF
carrying material to the old roof thatcher some
tune afterwards, as II nothing had occurred.
MISUNDERSTANDING GYPSY HAGs.
At halfpast six O'Clock in the evening the father,
BOeckler, came home from the fields, and at once
asked for his little favorite. The parents were
greatly alarmed at not finding her, and thinking
she might have fallen into the pond had it dragged
with nets. and searched in all the neighboring
houses. Fine nosed dogs were sent out through
tho neds and the farmer offered Q reward OF
$1,000 for his child. Next day photographs OF the
missing child were sent out in all directions The
police OF the district who do not seem to be
E1fted class. at once came to the conclusion that
the little girl had been kidnapped by one Of the
many gypsy bands which constantly infest the
country. Though the father persisted that
hts child was somewhere near the house,
he nevertheless determined to leave no
Stone unturned in the search, and mount
ing his horse, visited the various gypsy
hands; and though he did not succeed in finding
she object OF his search, he came home with the
conviction that the various bands did possess
children not belonging to them some OF which had
in all probability been Kidnapped, and some had
been given over to their care by unnatural pa
rents. Strange TO say an opera singer at the
Berlin Court Opera House, Frauleln Martha
6chwencke, had on her travels seen gypsy band
and had noticed among them little fair-hafred
maiden, which on looking at the photograph she
declared to be the missing Anna Boeckler. The
police were now sure that the gypsies knew the
whereabouts Of the missing child They arrested
whole bands on suspicion and kept them for months
In prison; they tortured them In order to evoke
confessions frem them. and q certain Major Won
vanzelow, Chief of Police at place called Wartn,
had number Of old gypsy hays nogged until they
made confessions, and after their statements were
found to be untrue had them whipped again for
Ltngl
THE MYSTERY STILL UNREvEALED.
Days passed by and no tidings OF the missing
child. The police were busy with the gypsy bands,
and nobody else was suspected. The boy Schutt
Was questioned, and ne said that Anna had left him
near the barn, and ne had not seen her since. The
village gendarme, Schneider, was commissioned,
four days after the girl had been missed, to make
researches. The old man began TO talk with the
village children at the duck pond about their lost
playmate, and he remembers Schutt to have come
mp 70 him and told him that Anna had gone with
him towards the barn, and on the way had asked
him to show her BIRDS nest, but not finding one,
she had gone away. The old gendarme suspected
nothing, although several Of the village children
had told him that Schutt himself had asked the
girl to go with him. 1t is true that the parents
grew suspicious OF schutt, but he denied any
knowledge Of the missing child persistently and
determinedly that they believed him The old
roOfthatcher was questioned, but he being old,
mnrm and deaf as stone, could tell nothing.
The cattle woman Drews was the only
enc In possession Of any clew to the
mystery: but, strange to say, she did
not know it until subsequent events
came to her aid. On entering the barn on the
morning of the 25th OF June she had found spade
in place where such things were never placed.
6cnutt being near BY she said, "Fritz. how did
Ihave been ueing IT, ''what have you been using
It for % she inquired. "Oh. have only been
saswer now, this woman after tern months a passed
away and the mystery had been clearedup, says
sne thought that this spade and Fritz's strange
answer had something to do with the missing
child; but the great sorrow that prevailed in the
household and the confusion that reignea on the
farm prevented her from revealing her suspicious
- months passed on, and the villagers talked
shout the mystery. Schultz went about his daily
isbors as usual until Easter OF 1873, when, alter
disagreement with the coachman Of the farm and
receiving chastisement from dis master for bad
behavior, he went to Alt-Plestlin and found new
employer in the Statthalter- Mandei-Kow.
THE BODY DISCOVERED.
Eleven months and a-half had passed away, and
At last the mystery was cleared up. Early on the
morning OF the Sd or June 1873 three men were en-
gagged IN thrasnng grain in the barn already men
uoned, and found the remains OF the child buried
about Two inches under the surface which, till
tnen, nad been covered with straw. The parents
we're Immediately awakened, and at once recog-
nzed the remains and the clothes as those OF their
long lost iavorite. The hole in which the body was
found was much too short Tor the body, which had
eMdenhy oeen oens up. Marks OF violence could
had fallen away from the trunk and the hands
from the arms, but q torn hat and a broken hair
comb found beneath the corpse led ia the conCiu.