The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-15
TWOGERMAN CRIMES
EMPIRE IS STIRRED BY THEIR
 HORROR.
Young Woman Killed Mas and slept in the Room With the Body for
 Two Monthn.

Berlin, Nov. 14.-- Two murder cases of an unusual character came to trial this week in different parts of Ger many. In Leipzig lived . young man named Arthur Giegier, who. with the business of a bookseller. combined the much more profitable one of furnishing dull or lazy students with essays for their examinattonss To his clients he was a hard and exacting man of bus mess, and to his neighbors he appeared as a stingy and morose recluse: but at night. when his work was done, he put on another character. and squan- dered money with lavish hand among women of absolute character in low class cafes and drinking-shops. on one of his nocturnal expeditions he made the acquaintance of Minna Doell, daughter of a small landowner in the neighborhood of Leipzig, who, after serving successively as domestic servant, nurse and cashier, had drifted Into a life of vice. The girl, who Is tall and well built and. without boast ing much actual beauty, possesses a certain charm of expression and glib tongue took his fancy, and eventually she went to live with him in the double capacity of housekeeper and assistant.
 This was three years ogo. On Nov. IT of last year Giegler was seen alive for the last time. Inquirers were told by the Doell girl that he was travel ing in Italy. and for some weeks no one troubled much about his disap- pearance. At last his prolonged ab- sence gave rise to suspicious, and on Jan, I3 the police came to the house. As they entered the door the girl jumped from a window and escaped. In a bedroom was found the corpse of Giegler, who had evidently sue cunibed to suffocation, and been dead some time. Subsequent researches showed that Doell had not only slept two months in the room with the decomposing body, but had there car ried on wild orgies with young prin- ter named Oswald Schmidt. with whom she had for some time had intimate relations.
 and her paramour was also arrested. While awaiting trial, she several times made partial confessions of her guilt, but her stories were all more or less inconsistent with one another. On one occasion she declared that from mo. tives3 of ieaIousy she decided te XII both herself and Giegler ny turning on the gas, and that she herself re- covered consciouBness to find that he was dead. On another she Attempted to put the responsibility on Schmidt. who. she said, had melted her 70 XIII the bookseller, and had procured poia- on for the purpose.
 They were both placed on trial ct Leipzig. she for murder, and he for complicity in the crime. Owing to the revoItinR details expected to be re- vealed by the evidence. the Court de- cided to hear the entire case in camera. It will probably last several weeks, as 100 witnesses have to be heard. Most of the evidence will concern the bound' less profligacy of the female prisoners life. She is understood to have kept her hold so long over Giegler by per- suading him that she was the natural daughter of a Russian Princess. and would eventually inherit large tor-
 Tn the second case, that of a baalket- maker. Fricdrfch Koch, tried at RudoI- 1 skadt for the murder of his third vile and a woman who had lived with him as his housekeepsrs the prisoner. man | who sat with downcast eyes huddled l up in a corner of the dock. made a<full 1 confession in court. He told how one I day, as he was chopping wood In an outhouse, his wife came to him and abused him for having lent SQO mark to his son by another marriage. with out requiring any security; how, en-
 raTed by her repro6ehes. he raised aH axe and felled her to the ground; how
 he struck six more blows at her body as she lay; and how he .dismembereo
 the body, burning some portions and burying others, the discovery of one oi
 which led to his arrest. His other vic' tim he also killed with an axe, though
 while she slept, and disposed of in 8
 similar manner. But the most horrify'
 ing mart of the case Is that Koch is | believed to have murdered both hts
 former wives, and yet two other women
 who had lived with him. as, all four disappeared in a mysteriqus manner | No further confession could. however he extorted from him. On both definite charges he was condemned to death
 nounced. as also the inevitable ad-
 dendum to the capital sentence de-
 priving him of all civic rights.