The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-02-05
MANY ROYAL HoM1cIDEs.
series OF Grim Stories from the
Courts of EurOne

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e"inoled ana murdered pretty much as
they liked. They are not supposed to
90 such things now-perhaps because
tney are much more strictly looked af-
Ter. But even in these modern times
princes of the blood royal have taken
the lives of their fellow men.
It is always an accident of course ::
al least, so the official journals say, If
they say anything at all.
only the other day an aged Servian
peasant received all official notice that
his son, private in the Servian army
was dead, and that the body was being
sent home for burial.
Nothlng was said as to the cause of
death, and when the coffin arrived the
old man insisted ON having it opened.
On the lid being removed, the soldiers
family were amazed to find bullet
| wound In the body. Suspicious of foul
play were aroused. Inquiries were
made, and at last the truth was drag
ged from the reluctant officials.
An officer, they said, had been prac-
tlclng with his revolver, and, seeing the
soldier with a cigarette in his mouth,
he had bet that he could knock the to-
| Dacco ash from the tip of the cigarette.
lie raised his revolver, fred-and miss
ed.
who was the officer-the man who
murdered my son?' the old man asked.
They tried to put him off with all
sorts Of explanations, but at last he
forced them to answer his question
1T was His Highness the Crown
Prince!'
Last July hunting party, which in
cluded the Emperor of Austria, went to
shoot at Mitten Weissenbach, near
lschl. In surprisingly short time
they returned to Ischl, one Of the party
having been injured.
An inspired communication was
later sent to the press to the effect that
Baron Krieghammer, Minister of War
for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had
fallen while shooting and injured him.
self.
The Baron, who was an old man OF
70, fingered for some time in great ag-
ony, but ten days after the accident he
died.
The public accepted the official ac-
count of the affair and promptly forgot
about it. Some weeks afterward the
facts began to filter through from court
circles, and without it actually becom-
ing public property the real story of
that fatal hunting expedition was whis-
pered cautiously about in Vienna.
The true facts were simply that,
about quarter Of an hour after the
party had started, the Emperor's grand
son, Prince George of Bavaria, fired
the first shot, hitting Baron Kriegham-
mer in the thigh. The minister fell to
the ground with groan. Francis Jo-
seph, who rushed to his assistance,
found him lying in pool of blood.
The unfortunate minister was carried |
back to Ischl, where attempts were |
made to remove the bullet. The Off |
cial version of the accident was only |
issued when it was seen that the Bar
on's case was hopeless, and that recov-
cry was impossible.
If a mOtorist who runs down and |
kills any one may be classed as MUIR
derer, then at the present moment a
murderer sits on a European throne.
While travelling in his motor car a,
Pernersdorf the King of Saxony ran
over a farmer named Starcke. The
man was killed almost instantly. King
Frederick, who was one of the princi-
pals in the most unpleasant royal scan
dial Of recent years, was urged to grant
some sort of compensation to the dead
mans family. With truly regal mag
nificence His Majesty generously offer
ed them EGO!
The final tragedy of Ludwig II. of
Bavaria has never been satisfactorily
explained, and as both the chief actors
are dead it must ever remain a his
torical mystery.
Briefly, the affair happened in this
way: Ludwig had been pronounced
mad. He was deposed and taken by
DR.. Won Gudden, a specialist in insan-
ity, to the Castle of Berg on the Lake
Of Starnberg.
One evening the King and the doctor
went out walking together-and they
never came back.
Some hours later their bodies were
found floating in the lake. No one
knows how they came there. INSPIRED
communications said that Ludwig had
thrown himself into the lake, and that
DR.. Won Gudden had lost his life In
trying to rescue him.
But how, then, can one explain the
scratches on Won Gudden's face and the
bruise, as though from the blow of a
fist? The King must have hated him,
for it was he who, with diabolical tact
lessness. told him bluntly that he was
uad.
Terrible things were whispered. The
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