Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-01
4 TRAGEDY OF SAGHAlIEN
THE CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
OF CARL Won LANDsBERG.
Slew His Benefactor Through Sus-
picion That He Intended to In
terfere With Marriage.
From London NJ. A. r.

From London NJ. A. r.
Is there a department Of the Inferno
which Dante failed to visit-the limbo in
habited by the lost souls. damned for
useless crime? One Is almost tempted to
think so as one reads the brief and terri
BILE history of Carl Christowvich Won
Landsberg, ex-lieutenant of the Russian
Imperial Guard. Three and thirty years
ago there was probably no man of his
years upon whom life smiled more
brightly. Young, handsome. clever,
charming. of noble family. which,
though poorer than it had once been, still
managed. to support its scions in the
most exclusive set of the most eXtrava-
giant capital of Europe, he made the first
overt act of a prospectvely brilliant ca
reer. by becoming the acknowledged
fiance of the daughter of Gen. Adjutant
Edward Todleben.
The generals name was n household
word the wide world over He was prob
ably the most consummate military ar
chitect Europe has produced. 1t was
The treble works, the vast designs,
or his labOred rampant lines
which held the fleets and armies of Eng
land, France and Sardinia impotently at
bay at Sebastapol and Cronstadt. He
spiendidly illustrated the proverb that The
who can make locks can make keys"
by his mastery siege of Plevna in the
last Russo-Turkish war. He was at once
favorite of Mars and Plutus. a great
and successful soldier and a multi-mil-
liOnafre, his wife being the daughter and
heiress OF Baron Ludwig Hauff, minister
of finance and consul general for Hesse-
Darmstadt. His daughters were as cele-
brated for beauty as their father tor ge-
MUS and wealth. and when it was pubnc-
ly announced that Lieut. Won Lands
berg was the betrothed lover OF the most
beautiful of the bevy the entire society
Of st. Petersburg united in wishing the
best Of good fortune to the brilliant
young couple.
The Murder.
Suddenly the Russian capital was shock
ed by mysterious and atrociDus crime
A wealthy old usurer, by name Wlassow
whose clientele lay principally among the
smart military set of ST. Petersburg, was
found dead in his house. his throat cut
from ear to ear. Beside his corpse lay
that of an elderly woman, his housekeep-
er, whose head had been battered in by
some blunt and heavy instrument. Con
lecture ran riot Who had committed
the awful deed? The police Of the Russian
capital. second to none in astuteness, and
gifted with legal powers superior to those
Of any other European country, were foi
the moment at fault. Then. rumoi
got abroad. and grew and strengthened
DR.. Friedlander, a surgeon in good prac-
tice, had received visit from Lieut.. vor
Landsberg. the little finger OF whose RICH,
hand had been badly cut. He was known
to have had dealings with the murdered
usurer. and he had been seen in the neigh
borhood of his house at about the mo.
msnt of the crime. He could give nc
satisfactory explanation Of the wound
upon his hand. He was arrested on sus-
picion, and from that moment circum-
stance after circumstance arrayed itSei;
against him. until at his trial suspicion
had solidiied into potent and incontro-
vertible certainty.
Russian law has cruel SORT of way al
its own In any other European coun-
try Won Lands6erg would have expiated
his crime upon the gallows Had he beer
able to find the sad courage OF the suicide