Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1912-05-14
Accused Of Killing Saxon Burgomas-
ter Following Love Affair
....... With Son.
100000 IN GOLD IS MISSING
Detectives Lost Trail Several Times
German Government in
ISL Pursuit.

Philadelphia, Pa, May 11.-Ma
RE Purtz, a pretty 20-year-old Ger
man girl, who for five months has
eluded hundreds Of detectives en-
ployed by the German empire ana
was arrested after chase of near
ly $4,000 miles, accused Of the muir
der of a German burgomaster and
the larceny of $4,000, was held
without bail by Magistrate Coward
in the Central station to await the
action of United States Commission
er Henry r. Edmunds. Despite her
stay in this country the girl is an
able to speak English.
Detectives who arrested her in
Corapolis, Pa, declared that the girl
was wanted for the murder of Burg
omaster Carl Gottleib' Ungethus of
Ruperts Gruen, Saxony, by whom
she had been employed as domes-
tic. The stolen $4,000, they al
tlege, was taken from a safe in
which it had been placed by Fred
;erick, the burgomaster's 22-year-old
son.
Marie was traced to Corapolis
from Pittsfield, Mass. At the re-
quest of DR.. Arthur Mudra, the Ger
man consul here, she was brought
to this city. He will make appli-
cation to the commissioner for eX-
tradition papers for her return to
Germany
Aiding the German Government
in their chase were the operatives
of the United States Secret Service,
who were ordered to help the Ger
man detectives, after request was
received by the State Department
from the German Ambassador, Count
J. H. van Bernstorff. Every prom
inent detective agency in the coun-
try was also employed in tracing
her movements.
According to the detectives Marie
is one of number of conspirators
who had a hand in the murder and
partook of the proceeds of the theft.
1t was also intimated that with the
$4,000 a number of papers, yalu-
able to the German Government,
which were in possession of the Ru-
perts Gruen burgomaster, were TAX
en-. 1t was the disappearance Of the
papers that resulted in the activity
of the Imperial German Chancellor,
who asked that the girl be appre-
hended at any cost.
The murder and robbery with
which the girl is charged, occurred
the early part of last January. AT
that time Marie was employed by
Ungethun. 1t is alleged that she was
taken into the Ungethun household
at the suggestion of the son, who,
the girl said, loved her.
After Ungethun died suddenly the
police of the SaXony town made
cursory investigation and declared
that the burgomaster had been pois-
oned No suspicion was directed
against the girl >then. A few days
later, however, she disappeared.
About the same time it was discov-
cred that the $4,000 in gold,
which the burgomaster had in a
safe, had also gone. The chase then
commenced
From the little Saxony village the
trail led TO Antwerp. There the
German police found that the girl
had taken passage on one of the
transatlantic liners for New York.
The New York police We're notified,
but in some unexplainable manner
she slipped by them when the boat
locked
. When the trail was again caught
it was discovered that Marie had
gone to Boston. There she was
against lost. 1t was only when one
of the operators working on the
case had occasion to visit Pittsfeld,
town in the Deerfeld valley, that
he ran across the rosy-cheeked girl
in the costume of maid, who an
swered the description of the fugi-
tive from Germany.
Instead of placing her under ar
rest at that time the police of Wash
ington and New York were notified.
BY the time the detectives who were
to take the girl into custody had ar
rived Marie had grown suspicious
and had again disappeared.
Again she was found BY the mer-
est chance. AS was the case in
Pittsfeld. one of the operatives dis
covered her in the little Pennsyl-
vania hamlet This time the arrest
was swift and sure.