Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-08-05
MYTHICAL SU|TOR
MURDER DEFENSE
Woman on Trial for Death OF
Husband an Enigma to
Police Officials.
Special Dispatch 10 The Star.

bpecIai D4Spatch 70 The Star.
LOS ANGELES, August 4-Ths
cold physical fact that locked
closet door. with the key outside, held
Mrs. Walburger Oesterreich a pr,s-
oner and alone in the big house with
the body of her murdered husband
will not prevent her from standing
trial for her life as his slayer
That door was the bulwark OF the
defense in the preliminary hearing
that has just been concluded--a court
issue notable for the fact that il
failed TO break the silence Of the at
tractive woman who came into pos
session or fortune of a quarter Of
million dollars through the strange
and mysterious death Of her husband
Mrs. Oesterreich sat calm and un-
moved under soaring charges of dis
loyalty and faithIessness to her hus-
band with whom she had toiled long
and hard in thrift that was akin 10
poverty. In those DAYS she was in
deed loyal and faithful Nobody can
question that. The charges concern
the later days when they were idle
and rich and quarreIed
Mrs. Oesterreich occasionally smiled
smile, challenging smile
She was IN her own world, far
removed from the courtroom And
II is this contrast of physical and
metaphysical that Is TO furnish her
defense, the most remarkable aver
offered In a court Of law by reason OF
the paradox that the stronger the
evidence against her. the stronger
the defense.
On August %, of last year. Fred
arFairh - y L.
his wife from a visit to friends,
She entered the house first. A few
minutes later, just inside the portals
OF his home. he was shot to death.
Ihen followed period of silence
The porch light was switched Of
from the inside. Neighbors saw tho
shadow Of a human form pass on
the curtain in an upper ROOM Then
they heard the screams OF woman
Oesterretch's dead body was found
on the floor of the living room His
wire was locked in a closet upstairs
with the key on the floor on the
outside.
Watch was Missing.
The motive Of the crime was be
lleVed to be robbery. Oesterreich's
valuable watch was missing. He had
been Shot three times with a 25-cal-
iber automatic pistol. No trace could
be found of the weapon. These were
the physical facts, the circumstance,
evidence. Mrs. Oesterreich declared
that she had been suddenly seized
and thrust into the closet and the
door locked upon her.
Detective Lieut.. Cline working
quietly for months on the case, found
that Mrs. Oesterreich soon after the
crime had given two 25-caliber
automatic pistols TO two men friends
both under obligations, to bury them
he found that she had given the
missing fnh nT
man who had come into her life in
her early widowhood, a lawyer who
shareS the expensive apartment to
which she moved from the house OF
| death soon after the murder
There is more circumstantial evil
Why should Mrs. Oesterreich plot the
death of her husband? was the
money that would come to her TO
be her own and to be spent in her
strong enough to urge her on 20
murder? Was there another man in
her life, man who had won her
love and for whom she would DO
murder! That would be motive as
old as the world.
Here, the detective founl prom
ising lead Mrs. Oesterreich had
seemed to have an admirer. 1t was
from her own lips that a number u
witnesses had heard of MIN. hardly
| spoken in such a way and with a
lift OF the eyes and q vague smile
such as to indicate a secret intrigue
This lover. this mysterious man has
been sought in vain.
The defense at the trial will be
that he Will never be found. Mrs
Oesterreich, in a new atmosphere
| and In pursuit of happiness that She
believed would come with rIcheS
| dreamed dreams and saw visions
Those about her were admired. She
heard talk of secret romancAs and
conceived one of her own. but with
a phantom lover.
Then murder stalked into her life
and claimed her husband and now
| she is confronted with franken-
| stein-this phantom lover of her
dreams who has become a real and
terrible creature and threatens -
destroy her unless she can convince
jury that he exists only in 4 night
mare of tangled circumstances that
! the metaphysical is her only SHINING
and that. in fact. before the Law. she
| is innocent.
This will be the strange defense
| to a stranger crime.
1