Evening star., 1935-11-12
F|ANCEE ADMITS
Staying DOCTOR
Woman Found on Fire Es.
cape After Murder Is Dis
|. covered in Hotel.
(Wrephotos on Page A-3.D
Nv the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, November 12-Dr
Fritz Gebhardt. 40. was shot to death
in a skyscraper hotel early today. and
police. rushing out to cut of the
slayer's escape, seized his asserted
fiancee. who. they said, admitted
Killing him.
He was found sprawled lifeless in
his room on the twenty-first floor OF
the Beekman Lower Hotel, clad only in
a nightshirt,
Patrolman John Holden found Miss
Vera Stretz, striking ash blond
seated on a fire escape step.
Did you shoot that man upstairs?''
he demanded.
Yes, I did" Holden said she ad-
mitted calmly.
Detectives said they found pistol
in her purse.
They took the woman to station
house and questioned her for hours,
but her only assertion, they said, was
that she had become engaged to the
doctor last December.
SAmc r rom 1eTmdny.
Gebhardt had registered at the
hotel from Karlsruhe. Germany. four
days ago. He used the title doctor,
police learned, because he held q
doctor Of philosophy degree in politi-
cal Science.
Miss StretZ registered November 4
police said. She refused to give her
age. which they estimated at %.
Miss Nan Cannon, assistant man.
age of the hotel, who lives on the
twenty-third floor. heard shots at 2:35
m. She telephoned police and Leslie
Taite, the assistant night manager.
iaite went to the twenty-first floor,
where, he told police, he saw Miss
Stretz sitting by the elevator door
DR. Gebhardt's door was open and
while he went to investigate the
woman disappeared.
A radio alarm brought a squadron
OF police cars speeding to the scene,
a fashionable midtown neighborhood
facing on the East River.
Found on Fire Escape.
Patrolman Holden, told that no
one had come down the elevator,
started up the fire escape stairway.
He found Miss Stretz at the third
floor. She was fully dressed and
carrying her purse.
He quoted her as saying after ad-
mitting the killing:
Il was on my way to the station
house to give myself up."
The woman's father, Frank StretZ,
taken to the police station for ques-
tioning, said he did not know Geb-
hardt or where his daughter had
been living.
The medical examiner said Geb-
hardt had been shot at least four
times, the bdllets striking him in the
chest, left shoulder and left arm.
Empty Shells in Pistol.
Four empty shells were found in
the pistol Miss Stretz carried, police
said. In her purse was a box Of
cartridges.
She said she had been living at
the hotel intermittently for about two
years.
Please don't ask me that" she
sobbed when asked why she shot the
doctor. "Ill talk only to my lawyer" :"
Deputy Chief Inspector Francis j.
Kear, commander Of the Manhattan
homicide squad. took charge of the
interrogation, but he got no further
than the precinct detectives.
Letters in Gebhardt's room indicated
that he was interested in the promo
tion of a hoe-manufacturing ma
chine and that he went to Germany
last August, returning about a month
ago.
In Miss Stretz's handbag purse, be-
sides the pistol and cartridges, police
said they found blood-stained silk
garment which might have been used
as night dress.
The purse contained also q platinum
engagement ring with a one-and-a-
half karat diamond.
The young woman was calm through
out most of the police questioning. but
occasionally burst into sobs.