Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1892-01-30 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

THE SCHNEIDER TRIAL IN VIENNA.  The trial of Frank Schneider and Rosalie, hie wife, for a series of murders ;old outrages whicl. are believed to have no parallel in Austrian criminal records, is about to begin in Vienna, and is being looked forward to with impatient interest by the whole Austrian public. The indictment contains tie fewer than eight definite charges of outrage and murder. The victims Were in every instance servant-girls in search of employment, and it was by promising to find them situations that the prisoners succeeded in luring them to their fate. The first crime is alleged to have taken place OE May 26th, 1891, when a girl named Johanna Stoibm was outraged by the male prisoner, under the cover of night, in a wood known as the Haspel Walde, near Neu Lent4uach. The date of the second crime is June 14, IE9I, less than a week after the first. The girl's name was Anna Djurir., and the outrage, which oceuried in an inn near Neu Leiwbach, stated to have been accompanied by violence of the most atrocious character. The third crime took place three days later in the same neighbourhood The victim, Itoalie Kleinrath, was robbed am murdered, and the fourth charge is that the woma,e Schneider pa weed this unfortunate girl's clothes ane belmigings a few days after the crime. The fifth head of the indictment is that on July 2nd the malt prisorer outraged, murdered, and robbed a gir name Martha Hothranger in another wood in the same neighbourhood. The sixth charge is that the female prisoner was cognisant of this murder, an took part in the robbery. Five days later anothe: horrible crime of the same description was corn mitted in the Ilaspel WAide, the scene of the first, the victim, a girl named Vicentia Zuffer, being violated. Her clothes and money were also appro. priated by her murderers; and the eighth charge it the indictment is that the woman Rosalie l•klineidei was not only cognisant of the crime, but assistec in its perpetration. Frank Schneider is a man o 35 years. He was born at Ainstetten near Vienna his father being a shoemaker in that place. Ht received hardly any education, and seems to have got into bad company at a very early period of hit career. When only 14 years of age he was con. victed of robbery. He subsequently served as ; butcher's assistant for some time, and in 1882 he married the female prisoner Rosalie, who was cook of not particularly good character, but ‘111( had a dowry of 700 guilders. After that 'none) had been spent Schneider lived on the proceeds o: his wife's misconduct, and such blackmail as he was able to levy upon one of her former lovers Like her husband, the woman Schneider has not now made the acquaintance of a prison interior foi the first time, having already served a period of 1E months' imprisonment. The girls whom Sclineidei is alleged to have murdered were never seen afte! they went away with the prisoner and his wife until their naked and mutilated bodies were re. covered in the woods. Since they have been ir prison awaiting their trial both Schneider and hi wife have evinced great terror at the prospect 0, having to undergo capital punishment. It is statec that both have confessed, mutually accusing Niel other. According to these confessions Schneide: strangled his victims, and his wife stripped then of their clothing, hiding their dresses in a ditcl until she could otherwise dispose of them. Atte) her arrest the woman attempted to commit suicide by jumping into the prison courtyard from a thirdstorey window. The injuries she sustained, however, were of a comparatively trifling nature. Net Lengbach, where the crimes were committed, is a fashionable suburb, lying a short distance to the west of Vienna.