The Atherstone, Nuneaton, and Warwickshire Times. — 1889-09-07 (Atherstone, Warwickshire, England)

AVON.  THE TRAGEDY AT STRATFORD.  THE ADJOURNED INQUEST.  The adjourned inquest on the IX:dies-4 -Johann Lachmann Von Gamsenfels and the woman and child was resumed at Stratford-on-Avon on Wednesday, before Mr. T. P. Couchman, coroner for South Warwickshire. The following further evidence was given. Superintendent Simmons, of the Warwickshire Police, stated that since the inquest was adjourned he had followed every possible clue in order to establish the identity of the murdered woman. He had corresponded with the police authorities of the City and metropolitan districts, also with those of Douglas, Isle of Man, Hampshire, and Potteridge, in Herts, with Mr. Grobst, the deceased man's employer, with the secretary of the National Safe Deposit Company, Professor Goebel, and Mr. Spilka, friends of Von Gamsenfels, all of whom had seen a photograph of the deceased SVOLIAD, but failed to identify her. The result of his inquiries were briefly these :—About two-and-a. half years ago the deceased man took apartments at Mrs. Bower's North Street, Hackney, saying that he wanted them for his wife and child for a few days. Afterwards the deceased woman and child arrived, and Gamsenfels and the woman resided there together for some months as man and wife. From February to October, 1888, they lived together in lodgings at 175, Victoria Park Road, London. About the first week in June last year they went to Douglas, Isle of Man, and gave entertainments at the Salisbury Hall, under the professional name of Herr Mozart and Madame Lenormand, but at tbsir lodgings they gave the names of Mr. and Mrs. Gamsenfels. The undertaking was not sucoessful, and they left Douglas on the llth of July. After leaving 175, Victoria Park Road, they lodged at 56, Chatsworth Road, Clapton, and lastly at Gore Road, Hackney. On the 7th of August, eight days before their coming to Stratford-on-Avon, the deceased woman was introduced to the Roy. W. Fleming, at a set. ,ants' registry office in Soho, where Mr. Fleming had called for the purpose of engaging a cook, who stated to him that she had lived with Mr. and Mrs. Gamsenfels as cook for a considerable time, and as her mistress was away in Paris, her master would give her a good character. Ultimately Mr. Fleming engaged her, subject to her references being satisfactory. On the next day she called upon Mr. Fleming, and said that as she was about to be married, she thought it better not to accept the situation. The secretary of the National Safe Deposit Company wrote that he did not know either Gamsenfels or the woman. The key labelled belonged to Mr. Grobst, who rented a safe from the company. The letters found upon Gamsenfels and at his lodgings turned out to be of a business and friendly nature, and threw no light upon the identity of the woman. Rosanna Lackmann Von Gamsenfels identified the body of the deceased man as that of her husband. He was a journalist and edited the Londoner Journal, a German periodical published in London. She had been married ten years, and had one child. She last saw her husband early in July, and was not aware that he kept up a separate establishment or had formed an attachment with any other woman. About five years ago she found a letter from a woman in one of his pockets signed Caroline Manthey, which made her suspect that her husband was carrying on an intrigue. She saw this woman and told her that Gamsenfels was a married man. She did not recognise the photograph of the woman as the woman she then saw. During the pest two years her husband's absences had been more frequent, but he always assured her he was away on business. She had not the least idea that her husband had latterly been carrying on any intrigue with a woman. It had been more difficult of late to get money from him, and he had often complained of being short of money. She had attributed this shortness to general expensive habits. The jury returned a verdict that the woman and child were wilfully murdered by Johann Laohmann Von Gamsenfels, who then and there committed suicide, but there was no evidence before them to show the state of his mind at the time. The Stratford people have collected a sum of £2O for the benefit of Mrs. Freeman, the widow in whose cottage the murder was committed, and are now raising a fund on behalf of Mrs. Gamsenfels.