Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1891-03-14 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE MURDER OF A MANCHESTER DOCTOR.  .ITU7ORT OF THE CRUM.  An independent investigation made by myself here (says a special correspondent at Nice) and at San Remo has placed me in possession of all that is known up to the present of the mysterious death of Dr. Leidermann, of Manchester. In the brief repeats of the crime that have been published in the English and French press the deceased gentleman's name boa been spelled by mistake as Linderman. Dr. Leidermann, as his name would imply, was of German origin, but he had resided for a long time at Manchester, in which city hevraswelllmown. Last December he went to San Remo, presumably for reasons of health, and took rooms at the National Hotel there. The people at the hotel inform me that he paid frequent visits to the Casino at Monte Carlo, and generally took an active part in the play. Towards the end of December Dr. Leidermann returned one day from the gambling metropolis with a man and a woman, whom the servants took to be Germans. They conversed with the doctor in German, and seemed to be very familiar with him. The party stayed at the hotel until the morning of December 29th, when all three took tram in the direction of Nice. In the evening the Germans returned to San Remo without the doctor, and when someone commented upon his absence they explained that they had put him in an asylum at Nice, as be was going crasy. The people about the hotel took the story in good faith, and the two Germans, hastily packing up their luggage and paying their bill, departed at nine o'clock the same night. The manager of the hotel thought nothing more of the matter until he heard that some gendarmes had discovered a man's corpse in a cave near Ospedaletti, about two miles from San Remo. His suspicions being aroused, he sent down one of his employees, who recognised the body, as that of Dr. Leidermann. The gendarmes found that the deceased's pockets had been rifled, and that no money or papers were remaining. The body had been punctured by a peculiar kind of pin, such as is sometimes employed for pricking cards at the Monte Carlo gambling tables.  Of .the Germans who had given out that Dr. Leidermann was in an asylum, no trace was to be found. The police of San Remo made unceasing inquiries, but for a long time without success. Last week, however, the happy thought struck them that, as the pin had probably come from Monaco, something might be learnt in that direction. Accordingly they sent a photograph of the victim to the Monte Carlo police, , and these recognised it as that of a man who had, last December, been in the company of a reported Polish countess and her alleged paramour, a German. The Monte Carlo police were aware that on the 29th of December the man whose photograph they now saw had won a large sum of money in the Casino at a time when the so-called countess was with him. The woman had been described to them as very beautiful, and about 30 years of age. The mysterious German was tall and powerfully built, and seemed to be about the same age as the woman.  The upshot of thi; discovery-was that last Thursday the Monaco police arrested a man and a woman answering to the above-mentioned descriptions, and sent them to Ran Remo, on suspicion of being concerned in the murder of Dr. Leidermann. The police of the principality and those of San Remo have an idea that the " countess " enticed Dr. Leidermann to Ospedaletti and walked with him on the San Remo road; that a man followed, and that when the cave was neared the strange man seized the doctor from behind, gave his body a violent wrench, which disjointed the spine, and having robbed the victim threw the body into the cave. The nature of the crime proves that it must have been committed by a very powerful man, and there are those who suggest that even the male prisoner— strong though he appears—was not strong enough for such a task. The murderer or murderers manifestly had a good knowledge of the locality. The Collaroad, along which the deceased must have walked, is cut out of solid rock. On one side is a precipice shadowing the railway and the sea, and on the other side are abrupt rocks, in which the cave, large enough for shelter, is cut. The criminals—for more than one person must have been concerned, directly or indirectly, in the crime—had probably chosen this spot beforehand as the best scene for operations. It is thought that the pin was stuck into the deceased's body, so as to suggest that Dr. Leidermann had lost his money at Monte Carlo, and had committed suicide in consequence. The " countess" became prostrated after her arrest. She fainted when she was being transferred to an Italian train at the frontier. The man, manacled though he was, walked along the platform in a defiant attitude, which might be construed either as a sense of injured innocence or an expression of hardened  Contempt. Even if he tired not been manacled his handsome form would have attracted attention. In justice to the male prisoner, it should be stated that the police have doubts as to whether he actually committed the murder. They incline rather to the theory that the man and woman in custody simply acted as decoys. The crime has created an extraordinary sensation along this part of the Mediterranean littoral. There is the utmost difficulty in obtaining official information on either side of the frontier, the authorities for reasons best known to themselves, striving to hush the matter up. But the accuracy of the facts here detailed may be relied upon as having come from the same source from which the San Remo police have drawn the mat erial for the prosecution.