Before a jury court, the new trial of Philip Halsmann, Jewish student who was sentenced to ten years imprisonment on the charge of patricide as the result of the mysterious death of his father, while the two were on a walking trip in the Tyrol mountains in the summer of 1928, was opened at Innsbruck.
The new trial was granted after the case attracted much attention in the Austrian press, where it was charged that Halsmann was the victim of prejudice and that the evidence upon which he was convicted was insufficient since, if it were sufficient he would have been sentenced to death. Charges of anti-Semitic influence on the jury were also made.
The court permitted the prisoner to pay a visit to his father’s grave to recite the Kaddish on the first anniversary of his death. He was accompanied by a rabbi and a special police guard, His mother, sister and other relatives were present, all protesting his innocence.
The counsel for the defense created a great sensation in court when he declared that within the next few days he will submit evidence showing the name of the real murderer of the elder Halsmann.
Halsmann was a wealthy dentist of Riga, Latvia, and was an owner of real estate in Palestine and Switzerland.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
