(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
A sentence of three months imprisonment was imposed yesterday on Countess Hessolda Schnabel, whose case recently created a sensation when it was learned that she had forged the will of her late husband, Prof. Schnabel of the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, who was a Jew.
In repeating her confession in the court room yesterday, the Countess said she had invested much of her money in a beautiful island villa estate owned by her husband, and sought to prevent “grasping relatives” from obtaining her husband’s fortune. As her husband died intestate, she declared she believed she was carrying out his wishes in drawing up a will for him.
The judge stated his belief that the Countess did not realize the full import of her crime and he therefore was lenient with her in passing sentence.
The Countess was born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1885, the daughter of Count Hesse von Leiningen-Westburg and the former Margaret Meyer of St. Louis.
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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.
