Show h L OF UGH DEGREE AUSTRIAN XOBLEMAX IS WAITED V FOR A u mEn A Career of Glory and Honor That Slay End on the Gallows in Case Ulaiither Is CaugHt SAN FRANCISCO May 19Josef Blanther the suspected murderer of I I Mrs Philipina Langfeldt is a knight of the AustroHungarian empire entitled en-titled to place the aristocratic Von I before his name He was a lieutenant in the army of Emperor Franz Josef and served with such distinction that distncton I he received as special tokens of imperial im-perial favor at least four crosses and decorations of knightly orders In the possession of Captain Lees are the decorations de-corations themselves and the documents docu-ments accompanying them all found among the effects of the missing man which establish these facts beyond a doubt The most important of these documents docu-ments is the highly illuminated imperial im-perial order of December 12 ISIS con ferlng knighthood a crest and A COAT OF ARMS upon Josef Blanther who is described as first lieutenant in the Sixtyfifth Austrian infantry commanded by no less an important personage than the Arch Puke Ludwig Victor This document docu-ment interests the police in this city mostly from the fact that it fixes beyond be-yond a doubt the age of Blanther at thirtyseven years He was born in the year 1859 at Rankerburg in Steirmart I He must have entered the army at I a very early age and have been descended des-cended from a good family to get such a berth as first lieutenant in the archdukes arch-dukes regiment when only nineteen years old Previous to that he had evidently done some peculiarly noteworthy note-worthy action for the highly prized iron cross of the third order had already al-ready been conferred upon him Later on from other papers found among Blanthers effects i would appear that he was with his regiment at Bangkok Siam with the title of major By some SPECIAL ACT OF BRAVERY the attention of King Humbert was attracted at-tracted to the knight Von Blanther Among other documents found by the police is one bearing the royal seal of Italy whereby knighthood in the order of the crown of Italy is conferred This was in November 1881 and in obedience obedi-ence to the royal will the golden insignia in-signia of the order the doubleheaded eagle of the house of Savoy and a patent conferring the right to wear i was dispatched to Blanther who was I j then a lieutenant in the Thirtysecond infantry regiment of Austria With such a record in the army the wearer of so many highlyprized decorations de-corations drifted into other walks of life for which a reason is not known During the four years following his service in Siam he possibly traveled in the Orient and became I TINGED WITH THAT MYSTICISM I which his acquaintances have noticed I cropping up in his works I is more than likely that his action in leaving I the army was not altogether voluntary That at one time in his career Blanth er was very proud of his uniform and I his decorations is attested by a photograph photo-graph of himself in that uniform I wearing those decorations The photograph I photo-graph was found among < his papers I was taken in Vienna about fifteen years ago and shows a very handsome I young man Blanther arrived in the United States about ten years ago and ha resided in this country continuously ever since He resided in New York Chicago and numerous towns in Florida Blanther arrived in San Francisco on February 2 and with the exception of a short trip to Portland Ore ha remained in this city ever since He is now in the shadow of the gallows gal-lows The web of circumstantial evidence evi-dence that is being woven around him is drawing closer and closer I has been left to the man himself to supply the most damaging testimony of his guilt and although he has not yet been caught the energies of the police have been redoubled in the last twenty four hours |