RUMANIA: Blood for Blood

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RUMANIA Blood for Blood

Behind the elegant veneer of Bucharest society, Rumanian politics are murderously tough. The assassination of King Carol II, for instance, was recently all set to take place at a swank turf classic, according to Bucharest police. Nabbed by detectives in time's nick, the nonchalant plotters were said to have been caught preparing hand grenades, boldly confessing, "We were going to toss them into the Royal Box while everyone was watching the big race of the day." Significantly, Lloyd's of London not long ago refused to write insurance on the life of strong and healthy Rumanian Premier Armand ("Little Hercules") Calinescu. Last week this actuarial judgment proved sound as foul murder and bloody vengeance erupted right in the middle of Bucharest, within five minutes walk of the Royal Palace.

Premier Calinescu had courted assassination by suddenly starting to arrest throughout the kingdom, as "plotters against the State," German sympathizers with the Rumanian Fascist Iron Guard, an old-line band of native anti-Semite terrorists organized soon after World War I, repeatedly accused by "Little Hercules" of now receiving funds from the newer German Nazis. One afternoon last week, as the Premier was being driven home to lunch, a young woman suddenly shoved a cart in front of his car, which was forced to stop with squealing brakes. At the same moment up swooped two cars from which leaped masked gunmen. They rapidly blazed away at Little Hercules. His bodyguard went down under the fusillade, his chauffeur collapsed, and the Rumanian Premier toppled forward riddled with bullets.

Jumping back into their cars, the assassins roared away. Soon afterward a group of Iron Guards rushed the Bucharest radio station, shot the doorman in the leg and burst in upon a young woman radio announcer who swooned as they shouted into her microphone for all Rumania to hear: "Attention! Calinescu has been assassinated. The action was carried out by Iron Guards." It so happened that the Premier's wife, who was staying at their country place, was listening to this broadcast, which she at first took to be a hoax. She set out for Bucharest with her 16-year-old son. On arrival, she was told that her husband was dead with five bullets through his body and one through an eye.* At the sight of his body she fainted, the boy suffered nervous collapse.

Meanwhile, the King's police went out in typical Balkan fashion to get blood for blood. They began a man hunt for Iron Guards in every part of Rumania, but in Bucharest they put on a grisly show. The assassination had occurred at 1:30 p. m. and punctually at 11 p. m. the same night seven young Iron Guards who had confessed to the murder of Little Hercules were brought to the spot where the assassination had taken place, forced to reenact it under police floodlight and then executed, in situ. The executioners were seven Rumanian soldiers, each of whom drew a pistol and killed one of the seven Iron Guards. The bodies slumped to the pavement, gushing blood and sprawled grotesquely next to those of two Iron Guards who had committed suicide, to lie there in the street for 24 hours. This object lesson was captioned by a huge banner draped by police clear across the street: "Let this be an example to all assassins and traitors in the country."