On 31 May 1923, in Mecklenburg, Germany, Höss and members of the "Freikorps" (German volunteer soldiers) beat to death a local schoolteacher named Walther Kadow. They did this because Martin Bormann wanted them to. Bormann later became Hitler's private secretary. Bormann thought that Kadow had told the French occupational government Nazi soldier Albert Leo Schlageter was sabotaging French supply lines. Schlageter was arrested and executed on 26 May 1923. Soon afterward, Höss and several accomplices, including Bormann, killed Kadow out of revenge. In 1923, after one of the killers confessed to a local newspaper, Höss was arrested and tried as the leader of the murder. Höss later said than another man was actually in charge, but at the time, Höss accepted the blame as the group's leader. He was convicted and sentenced (on 15 or 17 May 1924). His sentence was for 10 years in Brandenburg Penitentiary (prison). Bormann was sentenced to one year in prison.