 On 17 March 1924 Bormann was sentenced to a year in Elisabethstrasse Prison as an accomplice to his friend Rudolf Höss in the murder of Walther Kadow.The perpetrators believed Kadow had tipped off the French occupation authorities in the Ruhr District that fellow "Freikorps" member Albert Leo Schlageter was carrying out sabotage operations against French industries.Schlageter was arrested and was executed on 23 May 1923.