Hi PF,
Turns out I am currently reading a biography on Martin Bormann. All I have on his service is the following:
As the NSDAP described itself even in its early phase as the stronghold of the spirit of the front-line soldier, Bormann would tell people later that in the first years of the war he volunteered several times for military service but was never accepted. This may be true; however, when he joined the 55th Field Artillery Regiment in Naumburg in June 1918 he was just eighteen, and young men of that age were regularly drafted. His army career does not exactly support his claim that he had volunteered, either, or that he would have been eligible for officer training on the basis of his one-year service certificate. But he remained in Naumburg as an enlisted artilleryman long after the Emeperor had fled to Holland and the government in Berlin had fallen into the hands of the despised Reds - the Social Democrats.
p. 21
More is stated but mostly conjecture that he was a "polisher" ('an officer's orderly'). If you want, I can post what is written.
1) The sentence you refer to is a rather long winded affair. In very basic terms, Bormann at that time came to know of Rudolf Hoess through right-wing activities with the Volkische and Rossbach group. One person (Walter Kadow) stole a small amount of money through fraudulent means (passing himself off as a WW1 veteran)... from the party coffers. Bormann became extremely angry and ordered Rudolf Höss (the future Auschwitz commander) to have him roughed up a little. Things turned bad. Bormann hired a horse-drawn cart and Hoess and a couple Rossbachers,
Went to work on him, first in the cart, pummeling him with fists, sticks, rubber truncheons.... The blows came from all sides, six against one. Höss broke off a sapling maple and brought it down full force on Kadow's skull.
p.30
Kadow had not died yet, so they decided to finish him off. One of the involved divulged the story and it became a police affair.
The six murderers... were jailed pending trial, but there were only casual inquiries about those who had provoked and stage-managed the business.
p.31
Martin Bormann was not under any real danger of facing justice for his complicity, but the Judge Ludwig Ebermayer changed his mind. He was arrested and brought to Schwerin prison then to Leipzig. The hearing was set for March 1924, and the judges had this to say:
"The defendants were in a state of extraordinary excitement while committing the act. It is therefore assumed that the slaying of Kadow was not premeditated."
Thus it was not murder, which could have brought a death sentence, but only manslaughter.
p. 33
The authors explain away the clemency as a fear of opening up violation to the Versailles Treaty and usage of nationalist para-military forces.
Bormann was arrested in the courtroom and immediately sent off to prison.
Credited with a month of confinement while awaiting trial, Bormann had to endure the monotony of prison life for only eleven months from the date of the verdict, March 17, 1924. Political prisoners could claim the privilege of a cell to themselves and also do their work there, insofar as the prison schedule allowed.
p.36
This section (the Kadow episode) is to be found from page 28 through to mostly page 36.
Unfortunately, there are no such illustrations or pictures in the book (mugshots and fingerprints etc.) I have here (although there are some interesting photos).
Source:
Jochen von Lang,
The Secretary: Martin Bormann: The Man Who Manipulated Hitler Trans. by Christa Armstrong and Peter White, Random House, New York, 1979
by PF on 28 Oct 2005 13:00 
yes not so boring.....
