ECHO OF A FRENCH CAUSE CELEBRE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3122, 28 June 1917, Page 5

ECHO OF A FRENCH CAUSE CELEBRE

MADAME SIEINHEIL MARRIES ENGLISH PEER (Rec. June 27, 8.5 p.m.) London, June 26. Madame Steinheil has been married toLord Abinger.—United Seryfce. ["During the last half of 1908, and up till November 15 of 1909,- Prance was engrossed in the mystery of the Steinheil case. M. Steinlieil, a painter, . and Mswife's mother, Madame Japy, were foundstrangled in their beds in" their" housein Paris on the morning of June. 1, while Madame Steinheil was found bound! ■ and gagged. She told a circumstantial■ story. She said she was nwakened'at raidnight by a dazzling light, and 6aw three men and a woman. They tied her to tha bed, and made her reveal where her band kept his money. Two of the men' then' went into the rooms occupied by M. Steinheil and his mother-in-law, and" strangled them with ropes which they had brought for the purpose.. She stated' that she recognised the woman of the 'party as one of her husband's models,.: ' but later contradicted that statement.; The police for some timo sought a chio on the statements made by. Madame ' Steinheil. but without snecess. Eventually, owing to inconsistencies in her story and other suspicions circumstances, she was arrested and charged with the crime. , .

There appears to be no doubt that M--Steinheil was unable to make a living by his art, and connived at Iris wife's infidelity. Amongst Madame Steinheil's acquaintances was M. Faure, the French' President, who died of an apopleotio seizure in. 1890. It- has been asserta! since the arrest of Madame Steinheil that she was in his company just prior to his death, and the allegation has been made in public prints that his death was really duo to poison—cyanide of potassium—administered by her in a cigar. So persistent were the rumotirs to this effect that M. Saint-Simonin wrote a, book, "Fropos de Felix Fours," in which . ho discussed the question in all its bearings. Ho came to. the conclusion that tho cause of death was Teally apoplexy. One witness in the case, M. Borderel, a rich widower, and Mayor of a commune in the Ardennes, who visited and corresponded with Madame Steinueil, told the Judge that she had expressed to him tho feeling of aversion with which she: regarded her husband and her mother. She had also gone so'far as to propose that she should divorce her husband and marry him, but he had declined this offer on the ground that he wished to remain freo, and must also think of his children. On the morning of May 1 30, on the night 071 which the murder was committed, Madame Steinheil rang him up on the telephone from Paris, but, owing to the imperfect condition of the lines, the only words he could distinguish were: ' At all events, I am glad I hear your voice, followed by a joyous laugh. A est morning he received from the Count d Arlon, who had introduced him to Madame Steinheil in the first instance, news of the murders. The case dragged on, and Paris could think of nothing else. Finally when in November 15 Madame was ( acquitted, the populace abandoned itself to the wildest excitement, comparable to Mafelcing night of Boer War days,!