A LONDON TRAGEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 19 November 1919, Page 3

A LONDON TRAGEDY

THE MYSTERY DEEPENS. (By Electric- Telegraph—Copyright.) (Reuter's Telegram.) (Received This Day at 1.5. p.m.) LONDON, November Jfi. Mrs Steane’s story reveals a tangled skein of love and .sorrow. • It was stated tHat Emperor Francis ■Joseph gave & priest fifty thousand sterling for her upbringing and education in America under the name of lAlma Vetsera. She appeared to re eeiye large supplies of money from Austria. Being remarkably beautiful she fascinated many men. She was married at the age of 17 to a Canadian Stockbroker who took h-u to Vienna, but failed to gain an audience with the Emperor. She then returned to New York and entertained regularly moving in th e most exclusive gayest society. She divorced her husband and after . several brilliant seasons ip New York she married another Canadian whom she shortly divorced on the grounds of desertion. Early in the war she came to London where she made many aristocratic friends and became engaged to a distinguished soldier. The engagement was broken off and as a result she became melancholy, and wrote to a friend that she intended to follow her parents example and commit suicide. She took poison but recovered. Scotland Yard inquiries show that her income from Austria ceased a month ago, hut her husband states this had no effect on her as he had ample moans. She continued spending lavishly, giving parties and dances in her flat, being one of the most beautiful dancers in London. She was in great demand at private

society balls, and wore most artistic

dresses, enhancing the notable beauty of her figure. She confided to a friend that as n child through Prince Rudolph’s unfortunate infatuation she was doomed to unhappiness. When she married Steane the places in the register for brides’ parents was left blank. The newspapers examining the (acts conclude that she wa s Rudolph’s daughter but a London stockbroker who lived in Vienna at the time of the royal tragedy, and was a friend of the Vetsera family, declares that the Prince and Baroness had no child. He gives a new version of Rudolph’s death, stating that the Baroness, then nineteen was affianced to Count Hoyos, an intimate f r jemd of Rudolph’s. Hoyos learned that the Baroness was staying at Meyerling, and knowing the nature of Rudolph’s ammotirs he burst Into the house and shot the Baroness, then shouting “You are not worth n Silver Bullet”, crashed Rudolph’s skull • with a silver candle stick. .An equerry • shot the Count, and the Hapsburgs circulated the story that the lover’s suicidN e<J. ' • ■ .