STEINHEIL MURDER CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 507, 16 November 1909, Page 3

STEINHEIL MURDER CASE.

Paris, November 14

Madame Steinheil, charged with the murder of her husband and of her mother, Madame Japy, has been acquitted.

The verdict in the Steinheil murder was awaited for two and a half hours, and was received with prolonged applause. Madame Steinheil tainted when the verdict was given, and had to be carried out. Spectators slormily cheered Maitre Aubin, her counsel. Two thousand people, who were waiting outside, made another demonstration, hissing being intermingled with cheers.

M. Steinheil, a painter, and Madame Japy, his mother-in-law, were found both strangled in their adjoining bedrooms of the former’s house in the Impasse Ronsln, in the. Montparnasse neighbourhood of Paris on May 31, 1908. Couillard, a valet, made the discovery. He first found Madame Steinheil bound and partly gagged in her bed, bruised and scratched, but otherwise unhurt. lu another room Madame Japy, mother ot Madame Steinheil, lay :dead on her bed, having been throttled. In a third bedroom on the floor was the dead body of M. Steinheil, huddled up as if he had tried his best to cope with his assailant or assailants.

Madame Steinbeil’s first story was that she was suddenly awakened by three men and a woman standing at the head of her bed with the light of a burglar’s lantern turned on her. One of them threw the sheet rapidly over her face, whilst another gagged her with her night clothes. They tied and bound her hand and foot to the bed. Their conversation showed that they believed her to be her daughter, and she pointed out to them where 7000 francs were hidden in order to save her life. The burglars then broke into the room of her mother, whom they attacked at once, and she fainted when she heard her mother’s screams. She recovered consciousness only when her valet Couillard called her in the morning. Madame Steinheil had another story later. She said that the murders were committed by two Americans, a journalist and artist. They were arrested, and, after suffering much badgering and inconvenience, were released. Madame Steinheil has had an adventurous past, and was present under not very reputable circumstances at the death of President Felix Faure, ten years ago.