POSED AS A MAN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3531, 20 July 1920, Page 7

POSED AS A MAN.

o ITALIAN'S MASQUERADE

"MARRIED 1 ' TO A WIDOW

NOW CHARGED WITH MURDER.

SYDNEY, July 7. An extraordinary case ol a woman masquerading as a man, resmbling in some respect? the famous Bock case in Now .Zealand, has been discovered In Sydney. The person a middle-aged Italian woman, who is known in New Zealand, is now in gaol on a charge of murder. . This Italian woman's maiden name was Eugene Falleni She 'was born and grew to womanhood in Italy, and there married a man named Martello. They soon afterwards left Italy, and. acccrding to the police' story, eventually arrived in New Zealand, where they lived for many years. Within the last five years the woman left her husband—who is thought to be still in New Zealand—and. with her only daughter, came to Sydney. Both engaged in employment.

The woman, soon after arriving in Sydney, adopted male attire, and worked in various places under the name of Harry Roach, as a "generally useful." While at Wahroonga. a suburb of Sydney—Falleni met a widow named Annie Birkett, who had a son 14 years old. Falleni wooed the widow, who eventually consented to marriage. They went through the form ef marriage, and lived together in Dmmmoyne for some months. It seems probable that Mrs Birkett was terrorised into keeping silence about her "husband's'," masquerade, but the facts of her treatment will never be known. She disappeared. Her son was employed by a local grpcei", and the latter was in the habit of taking him away for''lengthy periods into the country. When he returned from one such expedition in October, 1917, his mother was missing, and his "stepfather" did not satisfy the boy's curiosity as to what had become of her. They lived then in various places, frequently changing their abode, and (he boy lost track cf his moTher's relatives.. In October, 191!). Falleni met a young Sydney woman, became friend-

!ly with her, and eventually went through the form of marriage with her

In October, 1917, an employee of the Cumberland Paper Mill on the Lane Cove River, ic the DrummoyneWahropnga district* found a charred and decomposed body in the bush), near tbe mill. It was badly burned, but was recognised as that of a mid-dle-aged woman. The police made inquiries in vain, and the coroner returned an open -verdict} [But the mystery of it worried the police and they kept the case always before them. A few weeks ago Mrs Birkett's son by accident met a relative of his mother. The ladj's story -and the total disappearance of Mrs Birketf aroused the woman's suspicions, and she went to the- police. Two detectives began to work quietly on the case. They gather together from many likely and unlikely sources a mass of information, as a result of which they visited an Annandale hotel on Monday afternoon and arrested the "generally useful" —Eugene Fallen! —on a charge of murder. The woman appeared in Court up. Tuesday and was remanded until July 14. She is a slight, sallow, hollow- , chested person, with a remarkably I small head and features. She was I still dressed in men's clothes, and if i was hard to believe she is a women.

' The question of suppressing Mary Pickford in view of the newspaer reports of her divorce proceedings was discussed at the last meet ins of the Gisborne Borough Council. One councillor contended that it was a mistake to train the children to look on Mary Pickford as a heroine in view of the press report? of her private life. The incident closed with the Maqor remarking that if people obpected they could prevent their children from going to the pictures.