THE STEINHEIL TRIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 277, 31 December 1909, Page 4

THE STEINHEIL TRIAL.

A REMARKABLE CASK SCENES J.N COL Hl'. London, Kovember 5. The Loudon papers devote columns ti the trial of .time, atcbiheil, which began ill Paris on i.'.dnesduy, and is not ye. concluded, •'sue is accused of having murdered her husband and her muthci li'ic u.ght of 30th May of lasi year. Mme. Srcinhcil, who was dresseu in black, is defended by Maitre Anton.v Aubiu, a distinguished member of tin - Talis Bar. Besides the representatives 01 the Press and a certain number o: young lawyers, no one had been admitted to the seats in the Courtroom. At the back of the room, however, where, according to the law, the public must freely be allowed admittance, about one hundred persons, a third of whom at least were detectives, stood behind a palisade throughout the long cross-examination of the prisoner by a president of the Court. Tnc impression which would seem to have been left by Mme. Steinheil upon all present during this preliminary ordeal was that she is a woman of remarkable energy, who has at her disposal a large supply ol histrionic gifts. The prisoner ttus lirst questioned in detail as to her lite as a girl. ffliw president, M. de \ uiles, recalled the -fact that she was born in June, 1800,! and that her maiden name was Marguerite Jeanne Japy. He demurred to entering into details as to the personal characteristics of her parents, but Mme. Steinheil insisted on discussing those points,- which hgure in the dossier of the examining magistrate. That part of the dossier she described as' a tissue of lies. The president, continuing, said that all the witnesses agreed that as a gnl sac was an inveterate liar. He gave instances ul her alleged compromising intrigues ai au cany age, and suggested that her conduct was the cause of her father's early deafu. In July, 1890, she married M. Ado.piie Steinheil, and was delighted later on to come to live in Paris, where she was proud of her salon. Jlme. Steinheil -retorted: "Oil, my salon; wliat a legend! If 1 rccei* eJ a good many well-known Parisians it was because I had to establish social connection* for my husband so that he might sea his' pictures. lie was of a very simple nature, and relied on me in an matters of business. 1 supposed that in marrying a man older than myself 1 was going to have a protector. The contrary was the case." l'he president admitted that this was true, but added that 21. Steinheil became daily more and more melancholy owing to his conjugal unhappiness. iUnie. Sicuineil angrily protested that that was not the case, inasmuch as her husband knew nothing of her conduct. She defended her husband, whereupon the president reminded her that she Had always done so, since she had mad', odious charges against him, and had insulted him to one of her lovers, M. liordcrel. Mme. Steinheil, as the cross-examina-tion continued, maintained the original version of tlie burglary with intent to kill committed by me three men in long coats and the red-haired woman, and she undertook to explain her former | lies', declaring that she felt the bitterest t remorse at having, in a fit of madness, | accused the domestic servant, Kemy H Couillard, of the crime. She had put B tne pearl in his writing-ease, she said, ff v)t>t in order to convict him, but to ? make him confess. During the examina- *" tion of the prisoner by the president v she frequently interrupted him in order %"- histrionically to appeal directly to the <&f jury in such tirades as this': " "Pardonnez moi ma vie de femme. 1 r' feel tne sheerest repentance. 1 was not the wife and mother that I ought to > have been, but I could never have been i that, as 1 now know. I regret only one j thiug—that the wretches tied me down j

so tightly, for 1 might have gone to fr- my mothers and my husband's rescue, I and then we should nave been saved { together or. we would nave all three | died together v "' \ And, again, in reply to the question whether she had had lovers, Mme. Steinheil said: ;-, I "Yes, I have. I had a high official I (personage, the friend of my husband, to I whom 1 related all my suffering. He * " Iwas first my protector. He became my 1 jlover. He is dead. Laissons-le. 1 shall jf, !not mention him unless you do so first. 18 The cross-examination of Mme. SteinS heil yesterday afternoon by 'the p'reab a/ jfanfr. WMi.pirTVil; directed to eliciting trpni tnc prisoner more precise details as to the circumstances of the crime with which she is charged. The prisoner's attitude remained to-day what it was yesterday —that of a woman stoutly resolved tu maintain her innocence, notwitkstaud ing the telling way in which the president of the Court arrays. against her masses of circumstantial evidence, and convicts her of lying in connection with almost every stage of the affair. Mme. Steinheil protested violently against the charge of having killed her mother, and -while the president, discussing minutely the various versions which she has given of the crime, brought clearly out into the light the apparent inconsistencies and improbabilities in her account ol -what took place during the night of the murder, she- became more and mom nervous, and at one moment begged the judge to suspend the sitting. When the proceedings were resumed the doctor attached to the Law Courts took his seat near Mme. Steinheil. The event of the aftcrnooD was the sudden appearance in Court of a youth who had written to Mme. Steinheil's counsel to say that his conscience troubled him, and that he was an accomplice in the murder of M. Steinheil. "It was I," the letter added, "who played the part of the red-haired woman, and 1 have the wig I then wore ■with me." The letter was signed Jean Lefevre. At the request of Maitre Aubin, the prisoner's' counsel, the president allowed the soi-disant accomplice to be introduced and placed in the wit-ness-box, . Questioned by the president, lie was unable to give his address. He declared that he was an accomplice of a friend of his, who had gone abroad and liad since died. They burned in the forest of Montmorency the long black coats which they had worn on the night of the crime. Mme. Steinheil interjeitel , the remark that if there were not two other men with Lefevre he was not telling the truth, because she had seen three men and a woman. He went on to relate that he and his' friend had <?■■ -i -led to rob the Steraheils; that they had gagged Mme. Japy, the mother, and iiad then tied down* Mme. Steinheil to her bed. No one in Court took this evidence seriously, but the president ordered a judicial enquiry to be undertaken, and the youth was subsequently arrested for vagabondage. ' After his arrest Lefevre was brought before the examining magistrate, who subjected him to a searching interrogation. His story presented so many inconsistencies that he was ultimatelj driven to admit that he had nothing to j-i '■'" with the murders of M. Steinheil and Mme. Japy. A chivalrous feeling alone had moved him to make his announcement. His real name was Rene Collard, his age 17, and his calling dramatic artist. ' [We have since had news by table that the trial resulted in a- verdict of acquittal, and that Mme. Steinheil was £'" in London.]