THE STEINHEIL CASE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2659, 15 November 1909, Page 5

THE STEINHEIL CASE.

MADAME STEINHEIL ACQUITTED

United Urkrs Association —Copyright. (Received November 15, 12.30 a.m.) PARIS, Nov. 14. Madame Steinheil lias been acquitted on the charge of murdering her husband and stepmother.

The crime was discovered on 31st. May last year, when it was found that M. Adolphe Steinheil, a well-known painter, and his mother-in-law, Mme. Japy, had been brutally killed by strangulation, while the painter’s wife was found gagged. Tho crime created intense excitement in Paris, and crowds flocked to the scene. Mme. Steinheil affirmed that a black-bearded man played the leading role in the tragedy, and that there were two other men and a women implicated in the crime. The woman was red-hair-ed, and wore a long black mantle. She held the muzzle of a revolver pressed against Mrs. Steinheil’s temple -while the men were binding her hands and feet. The three men wor’e black soft hats with white brims, and were enveloped in long black gowns. All three had beards, not false ones, she thought, The cord which was used in the strangling of M. Steinheil and his mother-in-law had been cut from the window fasteners. 'A. • , Rain fell late at night, an hour before the crime was committed, and one thing that puzzled the police was why no footprints were visible on the garden path. In the interior of the house there was not a- single footmark. This and other suspicious circumstances led to the arrest of Madame Steinheil a few days afterwards. She then asserted that the version of the crime which she had given was unfounded, but that she was endeavoring to shield some personage whose arrest would astound Paris.