THE STEINHEIL DRAMA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2694, 27 December 1909, Page 7

THE STEINHEIL DRAMA.

SCENES IN COURT.

The London papers devote columns to the trial of Mme. Stenheil, which began at Paris, on Wednesday, and is not yet concluded (writes the London correspondent of the “New Zealand Herald” under date November 5). She is accused of having murdered her husband and her mother during the night of May 30, of last year. Mme. Stenheil, who was dressed in black, is defended by Maitre Antony Aubin, a distinguished member of the Paris Bar. Besides the representatives of the press and a certain number of young lawyers, no one had been admitted to the seats in the Court-room. At the back of the room, however, where, according to the law, the public must freely be allowed admittance, about 100 persons, a third of whom at least were detectives, stood behind a palisade, throughout the long cross-examination of the prisoner by the president of the Court. The 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 of histrionic gifts. The prisoner was first questioned in detail as to her life as a girl. The president, M. de Valles, recalled the fact that she was born in June, J. 69, and that her maiden name was Marguerite Jeanne Japy. Ho demurred or entering into details as to the personal characteristics of her parents, but Mme. Steinheil insisted on discussing these points, which figure in the dossier of the examining magistrate. That part of the dossier she described as a tissrie of lies. The president, continuing, said that all the witnesses agreed that, as a girl, she was an inveterate liar. He gave instances of her alleged compromising intrigues at an early age, and suggested that her conduct was the cause of her father’s early death. In July, 1890, she married M. Adolphe Stenheil, and was delighted, later on, to come and live in Paris, where she was proud of her saloon. Mme. Stenheil retorted: “Oh, my salon'; what a legend! If I received a good many well-known Parisians it was because .1 had to establish social connections for my husband so that he might sell his pictures. He was of very simple nature, and relied on me in all matters of business. I supposed that in marrying a man older than myself I was going to have a protector. The contrary was the case.” The president admitted that this was true, but added that M. Steinheil became daily more and ipore melancholy owing to his conjugal unhappiness. Mme. Steinheil 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 not always done so, since she had made odious charges against him, and had insulted him to one of her lovers, M. Border el.

Mme. Steinheil, as the cross-exam-ination continued, maintained the original version of the burglary with intent to kill committeed by the three men in long coats and the red-haired woman, and she undertook to explain her former lies,, declaring that she. felt the bitterest remorse at having, in a fit of madness, accused the domestic s.evvant, Remy Couillard, of the crime. She had put the pearl in his writingcase, she said, not iii order to convict him, but, to make him confess. During the examination of’the prisoner by tlie president she ' frequently interrupted him in order to histrionically appeal directly to the jury in such tirades as this: ,'!■ ■ , . ■ y . 1 • “Pardonnez mol ma vie de fern mo. I feel the sincerest ropentence. I was not the wife; and mother that I ought to have been, hut I could never have been that, as I now know. I regret only ono thing—that the wretches tied me down so tightly, for I might have gone to my mother’s and my husband’s rescue, and then.we should have been saved or would have all three died together.” , V ; , . And. again, in reply to the question whether she had - had lovers, Mme. Steinheil said : - . y t i- « “Yes, I have. 1[ had a high official personage, the friend of my husband, to whom I related my suffering. He was first my protector. He became my l<iver. He is dead. Laissons-le. I shall not mention him unless you do so first.” The cross-examination: of Mme. Steinheil yesternoOn by the president of the Assize Court was almost entirely directed to eliciting from the prisoner more precise details as to the eirexi instances of the crime with which, she is charged. The prisoner’s ’ attitude remained to-ddy-what it was yesterday—that of a woman stoutly resolved to maintain her innocence, notwithstanding the telling way in which the . president of the. Court arravs against, her, masses of circumstantial evidence, and convicts her of lying in connection with almost every stage of the affairs'.' Mme. Stein, h’eil protos+ed violently j against tho charge of having kill eel' her mother, and, while the president: minutely tho various versions which she had given of 'the 1 crime,' brought dearly out:into light the anuarent inconsistencies and improbabilities in her account of what took place during the night of the murder, she became more

and more nervous, and at/one moment begged the judge to suspend the sitting. When Ithe proceedings’were resinned the doctor attached to the Law Courts took his seat near Mme. Stein, lieii. i •'... % | jj v .i The event : of tlie- afternoon was tho sudden appearance in Court, of a youth who had written, to Mme. Steinheil’s council to say that his conscience troubled .him, and that he was an accomplice in the murder of M. Steinheil. “It was I,” tho letter added, “who played the part of the red-haired woman, and I have the wig I then wore with me,” The letter was signed Jean Lefevre. 1 - I 'At the request of -Maitre Aubin, the prisoner’s. counsel, the president allowed the soi-disant accomplice to be introduced and placed in the witness box. (Questioned bv the president, he was unable tp give his address. He declared that he was an acomplice of a friend, of his, who had gone abroad and had since died. > They burned, jn the forest of Montmorency, the long blacfo coats which the" had worn on the night of the crime. Mme. Steinheil interjected the remark that, if there were not two other men with Lefevre. ho was not telling the truth, because sho had seen three men and a woman. He went on to relate that he and his friend had decided to rob the Stomheils; that they gagged Mme. Japy, the mother, and had then tied down Mme. Steinheil to her bed.:. No one in Court took this evidence seriouslv; but the president ordered a judicial inquiry to be undertaken. and the .youth was subsequently arrested for vagabondage. After his arrest Lefevre was brought beforo the examining magistrate, who subjected him to a searching interrogation. His) story presented so many inconsistencies that be was ultimately driven to admit that he had nothing to do with the murders of M. Steinheil and Mme. Japy. A chivalrous feeling alone had moved 1 him to make his announcement. His real nam'' was Rene Collard. his age 17, and) liis calling, dramatic artist.

TWO bave since had news hv cable that the trial resulted in a verdict of acquittal, and that Mme. Steinheil was recently in London.!