THE RED ROOM.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3190, 8 April 1911, Page 4

THE RED ROOM.

A HYPNOTIC MYSTERY

One of the mose extraordinary stories that lias ever come before a court of law was told in a remarkable blackmail case at Berlin, which has just ended in a fashionable young woman, Emma Helm, being sentenced to three years' imprisonment. The prisoner (says the “Central News”) appears to have made a living by charlatanry, accompanied by a certain amount of skill in hypnotism and palmistry, with the aid of which she pandered* to the darings for sensation and excitement of a number of the smart and idle rich. It- transpired at the trial that she rented a handsome flat, furnished with remarkable luxury, one room of which was decorated, furnished, and draped entirely in red. and it was_li?re that the seances took place at which Emma Helm entertained her fashionable clients. —A Servant Girl.—

The trial arose out of an action for extorting money brought by a former servant girl named Gruger, and it was this witness who gave the sensational evidence. The girl, who is now married to an artisan, declared that she became acquainted with the prisoner when reduced almost to starvation by a period of vain looking for work after she had come to Berlin from the country, and that the prisoner, hearing her tale of distress, offered her work at her flat. Instead of giving her housework, however, she informed the girl that she was to act as a medium, and, not understanding what was meant, the girl permitted herself .to be hypnotised, when it was discovered that sue was a parti»cularly pliable subject. On the occasion of the next seance the girl was robed entirely in white, and was taken into the red room, which was then dimly lighted, by red-shaded lamps and occupied by a. number of men and women attired in strange costumes, who wove seated rckind a table draped with red hangings. The girl declares that she was then placed on the table and sent to sleep, and that she remembered nothing more until she woke to find herself in a bedroom of the house. From this time onward she was entirely in the power of Emma Helm, and the same thing happened at- each of the seances. Her mind was a complete blank as to what happened while she was under the influence of hypnotism, birtshe_ felt sore that she was acting rightly in remaining in the mysterious flat. —Extortion.— Some little time afterwards she managed to obtain employment as a housemaid. and subsequently she married. It was after her marriage that the attempts at extortion took place, the prisoner seeking her out and threatening to disclose to her husband all that had happened in the red room unless she paid her a sum of about £4O. The unfortunate girl gave the prisoner all her savings, but the woman was not satisfied, and shortly afterwards she called and demanded more money. When the girl could not give her any further sum she proceeded to hypnotise her. but. while, the victim, was still lying unconscious on the floor, and the prisoner was engaged in ransacking the drawers and cupboards in the room, a neighbor entered, and, seeing that something was wrong, summoned the police, whereupon Helm was arrested. The police are now trying to find the mysterious .flat in which these happenings passed, but they have very little precise information to go iipph, and the prisoner will disclose nothing.