ECHO OF THE MONTE CARLO TRUNK CRIME.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 253, 23 October 1909, Page 15

ECHO OF THE MONTE CARLO TRUNK CRIME.

VERB GOOLD DIES IX FRENCH CONVICT SETTLEMENT.

After having served two years of his sentence of penal servitude for life for the murder of Mme. Emma Levin, at Monte Carlo, in August, 1907, Vere Thomas St. Leger Goold has died at the French convict settlement at Cayenne.

The news recalls a terrible and coldblooded crime. Mrs Goold, who is a Frenchwoman, was sentenced to death in connection with the crime, but her sentence was afterwards commuted by the Prince of Monaco to penal servitude for life, and she Is now in a French prison.

A great sensation was caused by the discover; of the body of Mme. Levin, the wealthy widow of a Swedish engineer, in a trunk at Marseilles railway station. ?♦ had been taken to the station by Goold, who arranged with the goods clerk to have the trunk sent on to Charing Cross.

When the clerk, a man named Pons, came to move the trunk, he noticed red drops oozing from under the lid. The explanation offered by Goold that the trunk contained poultry did not convince him. He communicated with the police, who opened the box and found the body of the dead woman. The head and legs had been severed, and these were discovered in a kit-bag In Goold'i possession.

At .the trial witnesses gave eTidence that the Goolde had borrowed money from Mme. Levin, who, after various fruitless attempts to recover it, sent a peremptory message demanding repayment. Thereupon Mr and Mrs Goold lured her to the Villa Meneslnt at Monte Carlo, and she was seen no more alive.

Mrs Goold teld the judge that her husband ' while drunk had killed the woman, but they were proved to be jointly guilty of the crime, although Goold afterwards admitted that he alone cut up the body. The head and legs, he said, ha intended to throw into the sea at Marseilles.

Although Goold called hlmeelf "Sir" Vere, he had no right to the title. He came **>t a good Irish family, a-nd was, in fact, the youngest brother of Sir James Goold, who succeeded hie uncle in the title In 1893. It Is said that he once offered the real baronet, who lives In Australia, £150 if he would waive his right to the title. Goold was well known as o lawn tennis player In Ireland.

The Goolde led a varied life. They were married in Paddlngton eighteen years ago, and opened a high-class dressmaking establishment in Bayswater. This did not pay, so they went to Montreal and started a similar business.

They next appeared in Waterloo, Liverpool, and lived for some time In style at a house'in Adelaide-terrace. Their next business venture was the opening of a eteam laundry at Seacombe. This they turned Into a limited company, and retired on the profits to Monte Carlo, where they lived in apparent afflnence, but lost their money In heavy gambling.