AN ADVENTURER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 121, 14 February 1908, Page 7

AN ADVENTURER.

TWENTY YEARS' GAOL,. HIS MULTI-COLOURED CAREER. FRAUD AND DARING. UT TELEGRAPH—rP.ESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT. ■ . London, February 12. : Franz von Vclthoim, charged with having blackmailed Sol Joel to secure a sum of £16,000, was convicted and sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. BIGAMIST AND THIEF. RAISED FUNDS TO FIND KRUGER'S MILLIONS. . SUICIDE OF A DEFRAUDED WIDOW. (Rec. Fob. 13, 10.36 p.m.) London, February 13. The jury was absent for twenty minutes before returning witli a vordict of guilty. After tho vordicfc was announced, Inspector Pentin gave Veltheim's history, according 'to police accounts from various countries. His real namo was Kurtze, and his father was a forester. Prisoner was of bad elwraoter from childhood. 110 was a sailor in tho German navy in 1830, and des.orted the same year. Ho was then suspected of stealing his captain's gold watch and seal, 'bearing tho family crest and the captain's name, ' ANOTHER BLACKMAIL CASE. Von Veltheim was: : iator a prisoner. Ho served aboard a British merchantman; and went in 1886 to Freniantlo and Perth, .West Australia,*-where in 1887 ho married Maria Yearslqy. . ' - Ho went to Capetown, and his. wife went to England, whero she became acquainted with a' gentleman, whom prisoner, on rejoining his wife, attempted to blackmail. .Ho was ;told that the matter would bo placcd iu the hands of tho polico, but continued to write threatening letters. Von Veltheim next bigamonsly married, defrauded; 'and doserted'severril women. From orto" ho obtained £1500. Ho underwent'a supposed /secret 'marriage with a young American lady'at St. CioUd, ono of his friends on ihat occasion. impnrsoil.ithij? tho priest. •„< Later prisoner obtained from a Gternlah widow,-, whom ho previously knew, and whom ho now promised to kiarry, £2800 to invest on her'behalf. She, (finding the money had. been squandered, committed suicide. IN SOUTH AFRICA. Prjsoner seryed in tho Cape Mounted Police, but was requested ■to resign. Later he began to' blackmail tho Joels, and the shooting 'of Woolf i Joel at Johannesburg occurred/ , On thoj charge of murdering Woolf Joel, Veltlieiii was acquitted in the Transvaal Republic,! but lie was "expelled from 1 ' thatcountry 1 fir. blackmailing..'. 5 Later lio raised half a million ■ kronor on tiio pretence of being ablo to unearth exPiesidcnt Kruger's 'buried treasure, amounting to fivo millions stprliilg.' ■ Prisoner frequently interrupted tho Inspector's narrative, shouting, "It is all lies. In' a final speech lie told Mr.: Justice Pliillimore that the storylwhioh lie had told tho Court—that he had, simply demanded what was promised to him by . the -late Barney ißarnato in: wlienjio undertook to, effect a pseudo-B'oerj 'resolution' to dopiiso ' President \Ki*uger'in favour o( bom'c otlwr proiiiinent Boer—was true 1 . . ' s-.j Von Veltlieim. added that 1 'thero were some people whom ho, must' coyer, and he did: so •now, although: he ■ was .found guilty. • •' ; ANOTHER HISTORY. Another rebently'publißlibd "story bf (his remarkable man's cafeOr contains the following particulars:' \ • Von- Veltheim'is forty-nine years, of age, and has had nn extraordinarily adventurous life. - He entered tho (vermau Navy as a youth', subsequently left it. toir tho Army, and afterwards travelled in Russia-. In 1835 lib fought fbr. Bulgaria against; Servia, »M was twice wounded. 'After the peace lie came to London, siiilirig. thcncc, to V<(Sst Australia, whero he hiado : a hazardous ;6iploring Excursion in the . Nevcr-Nevcr Land. : 'Ho'front next to Sydney, after marrying a , Mi6s Yearsley at Perth. Subsequently, ,he attempted to join one of Stanley's expeditions at Zanzibar, but was too' late, and wont to Capetown. Thence : he travelled'to New [Orleans, was sent: to the Argentine as a shipping agent, and finally, returned to England by way of JaVa alid Japan'. ■He sailed from Plymouth for Capetown .in April, 1897. The Jiihanhesburg tragedy occurred in March of tho following year. ' Mr. Woolf 1 Joel, \vlio, with his brother Mr. Sol Joe!, succeeded to the 1 great liiining business of the late. Mr. Barney Barnato, was seated in his office with 1 , Mr. Harold Strange oil the morning of March 14, irhen Voh Veltheim called. Blackmailing letters, signed "Kismet," •had been received, and the meeting had. been arranged' in the hope of discovering their authorship. , According to Mr; ■ Strange, Von Veltheim .made proposals, in . connection with 'a plan, for upsetting the Kruger Government. Mr. Joel .and Mr. Strange refused to listen to any'such proposals,'and then Yon Veltheim, declaring that both of; them knew too much to leave the room alive,'drew a pistol and fired, Mr. Joel was shot thrde. times and killed. Mr. Strange escaped. Von Vcltheim's story was different. He said he had come to tho Transvaal at the request of tho r .Barnato firm , ih'conection with a plot against tho ruling liter, powers. While he' was co'nVersihff with Mi-. Joel and Mr. Strange the last-named fired at him with a derringer. Von Veltheim fan Expert shot) fired at Strange" who ducked behind ,i-desk, and then turned his weapon on Mr;.,Toel.' At all events, after ft trial lasting eightj days, and creating tho most intense excitement, Von Veltheim was acquitted of the charge of murder and given an- immense ovation. /He was,' however, bahished from the Transvaal, and went to Delagoa Bay, where, it is said; he received an infernal machine through tho -post and escaped death only by good fortune. Ono of tho mysteries connected with Von Veltheim—a man of gigantic figure and .handsomo mien—waß tho finding! ih the- Thames in September, 1897, of a naked body which was formally identified, as her .husband's by Von Veltheim's wife. At the time of tho discovery the supposed, dead man iwas serving with tho Bechuanaland police.! Divorce proceedinrs were brought in Londoh in 1302 by Airs. Paula von Veltheim'against- her husband. The petitioner was married lit the rogistrv office in St. Giles in 18!>5. Before he left for South Africa Von Veltheim isigned this document • 'I, Carl'Ludwig. Franz von Veltheim, hereby formally renounce alt jmy matrimonial rights to tho position' and fortune of my wife, Paula Schiller." Ho had been married, it appeared fi-om the. divorco profceedings, to two other women. His wife obtained the freedom sho sought. '•