INTERESTING CASE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 108, 7 May 1912, Page 7

INTERESTING CASE.

ALLEGED BLACKMAIL OF A COUNTESS LIBELLOUS LETTERS. CHAMPAGNE TO LOOSEN TONGUES. By Telegraph.— Press Association.—Copyright. (Received May 7, 8.5 a.m.) LONDON, 6th May. Further evidence is being heard in the case in which Francis Henry Page, a private enquiry agent; William Henry Glendinning, his manager; and Frederick Marshall, a solicitor's managing clerk, are charged on remand with fraudulently inducing the Countess de Hamil de Manin to accept a bill of exchange for £100. The Countess gave evidence that she told Marshall that O'Connor wrote anonymous letters to her daughter, and asked Page why she gave O'Connor so much champagne. Pago replied, "It is a convenient method of loosening people's tongues, and to learn what you want." O'Connor wi-ota the anonymous letters at a tea party at Keneington. She denied O'Connor was her cats* paw to carry out her venom, although she agreed with what he had written. Cross-examined, Countess de Maiiin said that Dobbie several times asked her to marry him. O'Connor told her that he had written three letters, but did not tell her they were anonymous. She guessed they attacked Dobbie, because O'Connor said he had written what he knew about Dobbie. The Countess added that when Dobbio reached Australia he asked her to go there with her horses and dogs ; they could marry quickly before anybody else had a chahce. Dobbie had asked her to marry him while he was engaged to Mrs. Williams. At the hearing of the case in December last counsel for the Director of Publio Prosecutions eaid the Magistrate would be invited to commit all three defendants upon a charge of demanding money with menaces, and Page and Glendinning also for stealing a gold and pearl pendant and chain, value £65. Countess de Manin was an Englishwoman, and was the widow of a French nobleman. Page described himself as carrying on the business of Kimpton's Private Enquiry Agency, Strand, and Glendinning was said to be the London manager of that firm, but there was reason to believe that he was a partner. The Countess had been in the habit of living abroad for some years, and in 1899, when travelling between Australia and New Zealand, she met a Miv Dobbie. At that time she was acquainted with a Mr. Daniel O'Connor, who held a substantial and respectable position in Australia. .In the spring" of 1907 the Countess introduced Dobbie a widow, to whom -he shortly afterwards became engaged to be married. For some reason that engagement was not popular with cither th© Countess or Mr. O'Connor, and letters were written by the Countess to Dobbie's future wife and his prospective mother-in-law. About May, 1907, some anonymous letters were written by Mr. O'Connor with regard to Dobbie and sent to his future mother-iu'liiw. There was no doubt that these letters were of a libellous character, but. at' the time they were sent the Countess was ignorant of their contents, although shortly afterwards she gained some knowledge cf what they were about from O'Connor, and later on Dobbie showed them to her. Dobbie was married in 1908, his wife being a lady of means. In April of 1911 the Countess met. Mr. and Mrs. Dobbie at Port Said, and they travelled to England together, being on perfectly friendly terms. At about this time the anonymouh letters had come into the possession of Kimpton's Agency, and a scheme then originated for blackmailing, not Mr. O'Connor, the writer of th© letters, but the Countess, who was known to be a lady of considerable means. According to a statement which Page had since made, he was consulted by Dobbie in April, 1911, with a view to discovering the author of the anonymous letters. Dobbie told him he had an idea that they were written by O'Connor, and he would be glad if Kimpton's could obtain a sum of money in lieu of damages from the Countess, who had bean a party to, or had some knowledge of the writing of the letters. On Bth May a Mr. Freeman Lloyd, a journalist, of Wine Officecourt, who was also connected with Kimpton's, called upon the Counfess and informed her that a warrant had been issued for the arrest of Mr. O'Connor with respect to T the libellous letters, and that the Countess would certainly be dragged into the matter, but they were anxious to avoid that if possible ; and he made an offer to restore to her all letters which she had written and all the anonymous letters provided that she would write a letter which he dictated. She signed this letter. Later, the Countess attended at Kimpton's office alone, and was confronted by the three defendants. She was kept in the office for three hours, and at the end of that time they had terrified her into signing an acceptance of four bills of exchange for £100 each. She was also told eithor that a warrant had been or would bo asked for her arrest; that 6h« would sleep tho night hi a police cell and be brought up at Bow-street uext morning. All this was to happen if she did not pay £1000. Tho Countess said; that she could not afford so much money, and the amount was then reduced to £500 and finally to £400, for which the Countess consented to accept the four bills for £100 each. By that time she was in such a state of terror that she was prepared to do practically anything that these men told her. After the Countess had signed the bills Glendinning said that they must have some security that the bills would be met, and' she was' induced to part with a pendant and chain which Bhe *\vus wearing. It was to Marshall's credit that he protested against this action, saying, "Haven't you got enough out of her?" Glendinning's reply to this was, "Certainly not, we want £75 for our counsel's fees." The pendant and chain were pledged the same day for £17.