PRINCE ATTACKED IN BED.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XVIII, Issue 1858, 6 September 1923, Page 7

PRINCE ATTACKED IN BED.

DRUGGED AND ROBBED. Rome, July 7. Prince and Princess Giustiniani-Ban-dini, who are the Earl and Countess of Newburgh in the Scottish peerage, were attacked and robbed in their mansion in the centre of Rome, the burglars first chloroforming them and then ransacking the Prince's safe of valuables and cash worth 2,000,000 lire (£18,500 at present rate of exchange). The Prince and Princess were asleep when both were awakened by the pressure on their nostrils of cotton-wool pads soaked with chloroform held by two men, bare-footed and wearing black masks.

The Prince and Princess cried out and struggled when the masks fell from their assailants' faces, reevaling them, it is alleged, as the Prince's Brazilian valet and his chauffeur. The Prince and his wife, who are 61 and 55 respectively, continued to struggle. The Prince, who is still vigorous, was overpowered only when his wife had succumbed to the anaesthetic. Both the assailants were then free to deal with him. When he recovered his senses he found that all the doors of the room had been locked and the electirc light, bell, and telephone wires cut. He managed to wake some of the servants, who broke in the door. A rapid survey of the house revealed that the thieves had taken the keys of the Prince's safe, whence they had removed several of the family heirlooms and other jewellery. Among their loot was a diamond and ruby diadem which the family received as a gift from Queen Hortense, Napoleon Bonaparte's step-daughter, and also the famous Giustiniani-fiandini necklace of pearls. In the fight with the two men the Prince sustained a fractured left arm and other injuries. The Princess is confined to bed suffering from shock. The Prince is the ninth Earl of Newburgh, the title dating from 1660. The Earl is also Viscount Kynnaird and Baron Levingstone.