A SENSATIONAL TRIAL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 79, 2 April 1908, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL TRIAL.

DRAMATIC CLOSING INCIDENTS

TWENTY YEARS FOR BLACK-

MAIL

LONDON, Feb. 14. The terrible sentence of twenty years' imprisonment ha^ been passed by an English Judge on Yon Veltheim, the adventurer found guilty of blackmailing and threatening to murder Mr Solomon Joel, the nephew of the late Barney Barnato. Nine .years ago Yon Veltheim sent threatening letters to Mr Joel's brother, Woolf Joel, in Johannesburg.' He shot Woolf Joel in the latter's own office, but was acquitted by a Transvaal, jury on the plea that he acted in self-defence. Nine years .'later he wrote to Solomon Joel reminding.him. ■af the -'unsettled account" be'wesn them. He told his correspondent to remember his "character and grievances," and how ho "keeps his word under all circumstances, regardless of consequences." Ho referred- quite plainly to the fate of Mr Woolf' Joel, and bade Mr Solomon . Joel '■ let" him see whether ' 'you have learned anything from the past or not, or again -regret' when too late."- His account of this letter is

i that Woolf Joel had promised him j £12*000, ■ and that he wanted to have I -a.-settlement,- as he was going to | America. The £12,000 was to have | been paid to him in connection with | the plot against the .Transvaal Gow- | ernmont; which he claims to have con--1 cocted with the late Mi- Barnato, who i asked him what a revolution in the Transvaal would- cost, adding that it would be U££heap at .a million." He was introduced ':o Mr Barrtato by "a South American diplomatist," who was then ail Ambassador or a Minister in London, but nothing would induce Yon Veltheim to call this personage in his defence, or even to reveal his name. It is, indeed," one of the conspicuous features of his story that all the principal persons whose evidence might have supported- it are dead. Mr Barnato is dead, Mr Wcolf Joel is dead, Miss Caldecctt is dead, and1 the diplomatist is not forthcoming. Mr Strange, who was present when Mr Wobli: Joel was shot, was not called upon cither side. In his first" letter to'"Solly" Joel Yon Veltheim described himself as a desperate man, at the last stage of financial depression, who had 'such a feeling of honour—or sham honourthat he would rather die than live a disgraced man, and was ready to die, but proposed, rather than death, to' extract, at the point of the sword or the muzzle of the pistol, a large sum of money from Mr Solomon Joel, whoj he considered, could well afford it. He was ready to kill Mr Joel himself, too, if his demands were not complied with. The sum demanded was £12,----000. The details of this letter in some respects did appear as if they were taken out of a melodramatic < novel; but, on tfie other hand, they seemed cleverly designed to prey on the nerves of the receiver. The letters, as they went on, acquired a new tone. praised the spirit of Solomon Joel, and suggested that if he was a venturesome speculator he might profit, by a loan, not a gift } of £12,----000 to"Kismet." The; letter contained the phxase that the' "business spells politics." These letters continued, addressed first to Solomon B. Joel, then to the Joel Brothers, then to Woolf Joel. The last two took a new line. One of them said that "Kismet" had come into money, and would trouble him no,longer, and the prisoner now said that was for the recipients to show the police, to enable them to drop the case. The other" letter was practically a begging letter, and it was signed "Baron Yon Veltheim." After the shooting of Woolf Joel there was an interval of nine years, and then the letters began again. • The .prisoner, admitted that the threatening letters were sent by him, but explained them as a poor joke, "in very bad taste." .They were, he said, written at the instigation and on behalf of a Miss Caldecott, who aid the blame if or certain pecuniary losses suffered by her father on Mr Solomon Joel. The letters to Woolf Joel were, he said, written merely to annoy his brother "Solly." They were "melodramatic," and had no criminal object. The jury, however, took the letters seriously,, and found the prisoner guilty after a retirement of only twenty minutes. A MUCH-MARRIED MAN.. The life story of "Yon Veltheim" as pierced together by the English police for recital in court makes him out to have been a most dangerous customer, particularly where the gentle sex was concerned. Our police, of course, have not discovered everything about "Yon Veltheim's" amazing career of rascality, but they have gleaned enough information about his past to warrant the belief that the world at large will lose nothing by his loss of freedom. "Veltheinr J was born fifty-four years ago in Brunswick. His parents were eminently respectable people of the name of Kurtz, but Karl (as "Yon Veltheim" was christened) "did not take after them. Quite early in life he evinced a disposition to annex articles of value belonging to his parents, and when his father died his guardian found young Kurtz a very troublesome handful. He was sent to school, but behaved so badly that expulsion followed, and when he was sent to sea he took the first opportunity for deserting. Then he appears to have made his way to London, where he seems to have lived as Louis Wurder for a number of years, though definite informa-,i tion as to his life during this perioa is not forthcoming. In April,lßßo, he ! reappeared in Hamburg, and joined I the German Navy under the name of Kurtz, but a few months later he 1 took "French leave," and disappearjed just at the time a gold watcli and • chain and the family seal of Captain \ Yon Veltheim, one of the officers at i the depot where Kurtz was stationed, '■ left their owner's possession without j his knowledge or sanction. For three ; years Kurtz disappeared, but between | 1883 and 1886 he turned up in his .^native land as "Captain Jackson," and posed as a British naval officer. In that role ""he visited Australia, and in July,_lßß6, appeared at Fremantle, but during his passage to Perth blossomed out as the son of "Baron $on Veltheim," and as such married, in November, Miss Marie Yearsley. 'He lived with that lady in Sydney for some months, and then skipped to Capetown, leaving his wife behind. She-, however, came on to Englandj where she was joined later by "Yon Veltheim," who promptly commenced to blackmail a gentleman with whom his wife had struck up an acquainten voyage. Ultimately he p-ct £/o0 out of this person, but when 'he tried to extract more the victim mit himself into the hands of the police and '-Yon Veltheim" found it desirable to try his luck in America. Here he dabbled in shipping and brewery businesses for five or. six years, and

then returned to Europe for a spell, during which time heOidvertised for a wife, and got into communication with a Miss Paula- Schiffer. He returned to America as Consular Agent for the United States at Santa-Marta^. but scon afterwards came back to Europe, bringing with him, it is alleged, 3000 dollars which belonged to a brewery for which he had acted as agent. Then he went over to Germany, and met Miss Schiffer. Failing parental con-1 sent to; their union, Yon Velthpim persuaded the lady to follow him to Englandi He obtained £500 from her, and in May, 1896, went through a form of marriage with her. They travelled about together for a time, and then, having obtained £1000 more from Miss Schiffer, he went off to America "in order to make a home." However, Miss Schiffer discovered that she had been deceived, and got the marriage annulled. Soon Yon Veltheim was back in London courting a well-to-do Greek lady, Miss Mavrogordato, as Louis Platen. He married ncr, got £300 out of her, and absconded. He next turned up at Capetown as Kurtz, but his history becoming known to the Cape authorities through the wrongful identification by the first Mrs Yon Veltheim of n body found in the Thames, he was called upon to resign. This he did in December, 1897. Early next year he commenced to blackmail the brothers Joel, and killed Woolf Joel. He was tried for murder, but was acquitted, was re-arrested on a charge of blackmail, andf expelled from the country as a public'danger. He returned to the Transvaal in December, 1898, served four months in prison for his break of the expulsion order, and was again deported. He, however, went back in September of the following year, and was re-arrested.' To try to get rid of him finally, the Transvaal Government bought him a passage to London, but he left the ship at Capetown, and actually succeeded in getting the balance of his passage money refunded. His movements thereafter are uncertain, but when the British Army took posses-? sion of Pretoria in June, 1900, "Yon •'Veltheim" was found among the inmates of the gaol. The British military authorities had no use for him, so sent him to England, where he arrived ir^ October, 1900. In 1901 he was starving at Trieste, where he pretended that he was the only survivor of a number of men who knew where President Kruger's treasure was buried. On the strength of this he raised capital on,bills of exchange to the amount of £20,000. In April, 1903, he was staying at Nervi, Italy, when he met a married lady, with the result that her husband instituted divorce proceedings against her. At Capri he met another lady, separated from her husband, who was possessed of property and means. •He went with her to America where the lady obtained a. divorce from her husband and married "Baron Yon Veltheim;" They returned to Capri, and were arrested for bigamy, but were released pending inquiries, when they returned to America, where Yon Veltheim deserted her and her child and returned to Europe. On the voyage he met an American lady, whom he followed to Paris, and persuaded her to marry him secretly at St. Cloud. She afterwards found out that the marriage was a mock one, and , that the prisoner had obtained a friend to act as a shani priest.. She at once left him, but he soon found consolation, for in August, 1905, "Yon Veltheim" went to Neustadt, and met a Mrs Mattis, a widow, whom he had known twenty years previously. She was possessed, of considerable means, and representing that he was part-owner of a large ! mining business in America Vol Vel-; theim obtained from her £800. Later he obtained further sums from her, making altogether; a total of £2800. He also promised her marriage.. In November, 1906, the relatives of Mrs Mattis having become aware of her investments, applied to the prisoner for repayment of the money. Instead of doing so, however, he asked for more money, and drew bills of exchange on her, saying that if she did not accept them they would both be ruined. Meanwhile, he had opened his campaign against "Solly" Joel, and was arrested in September, 1907

for his attempts to- blackmail that. gentleman. He was then living m a first-class hotel with a lady who waspassing as Madame Yon Veltheim. The lady was the daughter of a respectable gentleman at Antwerp. When Mrs Mattis heard of the prisoner's arrest she committed suicide m despair at the loss of her own and her children's money. For this fraud the German authorities were actually demanding his extradition at the same time as the English.

THE PRISONER'S DENIALS. The prisoner, as the police officer concluded his statement, burst forth into a volume, of words, and shouted in a loud voice. He gesticulated wildly, and at times applied a handkerchief to his eyes as if in tears. tie said it was a tissue of falsehoods, and not a woman could ever say he had deceived her. They were all aware of the facts, and never had he had money from them except on certain occasions when they asked him to take it for certain purposes. In the case of one of the ladies, who went toAmerica with him, he worked hard for^ her. He got a job on a wharf, and in a short time worked himself up to the position of manager, and was later sent as an agent to another place. There he organised, a bio- business. It was a tissue of lies that had been told, and they had been told to blacken him. He added : "I never have said I was an angel, but I am not'guilty of this charge. You can appeal to Colonel Maxse. As to that deportation business, I was sent for, and the moment; I set foot across the frontier I was arrested. President Kruger told me I should bti the first prisoner of war." f The Judge (to Inspector Fenton): Some of this you have told us is; not quite in the way we have it in English, courts of justice, but with regard to some of the matters, have you personally satisfied yourself that they are correct ?

Inspector Feriton : Yes. Mr Gill : Yes, they are. We hay& a mass of^ documents here. The prisoner again broke in, and said: I have riot been married' once except legally. _Mr Gill said that the information given by the inspector had been supplied by the police of the various countries where the prisoner/had been. When called upon to say whether he had any remarks to make before sentence was passed, Yon Vetlheim again poured forth a torrent of words, reviewing in a lightning sketch the events covered by Inspector Fenton. He said that he had never once married, excepting in 1896. In one case a young girl wanted him to take her, away, and they both went through a , sham marriage, it was true, so that they could go out of the country decently. Then he went to Chase Stanley, but he found that he was unable to do what he wanted to do, and he came back to England and found the young lady in London in quarters with aiiother gentleman. When he was in Colombo he became the intimate friend of the Governor of one of the States,. At that time he was manager for a steamship company, and he had steamers at his command which he placed at the disposal of the Governor.

He added : I have met Prince Alexander of Bulgaria. The question has been raised whether I was a soldier. I went through the Bulgarian War. It is also true about the Boer plot, absolutely true. I had to cover certain people. I did it at the trial in Johannesburg, and I have done it here. Barnato was not the main man, but one of the two. My conscience is as clear as anyone's of Woolf Joel's death. I was acquitted. Thank goodness_ it was not a British jury that tried me. It was a jury of men—l don t mean any disrespect to this jury no reflection on them at all— but they are not a jury of men who could understand things as the jury in Johannesburg did. I was acquitted m three minutes. Why did the people cheer me? Because I shot Woolf Joeir' JNo, because the people knew I was innocent. Why, I would not hurt t f-T ou¥ »ot touch anyone, nor would I deceive a woman. The women that were with me were always my accomplices, whatever they were. JNot one of these ladies would o- e t un and say I told her a lie. When I wrote that letter to Solly Joel the .idea of such a thmg as a threatliever entered my mmd. I was not conscious of a threat.

Judgehere told him that all that he was saying was not relevant. of this* £ S e tn"y mOSt iM<lOent

THE JUDGE PASSES SENTENCE said TfciP' £ ddrf ssi«g the prisoner, vom en;/r d th°Ugll T knmrlt is St nane ™ vT' but an h <>norable name on which your conduct brines dishonour, I shall sentence you in thename you have chosen. I don'Jtake uuo- account at all your immoralities yom early life, winch God knows may i hi? \ gt have been wi Ped ««*• You have been convicted of one of themost serious cr}mGS knmrn t h j and you must be dealt with as a perl | should be prevented from repeating, I as well as punished for what you have i done. .; I must prevent you from get^ tins; at the man you have threatened and enable him and society penerally to live in peace from you. I see you are a. man who can hs desperate and j will do many forms of wickedness to good men. The sentence upon you is that you must go i<y penal servitude for twenty years. The prisoner gasped as he heard the sentence, and stared hard at the | Judge, as if eager to say something |hut unable to articulate. He \w |m this position for a moment■ Sd j was then surrounded with warders ; and hurried downstairs to the cells be low without utterina a word