MARRIAGE MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11771, 28 September 1901, Page 6 (Supplement)

MARRIAGE MYSTERY.

'AUSTRIAN LADY'S STRANGE STORY. At Bow-street Police Court lately, before Sir F. Lushington, Franz von Berger, alias Emmanuel Egon Borges, was charged on remand with stealing a cheque for £543, the property of Helene Creydt, and also with forging an endorsement thereto. Mr. Frayling,, for the Treasury, said that prosecutor was a German and prisoner an Austrian by birth and an American citizen., In the autumn of last year the lady inserted an advertisement in a Cologne paper stating that she was an orphan with private means and desired to correspond with an honourable gentleman with a view to matrimony. She received a reply addressed from 4., Cockspurstreet, London, from a person who signed himself " Dr. E. Borges." In that letter the writer described himself as a professor of Harvard University, with a salary of 60,000 francs, said that his life was insured, and that he owned a house in Boston. Mis 3 Creydt, in answer to this, wrote saying that' she had 13,000 marks and was entitled to 3000 more under her father's will. Further correspondence ensued, and photographs were exchanged, and on December 23 she came to England for the purpose of being married. Prisoner met her at Southampton and brought her to London, where they occupied separate rooms for a few days. On December 28 prisoner told her that she came up to all hi? expectations and that he would marry her. He placed a ring on her finger and asked her to accompany him to a registry oftice. He then took her to a private house, where, in a room on the ground floor, she saw three men sitting at a table, on which were a number of papers. There they went through a form of marriage, and both signed a paper, which - prisoner placed in his pocket. Inquiries had been made at Somerset House, but no trace could be found of any such marriage having taken place. Miss Creydt, believing that she had been legally married, then lived with prisoner as his wife, and she handed to him some banknotes and shares to the value of £150, as prisoner informed her that they were unsafe in her desk. He also induced her to pawn some of her jewellery, and persuaded her to write and ask her'brother for £50 on account of her interest under her father's will. When the cheque came she endorsed it in his presence "and he took it away and cashed it. On April 1 prosecutrix received a draft for £543, which became due to her on that date. Prisoner knew that she had received it, and also that she had placed it in her desk. This draft prisoner must have stolen, as he appeared to have cashed it on the following day at the Dutch Bank. On April 8 prisoner purchased some jewellery and also several travellingtrunks and other articles with notes received by him from the Dutch Bank. These articles were sent by him to a tailors shop in Fleet-street, and removed by him on April 10, when he left England for New York, having previously shown prosecutrix a telegram calling him to Plymouth on business. ' She subsequently received a telegram purporting to come from him at the Hotel Continental. in Paris. She made inquiries there, and 9 learning that prisoner was not staying there prosecutrix became suspicious and communicated with the Austrian Consul and the police. Prisoner was traced to New York, and was brought back to England under extradition proceedings. Helene Creydt, the prosecutrix, gave evidence in support, and prisoner was remanded. , - .■, ___—