HOTEL TRAGEDY RIDDLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21414, 11 February 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOTEL TRAGEDY RIDDLE

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN'S FATE RICH MERCHANT'S DAUGHTER LUXURY AND HARD TIMES Luxury in Russia and the United States —poverty in London —death in Paris. This has proved to be the tragic history of the beautiful woman with the pale face and large, sad eyes who gave her name as "Marie Hall" and who lately shot hersolf on a bed of roses in a Paris hotel. After being unidentified for ten days she was at, last found to be Mrs, Mina Williams, daughter of a wealthy Russian merchant, and the former wife of Mr. Douglas Williams, now a stockbroker in "New York, with whom her marriage was dissolved. IVIr, AVilliams is a brother of Mr. Valentine Williams, the novelist. A love affair with a Russian, who, like herself, had known fortune and had been brought to poverty in Paris, is believed to provide a clue to the woman's death. While she was lying nameless in a Paris morgue, letters were arriving at her little London flat from her mother, who lives in Paris and apparently wondered where her daughter was. Five-year-old Daughter Milk bottles were slowly accumulating day by day outside her flat, where she lived a solitary life, as it was expected that she would return after a few days' absence. She has a 5-year-old daughter, Kitty, who for some time was cared for at Sevenoaks, Kent.

M. Serge Chermayeff, brother of the dead woman, who is well known in London as an interior decorator, went to Paris on learning of his sister's fate. Before he left. London ho visited his sister's flat and took charge of the letters and Christmas presents which had accumulated since her departure. How the dead woman was rescued from Russia by a battleship and how she struggled to earn a living in London were told by one of her closest woman friends, who said: "Nina was a woman of great beauty and dignity, tall and graceful and with large dark eyes. Even in her days of hardship she was smartly dressed, although she could not spend much money on her clothes. She told me how, when the Russian revolution broke out, she was taken from Russia in a British battleship, as her husband, who was formerly a journalist, was a British officer. Meeting Famous People "'Later when Nina went to Washington with her husband in connection with the Disarmament Conference, her striking appearance attracted much admiration. She was inundated with invitations and was constantly attending social functions where she met famous people. Then she and her husband separated, and later there was a divorce. "Recently Nina fell on hard times, and after leading a life of luxury, was obliged to work hard for her living. She had a number of different jobs, b.ut frequent illness interfered with her work. "For a time, I believe, she assisted her brother in the decoration department of one of the largest London furnishing stores. Later she was tho hat designer at a fashionable shop in Mayfair, where she made very striking hats. She fell ill, and had to give up this work. She then obtained for a time similar work at another Mayfair shop. "During this time Nina lived at several places in London. For a time she was at an hotel in South Kensington, and then she rented a single room in a street near Marble Arch. She lived in her flat in Warwick Road. Earl's Court, for the last year or two. For a time her aunt lived With her. She ran a small business of her own under the name of 'Rini Noni,' making hats. Love Affair With a Russian

"Nina was so generous that, even when she was desperately in need of money, she contrived to give little presents to her friends. She would help, too, those of her acquaintances who were even worse off than herself. She knew a professor and his family at Cambridge, and sometimes went there to visit them. "I think Nina had a love affair with another Russian who had also fallen on hard times and who lived in Paris. She never told me much about this man, but I believe that for a while ho worked as a taxi-cab driver as many formerly well-to-do Russians have done in Paris. My own opinion is that hor death was in some way connected with this affair. I havo heard her say that it was impossible for them to marry because they were both so desperately poor." The occupants of another flat in the house in Warwick Road said: "Mrs. Williams led a very solitary life and had very fow visitors. She used to leave the house in the morning about 8 o'clock. During much of hor time here she has had no servant, and on one occasion when she was told that it was her turn to clean the bathroom and stairs she asked if she might be given a respite of a week or two as "she could not afford a charwoman. 1

imagine she looked after her own room.? much of the time." A sister-in-law of Mrs. Williams said: ''My brother and the dead woman were married before the war at Westminster Cathedral. She came of a very wealthy Russian family of silk merchants who, I believe, were almost millionaires before (he war. When, after the Revolution, she left Russia from a Black Sea port in a British battleship, she was taken to Constantinople. I believe she tried hard to take an aunt with her but was unablo to do so. "Nina and my brother later went to New York, where they remained for some years and took a prominent part in social life there. It was during that period that .she went to Washington with my brother for the Disarmament Conference. "When, later, they separated and there was a divorce, there was, however, a very amicable understanding between them, and my brother, by arrangement with her father, paid her a very generous allowance for a number- of years. It is only in the last two or three years that she has been obliged to earn her living. My family was very fond of her, for she had a most charming personality, and I myself have seen her in the last few ui< . nths."