THE RECORD BROKEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7179, 2 June 1891, Page 3

THE RECORD BROKEN.

A Woman with Forty -tbreo Husbands. Paris, March 28. — .V woman who has actually gone through the marriage- service with forty-three men and swiudled all but one of them within three houra vfaer the ceremony is the latest catch of the Parisian police. The woman is tho daughter of a Shropshire farmer, and worked all her schemes in France. Six year 3 ago Eveline Leal was a handsome young English girl, who married a Frenchrnnn. who died within a month after the wedding, leading her with no money, but with plenty of debts. To square herself with society Eveline resorted to what io known in police lingo as the " marriage trick." Her method of procedure was simple and ingenious. She advertised stating that she was a widow posseesing a fortune of 1,200,000 francs, ~vbo wished to lunrrjr a gentleman in good circumstances belonging; to the nobility or to a high commercial clas3. The answers were to be sent to tho Poßt Office. Her accomplice, who occupied the poßition of a companion, eeema to have had the important duty of choosing the victims from among the applicants. At any rate a suitor was never admitted into Eveline's presence unless bio personal appearance was in his favour. Then he was granted a rendezvous either in uer sumptuous apartments in the Champß Elyseea or at one of the best hotels. Naturally Eveline took a different name on every occasion, for to some of the suitors to her hand and fortune eho called herself Madame Yerbank, Madame Happy, Madame Decomay or Madame BeraolJy. She always began by making some objection to an immediate marriage. Sometimes assuming the character of an ingenuous miss, she said her mother considered she was too young for marriage and that the applicant must wait. On other occasions tho fortune or social position of her suitor waß not what she desired, but in the end she always allowed herßelf to be captivated with the personal dualities of the would-be husbands. She often managed things co cleverly that she received rich presents from some of her suitors. After getting as much as she could she would suddenly disappear. In several casea she considered it better policy to secure possession of the wedding gifts by agreeing to the marriago ceremony. For this she invariably crossed the Channel, expressing a preference that the wedding should take place in England. After the clergyman bad in all good faith pronounced the nuptial benediction uhe returned with her victim to the hotel, and always managed to disappear before night, but never leaving her wedding gifts behind her. Eveline had victimised thirty-two presumably intelligent men in this way before she fell in tho hands of the Paris police in the autumn of 1887, when she was sent to gaol for two years. She obtained r.n early release by good conduct, and at once resorted to her old tricks again. She victimised ton lovers more without detection. Most of the men she swindled were too abashed to inform the police, but her forty-third victim gave the police information which led to Eveline's second arrest on Good Friday at the Hotel Meurice, Rao de Rivoli. Her dupe this time waß a French viscount, who had ruined himself through gambling, and who was anxious to regild hiß armorial bearings with the 1,200,000 franca of tho charming widow.