THE JOEL MURDER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9115, 21 December 1907, Page 4

THE JOEL MURDER.

EXTRADITION OP VELTHEIM. United Picas Association— Bt Eleotiio Telegraph— Oopyrigßt. (Received December 21, 7.43 a.m.) LONDON, December 20. The "Daily Mail" states that the extradition, of Veltheim, arrested in Paris on a, charge of blackmail, has been granted. On August 5, 1897, the London police found the body of a man with a cord round the neck floating in the Thames off Carron Wharf. The coroner's jury returned a verdict that death was due to strangulation, but whether it was a I case of murder or not was not decided. As there was no evidence of identification, the corpse was buried with a scrap of paper attached to the coffin bearing €he inscription, " Body of a man unknown." A fortnight later a lady, giving the | name of Von Veltheim, came fox*ward with a romantic story to the effect that the dead man was her husband, who, she said, was of an eccentric and roving disposition. The body was exhumed, and the lady identified it, and as the mystery was on the way to a startling development news cam© from South Africa that Von Veltheim -had been recognised as a, trooper at the Cape, where he> was in hospital with a damaged finger. _It appears that this man had for a time posed s at Cape. Town, as a person of means, and had become friendly with some of the leaders of Cape society. He soon, however, dropped out of sight, to reappear later as a trooper. Von Veltheim and the mystery of the Thames had become forgotten things when on March 14, 1898, London was startled by the news that Mr Woolf Joel had been shot dead in his office in Johannesburg by an ex-trooper. This ex-trooper was none other than the Von Veltheim whose double was found in the Thames. He had gone into Mr Joel's office and demanded £2600. On being refused', he fired three shots at Mr Joel with a revolver, each one taking effect. Mr Harold Strange, who was present in the office, drew a pistol from a drawer, and fired at Von Veltheim, wounding him slightly in the mouth. H© was tried and acquitted of the murder of Mr Joel. During the trial, which lasted eight days, Von Veltheim stated that he was born in Brunswick in 1858 ; . that he had served in the Navy, but left that service for the Army. He had fought at Tirnova and Pirot in the Servo-Bulgarian war. In London he had gone through a mock marriage with a lady, who was known as Mrs Von Veltheim. Another similar marriage had been annulled. There was also a third lady who passed as Mrs Von Veltheim. On his acquittal of the murder of Mr Joel, Von Veltheim was rearrested on a charge of blackmail and violence, and was finally expelled from the Transvaal as an undesirable person.