KING OF CARD SHARPERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10768, 14 May 1913, Page 4

KING OF CARD SHARPERS.

ON TRIAL AT BERLIN.

The trial of the notorious gambler, Stallmann, alias Baron Korff-Koenig. known as the " king of card sharpers/' who is charged with swindling and cheating at cards, was begun at Berlin on March 28. In the dock with him is his victim and accomplice, Lieutenant Niemela, who is charged with the same crime. A third man, named Cramer, is indicted for blackmailing. Stallmann, who was first arrested in Calcutta, and afterwards extradited from London, has had a long and varied career. He is forty-two years old, and in his nineteenth year he"was sentenced to seven months' imprisonment for swindling practices. After acquiring a knowledge of French and English, he went to South America, where he took part as a volunteer in the Chilian Revolution, then rode across the South American continent, and engaged in punting expeditions. In reply to the | president of tho Court, he said that he got the money for tin's on the strength of a fortune of £6OOO which he expected to inherit from his father. Returning to Berlin, he engaged in business, but as he was already passionately addicted to cards and games of chance, he went to Monte Carlo, having borrowed further large sums' on his expectations. He returned penniless to Berlin, then moved to Paris and Spa ; where he adopted the predicate of nobility. In Belgium Stallmann founded several gambling clubs, and, with about £SOOO, proceeded to London, where he became "baron." "If you call yourself 'baron, 1 " he explained, "you can get a reserved compartment on the railway among other advantages." In 1903 he went to South Africa—it was just after the Boer war—and speculated in mines. He alleges having made £20,000 there. During all this time he played heavily. In London he declared that he advertised his change of name in the newspapers, and as no one protested he felt entitled to call himself "Baron Korff-Koenig.'' Bearing this title, he travelled to the Argentine, where he made the acquaintance of his wife. His wife, he declares, had expectations of a fortune of £1,250,000, but he indignantly denied tho charge that he had lived on his wife's money. The newly-married couple travelled to London, where they occupied a'country house in the outskirts. Stallmann's defence was that, although a passionate gambler, he never resorted to cheating, as he always enjoyed ample means of his own. There exists, he alleges, dangerous person called Rudolf von Koenig, who "is his double—a pronounced gambler and adventurer, with whom he has been erroneously identified. The five defendants named were remanded on bail, and the others were bound over to refrain from frequenting gaming houses in the future.