COOK LIVES AS AN ARISTOCRAT

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXV, Issue 12984, 27 January 1910, Page 7

COOK LIVES AS AN ARISTOCRAT

DARING FRAUDS. An extraordinary story was related -in the Tenth Criminal Court, Paris, recently, when Otmar" Guhatta, an Austrian cook, and his wii.'e, an American, who is also known a-» ilylvia Thomson, were placed ou Hal for having defrauded Paris tradesmen on a large scale.

The Gubattas had taken a large hor.so in the Avenue Kleber, at a of .£3200 a year., and passed themsems off as members of the Austrian imperial family. Gubafta began life as a cook’s boy in a Mayence Hotel. Then he went to Vienna, and he eloped from Vienna to New York with his mother’s cook when onlv seventeen. He drifted to California, and was imprisoned for two months for swindling people in the name of “Count Herrick.” After his release he became “Count Hnnach,” and went to San Francisco, where he met Sylvia Thomson, an actress. A year ago the couple came to’ Paris, hired a magnificent car, for which they never paid, and motored to Aussee, an Austrian watering place, where they rented the villa of a Viennese judge for £2OO a month. The rent was never paid, and when the police became inquisitive the couple fled to America. They next appeared at Lusanue last April, and’ for six months they lived sumptuously at other people’s expense. In October they motored to Paris, hired the best suite of rooms at the Hotel Continental, and looked up the Duchess d’ Andrea, an Italian noblewoman whom they had met during their travels.

The Duchess was induced to introduce Guhatta to M. Fontana, a prominent jeweller, who called on Mme. Guhatta at the Hotel Continental. She showed him a photograph of the Arch-duchess Maria Jcsepha of Austria in Court dress, told him it was her mother-in-law, and on the strength of this relationship secured £BOOO wortli of jewels as a- birthday present for her husband, the “Archduke Charles Henry." After selling these jewels to other tradesmen, the couple moved into the house in the Avenue Kleber, which they rented from .51. Kendrikoff, one of the Chamberlains of the Czar.

From this address they ordered £BOOO worth of furs from one firm, £llOO worth of dresses from another, and then tried to secure another £7OOO worth of jewels from M. Fontana.

The latter, however, had made enquiries at the Austrian Embassy, and the Gubattas were promptly arrested. The couple appeared highly amused when their exploits were related in Court, and they confessed everything—usually with a pleasant smile.