PEARL’S EVIL SPELL.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15981, 8 May 1924, Page 6

PEARL’S EVIL SPELL.

A NEW YORK MYSTERY. DRAMATIC CONFESSION. Fear of the evil influence of the pearls of a £40,000 necklace, which, as a receiver of stolen goods, he had bought with other jewels, estimated to be worih in all £60,000, has impelled John W. Mahan, a New York jeweller, to confess his part in a robbery and to restore the necklace,. Malian was in especial fear of the largest pearl on tills necklace. For this gem, Mrs Hugo S'C'hoellkopf, victim of the robbery, had paid £9500. Malian hid all Ihe pearls in a sealed jar, which he left for safe keeping with a friend in Denver, who was 1 unaware of the jar’s contents. In the custody of detectives, and accompanied by Mrs Schoellkopf’s secretary, Mahan went to Denver and obtained the jar. Opening it, lie poured the contents on to a table. The big pearl rolled toward him. Mahan dropped the jar and leaped backward. “There it is, the evil thing,” he shrieked, with white face and staring eyes, pointing at the jewel. Then he collapsed in the detectives’ arms. Stricken with Paralysis. Since lie acquired the loot about a year ago, paying £2OOO on account of ihe agreed price of £7OOO for the entire Jot, his partner has committed suicide, and he himself has been stricken with paralysis and heart disease. When, through the confessions of three men, all under arrest, the police visited Malian, he was bedridden.

Terrified at first, he finally confessed, and the confession brought immediate relief to mind and body. A stimulant was brought, as, utterly exhausted after the ordeal he lay back on Ids pillows.

Mechanically he reached out with Iris right arm lo take it. A cry of amazement and ,jov escaped him, “See,’Abe said to the detectives, “I can lift it for the first time in three months! By my confession to you I have purged my soul!” The robbery of Mrs Schocllkopf, a beautiful woman in the late thirties, whose elderly husband is a rich manufacturer at Buffalo, occurred in New York on New Year’s Eve over a year ago. Mr Schocllkopf maintains for her a suite at the Ritz the year round, and I hern she stays during her frequent visits to the metropolis. Planning the Robbery.

On the night of the robbery s7io had been celebrating the advent of JfPNt with friends whom she frequently visited on the lop floor of a fashionaide 'apartment house in Riverside Drive. She is accustomed to make a lavish display of her jewels in public resorts. The three robbers knew of her visits to this house, and succeeded in renting the apartment underneath with the purpose of somehow getting Mrs Schotellkopf into it and robbing her. Early in the morning of New Year’s Day, Mrs Schocllkopf descended the stairs 'alone on her way to the Rilz, unescorted. This was the opportunity the watchful robbers were looking for. As she passed their door, they sprang out. gagged her, stripped her of all heir jewellery, and fled. A chase all over the country led to llicir final capture. They never got the balance of the £7OOO Malian agreed to pay them. They said, in their thieves’ slang, that he had “doubled-crossed” them, and that they had “squealed on him” to “get even.”