The Humbert Hoax.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue I, 5 July 1902, Page 50

The Humbert Hoax.

THE MOST GIGANTIC SWINDLE OF THE AGE. The affairs of the diamond necklace and the Tichborne claimant must be ranked as very small and clumsy impostures compared with the colossal and' complicated frauds of the HumbertCrawford case, which after a successful continuance for a quarter of a century are being: gradually brought to light in the French capital. The central figure of this romance of crime, who—with all her entourage—has made a magnificent and mysterious exit from the scene of her triumphs In a fashion quite in accordance with the traditions of sensational fiction, is Madame Humbert, a plump and stylish dressed brunette of more than 50 summers, and a familiar figure in Paris society. Her maiden name was Therese d’Aurignac. and her mother kept a linen draper’s shop in Toulouse, in the house in which dwelt M. Humbert, a professor of law, who in 1881 held the Portfolio of Minister <f Justice. Therese married the professor’s son, a barrister who dabbled in poetry, and for some time sat in the Chamber of Deputies. Humbert fils however, a thin, worried-looking individual, only played a minor role in the melodrama—his wife was the mastermind. They lived in a beautiful house in the Avenue de la Grande Armee. purchased from Count Branicki, and adorned by costly pictures, drapery, tapestry, and antique furniture, had two or three country houses, and a fine steam yacht. Madame Humbert gave liberally to charities, had one of the best boxes at the opera, which cost her 30,000 f. for the season, and was much in evidence at charity bazaars and Parisian fetes. Whence came the funds? From credulous creditors on the strength of the Crawford-Humbert romance, in which conflicting wills, a love affair, valuable securities worth millions, and an iron safe were cunningly interwoven, and the interest of the story sustained in a style that would have made even Dumas green with envy. This is the outline of the tale, as told by Madame to her creditors, and as unfolded to the public in a long series of lawsuits, the true inwardness of which is just beginning to appear. About 25 years ago died Robert Henry Crawford, leaving a will dated at Nice, 6th September, 1877. By it he bequeathed a hundred million francs to Mdlle. Therese d’Aurignae. But just as the lady had become Madame Humbert there appeared upon the scene two Americans. Henry and" Robert Crawford, nephews of the deceased, who produced another will of Robert Henry Crawford, also dated Nice, 6th September, 1877. According to this Therese’s sister,. Marie d’Aurignac. was to have one-third, and the rest was to go to the nephews, provided that they invested in France capital to produce an annuitv of 30.000 f. a month for Therese. The Humberts and the Crawfords could never come to a final settlement. They fought case after ease in the law courts, with alternate victory and defeat, eame to terms, repudiated settlements, and carried their lawsuits from the lowest court to the highest, but always without a final and decisive result, The numerous phases of the story are too kaleidoscopic to be described"in detail, but after various purely financial settlements had been negotiated, the love interest cropped up. The Crawfords declared that they had plenty of money already, but desired an alliance of hearts and millions, and proposed that one of them should marry Therese. But she had a husband already. Well, one of the accommodating Crawfords would marry her sister Marie. But she was an ugly little school girl. “Never mind,” said the Crawfords, “we’ll wait for her to grow up.” In the meantime Madame Humbert would be appointed by them trustee of the fortune. The money would be invested in French Rentes. From the annual income of the sum Madame Humbert would appropriate each year 365.000 f The remainder would ba allowed to accumulate, and would, with the compound interest, constitute Marie’s dowry on her marriage with one of the Crawfords. Madame Humbert agreed. The securities representing a hundred million francs were placed ia a great iron safe in Madame Humbert’s house, which the Crawfords locked, and to whish they affixed their seal. But it Was part of the bargain that if Madame Humbert opened the ■*fe. or. aowwtiing to sue version of the

story, if she opened the envelopes containing the securities in the safe, she forfeited all claim to the property. In course of time Marie came of age, but then she declined to marry either of the Crawfords, and the Crawfords declined to unseal the safe till she gave one of them her hand. There was another deadlock. In faet, the whole story was one of deadlocks. Just as the Crawfords and the d’Aurignacs seemed on the point of a final arrangement, and of the definite division of the spoil, some hitch occurred, litigation was resumed, and Madame Humbert and her sister, with this fabulous wealth almost in their grasp, were compelled to borrow onee more on the strength of the securities in that exasperating safe. There is the key to the mystery. No one had ever seen Crawford, the testator; no one had ever seen either of the nephews. These Crawfords were supposed to live in New York, but no one could trace them, although they had been represented by solicitors and counsel in a score of suits in different Courts of France. Courts, counsel and creditors alike were duped by the astute Madame Humbert, who has borrowed for years millions and miUions of francs, from bankers, notaries, companies, private individuals, land owners and manufacturers, has bought a house in Paris, and chateau, put money into great business enterprises, established hospitals and charitable societies. Whenever this Machiavellian woman, who must surely have had some legal confederates, found her creditors pressing, another step in the bogus litigation afforded them further proof of her bona tides, and at the same time enabled her to tap a fresh source of supplies. The device by which she induced her victims to believe in the existence of the securities in the safe was ingenious. but should in itself have roused their suspicion. She persuaded the creditor to whom she had applied for an advance to come to her house, and there pretended that, having confidence in him, she would, contrary to her understanding with the brothers Crawford, show him the Rente Stock. Opening the mysterious safe she took out a large envelope bearing five big seals alleged to have been affixed by the Crawford brothers. Madame Humbert then affirmed that by a clever trick of a workman, who had made the envelope, she could open it without breaking the seals. Doing so, she produced real or counterfeit three per cent. Perpetual Rente Bonds for a total of five hundred and eightyseven thousand six hundred and sixty francs, worth, at the market price, about ninety-one million francs. This trick was played by Madame Humbert on the Liquidator of the Girard et Cie Bank, to which establishment Madame Humbert owes six million francs. To escape from the responsibility which the loan entailed on him, M. Duret committed suicide. The owner of a vine, yard in the south is said to have passed over to her an estate that he valued at £32,000. She offered double that money provided he did not ask for a mortgage guarantee, and that he was prepared to accept notes of hand instead of ready money Then she spoke of the magnificent Crawford estate, and the dazzled proprietor sold her his property and never received a sou for it. "in the meantime she mortgaged it for £12,000, has been working the vineyard ever since, and possesses an establishment at Bercy for the sale of her wine.

In May, 1893, Madame Humbert founded the Rente Viagere, an insurance company, for which she obtained the patronage of the Church, and in which all sorts of clerics, widows and people of small means invested their money. But even the patience of the most credulous of creditors may become exhausted, and at length a M. Morel, who had lent Madame Humbert 130,000 francs, obtained from the Court—after strenuous resistance from the supposed secretary of the supposititious Crawfords and from Madame Humbert and her sister—an order for the opening of the safe by legal officials and the making of an inventory of its contents. Amidst public excitement the safe was officially opened. In it were soma

empty envelopes bearing a red seal, a fifth part of an obligation of the town of Poudicherry, empty jewel cases, a sham gold brooch, and a trouser button! The safe and books of the Rente Viagere wera also opened and found to contain only a few securities of small value and a little petty cash. The company, in which from fifteen to twenty millions of francs had been invested, has been declared insolvent. In the meantime M. and Mme. Humbert, Mdlle. D’Aurignac, her brothers, Romain and Garcia D’Aurignac, and Eve Humbert, for whose arrest warrants have been issued, have fled. But with what eclat Madame Humbert made her exit! Only a couple of nights before the safe was opened and the swindle ex* posed, she, accompanied by her husband, coolly occupied her box at the opera, wearing a famous riviere of diamonds—unpaid for—and a costly pearl collar. Rumour has it that both husband and wife went to the opera with their clothes padded with bank notes. From the opera they seem to have made for Dieppe, where their splendid steam yacht, the Levrier, was waiting for them with steam up. “Once aboard the logger” we can imagine them chuckling as they steamed away. At all events they have not been heard of since. Several solicitors and notaries, who are believed to have been the real instigators of the swindle, and two of whom are supposed to have impersonated the Crawfords, have been arrested, and the last act of the romance may bring forth startling revelations.