St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-10-19
A REMARKABLY TRIAL.

REMARKABLE TRIAL.
4 Cunning Spaniard Arreste1 for Stealing
Valuable Diamonds in Genera.
London Timesl
A rather remarkable trial has just come to
pass atGeneva. 1t concerned once mvs-
ferrous robbery which took place more than
year ago and involved perfectly innocent
man in good deal of trouble. At the be-
ginning of June, 1888, there arrived at the
hotel du Lac, Geneva, a Spaniard, about
thirty years of age, of the name of Nicolas
de Months. He was accompanied by young
woman who passed as his wife and bore his
name. In point of fact, however, they were
unmarried, and her name was Eva Kopp.
They lived in great style, spent much money,
and De Months spoke largely and vaguely of
his great fortune and distinguished family.
He made friends with the hotel secretary, NJ
Schaeffer, to whom he promised to lend half
a million of francs to set up as hotel keeper
on his own account. De Months had many
diamonds and much iewelry. He
said he carried them instead
of circular notes. and when
he wanted money he would sell some of
them to one of the jewellers of the town. On
one occasion he made an excursion to
Evian, and on his return said that he had
lost heavily at baccarat in the Casino. A few
days later he asked the secretary to procure
him some diamond earrings, which he wished
to present to his wife. On this Schaeffer
spoke to Messrs. Zutler 81 Co., and they sent
two sets, worth 1000 francs, for the inspec-
ton of the wealthy Spaniard. After they had
been inspected the secretary put the things
in his safe, and the two went out together
and spent the evening in cafe. Before
going to bed Schaeffer took the precaution to
open the safe and see that the earrings were
all right. At 80 next morning July 21)
De Months and his mistress left for Basic, via
Neuchatel At O'Clock the secretary wanted
to open the safe, but his key would not act,
and after many fruitless trials a locksmith
was called in, and he with some difficulty
forced the lock. The earrings were missing,
but it was quite clear that neither the safe
itself nor the drawer in which the valuables
were placed had been opened by violence.
Besides the gems the thief had taken 5000
Months and his companion, and NJ. Spah-
linger, proprietor of the hotel, and NJ Mul-
Ter, police commissioner, Immediately set
out in pursuit of them. They were tracked
to Wiesbaden, arrested and searched. In pos
session of De Months were found 300 francs
in Swiss and French bank notes, the receipt
for registered letter dispstched to Eva
Kopp's sister at Lausanne, and in the lady's
box were found a sum of 200 francs in gold
and three serveiettes belonging to the Hotel
du Lac. Both warmly protested their limo
cence, and De Months was kept in prison,
but the woman was not detained, and NJ
Spahlinger and NJ. Muller returned to Ge-
neva.
The singular circumstances in which the
robbery was committed, the fact that the
safe must have been opened with key, and
that the secretary alone had a key, his
intimacy with De Months, and the failure
to find anything in the Spaniard's posses
sion incompatible with the plea of inno-
cence, led almost necessarily to the infer
ence that Schaeffer had either himself taken
the diamonds and the money or connived at
their abstraction. This was the opinion of
the police, and, though he strongly protested
his innocence, and pointed out that De
Months had every opportunity of taking
model of the key and fabricating a duplicate,
the secretary was arrested and formally ac-
cused of the crime.
Meanwhile the federal government took
steps to obtain the Spaniard's extradition,
and, though they succeeded in the end, they
met with many delays and considerable diff
Guilty. The authorities of Wiesbaden were
prosecuting him for robbery committed in
prison. He stole some poison from the dis
pensary, as he afterward avowed for the
purpose of Kidding himself of the Swis Off
GERS into whose custody he expected TO be
given. Then the Spanish government wanted
him on charge of embezzling public money,
and be was suspected of having committed
thefts at Yalladolid, Mentone, EviaD, and
other places. When these facts were made
known, Schaeffer was liberated on bail.
1t was only after De Months ha purged
his misdeeds at Wiesbaden by an imprisou-
ment of four months that his extradition
was granted In the meantime the
Geneva police had ascertained that
he had sent two other registered letters from
Lausanne to his own address-poste restan-
ties, Weisbaden, and that these letters were
afterward forwarded to Eva Kopp, in Alsace.
She was afterward arrested at Worms, when
she confessed that her companion had stolen
the ear rings from the Hotel du Lac. He sent
her three diamonds, two large ones and a
small one, from Wcisbaden. The small one
she had lost, but the other two she gave up.
AS Eor the fourth, De Months had stitched it
up. together with some bank notes, in the
lining of his cravat. 1t was not until April
of this year that De Months was brought to
Geneva, but before leaving Weisbadcn he
had confessed to the theft. He got posses
sion of Sehaefer's key for short time, and
obtained one like it in the Kue du Rhone,
convicted on his own confession and SEN
fenced to seven years reclusion. Eva Kopp,
who is a Terman subject, was found guilty
at Strasburg of completely in the theft and
and receiving stolen goods, and condemned
To sig months IMPRISONMENT.