Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-30
THE MARRIAGE TRICK
As 1t Was Performed by the Woman
Who Welded 49 Husbands.
THE LAST VICTIM EXPOSES HER
He Was Viscount, and in Love With the
Pretty Adventures,
BUT KICKS AGAINST BEING DUPED

PARIS. March 29.-As previously reported
in The DISPATCH, a woman who has ac
tually gone through the marriage service
with 4S men and swindled all but one Of
them within three hours after the cere-
mony, is the latest catch of the Partisan
police.
Six years ago Eveline Leal, handsome
young English girl, married Frenchman,
who died within a month of the wedding,
leaving her with no money but with plenty
of debts. To square herself with society,
Eveline resorted to what is known in police
lingo as the marriage trick" Her method
of procedure was simple and ingenious. She
advertised, stating she was widow possess
ing fortune of /, 200, 600 francs who wished
to marry a gentleman in good circumstances
belonging to the nobility or to the high COM
mercial class. Answers were to be sent to
the postofice.
Her Mode of Operation.
Her accomplice, who occupied the posi-
tion of companion, seems to have had the
important duty of choosing the victims
from among the applicants. At any rate,
the suitor was never admitted into Eveline' s
presence unless his personal appearance was
in his favor. Then he was granted rem
devious, either in her sumptuous apart
ment in the Champs Elysee or at one of the
best hotels.
Naturally, she took different name on
every occasion. She always began by max
ing some objection to immediate marriage,
sometimes assuming the character of an in
genuous miss. She said her mother consid-
cred she was too young for marriage, and
that the applicant must wait awhile.
On other occasions the fortune or social
position of her suitor was not what she de-
sired, but in the end she always allowed
herself to be captivated with the personal
qualities of the would-be husbands. She
often managed things so cleverly that she
received rich presents from some of her
suitors. After getting as much as she could
she would suddenly disappear. In several
cases she considered it the better policy to
secure possession of the wedding gifts by
agreeing to the marriage ceremony. For
this she invariably crossed the channel, ex-
pressing a preference that the wedding
should take place in England.
To Prison for Two Years.
After clergyman had in all good faith
pronounced the nuptial benedictlon, she re-
turned with her victim to hotel, and al
ways managed to disappear before night,
but never leaving her wedding gifts behind
intelligent men in this way before she fell
into the hands of the Paris police, in the
autumn of 1887, when she was sent to Jail
for two years. She obtained an early re-
lease by good conduct, and at once resorted
to her old tricks again.
She victlmiZed ten lovers more without
detection. Most of the men she swindled
were too much ashamed to inform the DO
lice, but her forty-third victim gave the po-
lice information which led to her second ar
rest on Good Friday, at the Hotel Meurice.
Her dupe this time was a French Viscount
who had ruined himself through gambling,
and who was anxious to regild his armorial
bearings with the ], 200, 900. francs of the
charming widow.
1t would even seem that he was really in
love with the adventures, for he journeyed
with her and her companion, a certain Mrs.
Caba, who is believed to hail from New
Orleans. They travelled In England, Bel
gium and Norway, the Viscount paying all
expenses BY borrowing money right and left
on his expectations. He made Eveline rich
presents wherever they went.
One Victim Too Many
At last they got back to Paris, when the
Viscount insisted on having a day fixed for
the wedding, but it was of no avail. miss
Reynolds was the last name she had
assumed-was inexorable. He must wait
This fact awakened the suspicious of the
Viscount, who laid the case before M. Goron,
the chief of detectives. When the officers
presented themselves at the Hotel Meurice,
Eveline was greatly astonished, but she fol-
lowed them to the police station.
AS tor her companion, she was absent
from the hotel when Eveline was arrested,
and has not been seen there again. This
time the fair Eveline will probably get a
sentence which will put her out of harms
way for many years.