The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-07
ERRING WOMAN'S CRIME
WHO POISONED THE KING OF swE-
DEN's HIGH CHAMBERLAIN:
Baron Tnube's Wife Accused by
Observation-Disclosures Who Also
Confessed and Denied the Crime.

tIISGQN lDNOlNlllS HlCiHbtiS VI the uOullltJ
in most unnatural murder has been unfolded
before the Swedish courts. So highly placed
are the persons accused that St Peters
burg, London, Berlin, the courts and capt.
tails of all Europe are profoundly interested.
year ago Baron Evert Reinhold Mauritz
Taube was the head of one of Sweden's
most wealthy and aristocratic families. the
possessor of the greatest entailed estates
and ancient castle of Broxvik. near Stock
HOLM and a chamberlain to King Oscar of
Sweden and Norway. He died suddenly in
December. Two reputable physicians certi-
fled that he had died from natural causes,
but after an unaecountable delay his eldest
son, Baron Evert Taube, demanded an Off
cial inquiry.
The second sensation came when the
fiancee of Evert Taube, the beautiful
Countess Helga Skajerskjold, daughter of
Count Knut Henrik Skajerskiold, accused
her prospective mother-in-law, the Baroness
Betty Taube, of having poisoned her hus-
band. This Accusation created an intense
sensation, not alone in Sweden, but at all
the courts of Europe, where the parties are
well known and have relatives. The state
medical authorities at once made thorough
examination. The body was eXhumed and
traces of arsenic and quicksilver were found
in certain quantities. But the scientists
said they could not swear that these caused
the violent hemorrhages from which Cham
berlain Taube died, owing to the length of
time between death and the examination.
The Judge before whom the case was
brought was i'll quandary. The Taubes
had been married for over thirty years, had
two grown sons and had always lived hap
PLY together, but public opinion demanded
a trial, and the Baroness Taube was ar
rested released on her own recogniZance
and the trial commenced. 1t has now
lasted several weeks and is still uncon-
cluded. Sensation upon sensation has fol-
lowed fast.
One days session had commenced when
the public prosecutor requested private
interview with the presiding judge. This
the Judge decided could not be granted.
The public prosecutor then handed the
judge letter which had just been re-
ceived from the detective police department
at Stockholm. The judge read the letter in
open court. 1t contained the following
statement and bore the signature of the
noble fiancee of Everett Taube:
THE ALLEGED CONFESSION.
II, the undersigned, confess herewith,
and request that it be read before the court.
that it was 1 who poisoned Chamber
lain Taube, with the expectation that 1.
would become possessor of the Taube en-
tailed estates, and also cause suspicion to
fall upon the Baroness Taube of having
poisoned her husband but now. enforced by
repentance, and not willing that the Ba-
roness Taube should suffer any further for
my crime, confess having done the deed.
When this letter is read l shall not any
longer be among the living, as l cannot
survive the shame May every member of
the Taube family forgive me:
lSigned) "HELGA sKAJERSKJOLD."
The letter caused an immense sensation
in the crowded courtroom The handWrit-
ing was recognized by the Baroness Taube,
her lawyers and other persons. The law
yerS at once moved that Nine. Taube be
discharged. Then another extraordinary in
cident happened. The public prosecutor in
formed the judge that, while the letter was
read by the court he had received tele-
phone message from the detective head
Quarters in Stockholm that the Countess
Helga Skajerskiold had, the evening be-
fore, been murderOusly attacked by I'M
known persons in the suburbs of Stockholm.
On recovering consciousness she told a.
strange story. The same evening at about
Z o'clock she had received message by
mail, not signed, requesting her to meet
the writer at Il certain locality at o'clock
the same evening, and to come alone, when
she would receive important information
relative to Chamberlain Taube's death.
Countess Skajerskjold at once commune
Gated with her lawyer and the police, and
it was arranged that she should be fol-
lOW6u at IL Instance by detectives ana also
by a couple of men friends The locality
was rather lonely and on the outskirts of
Stockholm The countess started. The de-
tectiveS and her friends waited few min
utes and then followed the young lady. She
had not been out of sight more than five
minutes when the detectives heard q cry
and at once rushed forward, when, to their
intense surprise they found her lying on
the road to all appearances dead.
she Was Vas aken 10 the nd & hospital by
the others started ON a hunt for her assail-
ant. At the hospital Dr. Carl Janson made
a thorough examination of the girl She
had received half a dozen blows over her
head and sixteen knife cuts in the upper
part of the body, happily none of them
From the hospital she was taken to her
home, accompanied by Chief Justice Carl
0N MYSTERIOUS ASSAULT.
Here she made the following statement:
"When 1 left my friends l advanced rap
idly to the place designated in the letter.
when I suddenly received a blow on the
head from behind and at once lost con-
sciousness'
She was later questioned in regard to the
letter received by the detective police in
Stockholm and forwarded to the court She
absolutely denied having written such let
ter. The new phase of the trial caused even
greater surprise in Sweden, and the CONT
mental newspapers had long telegraphic re-
ports of the affair.
In the meantime the Stockholm police had
not been idle. The shrewdest detectives
were sent that same evening to the locality
where the assault had taken place. The
ground was brilliantly illuminated and ev-
cry inch of ground gone over, but to the
of footsteps We're those of Miss Skajerskjold,
the detectives and her friends. EVERY foot
step was measured no footsteps led away
from the direction in which the party had
advanced and the detectives unanimously
came to the conclusion that the whole story
of the assault was myth. But how We're
the wounds inflicted? The chief of detec-
tives and the higher police officials held a
consultation and it was decided to have an
interview with the Countess Helga Skater
skiold. This was held at her home in the
presence of her relative. Chief Justice Carl
son. They questioned and pressed her until
finally the young woman confessed that she
herself wrote both the letters read in the
court and the letter making the appoint
ment for the meeting.
The wounds she also confessed she had
inflicted on herself, some of them by means
of stone and the knife cuts with a small
paper knife, which she had previously disift-
fected TO prevent blood poisoning. The
knife she had hidden under the moss on the
ground. AS to her motive or TO the poison
ing of Chamberlain Taube, she refused to
make any statement
The police finally decided not to arrest
her, and her friends and relatives industri-
ously circulated the report that she was a
hopeless monomaniac. and arrangements
We're at once made TO take her to some san
| ifar1lu1 N SoutheTn ItaIy She left Stock