The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1908-04-26
Death of FEATHER Vanilla"
Helped ConUicts to Escape
Wild Romance and Curious Adventure Mark AS
saSSinatiOn of Mysterious Paris Shopkeeper
Soft-footed Levantine Demanded Re-
port About Respectable Family.


= PARIS. April 25.-Here Is ore Of the
t strangest and most imDenetrable mys-
r terics tha. has ever come to light:
In a dingy shop opening or a court
yard of the Boulevard Noltaire man
was found strangled. The body lay
. face down in corner, among bales
and packages OF vanilla. There was a
cord aroInI his neck.
! At first the police believed it was
. a mere case Of robbery banal OF
p crime The man was known as ''Fa-
2 Their vanilla" from the trade he car
RED on in that stuff. HIS real name
was Eugene Eanni, and he was Swiss,
! thirty-five years of age. For five years
. he had lived in the Boulevard Voltaire,
p leading a quiet. exclusive life, speaking
p to no ore save the peddlers who came
] 10 buy his vanilla
, Hanni was q tall, meager man. So
far as the police could discover, he had
no friends in Paris. From Switzerland
came word rhat his old father had been
found. and that he told strange stories
of his sons wealth. But there were
no signs Of oPulence in the dingy shop.
The police made up their minds that
! comon thieves, and. so far as public in
terest was concerned. that was the end
of the matter. Father Vanilla was
buried, and people talked of something
else
Detective Begins His Work
But NJ. Robert. an old detective. had
been PUT on the case. In looking abSut
the shop aud the tiny bedroom adtoin-
ing he found. tied up in bundles, in
. numera bic postal cards from all parts
Of the Far East. II was 4 clue 70 the
. mysterious past life of Father Nanil-
la" The detectives found a publisher
Of postal cards who had known the re
cluse. and the facts which this man
gave were enough TO show that the
? tinid-looking shopkeeper had led a life
as adventurous as that Of Sinbad the
, Sailor.
, one day he had sailed from Marseilies-
Afoot ne mad made his way through
, Algiers, Tunls. Morocco; had journeXel
. on alone through Senegal. the Congo,
r the Cane Colonies; had lived at NADIA
gascar and visited DjibOuti; always
afoct. he had iourneyed on 20 COnstan-
tinopIe. crossed the Caucasus. and then
Syria. Persia, Hindustan. China, Japan
ne was hlllE "a II eAAAAl''- III --e@N 49,
{ knacI OF picking up languages. he
, could talk to the natives. He peddled
/ trirkets He had a hundred ways OF
making money.
In the Pacific he found an island.
b ruled over by a little king. He married
a brown princess and lived with the
/ roval family for two years. Now. these
- are not fragments of Sinbad's journal
They have been shown to be absolutely
true adventures of Father Vanilla 20
? From. that island IN the Pacific he caclc
hack to paris. and set up as a merchant
= Of vanilla and excite spices. Quite aione
] be lived in the dirty rooms in the BOule-
ward Voltaire.
Father Vanilla Makes His Will.
r One other thing Detective Robert dis
e covered. That was d will which Eugene
! TIanni had drawn UP and signed few
= months before he was murdered. In i
e he wrote: Il make this Will knowing 70
e what accidents and surprises my life IS
exposed"
- TIE next day brought TO n Robert 2
D more curious revelation
Scrawled on a dirty cuff once worn By
lHanni the detective found certain num-
: beers. 262-5S-evidently the numbers Of a
r telephone call Robert rang up the
number. It was that Of Paul Gerson' S
private detective agency in the Rue de
lIIavre. Gerson was interrogated-
L have never seen Eugene Hannj.
said Cierson. although he has been one
of my clients. He always commIni-
ica+ed with me by letter or telephone
Late in February he asked me TO hno
the members Of a family named PorlieT
- stated of
extreme importance ard bade me spare
no pains or expense. 1 found the POr-
uer family. It consisted of an aged
widow and two sons, one a captain in
the army.
= ION February . I wrote Hanni that
I had almost all the information. He tele-
iphoned: Make haster 1 promised he
e should have my report the next day
1 Now. early the next morning da~k
I soft-stepp!ng man-evidentlv a Leva>n-
z tine-came into my Office. He said he
was sent by Hanni for the report I re-
fused to give 1t 20 him. Then my Le'
u vantine said: Wen, III have IT, no mat
!, ter what it costs, and, after threatening
- me. went away"
Twenty-four hours later Father Van
: fila was found dead in his shop. The
u report on the Porlier family was miss
ing. Was that the object OF the muir
, der
: Detective Robert visited Captain Por
= Iier. a gentleman Of unquestiOned integ
> ritv and high social standing. he haC
never heard Of Hanni. But the ageC
n widow told a strange story A son, sup
posed even by his brother, the captain
TO be dead, had got into boyish scrap'
years ago. and had fed the country. Sh,
had not heard from him for a quarter o
a century, when he was living f. one o
the islands Of the Pacific
Mothers Strange Story.
= She had heard. however. that the so
u who had run away-Cnarles Porlier-
: had made a huge fortune in the Pacih
trade and was anxious 20 find his fam
fly. Gerson was again interrogatec
NJ and said he understood Father Vanilla
- had known Charles Porlier in his 50