The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1913-10-06
BY VIM. G. SHEPHERD.
PARIS, Oct. O.
THE STEINHEIL MYS


and dainty little woman who lives
quietly today in London, an exile
from her home in Paris, centers
the most obscure mystery that
Lepine, the marvelously shrewd
chief of police of Paris, who has
just retired, ever tried to solve.
The great Lepine selected for
my use in the Times the "affaire"
of Madame Steinheil as No. } of
the five greatest Paris mysteries
In his career.
OF all the five, No. was the
only one in which he was baffled
and by a woman! But baffled,
perhaps, say Parisians, because
men who held Iigh positions in
the government were friends of
the little woman-and in a form
of Friendship" that might have
caused a great scandal.
Remy CouiIlard, q valet in the
home of Adolphe Steinheil, q sue
cessful painter, heard shrieks
coming from the bedroom of
Madame Steinheil, the painters
wife, at @ o'clock on the MORN
ing of May 81, 1908. Rushing to
her room he found her tied to
the bed, and on her pillow were
wads of cotton soaked in chlOro-
form.
"Call the police 'shrieked the
| woman. Couillard obeyed.
In one room the police found
the dead body of Madame Japy,
mother of Madame Steinheil.
Cotton had been thrust into her
mouth to strangle her. A rope
was tied loosely about her neck.
| In the bathroom, on the floor,
in night shirt, was found the
body of Adolphe Steinheil, hus-
band of Madame Steinheil. He
had been choked to death with a
rope garroted in Apache fashion.
There were no signs of a strug-
gle.
81 was awakened by feel
ing something ON my face
and found three men and q
woman standing beside me.
They demanded to know
| where my mothers money
was kept. The woman was
pointing a revolver at my
head. / told them that the
money was in my mothers
room and 1 pointed to the
doorway leading to the room
where my mother was
asleep. The men went in
there and heard my mother
calling for help, but the
woman with the revolver
would not permit me to
rise. The men came back
and tied me to the bed and
tied q cloth over my mouth
to silence me. About that
time the clock struck many
times. 1t must have been IL
or IL O'Clock. At last, after
many hours, was able to
force the cloth away from
my face and to scream. Then
| Couillard, the valet, came.
That is all I know. 1 did
not think my mother and
husband had been killed,
but l thought that they were i
tied up as 1 was and unable
to speak,"
1t was q good story-BUT, un-
der the scrutiny of Lepine de-
tectives, 1t did not all hold water.
Nine. Steinheil gave the police q
list Of the jewels that were miss
ing. Among them was a Jewel
given to her by Felix Faure, the
president of France.
The friends" of Madame
Steinheil were no common per-
sons.
Lepine hoped to trace the MUIR
ders through the jewels and
bis men raked the jewelers. shops
OF Paris for clues. Finally, in one
shop, a detective discovered some
of the gems. But they had not
been pawned by robbers. Indeed,
said the jeweler, Madame Stein
he'll had brought them to him to
have him reset them.
why did you tell this lie?''
the police asked her.
| Because wanted to give the
jewels to my daughter, who is o
sweet. innocent little girl of 16,
and l did not wish her to know
that they had been presented to
me by men friends" was Madame
Steinheil's ready answer.
The police, looking into Mad
anne Steinheil's life, found that
she had not been an ideal wife.
But they could find no more rea-
son why she should murder her
husband any more than why she
should have He'd about the theft
of the jswels.
II Madame Steinheil had kept
silent in the future the mystery
might have been forgotten by the
public. but, several months after
the murder, she accused young
man named Birmingham of the
murder. She was so positive in
her accusation that the police
took Birmingham into custody,
and Madame Steinheil, confront
ing him, identified him. as one OF
the men she saw in her room,
Birmingham had no difficulty In
proving that he was in a. city
many miles from Paris Oh the
/ l~hx T.