Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-12-22
UNDER CLOSE SCRUTINY
OF SECRET SERVICE
Iona Zollner Held In Jail Without
Bond Pending Hearing Today
UNDER ESPIONAGE LAW
Clever Woman Who Has Made Her
Way Into Army Circles, Danced
With the Officers and Probably
Learned Al Secrets Taught.

Charged with being a dangerou:
alien, Baroness Iona Wihelmina Sut
ton Zollner. wife of a Bayarian noble
man and high officer in the German
army, who has been in Jail at Chatta.
nooga, Tenn, without bond, was giver
hearing today and will be closely ex.
amined before United States Commits.
| sioner S. j. McAlester.
AS she is we'll know here. where she
lived last winter and spring, the fol-
| lowing from the Chattanooga Times
| is of peculiar local interest:
Commitment papers were secured
! before Esquire Caulkins on instruc-
! tions from District Attorney w T.
Kennerly, OF Knoxville, who has been
! kept advised of all steps taken in the
| Investigation by United States Mar
shall j. r. Thompson and his staff
| The bond she executed last Friday
night, signed by DR.. Y l.. Abernathy
in the sum OF $500 for security that
she would not disappear pending the
return of the commissioner. was sur
| rendered.
1t has been learned that the baron
ess has frequently visited the camp at
Oglethorpe, has danced with the Off
GERS and probably has more than one
under her spell. In addition officials
say they have learned of other ac-
tivities that establish proof that she
is dangerous person, which they will
| reveal at the hearing
She is being held under provisions
of the Espionage Act of 1917, which
allows much latitude for officers in
their effort to rid the country of Ger
man agents and spies while this coun-
| try is at war with the Kaiser and his
horde of Huns.
Lieut. Spalding, it is understood,
has returned to Fort Oglethorpe where
his connection with the Bauarian
woman's activities here will be inves-
tigated by military authorities.
The baroness is a striking person
age, not so attractive facially, but of
winning manner and voluptuous fig
ure. She is vivacious, a characters
tic that evidenced itself even while
under the fire of examination by Dep
uty Mcmahon, who, with merciless
severity, cross-questioned her and de-
clined to be affected by her protesta-
tions that she was a lady and that
he was forgetting himself in his
manner of examining her.
"You surely are forgetting your
SELF" she declared with some feel
ing when Mr.. Mcmahon was pressing
her to answer his one question of
where was certain letter that had
mysteriously disappeared after the
Marshal had delivered it to her.
"You forget to whom you are talking" F"
! she said.
mo, | don't" replied the Deputy
Marshal, II am talking TO the wife of
German army officer. Now amt IL
he pressed. She admitted he was.
Then. am not forgetting, am l p he
parried.
She again declared she was a lady
when the Marshal interrupted to re-
mind her that she had been arrested
by the police in room Of the Patten
Hotel in company with Lieut.. Spald-
ing and had been fined in police court
on a charge that did not indicate much
proof of her claim to lofty virtue. She
insisted there was nothing wrong in
the matter of her association with the
| American officer. when the Marshal
interrupted to ask why, then. was the
officer found under her bed when the
police looked through the room. She
insisted that this was because the Off
Ger was afraid he would compromise
her if he was found there at that hour
of the night-it was about in the
morning. She was then asked why,
| If that was the officers motive in hid
| ing under her bed, did he the very
first thing he said. beg the city officers
| not to tell the facts of the episode 70
| Capt. Kern. the chief of the military
police, which question proved poser
| for her and was not answered.
The baroness is apparently supplied
| with an abundance of money. She has
no hesitancy in bargaining for expen-
sive hotel accommodations, the man
ayers readily accommodating her with
| evident assurance Of no danger thai
her bills viii not be paid. She eats
in the most expensive cafes and is
permitted to sign checks for her bills
a number of them being now in the
possession of the marshal. However
her signatures on these checks in ns
instance agree with her signature OF
lhosel registers, either as to handwrit
ing or name, although the officer:
we're having difficulty in decipherins
her writing so as to determine wha'
in reality is her name as written, un
doubtedly by herself She told Capt
Thompson that the register signaturs
at the Paeten was not her writing, but
she did not say who it was that regis
tered for her. At the Park it was an
tentirely different name. Wv Sutton
which she insisted was a part Of heI
name
The woman's claim Friday night
that she has a divorce proceeding
pending against her husband, and not
being able to learn whether divorce
had been actually granted, had placed
/ her papers in the hands Of some law.