Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-01-13
;, me BAND IN BERLIN
LED 81 NOBLE" LADY
Countess Colonna" Gets Millions
Through Her Organized Band
of Thieves.

As tins new uOt,le lhuN JlS6 AlpbiltI ~
serhns Swindlcrs and thieves. hey
caught up with her and her little band tins
week and the precious lot are now board :
ing ~ pubic expense. Here Is tale oi
cy,me somewhat out of the common, IT
contains criminal romance features, and
50 merits a few paragraphs.
The countess is by birth PLAIN bour-
ceo;s Of the name of Stutz, and she be-
came still. plaIncr when she married one
Mueller so far AS names go. But the
marriage did not possess adhesive quail-
ties. and Frau Mueller soon sailed forth
upon sem'-Inartal ventures At first
she kept house" !or the Papal Chamber
lain. Juan Maria MoSer dc Vega, here in
Berlin Her stock in the game OF life
was rsing az that time and title seemed
most desirable G. give Il further boost.
and 80 poor, old. hroken-down nobleman,
Count Colons, a man who was receiving
pu,lic sims was found who agreed for
few thousand marks to adopt the ad-
vruturess Even this adoption. however,
VA fraud. ior the pauper count had two
COOS Of his own who were officers IN the
Russian army With her fine new title
she scored a further advance IN life came
INTO the household Of that unfortunate
Prince of Thum and Tsxis who WAS muir
derrd among the hostages of Munich /;
spd that connection seemed, according TO
her liberal hcraldry. TO entitle her to call
herseIi also the Princess of Thurn and
Tsyis SO she was either the princess or
The countess as hest suited her purpose.
When she came back 30 Berlin she
c,ntented herself with the humber title;
" possessed the merit OF beng incon-
spiruous, az least, while the other tltle
would certainly have raised awkward
questions While these chapters of her
romance. were cnactlng She WAS learning
quick wsys ul filing her pursc When
the deceased prince came into possession
~ some 1000. 900 marks through recon
rllistion with his family, She and her
Nro,hrr used his credit frsudulently 70
-~ise large sums of money That brother,
Aviator Lieutenant Erich Stutz. figured
- principal in her band which was
arrested NJ that time Another was
Lieutenant Joachim Won Rotuchrr
Not so long ago-prohahly owing 10
the untInlply taking of of the prince
sho again settled down here IN Berlin.
Then really began her career Of romantic
er,me Through her attractive pcr
~onalItv shc readily secured admission
INTO high Berlin society, which IS not
Esarticularly cxactinc IN scanning the
csrds of new acquaintsnCcs just now.
~ no NAUtu tAtiftH W AtE'NAtahE tiAu'f tatt
record az "A counters She oven became
popular IN society.
There was a deep-lald purpose IN her
social campaign She was hunting for
lovers not to love but to rob them. She
used her social connections 10 find out
where nch bachelors were living alone;
and she wss assisted IN her Investigations
by one Baroness Belly, her former
drcssmaker. who had also been once en-
csanber,d with an even morc plebCian
nsrue. When the two women had picked
cot their victims the countess would
establish an entente cordiale with one Of
the unsuspectIng bachelors or wIdOwers
and invite hun 10 her house, where Il was
not difficult to detaln him till his apart
ment had b, sn thoroughly pillaged. This
part of the work was carried out hy the
precious pair of lcutenAnts. assisted by
4 jailhlrd locksmIth who had been taken
lnto the band Several professional re-
celVerS 81 stolen goods completed the
Sutht
With this we'll organized personnel the
countess operated most successfully. From
one ~ her friends she stole 100000 marks
worth ui carpels and other goods, from
smother 2500oO marks. worth Some odd
trlcks were plaVed by the band The TWO
lie,,tanAnts stole two bronze figures from q
garden or 5 fashionable street and sold
them to q dealer Later lieutenant Stutz,
IN the Culsc Of 3 criminal detective, visited
the dealer and seized the figures is stolen
goods: be then sold them 10 somebody
IN WeStphal.a. whence the police re-
covered them.
BUT the band ovcrrcachcd itself finally
They learned about s wealthy land owner
near SonderhAuscn, south ot the Hartz
Mountains. who was supposed 10 keep
much money IN hls safe They wanted that
money BottIcher Wa> selected to make
the preliminary preparations, and hc
went there ana got hi i-ef accepted as
non-salaried erpi0ye eager 10 learn the
secrets Of agriculture, but having only
evil designs upon the secrets OF that safe
He succeeded III taking wax lpressions
III the KEY and sent these To Berlin, where
a perfect key was made br the jaiibird
locksmitn 1t had already been sent of
Ii the mails when the police, IN some way
not vet made public, got wind Of the pro-
lected robbery
Then the police got busy IN quite
modern fashion. Defective Dettemann
mounted an aeroplane, flew away 10
Sonderh2usen and arrested Botticher
The rest OF the haud here were also taken
into custody.
But the Berlin burglars studied out
other schemes for plying their trades.
Two OF them were sentenced 10 prison
this week who made a speciality OF watch
ing funeral notices ID the newspapers and
then proceeding TO rob the house while nc
family was sure - y away at the cerne-
terv. At one house, however, where they
pulled of tins stunt tie porter saw
them leaving and suspected that some
thing was wrong When be later found
thar robbery had been 20 nmtted b.
decided that h would take over the role
Of detective on Ei9 own account A few days
later there WAS another funeral III au
adjacent street. which had been duly ad
vertlsd lie went there soon after the
funeral procession mad left and bad not
long 70 wait for the two thieves. lie ar
rested them gnd fou nd other funeral
advertisements ia their notebooks.
The Captain o. Coepenlck trick has
been repeated In number ot variations
without month or Two. The credentials
Of the robbers are usually their uniforms,
often with an accompaniment Of hand
grenades 4 band of such captains"
entered the villa Of a rich merchant the
other night, where q party Of gentlemen
were being entertained Armed with
pistols and grenades, they pretended 70
come to make a search of the house to
ascertain whether an illicit gambling club
were not housed there One of the party
suspected case Of imposture, and, slip
ping into the adjacent room, sent in
telephone alarm In q brief space Of