New-York tribune., 1920-03-06
DiamondQueen
Ends Life to
Escape Arrest
Antoinette Bonner, Feared
by Gem Dealers From
Maiden Lane to Rotter.
dam, Trapped i'm Office

Antoinette Pinck Bonner. known
variously as the Diamond Queen" and
Miss Amethyst" feared. by gem mer-
chants from Rotterdam to Maiden
Lane came to the end Of the trail yes.
terday in dingy Park Row Office.
detective Thomas F. Smythe came
upon her in the Office of Joseph Brecher.
hlsllnger, on the fourteenth floor OF
10 Park Row. Smythe had warrant
charging Miss Bonner and Brecher-
hlsllnger with the larceny of $4,000
worth of diamonds from the New York
Novelty Company, 621 Broadway.
Inc detective placed her under ar
rest then spoke to her companion.
I've got to take you, too," Smythe
announced
sllken rustic behind him made him
turn IN time to see the woman draw a
vlaI from her handbag and raise it to
her lips. Smythe leaped toward her
but not in time to prevent her swai l.
lowing its contents.
Woman Laughs at Death
You can't take me-" she said. and
lnaae brave effort to- laugh, groaned
ana sank to the floor.
The Diamond Queen" was dead be-
Iore an ambulance reached Volunteer
Hospital with her. Doctors said ~ the
poison she had taken was cvanide of
potassium. VI
bfecher- Klslinger, who is fifty years
old, pleaded not guilty to grand lar
ceny In Iombs court and was held hv
Magistrate Marsh in $1,000 bail for
examination next Thursday.
=, Almost seven years ago Miss Bonner.
then the twenty-five, and Joseph Brecher.
hisllnger threw the diamond marts of
New York into CONSERVATION bv dron-
ping out of sight after, it was alleged.
shey nad obtained on memorandum
from Maiden Lane brokers precious
stones valued at close to a quarter of a
million dollars
me operations charged against the
par became known early in November.
1913, when Francis E. Cocks. of T
Maiden Lane, was arrested for failing
to account for jewels he had obtained
on memorandum from other dealer.
Tor the purpose of sale. He pleaded
that ne had let the gems out of his pos
session on the same sort of ar
rangement to the firm of Kislinger &
bonner, who had Offices at At West
found the Offices closed and their erst-
while occupants gone. No one could
remember having seen either of them
since the middle of the preceding
month.
Trail Leads to Europe
1t was recalled that Miss Bonner
mad often voiced a wish to go to Paris.
and her partners brother told the Dis,
trlct Attorney he might have fled to
Bucharest, his native city. Incident,
ally, it was learned the mans rea1
name was Brecher.
While detectives were discovering
some S25,O0O worth of the missing d;a,
monds in pawnshops and the grand
jury was hearing the testimony upon
which, on November 19, 1918, it Indicted
high lights of their astounding career
were being revealed.
MISS Bonner had entered the Ruma-
mans employ as a stenographer, but
she soon showed so remarkable an anti
tude IN his queer business that she be-
came OF as much consequence in the
concern as himself At that time she
lived with three sisters at 80 West
116th Street
The young woman was rather the re-
verse of pretty, but all who came into
vi eoSt WIFI HcT-and tney were mostly
OF discerning sort-proclaimed her
to be peculiarly Fascinating. She dressed
richly and in the height of fashion
and was in the habit of casually orna-
menting herself with $4,000 or $40 900
worth of jewels.
She would get stones from Maiden
Lane merchants to sell on commission
to rich women. Brecher-Kslinger the
authorities charged, depended for his
sales largely on persons whose avarice
he aroused by telling them the dia-
monds had been stolen and were dis
posed of at bargain. But Miss Bon
sales quite legitimately. She made a
great many of them in the beginning
so many, in fact, that Maiden Lane
used to be glad to see her, and her
credit grew accordingly. Following her
flight it was stated that she was good