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Show I TrAS WONDERFUL UNTIL I 1 THE CHADWICK CASE J 3 ...MvManK,nMftAAMin 3) gXSCflJiHWWWS Take a fortune of $18,000,000. Add to it the wedding of a Spanish grandee to a beautiful peasant girl. Mix the two with the murder of the girl bride by her Marquis husband. Add three sudden sud-den deaths, a Catalonlan blacksmith, ta Paris blackmailing syndicate. Ur thoroughly tho-roughly In the. boulevard press and you have the latest sensation at the French capital. Paris is the birthplace of sensationalism. sensation-alism. No other city in the world could have had the Dreyfus case. Iv no other capital on the globe could the Humberts have deceived a whole nation. na-tion. And now Paris has the mystery, of the millions of the Marquise de Caaa-Riera. The name of the mystery sounds like the alliterative title of a lurid melodrama. And it was a melodrama melo-drama with a most tragical motive, for it enabled an Ignorant blacksmith ace. Through the kindly influence of the Queen he was enabled to keep his estates in Spain and gradually- disposed dis-posed of them for cash. In 1881 he died, leaving a fortune of 70,000,000 francs ($14,000,000). moat of it carefully invested in securities. This fortune has steadily Increased until today It is estimated es-timated to amount to 80,000.000 francs. or $18,000,000. The Marquis had made two wills, and both were found after his death. In the first one he left his entire fortune for-tune to a cousin named Rlera, who Is still living, a nonagenarian, in Barcelona. Barce-lona. In the second will, dated in 1879. two years before his death, he revoked the first will and bequeathed the bulk of his estate to his nephew, Jose Mora y Rlera. The sum of 1.000,000 francs was given to a third nephew named Gonsalo, brother of the other two. Then began that series of sudden deaths which w.thln the last few months formed so" sensational a fear ture of the effort to obtain the $18,000,-000 $18,000,-000 by forgery. Jose Mora y Rlera, the direct heir, died suddenly In Madrid just forty-seven forty-seven days after the death of his uncle, un-cle, the Marquis, who had willed him so great a fortune. Thereupon Alexandra Alex-andra and Gonsalo Mora y Rlera took possession of the fortune. But In another an-other month Gonsalo died In Madrid, leaving a widow, who married a Spanish Span-ish sous-prefet named Angelotti. In a few weeks Angelotti died suddenly, and his wife, the former widow of Gonsalo, survived him but a short time. Of all the direct heirs and their descendants mentioned In the will of the first Marquis Mar-quis de Caea-Rlera only Alexandra was left alive. He assumed the title and took up his residence in the mansion man-sion in the Rue de Berrl In Paris, where he has made his home ever since. e For twenty-three years Alexandra de Oaaa-Rlera lived in Paris. He was noted for his courtliness, for his charities, char-ities, fer his eccentricltres. He was the friend of the Humberts and aided them, even to" the extent of placing in their hands the vast sums in stocks, bonds and cash which filled the safe in which the Humberts, had declared was deposited the fortune of, the mythical Crawfords. It was this temporary loan of wealth that enabled the Humberts to postpone the hour of their final exposure. ex-posure. . Of course, Alexandra de Casa-Rlera's Casa-Rlera's money, stocks and bonds were returned to him. There was never any suspicion that he was in any way connected con-nected with the Humbert swindle. He simply befriended them through a belief be-lief in the truth of their story, with which they so long deceived the Paris police and the French courts. - But in all these twenty-three years in which Alexandra de Caaa-Riera lived undisturbed In the possession of his fortune for-tune In Paris, envious relatives were plotting to secure his millions, even at the cost of tarnishing the family name. There were a number of nephews and cousins of the first Marquis living in various parts of Spain. No one knew how long ago the plot mas laid or who began it, but the basis of the conspiracy must have been founded yeare ago, for the dev low-' trail of the purposed fraud lay through many provinces of the old Castllllan kingdom. e , But the superstructure of fraud and forgery was completed at lasb, and three months ago Pierre Rlera, a- great nephew neph-ew of the, old Marquis, arrived in Paris to spring the sensation and to garner in the millions. . - Pierre Rlera was a blacksmith living in Catalonia. He was shrewd and cunning, cun-ning, but ignorant. But be was able to convulse all Paris .with bis sensation. He bad no means, not even to dress ds-cently, ds-cently, but In Paris be found a wllMnsj syndicate, eager to supply him with funds to overthrow the Marquis, provided pro-vided he was willing to divide liberally, and Pierre Rlera. having everything to gain and nothing to lose, agreed readily enough. One day Paris was surprised, by the sensational announcement that - the Marquis Alexandra de Casa-Riera was an impostor the mean son of the secretary sec-retary of the first Marquis. Pierre Rlera, supported by the syndicate of money loaners, brought forward his alleged al-leged proofs. Pierre Rlera's case was this. He showed that the first Marquis, for many years prior to his death, had been entirely en-tirely blind and was alrrost on the verge of mental Insanity. His secretary had almost complete control of his every action. ac-tion. It was the secretary who drew the will of 1879, which left the property, first to Jose, then to Alexandre, and Gonsalo. Gon-salo. - Plerra Rlera declared that both Alexandra Alex-andra and Gonsalo Mora had died) In 1$78, a year before the will was drawn, and that the secretary knew it Pierre-produced Pierre-produced family documents and regls- I ters of birth, marriages and deaths to prove his assertion that Alexandra had died In 187$. As further proof he pro- duced copies of the death register of the parish of San Martlno de Sarraca in Spain, This death register showed plainly enough that Alexandra and Gonsalo Gon-salo Mora were buried in that parish in 1678. The secretary of the first Marquis, too old to palm himself off as Alexandra Mora stole all the family . documents when the old Marquis died, gave them to his son, and sent him to Paris to assume as-sume the title and secure the fortune. It was the son of the secretary who in 1881. according to the story told by Pierre Rlera, assumed Illegally the title of the Marquis Alexandra de Casa-Rlera. Casa-Rlera. Paris Jumped to the conclusion that the story of Pierre Rlera, the Ignorant blacksmith of Catalonia, was true and that the aged and respected Marquis de Caee-Rlera was an impoator. who had enjoyed stolen millions for twenty-three years. - - The appearance of the Marquis was against Mm, He does not look to be more than 0 years old. Yet if he was the real Alexandra Mora named in- the win of 187$ he must be at least 81. The case found its wsy into the courts. The affair was complicated .iy the unexpected un-expected course, taken by the Spanish authorities. Every effort was made in Spain, apparently, to bolster up the story told by PlerreRlers, Permission to nearly grasp the millions or a wen-known wen-known Spanish Marquis living In Paris and to cover him with infamy. Fortunately, however, one Parts newspaper, the Matin, refused to be carried off its feet by the wave of ex-, Cltement which swept over the French capital. All the other newspapers of Paris were denouncing the Marquis de Caaa-Riera as a forger and a thief. The -evidence against him was piled mountain high. Then the Matin sent a commissioner to 8paln. Unheralded, unknown, the .envoy followed the trail of the Catalonlan blacksmith, the man who had raised the hue and cry against the Marquis. When the Matin's commissioner made his report the whole structure of blackmail crumbled, for It had been planned in fraud and built on forgery. But the story of It all forms one Of the most interesting chapters of Paris sensationalism since the development and exposure of the Humbert swindle. - - Somewhere, back toward 1873 the Marquis de Caaa-Riera, first of the name, lived in a splendid palace In the Calie del Alcala, in Madrid. He owned vast - estates In Catalonia, was Immensely Im-mensely wealthy, and was private chamberlain to Queen Isabella. He was SO years old and looked 38. He was a social favorite in court circles and a man whose honor had never been tarnished, even in the reign of extravagance extrava-gance and official corruption of the times in which he lived. Then all in one unhappy, ill-fated hour the Marquis de Caaa-Riera lost his honor and his position at court and became an exile. While visiting his estates in Catalonia Cata-lonia he met, in this ill-fated hour! a peasant child. She was the handsomest handsom-est child the Marquis had ever seen. She was the daughter of a poor, Ignorant Igno-rant tenant. The Marquis placed the peasant girl in a school, where she was educated. She developed Into one of the most beautiful young women of Spain, and when she was It years old a Marquis, who was then 60, made her his wife. In less than a year the Marquis de Casa-Riera murdered his bride and her lover, confessed the deed to the "Queen, and fled to Paris. Through the Influence of the Queen, who was then in the height of her power in Spain-she Spain-she afterward became an exile, tooths too-ths Marquis was pardoned, but ordered never to return to Spain. He kept the .condition of. his exile and never again set foot on Spanish soil. He purchased in Paris a home almost equal to a pal-... pal-... - " to search parish registers was refused to the attorneys employed bythe Marquis. Mar-quis. The Marquis himself told a stralghtj forward story in court. He asserted than -. from 1842 to 1851 he resided with his uncle, the first Marquis, in Madrid. In 1S51 he went to London to learn bank-Ing bank-Ing In the house of Messrs. Frederick Huth A Co. In 1875 he shared his uncle's exile In Paris and was with him until bis death in 1881. But the sensational press of Parts was with ths syndicate backing Pierre Rlera. It was declared that the Marquis was the mypterlous Crawford and that his heirs were the nephews whose long lit- Ig&tlon with Mme. Humbert enabled her to impose ujxm so many millionaires. . : In short, no story seemed too extra va- gant of belief for the Paris boulevardler . press to print, and the case began to look dark for the Marquis. r: Then one day the whole fabric of yr; fraud and perjury fell to the ground, i The Matin printed proof that Pierre . Rlera's death registers and other papers were oniy clurnsv forgeries. The case was dropped with asuddenness that sent Pierre Rlera back to Barcelona in -haete, to avoid .arrest and prosecution. He had made the gambler's throw for m stake of '$18.00000 and lost. Chlcassj Tribune . ' . -.' |