He said: “Mr Goold was an exceedingly quiet, unassuming, well spoken man and they let it be known that they were well off and had taken the villa for the whole season. His wife was French and spoke English fluently. They had living with them a very pretty girl who they gave people to understand was their niece. Sir Vere called in at my shop several times a week and his niece often accompanied him.
They mixed with the best society and were frequently seen at the tables in the Casino. The villa they lived in is close to the Carlton, the celebrated night restaurant along the new road which runs parallel with but below the Boulevards des Moulins. The villa is a huge building let out in ten suites and they lived on the fourth floor for which they would have paid about £100 for the season. Vere was always well spoken of and his niece was quite one of the belles of the season. She was about 25 and friendly with daughters of English doctors who practise in Monte Carlo.”
Mr Reilly said the couple were on visiting terms with people of note in the resort, were always well dressed and paid their bills regularly.
Weekly Irish Times
Saturday August 10th
Marseilles, Tuesday Evening.
The inquiry as to the trunk tragedy shows that the victim was a woman aged 37 of Swedish origin. All the indications point to the crime as a result of a love affair. A man named Bucker, aged 24, is now under arrest at Monte Carlo. Bucker is alleged to have thrown human remains down the toilet of a hotel in Monte Carlo, so as to prevent the body from decomposing too rapidly. It is further asserted that the man and woman Goold dismembered the corpse. It is expected that an application for extradition will be made so that Bucker can be brought to Marseilles and confronted with the Goolds.
Irish Times
Saturday, August 10th, 1907
Reuters telegrams
In connection with the Monte Carlo trunk mystery, the Matin gives a list of jewels handed to the police as belonging to the murdered woman and says that some pieces have been discovered in a bag belonging to Madame Goold. It seems more than ever confirmed, therefore, that the object of the murder was robbery.
A police expert today estimated that the value of the jewels found in possession of Madame Goold was 15,000 francs. Goold’s niece states that on Sunday evening she went by the box-room which was locked and her aunt said: “You have nothing to do here.” This is where the body remained during Sunday night. This crime was perpetrated at two different moments.
It was on Monday that the body was cut to pieces. On that day Madame Goold had told her niece not to come home before six in the evening, owing to her husband’s illness. After this statement by Mlle Girodin, the magistrate had the box-room searched. It was found to contain linen and a large stain of blood was found on the floor and splashes of red on the walls. The Journal has opened a subscription list on behalf of the man Pons who brought about the arrest of the Goolds. The Journal heads the list with 1,000 francs.
Monte Carlo, Friday
The Monte Carlo Court has applied for the extradition of the Goolds. The police are actively pursuing their investigations but are experiencing much difficulty in piecing together the evidence at their disposal. M. Savard, examining magistrate, today took an inventory of the victim’s room at the hotel. He afterwards proceeded to the house where the crime was committed and examined Mlle Girondin, supposed to be the niece of the Goolds, who declared she knew nothing whatever about the alleged murder.
The next examination of the two prisoners will take place on Monday, when they will be asked to give precise information concerning the statement as to their identity, already furnished by them. No actual proceedings can be taken until the authorities have exact and certain knowledge of the nationality of the accused.
It is believed that the person who describes herself as Mr Goold’s real wife, is in fact a sister of the late Mrs Goold who is understood to have died some years ago.
New York Times
August 10th, 1907
LIGHT ON THE LIVES OF THE
VERE GOOLDS
A FORMER EMPLOYEE, NOW AT SHEEPSHEAD BAY, TALKS OF PAIR ACCUSED OF MURDER. GOOLD A GAMBLER, SHE SAYS.
WHEN INCOME FROM MILLINERY BUSINESS GAVE OUT, HE WORKED ON A SYSTEM TO BREAK THE BANK AT MONTE CARLO.
Light on the characters and careers of the persons concerned in the discovery of the body of Emma Levin, a wealthy Swedish woman, in the trunk and valise of Vere St Leger Goold, an Englishman, was obtained by a Times reporter in as unlikely a spot as Sheepshead Bay, in this city. Spending the summer at a hotel there is Miss Charlotte Shranz of Ottawa, who knew the Goolds well and managed Mrs Goold’s dressmaking establishment at 56, Drummond Street, Montreal, for two years.
Goold, it seems, is not a baronet, but the younger brother of one, but he and his wife had been travelling all over Europe for the past five years, posing as “Sir and Lady Goold” on the slim revenue of this practically bankrupt dressmaking-business in Montreal.
Miss Shranz says that the couple were last seen in Canada three years ago, after an absence of two years, and that the firm is still in existence, under the management of a Frenchwoman, but is heavily in debt.
Miss Shranz says Goold was always a hard drinker and a heavy gambler. He lost large sums of money in different business ventures, including the big failure of the Thomas Fay Company, importers of millinery in Montreal, several years ago.
Goold, says Miss Shranz, is the sixth son of Sir Henry Valentine Goold of Cork, the third baronet of the name, which is one of the oldest and most respected in Ireland. After a stormy youthful career, he married a London dressmaker, two years his senior in 1901.
Three years later they went from London to Montreal, where the woman established a fashionable dressmaking shop. Goold continued his dissolute life, and was soon a familiar figure in the gambling houses and other resorts of Montreal. It was understood that his wife accompanied him on many of his escapades, and what part of the revenue of the business, which prospered, they did not spend in this way, Goold frittered away at the gambling table or sunk into unprofitable business ventures.
While in his cups, Goold was accustomed to boast of his titled lineage and informed his associates that he was next in line for the baronetcy. In the fall of 1902 he announced that his brother was killed suddenly by a fall from his horse in London, and leaving Miss Shranz in charge of the business, the couple departed for London, ostensibly to straighten out the brother’s affairs and take over the title. They were gone two years, and in that time travelled all over Europe, using the profits of the concern, which were forwarded to them by Miss Shranz.
After two years’ absence, they returned to Montreal but only remained a few weeks. It was during this time that Miss Shranz severed her connection with the Goolds, realising that it was impossible to keep the business going in face of the drains they were making on it. During the short stay in Montreal, she says Goold devoted his entire time to working over a roulette system by means of which he was going to ‘break the bank’ at Monte Carlo.
After their return to England, the business began to fall off, and large unpaid bills piled up. No collections could be made from the Frenchwoman who was only an employee and all efforts to locate “Sir and Lady Goold” failed. After they were away for a year, word was received from Algiers that ‘Lady Goold’ had died of fever while at a resort at the coast. Miss Shranz says that was the last she ever heard of the pair. Miss Shranz says that Isabelle Girodin, Mrs Goold’s pretty 20-yearold niece lived with the couple for several years in Montreal.
New York Times
August 11th, 1907
PORTER DISCOVERED MONTE CARLO
CRIME
Blood oozing from a trunk at the Marseilles railroad station on Monday brought about the detection of a terrible crime. The trunk belonged to a highly respectable looking English couple who had just arrived from Monte Carlo. They left the trunk to be registered for London while they went to a hotel for breakfast, taking their hand baggage with them.
A por
ter, named Pons, who handled the trunk, noticed some blood on it, followed the couple to the hotel and found that they had already started to drive back to the station. Pons ran after the hack and insisted on getting in the box. The woman offered him sixty francs to go away. This merely confirmed his suspicions and when the cab reached the station, he informed the police.
The trunk was opened and a woman’s body without the head and lower part of the legs was discovered. The missing parts of the victim were found in a gripsack carried by the Englishman. The owners of the baggage gave their names as Mr and Mrs Goold. They were immediately arrested and told an incredible story. They said that the dead woman had been stabbed in the heart in their apartment in Monte Carlo by a man named Burker, who ran away immediately after committing the crime.
The victim proved to be a Swedish woman, Emma Levin, widow of a rich Jewish trader of Stockholm. About a month ago, she made the acquaintance of the Goolds who had lived there for the last three years in fairly good style. She had remarked to a friend that the Goolds had paid her unusual attention and seemed anxious to cultivate her; also they offered to advance her money on her jewellery when she was temporarily short of funds.
At the Goolds’ invitation she went to their apartment on Sunday afternoon at 5 o’clock and was never seen alive again. A neighbour heard a woman’s voice exclaim “Leave me alone” but paid no attention, thinking that it was merely a domestic quarrel. Mrs Goold’s niece who lived with the Goolds was sent out the same morning with special instructions not to return until the evening.
She came home at 9 o’clock, when her aunt informed her that her uncle was ill and would have to go to Marseilles immediately to consult a doctor, a specialist. The trunk was already packed and the girl sat on it and talked to Goold for a few minutes. In the three hours that elapsed between the woman’s cry and the niece’s return, Emma Levin’s body had been cut up in the bath and the remains had been stored away in the trunk and the bag. The girl noticed nothing unusual except a strong smell of lavender water which her aunt accounted for by saying she had accidentally upset the bottle.
The Goolds admit cutting up the body, but it is doubtful whether two elderly persons could have accomplished the ghastly work unaided in such a short time. So it is likely that a third person participated, especially as the immediate cause of death was a stab through the heart, delivered with great force, of which the Goolds seem incapable.
The police are trying to ascertain whether Burker is merely fictitious or one of the dead woman’s acquaintances. Robbery is the only motive for the crime. The Goolds were always pressed for money and had no regular income, whereas Emma Levin lived well and had a quantity of valuable jewels. When arrested, the Goold woman had some of the jewelry in her handbag.
Until three years ago, the Goolds lived in Montreal, Canada, where the woman ran a dressmaking business, which the couple sold. At Monte Carlo, they were supposed to be persons of independent means. Goold is the brother of an English baronet, living in Australia. The woman is French.
There is reason to doubt that the couple were married, and should this prove justified, the woman will be tried in Marseilles, as France does not surrender its citizens for trial abroad, whereas Goold will be extradited to Monaco, where the crime was committed. The case thus presents the possibilities of curious complications, involving the laws of France, England and the Principality of Monaco.
The man and woman are now in prison in Marseilles and are being subject to the process, known in French slang as “cooking”. Other selected prisoners are left night and day in the cells with the alleged culprits in the hope that the latter may confide in their companions and thus give useful clues, which are immediately reported to the investigating magistrate. The leading spirit of the Goold family was undoubtedly the woman, who ruled the man and the girl with an iron hand and allowed them very little freedom of action.
She frequently gambled at the tables in the Monte Carlo casino, but never permitted her supposed husband to enter the place. Ever since her arrest, she has been questioning the prison warders and the police with a view to ascertaining what Goold said, and she has also repeatedly urged them to give him plenty of whisky. Goold is plunged into abject depression, from which he arouses himself occasionally only to clamour for drink.
The crime has excited as much interest as the Guldensuppe case did in America. M. Jaume one of the detectives who solved the celebrated Gouffé murder case in which a body was also concealed in a trunk, said to me today with great professional contempt: “The English are mere children in crime and are generally found out very quickly. The Goolds acted like novices. Any of the criminals I have had to deal with would have contrived the affair more artistically. If you ever cut up a body and put it in a trunk, never entrust that trunk to anybody.”
The Goolds were photographed today by the police operator. The woman broke down and shed tears copiously but the man maintained an air of dignified composure and merely remarked: “I am sorry I didn’t commit suicide before I got into this trouble.” Death is the punishment for a premeditated murder under the law of Monte Carlo. France provides the guillotine and the executioner at the expense of the principality.
Irish Times
Monday, August 12th, 1907
A ship’s steward named Alquist, living at West Hartlepool, has come forward as brother of Emma Levin, the victim of the Monte Carlo trunk murder. He states that he has no knowledge of the Goolds but he imagines his sister met them casually at Monte Carlo. She was the widow of a wealthy Jewish stockbroker, Leopold Levin, and was in receipt of an income from the firm.
Reuters telegrams
Paris, Saturday 10th
Yesterday Goold wrote a letter to his niece, who is believed to be still living at the villa. The letter was delivered to the chief warden, with instruction to deliver it to Monte Carlo. The writing was indistinctly in English. Goold who addresses his niece “Dear kid”, compliments her on her attitude, saying she has shown great courage and he had admired her for it.
Sunday 11th
The Matin has received information from Marcellin, Isere, representing Mrs Goold as an adventuress of great energy and with complete authority over her weak husband. She is looked upon as the instigator and actual author of the crime.
Fond of luxury and extravagant, she needed money for the fulfilment of her desires and was always prepared to procure it, by any means. In all her doings her husband was merely a slave of his wife. This is also the opinion of Mlle Girodin, the niece who lived with them for 15 years.
A Spaniard named Fausto Echeverria who had declared he could make sensational revelations, was examined by the magistrate yesterday. He said nothing new, and appears not even to have known the Goolds. The Petit Journal, likewise, looks upon Mrs Goold as the moving spirit in the crime.
The Times
August 12th, 1907
THE MONTE CARLO MURDER
Monte Carlo, August 10th
M. Savard, examining magistrate, this morning interrogated the servant and charwoman who were dismissed by the Goolds sometime before the alleged crime. According to their evidence the woman Goold dominated the household and had absolute power over her husband. It appears certain that the Goold’s niece Mlle Girodin, knew nothing of the murder until she was interrogated by the magistrate.
August 11th
The police authorities of Monaco were informed last night that what appeared to be human entrails had been found attached to an iron steel [rod?] some yards from the edge of the Larvotto beach. At 10 o’clock today, the examining magistrate accompanied by Dr Corniglion proceeded to the beach where they were joined by the Deputy Prosecutor. As the state of the supposed entrails did not permit the doctor’s giving a definite decision as to whether they were of a human being, they were placed in spirits and taken charge of by the authorities until they can be thoroughly examined.
The preliminary investigation is still proceeding but there will be some slight delay owing to the extradition for
malities which have to be gone through and which may take a fortnight. When they are brought to Monaco, the Goolds will be confronted with witnesses. Mr Goold is alleged to have been of intemperate habits. It is not yet known whether the prisoners will be tried in France or Monaco.
Marseilles, August 10th
It is stated that Goold, who has been suffering from profound depression since his arrest, last night violently attacked two other men confined in the same cell. He was overpowered by the warders, and the Public Prosecutor, on being informed of the matter, ordered that Goold should be examined by a doctor.
This afternoon, Goold again attacked his fellow prisoners and threw himself at the door of the cell, crying loudly to be let out. In view of the prisoner’s state of mind, the examining magistrate, after consulting with counsel for the defence, decided to postpone the resumption of the cross examination until Tuesday or Wednesday, when it is hoped that Goold will have calmed down.
This afternoon, the judicial authorities received communication of a letter written by Goold to his niece, Mlle Girodin, who is still living at Monte Carlo in the house where the crime is believed to have been committed. The letter, which was somewhat incoherent in terms and was written in an almost illegible hand, was placed among the documents relating to the case, and was not sent to Mlle Girodin.
This afternoon the examining magistrate received a communication from the chief warder of the prison, stating that during a fainting fit which Mrs Goold had, a fellow prisoner had noticed bruises and injuries which had been recently sustained. The examining magistrate immediately requested Dr Dufour to examine Mrs Goold. The injuries are regarded by the authorities as strengthening the presumption that Mrs Goold took an active part in carrying out the crime.
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