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The Extraordinary
Revelations of
the Power of
Heredity
Just Made Known
by the
Release of the
Beautiful Countess
Tarnowski
'A Glass of Wine with the Borgias." This Painting by the Distinguished
English Artist, Collier, Shows the Three Borgias Offering a Poi
soned Glass to One They Wish to Destroy.
Duke of the Abruzzi was present at several
sessions, and the most celebrated person
ages in Italian society struggled for places.
The prisoners were taken to and from the
court in gondolas.
NaumotT broke down and iji broken
words told how the Countess had be
witched him Into committing the crime.
He said that a forged telegram from Count
Kainarowski denouncing both him and the
Countess had induced him to start oft to
Venice to murder the Count. He arrived
at the villa in the early morning, surprised
the Count and fired five shots at him with
a revolver, four of which took effect. As
the Count lay dying he murmured:
’‘Have you no heart? 1 leave a mother
less daughter of eight years at the mercy
of a tigress."
Prilukoff confirmed everything Naumoff
confessed. He told how the Countess had
Incited him to kill the Count first. He
proposed to do It with a new -revolver,
firing expanding bullets, but she objected
to this because she had'bought the revolver
herself, and its use might incriminate her.
Then they agreed that Prilukoff should us«
a poisoned stiletto. He was to reserve th*
revolver for use on himself.
The Countess handled this weapon and
explained to Prilukoff precisely how to
charge it with expanding bullets. She also
gave a practical illustration of how he
was to hold the barrel upward inside his
mouth, so that his own face and forehead
might in the explosion be shattered be
yond Identification, as had happened in
the case of her former lover, Stahl.
A letter from Stahl was produced in
which he wrote:
‘‘On my word, and by all that Is strong
and pure within me, I, Vladimer Stahl,
promise Marie Tarnowski to do all that
she commands of me. 1 declare again that
this constitutes no sacrifice on my part
and I ask no recompense.”
In another letter, written just before he
died, he said:
•‘1 shall still live forty minutes more.
All is ended. My love for you alone lives.
I live with the sole hope that you shall
pass before my bier. I kiss you and I
die."
Continuing his revelations, Prilukoff told
how the Countess made him write a letter
addressed to herself, which he was to post
In Venice just before the murder, wherein
he confessed that he had been driven to
4ike Kamarowski’s life purely through his
own uncontrollable Jealousy.
Naumoff’s devotion to the Countess
showed them a safer method of accomplish
ing the crime. Prilukoff was to wait on
guard w'hile Naumoff killed the Count.
Then Prilukoff would have an opportunity
to kill him, after surprising him in the act
of murder, or else Naumoff, trapped and
held at bay, would kill himself.
But Naumoff’s astonishing speed and
secrecy in the killing upset this carefully
calculated plan.
As Prilukoff told these details, the
Countess interrupted with an ironical
smile, exclaiming:
“You are simply a liar. Everything you
say is a lie.”
The wretched Prilukoff, with an ex
pression of terror, cried to the Judge:
“I cannot go on with my testimony if I
(See her.”
The Countess was removed from the
courtroom temporarily, and he proceeded.
An old and enormously wealthy Russian
Prince, who had fallen under the Count
ess’s fascination, haunted the courtroom.
After a long trial the Countess was
sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment.
Prilukoff to ten years and Naumoff to three.
It was generally said that the Countess’s
beauty had been very powerful in induc
ing the Jury to give her such a light
sentence. During her imprisonment she
continued to fascinate many men who
came In contact with her.
fused to issue the policy, but another con
sented.
The Countess was then found in the
Hotel Bristol, in Vienna. With her was a
prominent Moscow layvyer named Luiz
Prilukoff. They occupied six rooms in the
fashionable hotel. Shortly before Count
Kamarowski had been with his wife in
Vienna and had then gone on to Venice.
She had pretended to go on to Kieff, Rus
sia, but returned to Vienna.
It should be explained that she was first
married“at the age of eighteen to, Count
Venice, June 16.
T WENTY-FOUR hours after the dec
laration of war by Italy against Aus
tria, the King of Italy interrupted his
military cares to sign the pardon of the
Countess Tarnowski, convicted of inciting
others to murder her husband.
In spite of the war, this has set many
people talking again of the most famous
murder trial of modern Italy, in which the
psychology of a woman with all the chara-
teristics of a Borgia and many additional
traits of perversity was revealed to an
astonished world. Indeed, it was shown
that the Countess was remotely de
scended from the historic family of the
Borgias.
Her acts were certainly worthy of Cesare
Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, who poisoned
with mysterious, untraceable poisons at his
splendid banquets the guests who were
afraid to refuse his invita
tions. An equally strongs-
likeness to the Countess
may be seen in T.ucrezla
Borgia, the sister of Ce-
eare.
Cesare Borgia, who ap
pears to have been the
worst monster of the fam
ily, was the son of Rodrigo
Borgia and was born in
1498. The family held a
dominating position dur
ing the era of splendid lux
ury, criminal intrigue and
secret poisoning that pre
vailed in Italy through the
fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries.
Cesare begun his ca *eer
by assassinating his eider
brother, Giovanni Borgia,
Duke of Gandia, in order
to obtain his estates. He
carved out a new realm
for himself in Italy By in
trigue and murder, and
chiefly by the use of my
sterious persons whose
presence could not be
traced. To put the climax
on his career he is be
lieved to have poisoned •
his own father.
His sister Lucrezia Bor
gia was a woman of won
derful beauty and fascina
tion. She is credited with
having been an accom
plice of her brother in his
wor^t crimes and poison
ings? Her three husbands ,
perished mysteriously
or violently. The first
Giovanni Sforza, Lord of
Pesaro, was divorced from
his wife before he died.
The second, Alfonso, son
of the king of Naples, was
murdered at Cesare Bor
gia’s instigation, because
he wished another hus
band for ' is sister. The
third husband was Alfonso
of Ferrara,
The Countess Tarnowski.
“The woman is suffering
from a diabolical malady,
which makes her unanswer
able for her acts. She should
be .subject of pity, not scorn,
hatred or torture.
“She should, of course, be
so confined as to prevent her
from Injuring others or her
self. Three times in the
past two years she has at
tempted suicide. Whether guilty or not
of planning the plot of murdering her
husband, Count Kamarowski, put into
execution by Nicholas Naumoff, her respon
sibility cannot be acknowledged by modern
alienists.”
On the other hand, the late Cesare Lom-
broso, the first of criminologists, declared
that the Countess was essefitially sane, ex
cept that she had a congenital tendency to
commit murder. In his report he said:
“If the Countess actually conceived,
planned and carried out the tragedy which
resulted in the murder of Count Kamarow
ski in Venice, sne is the most remarkable
criminal of modern times. Her methods
show an absolute mastery of masculine
sentiment, passion and covetousness. Her
idea of having one lover slay her husband
and then having another lover dispatch him
so as to prevent him from becoming ac
cuser is absolutely original.
“The crimes of the Borgias and of the
Strozzi offer nothing surpassing this.
“The reported descent of the Countess
from Cesare Borgia through several indi
rect lines is an interesting suggestion, and
certainly plausible. We know that such a
highly specialized congenital criminal trait
as that displayed by the most celebrated
family of poisoners in history is a domi
nant characteristic, and may be inherited
undiminished ‘by many generations, and
•ven after many intervening direct ances
tors have been apparently free from it..
"Her ancestry and early history must
have been very remarkable. It is unusual
for one of criminal proclivities to plan so
rational a conspiracy that its execution
could have been accepted without question
by the public. Had her lawyer, Prilukoff,
In the first instance not so elaborated his
'It Was the Spirits of the Borgias in the Shape Perhaps, of Ancestral Impulses,'
That Whispered in Her Ear the Command to Kill.”
defense as to have aroused suspicion, and
had the assassin, Naumoff, been killed as
planned, or had the confessions of the
Countess and Prilukoff not beenshown him,
he would undoubtedly have committed
him, he would undoubtedly have committed
suicide, as the Countess had foreseen. On
learning that she had betrayed him, the de
sire for vengeance, which could only be at
talned 'by living, naturally possessed his
mind, thus diverting his inborn homicidal
tendency from suicide."
The Countess at the time of her trial
was barely thirty years of age, of a majes
tic, yet supple figure, rising to nearly five
feet nine, with a* Grecian bust and neck,
and with great green-black eyes, quick -o
melt into softness or harden into hate, and
a voluptuous, insinuating mouth. These
charms were crowned by a wealth of
brownish black hair that gleamed golden
bronze in the sunlight.
The late Count Paul Kamarowski, a
wealthy Russian nobleman, had a villa in
the Campo Santa Maria del Giglio at
Venice. One morning in ]:i07 he was found
dying of bullet wounds. It was believed
that t i had been attacked by a Russian
Nihilist, for he had been known as a cruel,
overbearing army officor and Government
official.
The Italian police arfested at Verona a
young Russian named Nicholas Naumoff,
who was coming -away jrom Venice.
In the meantime new! had been received
from Vienna that Cour 1 Kamarowski had
recently insured his 1 fe for $200,000 in
favor of his newly mar :ed wife, Countess
Tarnowski. The. Coun had been in the
Tarnowski, a wealthy nobleman of lvleff,
Russia. He is said to have shot her lover
dead. His wife then obtained a divorce
and Prijukoff represented her in the pro
ceedings and became fascinated by her.
'While the Countess and Prilukoff were
together in Vienna, it was learned that
they were much in the company of a
young man with a very gloomy and nerv
ous manner. A photograph of the man
arrested at Verona was sent to Vienna
and recognized there as that of this un
known young man. He was Nicholas
Naumoff, a young %tudent‘of good family
and excellent character.
The Vienna police put Prilukoff through
the third degree. At first he asserted
that the murder was solely planned by
Naumoff, that he had sat up all night with
two detectives to protect Count Kamarow
ski in Venice, but that Naumoff had
slipped in unseen and killed the Count.
When Prilukoff was shown letters from
the Countess encouraging him in the plot
he broke down and confessed that she
had really planned the murder. Her idea
was to use Naumoff’s mad devotion to her
to make him kill Count Kamarowski and
then commit .suicide. Prilukoff also told
how she had fascinated him into stealing
his clients’ money in Moscow and desert
ing his family. She also coerced her maid
into helping in the plot.
Prilukoff was sent on to Venice for trial.
In the meantime Naumoff had also con
fessed how, like the other, he had been
used as a tool in the murder by the fatal
Countess.
The trial took place in the historic
Tribunal of St. Mark, at Venice, where
the Council of Ten formerly sat. The
le “Enchantress” Countess Entering, the
Venetian “Black Maria” During the Trial
in Which She Was Convicted of
Having Instigated the Murder
of Her Husband.
koff, a wealthy middle-aged Moscow law
yer, whom she had taken from his wife
and family.
She planned that. Naumoff should com
mit suicide after killing Count Kamarow
ski. in order that the secret of her plot
might be buried forever, but this inten
tion failed.
The. decision to free her must be the
result of a widespread belief that she is
suffering from irresistible homicidal in
sanity which forces her to take life. That
such a condition might result from the
inheritance of a drop of Borgia blood is
generally accepted in Italy, where the dor-
rifiying deeds of that notorious family are
as familiar as nursery tales. Many, never
theless, see in her release a miscarriage
of justice. At the time of the trial she
was studied by the most famous alienists
in Italy, who differed considerably in their
views of her. Professor Rossi, of Genoa,
one of these alienists, stated:
the richest
of Este, Duke
prince of Italy.
Many horrible, fantastic crimes, in ad
dition to murder, are charged against the
Borgias
The probability that the Countess Tar
nowski has inherited a homicidal taint
from these monstrous ancestors appears
to be strongly confirmed by the fact that
two of her cousins have recently been
One of them is
;onvicted of murder.
Count Bogdan Roniker, recently sentenced
for the murder of his wife’s brother, and
the other is Count De Lacy, convicted of
the killing of a man named Patchenko.
The Countess was convicted five years
ago in Venice of inducing her admirer,
Nicholas Naumoff, to murder her recently
Count Kama-
acquired second husband,
rowski, in order to obtain the enormous
Insurance policy the latter had recently
made out for her benefit. She was aided
In the plot by another admirer, M. Prilu-
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Copyright, 1913, by the Star Company. Great Britain Bights
leserved.