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THE , OREGON SUNDAY : "JOURNAL, PORTLAND. SUXDAY MORNiyG,:-JAKTJARy lj 1922; ;
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The Czarina's Famous
$1,500,000 Pearl Necklace, Part of
the Glittering Treasure Which
Disappeared When the Royal
Family Was Slain.
'A3 the Imposter, lunatic or royal
princess "the girl with the
orange hat" who slipped Into the
White House one fine September morning
and told the President ot the United States
, she wu the daughter ot the dead Czar and
heiress to the Russian throne?
A desperate adventuress seeking to dupe
the world with the most amazing fraud
history has ever known? A crazed no
body unbalanced , by too much dreaming
of kings and queens and war? Or the
beautiful Princess Anastasla herself
mlraculouily escaped from the slaughter
trap of, the Reds'to implore sanctuary in
democratic America?
The whole truth may nerer be told, but
there has Just been published In. Paris a
remarkable book which partly lifts the
yell from the mystery and stamps It the
most amazing romance of international In
trigue of which the twentieth century has
any record.
"Under the title, "The Mystery of the Ro
manoffsA Survivor?", the authors,
Charles and Henry Omessa, present what '
purports to be an authentic account of the
flight from Russia of the Princess Anas
tasla, her voyage to San Francisco on the
steamer "Vulture? her American wander
ings and her audience with President Wil
son. Bolshevik attempts to assassinate her,
finally her elopement with a young Ameri
can. At first glance the tale seems only sheer
Imagination. Bfit one Btatement after an
other1 for example, her Interview with
President Wilson on September 29, 1920
has been bo confirmed upon investigation
that v European diplomats are seriously
aroused. They are grilling the Omessa'
brothers for the source of their Informa
tion. They want to know whether "tho girl
,wlth the orange hat" was princess or pre
tender. And, if princess, where is she now
? a secret exile, or murdered by Bolshevik:
agents?
- The affair of Anastasla finds only one
historic parallel as sensational that ot
"the lost dauphin of France," the little son
of Louis Sixteenth whose fate was never
known after the Revolution. There Is a
striking similarity between the two cases,
both hinging on the Inability ot the au
thorities to prove the "corpus delicti."
, Louis was in the Bastlle when his father
and Marie Antoinette went to the guillo
tine. Was he murdered by his Jailers?
- Or did he escape to America, where a
youth claiming to be the Dauphin bobbed
up in, Louisiana several years later? The
world never knew. Some branded the
"Louisiana dauphin" a pretender, some a
half wit; a few. believed him, for no corpse
The Very Strange Story
of an Attempt to Have the
White House Recognize a
Beautiful Foreigner as
the Last of the '
J Romanoffs, Heiress
Russia's Throne
Front
Cover of
The Mystery of
the Romanoff s A
Survivor V Which
Has Caused
Consternation in
Diplomatic Circles
was ever produced to prove
the Dauphin died In France.
So It Is with " the Princess
Anastasla. The Czar, the Czar
ina and the entire royal family
were slain by" the. Reds at
Ekaterlenborg the entire fam
ily, with possibly one exception.
Although a commission repre
senting Great Britain, France,
Japan, the United States and
the Kolchak regime carefully in
vestigated "the affair of Eka
terlenborg" and established t:
yond peradventure the death of
Anastasla's father, motucr,
brother and sisters, her death
they could never make certain.
No corpse was found.
Did she perish with the rest
of , the Romanoffs? Or did she
flee -to turn up later as "the
. girl In the orange hat," claimant
of a crown and millions in gold,
silver and precious stone" sal
vaged from the Russian sata- ,
cylsm and stored to the Roman
off credit in secret caches In the
capitals of Europe?
When , investigators at length
separate fact from fiction in the
book by: Charles and Henry
Omessa; they may have the an
swer to the riddle. The Omessa
narrative begins with documen
tary evidence that the Soviet
government had such grave
doubt of Anastasla's death that
the Soviet Commissioner of For
eign Affairs on November 17,
1919. dispatched from Petrograd
a, secret note to agents "In Lon
don, Stockholm, Copenhagen
and New York, warning them to
find Anastasla at all cost.
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What was the outcome of that
sinister hunt' across seas and .
continents,' through the crowded' lanes of
great cities from bloody Ekaterlenborg
to the dome of the capitol of Washing
ton? This, whether fact or fiction. Is the
Version of Charles and Henry Omessa:,
On a day tn July, 1919, the police ot Yo
kohama, Japan, received a report that a
LE MY5TERE d ROMANOFF
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Anaatasi,
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PAR
HENRI OMESSA
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Russian peasant, giving his name as Boris
Berditchev? had sold to the Chinese , firm
Of Fo Tchang & Company, of Tsao Tsin,
two blazing diamonds of slxt-flve -carats
each for the small sum of 67,000 yen, and
also had offered for sale a necklace of
matchless pearls worth a fortune.
AO 1921. International Xfeatam Strviem. Ino.
IIP? t-RkLS
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The IU-Fated Czar of
Russia in the Hands of
His . Captors, from a Photo ;
Taken Shortly Before; His
Cold-Blooded Execution.
The diamonds were identified as part of
the missing treasure ot the Czar of Rus
sia, but before the maritime police of Yo
kohama could 1st hold ot the old man, he
had sailed on the American steamship
"Vulture," accompanied by a beautiful girl,
whom he called Marie Berditchev.
The scene shifts to San Francisco. The
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tj-h, fc.. L, -bis month popped open, i I saw him drop a
chev and Marie Berditchev have settled , ' whitish little pellet on .the old man's ton
down in a boarding bouse at 127 Hayward - v gne and make him ' swallow It. - Then he
street, Devout Catiiollcs. they, appeared " ran, with . your father -. staggering after
regularly at the Russian OrthodoT rhurrb
Creel Britain Sibts
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Princess Anastasla.
the Only Member of
the Czar's Family
Whose Death Was
Never Proven and Who, It Is Now
vVvf : r v ' r.
in San Francisco, where Boris Bwdltchev
made two donations ' of - $100 eachl (The
books of the church show this statement
in the Omessa narrative to'be true.) -
At the church Marie Berditchev made an
acquaintance a young Russian: . ,They ,
walked home together. - Giving her a pe-'
cnllar look, he suddenly dropped this ques-.
tlon into the" desultory conversation:
"Do you like San Francisco better -than
Ekaterlenborg?"
A few days later Boris Berditchev and .
Marie Berditchev vanished from the Hay
ward street boarding : house. The birds. "
warned that they were tracked, flew away
to be heard of next in New York, at "an
address on-Forty-elxth street,"
Marie Berditchev, an accomplished lin
guist, secured work as foreign correspond
ent in a Wall Street banking house. She
returned home' one night to ' tragedy. A
few hours before Boris Berditchev .was
picked up. unconscious on the. street and
taken to a hosbltal, where he died. Apo
plery was given as the cause, but from , a
disreputable old character, Pat OTCeen,
Marie Berditchev learned a different story.
T had been tn liquor," .Pat CrKeen told
her,
and 1 was sleeping it off in a bit
an auey.v voices woite me. There was
your old man. at the . corner, talking to a
youngish man. He was well dressed- and
' across his right cheek was a long red scar:
Suddenly the young man; grabbed your
father by-the throat and squeezed us til
rlnU-
The red hand of the . Bolshevists had
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Declared, Is Alive and in Franc.
struck at Marie Berditchev. It was to
strike again. .There came to her one cay
a woman, Mrs. Simpson, rich, flashy,
handsome, the wife of "WUlilnt Thomas
Simpson, war- profiteer." Marie BerdlV
chev- and Mrs, Simpson became friends.
Another in Mrs. Simpson's little circle was
"Colonel Figner" (named by Marie Ber
ditcheVs biographers aa "General Hartigi
who had figured in many a dirty deal la
Europe") j
They kidnapped Marie Berditchev, chlo
roformed her and clapped her into a dingy
warehouse in lower New York. . But res
cue followed swif Uy. Four policemen, led
by "George Philip Bowd," handsome young
American, beat down the doors, snatched
Marie Berditchev. from 'peril, and whisked
her away to:the country haven of "Madl.
son," where she found safety and lore In
the srms of young. Bowd. 4
Another foiled attempt at assassination?
marriage . to Mr. Dowd, the visit to Presi
dent Wilson, another visit to Holland and
the ex-kalser, and a trip to Paris, conclude
"The Mystery of the Romanoffs A .Sur
vivor?" -The final paragraph is a state
ment that Mr. and Mrs. Bowd are to leave
Shortlv for a hie forcHra rltr anil Vartm'm
of signed authorization for the publication ot
ner aa ventures. - 1 j
: That, in brief, is the amazing narrative
with which the Omessa - brothers - have
.-startled -the diplomatic circle ot Europe.'
; Much of it, obviously, is . mere ro mantle
; fiction.. But there is no doubt that by
v "Marie Berditchev" in reality was meant
. the Princess Anastasla, and the crumbs of
truth sprinkled so plentifully through chap
4 ter after- chapter . have i made . the most
; skeptical turn to the Omessa brothers witA'
.a dawning wonder in their eyes.
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