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UBSELDORF and all of Rhenish Prussia la
excited over the mystery of the Weiskopf
twin, a strange, weird, mysterious romance
that has attracted the attention of the crim
inologists and psychologists of all Europe.
The principal actresses In the story ot
love, murder, salntlincsn, crime, robbery,
charity, purity, and debauchery are Myra
and Rosetta Weiskopf, daughters of a well to do manufac
turer, twins, now 22 years of age, well educated, hand
some, brilliant, and skilled la the aits of the h-iuschnld.
At their door arc laid two murders, one suVidc. the rob
bery of a rich man's rouse, the ruin un.l rubbery of the
Hon of one of the wealthiest men In Dusseldorf, the steal
ing of diamonds worth a quarter of a million, and the
breaking up of two prominent families. Yet neither girl
is under arrest, both arpcar perfectly Innorent. both at
tend their church regularly, both go Into their society, ride
freely through the streets In their carriage, receive the
'best young people of the town.
Tet one of them, the pollre declare, Is a murderess and
a robber, a woniHn whose life of debauchery and daring
escapade has thrilled the city and the other Is a salntess,
a friend of the poor, great In charity works. And the
police do not know which Is the daring debauchee, whose
wild orgies In Paris and Berlin destroyed two homes, and
which Is the Iady of Good Works, who Is blessed by the
laborers In her father's plant and followed by the prayers
of the poor of Dusseldorf. Nor are they entirely certain
that either Is guilty, and admit that they may be victims
of monstrous circumstances.
Strange Problem Perplexes-Sleuths.
The problem which the police are facing Is one of the
'strangest that ever perplexed a sleuth. The girls are so
remarkably alike that their closest friends cannot tell
them apart; they dreis exactly alike; move and speak In
the same way, and, so far as any one except themselves
knows, are seldom separated for more than a few hours.
They have traveled together, been educated together, oc
cupied adjoining rooms, and, to the police. It seems In
conceivable that one of them should have done the deeds
attributed to hr without the knowledge of the other.
Startling crimes have been traced home to the twins, yet,
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works of charity and deeds of kindness of one or the other
and the grain of doubt of guilt, they hesitate to make an
arrest.
Detectives watch every movement the twins make,:
hoping that some day the guilty one will be caught on one
of her nocturnal escapades and the entire matter brought
to a climax. Tet, so far as appearances go, neither one
nor the other of the girls Is aware that she Is being
watched, despite the fact that the police have questioned
them repeatedly, and the behavior of both is a perfect sim
ulation of Innocence If not Innocence itself. '
Problem the Police Must Solve.
Here Is the problem which the police must solve, ar
ranged In Its varying forms and theories:
Is Rosetta or Myra Weiskopf the criminal, and. If so,
does her sister know of the crimes?
Having located the criminal, how are the police to dis
tinguish between her and her sister?
Is one of the girls a female Jekyll and Hyde?
Are both of the sisters dual characters, shielding each
other?
Does one or do both of the girls commit crimes uncon
sciously while living In a secondary life?
Does one of the girls carry out the role of Christian
worker to more completely puzsle the police? 1
Is one of the girls Ignorant of the crimes of the other,'
or hypnotised by her?
Is one of the girls conscious of the crimes of the other
and shielding her? I
Do both girls, while under some strange Influence, plot
together to commit a crime and use their remarkable like-'
nesa to puszle the police?
Do the girls take turns in slipping sway for wild' de
bauches? The questions remain unanswered. Indeed, were It not
for staggering circumstantial evidence the police would
weeks ago have abandoned their suspicions of thf young
women and arrived at the conclusion that they are Inno-.
cent victims of some cunning criminal who is shielding
himself or herself benind the Innocence of the young
women.
Beginning of Strange Mystery.
Until about a year ago Myra and Rosetta Weiskopf
were regarded only as lovely, sweet, homelovlng girls, re
markable only for their strange resemblance to each other.
They attracted but little more attention than any other
twins would attract except that they were Inseparable and
that their father was a wealthy manufacturer and their
Ether a member of a well known family. They were
icated st a private school on Kalserwerther atrasse, not
1 from the Hofgarten, and there became acquainted
lth girls of their own class, with whom they formed
pleasant friendships. They were bright, clever, and, al
though apparently not e&peclally vivacious, were favorites
In their society. They both appeared to take deep interest
in church and charltn'ile work, and always went together
until they were about 18 years old, when one no one knows
whether Myra or Rosetta suddenly ceased to accompany
the other on the errands of mercy to the homes of the poor,
and one no one knows which became gayer and went
oftener Into society. Etlll the twins were seldom separated
more than an hour or two at a time. The fact that the
family took no notice of the change In habits, which the
police have since discovered, appears to indicate that the
girl might have begun a dual life even then, alternately
becoming society butterflies and slum workers.
The fact that, since earliest girlhood, either would
answer to either name makes the tnvk of discovering
which Is which harder. It Is evident from all circum
stances that the parents of the twins aro In deepest Igno
rance, and have thus far never even noticed anything un
usual In the conduct o( either young woman, or heard a
whisper of the crimes of which they are suspected. Be
cause of this fact the police have been able to make one
important step In the case. They have discovered that
Myra hai a small, black mole at the edge of her hair, under
i. e left ear, and Rosetta has none. They believe that
ultimately the mole wlP solve the mystery. Every efTurt
of the police Is bent on keeping the family deluded with
.the Idea that servants in the household are the ones under
suspicion. "
Meeting with Their Favored Suitors.
Tour years ago, when the girls were 18, iBaac Welstcpf.
me manufacturer, took his family for a year of travel, vis
iting Prance, Italy, Spain, Egypt, and finally England, and
while they were away his handsome home on Dlnsburgher
strasae was built. The family returned home In March of
11)02, and In the following May moved inio the new house.
On the evening of March 26 a company from Berlin
sang " Lohengrin " In the 8tadt theater in Allee street.
Myra and Rosetta Weiskopf with Julius Kransman and
Edouard Llsarre, with the mother of the girls as chaperon,
attended. After the performance they drove to the Bler
hoff, In Brlete street, where they remained until nearly
midnight. The two young men had been particularly at
tentive to the two girls, and It had been regarded In some
quarters that they would be the favored suitors of the
twins. The party drove to the Weiskopf home, the men
said good night, and drove back Into the city.
The next morning tne body of Llsarre was found In the
Hofgarten, on the banks of the Rhine, with a bullet in the
head. Although no revolver was found, the police regarded
It as a case of sulelde. '
It was not until over a year later that the police made
the startling discoveries and reopened the case. Then they
learned that on the night Lisarre.dled a musician heard a
man and a woman quarreling, then a shot, and running
toward the spot he passed a girl fleeing through the park.
Two blocks away a street cleaner at work saw a girl
scurrying along. Five persons saw the woman, and three of
them positively declared she was one ot the Weiskopf
twins, whom they had seen frequently. She was last seen
within a block of the Weiskopf home.
The police, on plea of new evidence, made Inquiries,
stating that a servant was under suspicion, and every
member of the Weiskopf householtt-declared that neither
girl left the house after they entered it on returning from
the opera.
The second crime was committed In January of 1004
In Frankfort. Raoul Feibel, son of a wealthy jeweler, was
sent to Berlin to carry a great consignment of diamonds.
Only he nnd his father knew of the contemplated trip or Its
object. Raoul left Dusseldorf on the midnight train, carry
ing the diamonds in a leather case. Three days after
ward his body was found In a hotel In Frankfort, and the
diamonds, valued at f.T.WOQO were gone.
Involved In Another Mysterious Murder.
Why he went to Frankfort, what happened to him, no
one could tell, and not a clew was found until the post
mortem revealed the fact that be had been poisoned. The
police, in tracing down clews, discovered that the room In
which the young man died was connected, through a bath
room, with another room on the same floor. A maid testi
fied that on the morning the body was found she attempted
to enter Feibel's room, found It locked, and got In through
the bathroom, finding both doors unlocked. She remem
bered being surprised at this.
The experts then discovered that the woman's name,
" Mile. Lannee," was written by Felbel. She had disap
peared utterly, paying her bill and leaving, ostensibly for
Parts, an hour before the body was discovered.
The shock came when Andrew Kaufmann, a prominent
Dusseldorf citizen, declared that he had seen Felbel and
one of the Weiskopf twins In Frankfort on the day of the
murder and thaj they both spoke to him.
Kaufmann'a startling statement threw the police of
Frankfort and Dusseldorf Into a frenzy of excitement. The
closest watch was kept on the girls and their every move
ment was scrutinised. Every Jewel they wore was ex
amined through powerful glasses as they sat In their
box at the theater or at the great Thursday night sym
phony concerts In the Tonhalle.
Detectives who Investigated the movements of
twins on the night Felbel was robbed, murdered, and
reputation destroyed ran up against a stone wall. Every
servant, every member of the family at the Weiskopf house
declared that neither girl was away from home on that
night that both were seen In the house at 0 o'clock in the
evening and both appeared a, breakfast, and Kranzman,
whose engagement to Myra had been announced, declared
be spent the evening with her In the music room.
But no one In the entire household was found who had
seen both girls at the same time, and Kranzman admitted
that he did not know whether the girl who was with him'
was Rosetta or Myra.
Not one member of the household knew the object of
the Inquiry, being told that the servant was again sus
pected of robbery.
The girls were questioned cautiously by the police, who
pretended to them to be Investigating a report that some
Jewels that had been purchased by them were among those
stolen from Felbel. They readily exhibited their Jewels,
let the police examine them. Myra when asked where she
was the night of the murder said she was with Kranzman
Despite this strong evidence, the police knew It was
useless to make an arrest, but continued watching.
Accused m Two Divorce Suits.
In June of 1004 two well to do Dusseldorf couples sep
aratedthe wives accusing their husbands of faithlessness
and each one declaring that the Weiskopf twins were
responsible. One accused Myra, the other Rosetta; one
told of her husband's wild escapades in Berlin with the
one woman, the other complained that her husband, enam
ored of the beauty of the girl, had wasted their savings
on her during a long debauch In Paris.
Just at that time one of the principal churches In
Dusseldorf was returning thanks for a large gift for the
poor of the parish from one of the girls.
Investigation by the police brought out the fact that,
so far as any one knew, except themselves, neither girl
had been in Paris or Berlin at the times stated by the
men but neither had they been seen at the same time In
public in Dusseldorf during the times that one of them
was supposed to have been In Berlin and Paris. No ser
vant in the house ever saw both at the same time during
the four days that one man was In Berlin with a reckless
woman, or the three days that the other man spent In .
Paris. Yet both girls maintained that but for a slight
indisposition that kept Myra In her bed one day, they had
been together regularly and never separated more 'than
two or three hours at a time.
The climax was reached on March 23 when the resldenco
of Louis Kuebler, on Llnten strasse, was robbed. Kuehler
was awakened by some one working at the drawer In which
he kept his money and his wife's and daughters' Jewels.
He spranp from his bed and was confronted by a revolver.
In the hands of he and his wife say one of the twins.
Cowed, he backed to the bed as ordered. The robber spratiR
Into the hallway, ran down the stairs, met a servant, fired
one shot at him. Jumped from the window Into the rnso
garden, and escaped.
Two blocks from the house a policeman saw a woman
riding rapidly northward on a bicycle and called to her to .
stop birt she pedaled faster. The woman on a bicycle
was seen within two blocks of the Weiskopf house.
The police were notified. At breakfast time three de
scended upon the house. They guarded both ways of exit
and entered, announcing that they were again seeking the
servant suspected of a robbery. No bicycle waB found In
the house. Not one trace of the money and Jewels stolen
from the Kuebler house was found. No trace of any short,
dark bicycle suit, such as worn by the woman robber, was
discovered.
Police Fear to Make Arrest.
Myra and Rosetta, who were getting ready to visit some
poor families, waited and talked with the police. They
said they were sure none of the servants was out tha
night before. Myra said she locked the door herself and
that she and her sister sat talking In Rosetta's room for
some time.
And stranger than all the' two detectives who had
been watching the front and back of the house all night
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and that she called to Rosetta when she went to bed and
that Rosetta answ red.
Again the police found themselves helpless against such
an alibi, nor could they find any way for days In which
either of the girls could have left the house. Finally a
porter was found at the Derendorf station, In the edge
of Dusseldorf, who declared that on the day of the murder
a girl met a man at that station and boarded the S o'clock
train for Frankfort with him. The tickets were purchased
at the Dusseldorf station. When shown photographs of
.Felbel and the twins h positively identified them as the
! couple.
declared that no one had departed or entered.
The police are afraid to make an or rest, their con
fidence In the guilt of one of the girls of all these crimes be
ing shaken by the faint possibility, which they admit re
luctantly, that some one else, resembling the girls. Is com
mitting the crimes.
They are merely watching. And the problem Is left
as It was, with the general belief of 'the detectives that
either the two girls are leading a double Jekyll and llydo
existence and working together, or that one Is the criminal
and the other hypnotized Into aiding her.
But which Is which no one In Dusseldorf dares guess.
J
