法国里维埃拉著名的“盗贼皇后”

Just over a century ago, one of the biggest celebrities in the world was a charming and beautiful thief who targeted the wealthy on the French Riviera. Her arrest created a worldwide sensation.

对于珠宝窃贼和骗子来说，当时法国里维埃拉的氛围是无法抗拒的，充满了被该地区受皇室和附近的欢迎所吸引的富有的标志。 蒙特卡洛赌场。

伯爵夫人是伪装和欺骗的高手，她经常改变自己的外表和身份以避免被发现。她经常参加法国里维埃拉的奢华派对和活动，在那里她会与富人和名人交往。一旦她获得了受害者的信任，她就会偷走他们的贵重物品，包括珠宝、现金和其他贵重物品，而他们往往意识不到，直到为时已晚。

She reportedly controlled a group of thieves who took on similarly grand identities, posing as an Italian diplomat or the son of a wealthy shipowner. While staying in a hotel or traveling on a steamship, she would observe fellow travelers and calculate their value as targets—a notebook detailing her assessments was discovered in a search of her Paris apartment following her arrest.

伯爵夫人受到认识她的人的广泛钦佩和尊敬。她以美丽、智慧和智慧而闻名，许多人都被她的魅力所吸引。

二十年来，蒙泰伊伯爵夫人一直以法国里维埃拉的富人为目标，盗窃珠宝、现金和其他贵重物品，例如绘画和古董。

她的事迹之所以令人印象深刻，是因为当时的法国贵族社会是一个非常封闭的社会。这位伪伯爵夫人只是因为不知道如何正确发音一个特定的名字而冒着暴露自己的风险。

By 1892, the Comtesse de Monteil had come to the attention of the French police due to 4 years of strangely coincidental thefts at hotels where she was a guest. Despite that, this stylish swindler continued to operate around the Mediterranean for another 16 years before her arrest.

凌晨时分，她会闯入目标的酒店房间，将他们的贵重物品装进口袋，然后再次溜出去，完全不被发现。在审判中，她所拥有的珠宝没有一件被认定为被盗的，这表明她和她的盗贼网络与地下珠宝商合作，这些珠宝商要么购买被盗的物品，要么将宝石放置在所有者无法识别的新环境中。

伯爵夫人最著名的抢劫案之一发生在摩纳哥的一次聚会上，她成功偷走了一条价值超过一百万美元的项链。她还在Nice的赌场从一位富商那里偷了一大笔钱，从戛纳的一位收藏家那里偷了一幅非常有价值的画。

Newspapers emphasized her pluck and daring, such as when she robbed the same Swiss banker three times. The third time, he awoke and raised the alarm, but she sprinted back to her room, where she pretended to be asleep and was never suspected.

还有一次，一家酒店指控她和一名同伙盗窃；两人在法庭上抗辩，并赢得了针对酒店的诽谤诉讼。虽然她是一个欺骗富人的罪犯，但她也被描绘成一个人民的女人。 小巴黎人 注意到她的女仆喜欢并尊重她，而且她给小费很慷慨。

经过多年的追捕，法国警方即将当场抓获所谓的蒙泰伊伯爵夫人。 1908 年 3 月 8 日黎明前，Nice 著名的英国大道白天熙熙攘攘，现在却安静下来。走廊也是如此 Nice 的帝国酒店。沿着一条豪华的走廊，一位身穿黑衣的女人穿着毡底鞋悄无声息地走着，消失在阴影中。她戴着黑色面纱，遮住了容貌，手里拿着一套银色开锁器。但这一次，她被警察跟踪，在她逃跑时被抓获并 逮捕了她 在天使湾的岸边。

The capture of the Comtesse de Monteil was an immediate media sensation, making international headlines. Reports emphasized her beauty and cunning, calling her “The Hotel Mouse” and “Queen of Thieves.” Exhaustive worldwide coverage detailed her lavish lace evening gowns and expensive armoire luggage.

被捕后，这位伯爵夫人成了媒体上的民间英雄。世纪之交法国的收入不平等可能影响了她的形象。历史学家埃洛伊丝·莫斯 (Eloise Moss) 表示：“似乎每次社会陷入经济危机和动荡时，窃贼就会突然变成标志性的、迷人的恶棍角色。” “我认为它是一种非常重要的政治评论，是对经济不平等的不满，也是一种想象自己进入一种不同的、更非法的、冒险的生活方式的方式。”

蒙泰伊伯爵夫人的故事通过新闻传播开来，作为一个关于信任陌生人的危险的警示故事，尤其是那些看起来很有魅力和魅力的人。这是一个淫荡的故事，凸显了当时法国里维埃拉富裕精英的贪婪和挥霍。面对如此狡猾狡猾的盗贼，他们竟敢放松警惕，真是令人震惊。

The glamour of the Côte d’Azur was a far cry from where the future queen of thieves, born Amélie Condemine, grew up. Her father was a butcher in the rural town of Mâcon, in the Saône-et-Loire region of Central France, which is chiefly known for its vineyards. At age 18, she married Ulysses Portal, a wine merchant 14 years her senior, and the couple moved to Paris.

Little is known about this period of her life, but the press reported that, after ten years of marriage, the couple separated and she moved to the United States. The only clues to her activities there are photographs police later found among her belongings, which showed her in the company of New York’s elite—and even aloft in a hot air balloon—according to news reports.

In 1888, she returned to France, calling herself the Comtesse de Monteil, and began her two-decade-long crime spree. However, her luck eventually ran out and she was arrested and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for her crimes. She appealed the decision, but her request was dismissed.

The pseudo-comtesse never confessed to her crimes, insisting throughout her trial that her jewels and money were gifts from a Spanish grandee and an Egyptian pasha, among others.

在被定罪和判刑后，她从公众意识中消失，回到了阴影中。尽管记录证实她于 1918 年出狱，但她的命运无人知晓……