Trial of Wikoff, Vannoud, And Cavallari, For a Forced Marriage...
A Sensational Case of Kidnapping [Trial]. Wikoff, Henry [1813-1884], Principal Defendant. Vannoud, Louis, Defendant. Cavallari, Luigi, Defendant. Trial of Wikoff, Vannoud, And Cavallari, For a Forced Marriage Between Miss Gamble and One of the Accused. Before the High Court of Genoa, February 9-10, 1852. London: William Shoberl, 1852. 64 pp. Lithograph portrait frontispiece of Wikoff. Octavo (8-1/2" x 5-1/2"). Stab-stitched pamphlet in printed wrappers. Moderate soiling, rubbing to extremities with some wear to spine ends and corners. Light toning to text, foxing to a few leaves, internally clean. $750. * Only edition. An account of one of the sensational trials of the early 1850s. Wikoff, or as he called himself, Chevalier Wikoff, was an American impresario, occasional European correspondent for the New York Herald and, possibly, a spy for Lord Palmerston. He was engaged to Jane Catherine Gamble, an English woman. Gamble changed her mind shortly before the wedding and fled to Genoa. Wikoff tracked her down and apparently tricked her into coming along with him to his apartment. Shortly afterwards Gamble filed a complaint of kidnapping that landed Wikoff in an Italian jail for 15 months. He was found guilty in an Italian court and forced to return her letters and "extorted promise of marriage." Ever enterprising, Wikoff responded to the negative publicity with a memoir entitled My Courtship and Its Consequences (1855), which became a best-seller. Copies of The Trial of Wikoff are scarce. OCLC locates 7 worldwide: 2 in the British Library and 5 in North American law libraries (Harvard, Library of Congress, University of Georgia, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania).
Price: $750.00
Book number 64106