Wimbledon 2025 is just around the corner. The most emblematic tennis tournament starts this June 30 in London, and for two weeks will convert the All England Club into the center of the sports world.Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the season and The only one that is played on grass, contains curiosities that are increasing over the years. Some become tradition and others in legend.
The oldest world tennis tournament has left us endless players for history, memorable plays, strict costume standards that make the white impolite stand out on the green of its track and also the occasional scandal. In tennis the bad boys have never lacked but the case of Vere Thomas St League Gold exceeded any story that Wimbledon’s organizers and followers could imagine. How did the 1879 finalist become a ruthless murderer?
Vere Thomas St Leger Goold He was the second son of an Irish baron. A great talent tennis player, with a setback “murderer”, who reached the final of 1879where he was defeated by Reverend John Thorneycroft Hartley. I had a great future ahead, But he ended up sentenced to life imprisonment.
A spiral of alcohol and drugs
Although before this encounter the protagonist of this story had raised with the South of Ireland Championships and Waterford (on two occasions), that defeat marked a break as a tennis player. Except a final in Cheltenham, He never excelled in a tournament again and in 1885 he decided to put an end to his career as a athlete.
His personal life influenced this decline: From 1883 he entered a spiral of alcohol and drugsaccording to the stories of the time. In the same year of his retirement Meet Marie Giraudin in London, who would later be his wife in 1891.
This French lady (according to most versions), although not especially beautiful, I could enchant people when they wanted. It was not too difficult for her to love Gold, who belonged to a prominent Irish social family.
In 1891, Gold married Giraudin, a woman with expensive tastes. The couple quickly borrowed. They moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1897, where Marie had a sewing establishment before moving to Liverpool in 1903 to manage a laundry business. In 1907, Mrs. Gold persuaded Vere Gold to go to the Monte Carlo casino. She thought she had a winning method to jump the bank but failed. The Gold soon ran out of funds.
In El Casino, they met a wealthy Swedish, Emma Levin. She lent them 40 pounds -A huge amount at that time- they lost. There was a great public fight with a friend Mrs. Levin, one Madame Castellazzi, who warned her that it was a couple of scammers and demanded that they be returned to the money. This ended in a public trifulca that was collected by the media of the time.
A wild murder
Embogging by the scandal, the Danish widow decided to leave Montecarlo, but called the Golds before her departure. And after this call, he vanished mysteriously. Castellazzi alerted the Police of Levin’s disappearance. Meanwhile, the couple had left Marseille leaving a large suitcase and a handbag at the station with instructions to be sent to London.
But a goalkeeper He realized the rotten stench and what seemed blood that dripped the suitcase.
Not convinced by the history of the Gold that the luggage content were Dead chickensthey called the police and They found Mrs. Levin’s dismembered remains. In the hotel room, the police found a terrifying stage. There had been a real blood bath that soaked the curtains, the walls and the floor. They also found a hammer, a knife and an ax. Although they tried to instill Madame Castelazzi, the police did not believe them. Both were convicted.
Vere Thomas He ended up taking his life in the Diablo Island, where he fulfilled life imprisonment. Marie Giraudin was at first sentenced to death, but was finally sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in the Montpellier prison, in 1914.
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