Rich Gopcevics
Sued by Cousin
- - -
Financial Tragedy Rends Family
Austrian Speculator Asks Balm From Gripman Who Won
Floyd Millions.
The Gopcevic family of San
Francisco is in a tangle again. Milos, who was a gripman on the
California-street cable railroad, and is now a capitalist with the millions of
the Floyd estate because Harry Floyd, the heiress, married him and died, is
being sued by his cousin, Spiridon Gopcevic, who says he is a count.
Spiridon
and his wife Fannie want $1,900 from Milos because, Spiridon says, he was
inveigled into running for office in Austria, and not only failed in being
elected to the Austrian Parliament, but ran into debt, which is the usual
consolation prize of most people who run for office and loss.
The
suit has been filed in Judge Sturtavant's court, but court has adjourned until
July 23d. In the meantime Spiridon is nursing his wrath and waiting to tell his
story.
King Without a Throne.
It is a very involved story.
A king — without a throne — is a character in it, and is blamed for
the loss of his money and the debts he left behind after the Austrian returns
were in and Count Gopcevic was not elected.
The
throneless king is Bozo Gopcevic, brother of Milos. He could set the Balkans
aflame if he should go after the Servian throne. He traces his descent from
Stephen Nemange, who founded the dynasty in 1105, and on the maternal side he
is the rightful ruler of Montenegro.
In
1909 he planned a revolution, which was to be financed by Milos, with the Floyd
millions, but somehow or other he gave up the expedition. It seems that England
didn't want any trouble in the Balkans.
His
brother Kristo was poisoned in Colorado in 1903 by Spies, and Bozo is careful
where he takes his tea.
Bozo Started Trouble.
Now, according to Spiridon,
Bozo started all this trouble about the $1,900. He didn't want to run for
Parliament, being a historian and preferring the seclusion of his library to
politics. But he says Bozo told him Milos would finance his campaign, and he
reluctantly allowed election cards to be printed, or whatever they do in
Austria when they want office.
After
the election, Spiridon says, Bozo left Austria — and debts. Spiridon drew
on his wife's account in the Wiener Bankverien, whatever this is, and paid his
debts. Than he waited for his millionaire cousin in San Francisco to repay him.
That was in 1909 and he is still waiting.
That
isn't the worst of it, by any means. On account of the alleged dilatory methods
of Milos, Spiridon's wife lost a lot more money when the panic broke loose in
New York and reached to Austria.
The San Francisco Examiner, Friday, July 7, 1911, p. 3:3