Maria Tarnowska

Countess Maria Tarnowska (or Tarnowskaya, Tarnovska, etc.; 9 June 1877, Poltava, Russian Empire – 23 January 1949, Santa Fe, Argentina), born Maria Nikolaevna O'Rourke (Russian phonetical transcription: Orurk), was a Russian convict. She was the daughter of Count Nikolay Moritsevitch O'Rourke ( 25 June 1834 - 31 January 1916, Kyiv ), a Russian naval officer of Irish ancestry and his second wife Ekaterina Seletska ( 4 August 1850 - 5 February 1905, Kyiv ) - a noblewoman of Cossack origin. She gained international notoriety by standing trial for plotting and instigating the murder of one of her lovers. Her 1910 trial in Venice and subsequent conviction attracted media attention from both sides of the Atlantic and became the subject of various books (Annie Chartres Vivanti, Hans Habe, etc.).