The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-12-13 00:00:00

APPALITNG INCREASE OF CRIME IN
FRANCE.

A correspondent, sending news of the death of M.
Morin, the victim of Madame Clovis Hugues" ven-
geance, which occurred on Sunday at the Hotel Dieu,
the victim suffering the most excruciating agony for
ten days, goes on to say:
"Nearly all the illustrated papers contain this week
portraits of the "heroine of the drama of the Palais
de Justice," not a few producing, moreover, the
shocking scene itself. Public opinion is not now so
unanimous as it was in applauding...the action of the
wife of the Deputy for Marseilles. Indeed, excep•
tions were from the first to be found in refined circles,
where deeds of this description are never regarded
with the same indulgence as is displayed by the in-
coherent multitude which passes as representing the
French metropolis. The enormous increase of crime
in Paris and elsewhere in France, to which I recently
directed your attention, isstill agitating'thepublic mind
here to an extraordinary degree. In less than a
week Paris alone has been the theatre of several
terrible murders, all of which (with one notable ex-
ception) were committed for the sake of gain. The
police are diligently employed in tracking the
murderers to their lairs, and thanks to their
researches some of the miscreants have been brought
to justice. Thus Gamahut, who was one of those
who lately murdered Madame Ballerich at Grenelle
in the most cold-blooded manner, has been ably
followed up to a town in the Department of the
Nievre, where he has just been arrested. His cap-
ture will probably lead to that of others of the
numerous band of assassins, male and female, of
which he was the presiding genius. Both Mace, the
former, and Monsieur Kuehn, the present chef de la
surete, attribute the actual increase of crime to the
spread of immorality. MI Kuehn is positive that the
atrocious deeds which are of such frequent occur-
rence are not the work of persons urged to guilt by
destitution, or of members of the labouring classes.
They are mostly committed by robust young men
of ages varying from eighteen to twenty - one,
who are allowed by law to act as the protectors
of women of ill-fame. Midy, one of Gamahut's
partners in the murder of Madame Ballerich, is
scarcely twenty years old, and has already been
six times in prieon. These men usually give them-
selves up to murder and pillage while their female
associates are undergoing a term of imprisonment at
St. Lazare for larceny or other misconduct. They
are to be found, moreover, not only in the low
quarters, but also in some of the more aristocratic
portions of the metropolis, and vary in their appear-
ance and manners according to the locality which
they inhabit or the style of the female whom they
prOtect.' M. Kuehn is of opinion that the applica-
tion of the Recidivist Bill on the one hand, and the
strictest superintendence of low or equivocal hotels on
the other. may tend to stem the tide of crime and
corruption which has set in. In the meantime Pre-
sident Grevy is still practising his usual clemency, and
has just commuted the sentence of Meerholz, who was
condemned to death by the Assize Court of the Seine
on Sept.. 27 last. This desperate criminal had enticed
a girl named Prevost to the fortifications, where he
first murdered and then violated her, finally flinging
her dead body into the moat below."