The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-11-17 00:00:00

TEE MAN WHO FOLLOWED HIS OWN
COFFIN TO THE GRAVE.

A sensation trial is going on at Antwerp. Some
time since there was buried at a Roman Catholic ceme-
tery in Essex a coffin, which was said to contain the
remains of a Frenchman named Vidal Douat, but
whiLli, on being opened. was found to be empty. It
was then proved that Douat (who had insured his life
for a large sum in a Paris office) came to this country.
bought a ready•made coffin, which he had lined with
lead no as to be as heavy as if a corpse were within,
took it by train to the cemetery, represented that it
contained the remains of Vidal Donat (himself), fol.
lowed it to the grave, and thus obtained a certificate
of interment. This certificate was presented by his wife
in support of her claim to the insurance money, but
suspicions being excited, inquiries were made, and
Dotiat was eventually arrested on the Continent, and
is now taking his trial at Antwerp. There are about
fifty witnesses to be examined.—The following is the
account of the commencementof the trial as furnished
by the correspondent of the London St :

ANTWERP, Nov. 10.

The celebrated trial of Risk-Allah had scarcely terminated
at Brunel., when the Court of Assizes of Antwerp was
engaged with another canoe crlebre. Involving charges of
most extraordinary fraud,. and attempts at obtaining large
sums of money by forgeries on credit establishments. in-
surance others the Tee accused in this case Is Vidal
Donal, alias Roberti, alias Doughy, merchant and ship-
broker, of Bordeaux then of Elavartnah, then of London.
and then of Antwerp. The facts, no doubt, will be Medi
In the recollection of our readers, relative to the
ease of the foreigner who followed his own ocean to
the pave, fits churchyard near London. That roan ty the
owe now arraigned he'ore the criminal went of Antwerp.
The trial is presided over by 11 ()Devito. Judo& Councillor
of his Court of Appeal of Bowels. hi. Bocquet, eutihdlinte
to the Procureur du Rol, of the Court of Antwerp, is the
publac proseetor As the accused had so counsel, his de-
fenoe wee entrusted, or ,flicio, to SI Victor Woutera, mesa-
her of the her of Antwerp. The trial commenced yesterday,
and excited the greatest interest, the court Heine dessely
crowded. The main charge against the prisoner la that of
fraudulently attempting to obtain sums of money from in-
surance Al.,' by set it lire to goods he had insured at
high rats. The remains of certain cases, the Imaginary
conteids of which were insured, two barrels of tar, s quan-
tity of resin, and chips, 'Melte, powder, charcoh, carpenters'
tools, and other articles which the prisoner had employed to
carry out his schemes, were produced in court, and formed
emulous and In te r“t log c&lectlon On the judges takieg their
sestet he accused was brought in hy Oleg. nd and the I al y
having been edip Innel led, the Piedi son reeked him hie name,
age, proithion, ke Ile answered—Vidal Donal, 67 years oil,
form-rly ship broker and merchant si Bordeaux. born at Po I, 11.
lee, I nthe department of La Dironde. Answering other questious
he said he hut assumed the name of Douatry and admitted
that is Berms of rough-drawn letters, seised at hie rooms,
were in his handwriting Ile assumed the above name,
because he had been naturalised a Spanish subject at Haven-
nab, where he °Mame.' a passport wider the name. In that
plummet he was rt preeentei ten years youoger than he
really was. On heitig semen a nerd hearing the names of
Si and Mime. Douat, see., and several letters addressed to
his win and his father, he admitted that they belonged to
him, and that he wrote the letters.
The President : Have you not been arraigned before the
assizes of La Gir ode for fraudulent bankruptcy, awl having
forged hills of lodine—Prisoner : I have been informed of it
only here
The President here rs at a letter from the put-Ito prorecntor
at Bordeaux, showing that the accused borrowed 36.0001
from the AsecuPural Bank of it,rdeatix, upon the gdarantee
of forged bills of lading, and Om, he ran away to Ravenna's,
where he tried to fraudulently appropriate to himself, a ship
belonging to his creciaire.
The Prisoner said the forgeries were committed by his son
Peter, who was ore of his clerks He ;prisoner, hut been
prosecuted, because he was chief of the firm. Ile con-
fessed, however, that he had possibly connived at the for-
gerMs of Melton, and that, perhaps, he was in a certain sense
the instigator of them. IT, entered into long and vague
explanations I. show that he was not guilty of fraudulent
bankruptcy
The President mused to the life insurance effected by the
prisoner in 1865, and selich guaranteed • mint of 4 00oi to
his family on his death. Ile mentioned to the jury that the
prisoner. under the name of Rosserti, contrived to account
for hie own death, and actually took part in his own pre-
tended funeral an I burial. TM fraud was discovered, but
he escaped from Ragland.
The Acomed, in reply, said that he had only a small in-
terest in that transaction. . . .

lb. Preslnent next reed a letter of the so called Roberti,
whom the acmwd asserted to he really ext•ting, while the
prosecution asserts that Rol:writ and Vidal Doust were only
one person lb. prisoner admitted that the letter was In
his awn handwriilog It ents addrewed to his wife and In
It he speaks of himself I.ionett) as of a person dead and
burled.

The accused now said that when be arrived In London be
was ill, and the doctors had sald that he would not lire long.
in I. mdon he met Roberti, who urged him to take the
necessary precautions to secure his own Interests. It was
Roberti who addressed all the ,locuments, and organised the
slmnlated bond. Afterwards he corresponded with his
family, and wrote the letters, but Roberti signed them
Through the whole affair he acted in the interest of hos
family. "Aa I w, toll.," he rdwetved, "I wished to depart
from Ulla world with the satisfaction of having Insured • pro.
mime hi them." Ile cried in making that avowal.
. . . . .

The President read • letter atoned Mose (another el:iarl of
the accused', In wit-h be advised hie family to consult a bar-
rister hire M. Joins Fevre, and claim from the insurance com-
pany the 4.00,.1
At the request of the President, the Clerk of the Court read
the first interrogatory the accused, to show that he had
changed his system of d fence.
The accused was subjected to • scvore cross-examination
In accordance with the laws of Belgium, and by order of
the president e.:,s shown the draft of a letter found at his
place, and containing the menace of firing • Mr. Spillaert's
ship. He observe, to the jury, that the anonymous letter
was posted on the 20th, between eleven and twelve at night,
and that It tau during the same night the eases on board
took fire. The President also remarked that In the anoey-
111.1t letter were the word., "Ce romi des enter w^ (the
vomit of lied) Thom very words were In • iong letter
written by the 5c....A to the examining judge, which
seemed to show that the expression was familiar to him
and that the letter was his own composition and not dic-
tated.

The President: Ind you not insure those case, against sea
risk., and, if so, for what sue?—Prisoner Mr Ransbotryn,
underwriter of Antwerp, had invited them for 4 8001 I
wished to Insure them for 8,8001., but he would not do so
lie asked Mr lingenvers to ineure them on quay at per
1,000, hut he asset Cs that he thought that his uffer has not
all acoepted, because he beard no more of the under.
writer.
Tee President: For what use were the heard and the
pernke found in your room ?—Prisoner The beard served
some year, ago in a charity fete, and the peruke covers my
head, which I have shaved Olsco a year —ln reply to several
other questions put to him by the President, the accused
declared that It Is possible that he would have accompanied
the cases to Bombay ; that they were to he placed between
decks; that the room was to be separated by a wooden wall
from the other part of the ship; that he had now made
another wooden partition to separate him eases from the
coals. He had hinsell bored the holes needmel on his cases,
because it was believed that the circulation of fresh air was
very useful to the preservation of colds; and that the per-
fect condition of his cases wool i lead one to suppose that
the declared goods were really existing. Be did not think
that the canee cwild ignite spontaneously.
D runt in also accused of having forged •draft for 641 dated
from Geneva. and payable at Antwerp, on the 20th of
Angara.. Ism to the order nI M. R. D matey, by editing to
that draft the forget signature of Cosenave de Montreal, an
unknown person Interrogated upon that charge, the pri-
soner avowed that the body of the draft was in his hand-
writing, but he did not write the name of Cosenave de
Montreal. He wrote the draft tinder the dictation of Pater-
son, who had it signed, and who gave it in discharge of a
debt.
The interrogatory of the &cringed lasted five hours.
He readily answered the questions put to him, but
his voice was frequently tremulous.