The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-09-03 00:00:00

EXECUTION OF PRANZINI.

Pranzini, the Rue Montaigne murderer, was
executed at five o'clock on Wednesday morning.
The prisoner made no confession of his guilt, and
preserved a courageous demeanour to the last. He
walked to the scaffold without showing any fear.
The crimes for which Pranzini was on Wednesday
executed in Paris were committed on March 17th.
The murderer's life, previous to the crime, had been
preceded by a long list of minor offences. Born in
1856, he, when very young, entered the service of
the Egyptian Post Office, but was soon dis-
missed, and condemned to nine months' im-
prisonment for stealing letters containing money.
Later on he was interpreter at Constan-
tinople, attached to the Russian Army. Ho
was, however, only about twenty days with.
General Skobeleff during the Balkan war. In
1879 he went to Afghanistan and Burmah, where be
gained some thirty thousand francs. Returning to
Egypt, Italy, and France, he lost that money by
gambling or spent it in debauchery. It was in 1881
that he reached France. After living for some time
chiefly upon money which he succeeded in getting
people, chiefly women, to give or lend him, he beea-,,c
attached to Lord Wolseley'S Staff as interpreter
during the Soudan campaign. When dismissed be
received 7000 francs. At the end of 1886, however,
when he again returned to France, he had only thirty
francs in his possession. He lived on his wits for a
considerable time, and then made the acquaintance
of Madame Sabatier, who not only gave him a home
and his food, but little by little all her saving, and
when they were gone, pawned one by one
all her jewels, and even some of her goods.
As Madame Sabatier had nothing more to give him,
Pranzini was, at the moment of the crime, absolutely
penniless. It was in February thrxt Pranzini made
the acquaintance of Madame de Montille, otherwise
known as Marie Regnaalt, at an exhibition of pictures
at the Mirlitons Club. The prisoner did not deny
having paid Madame de Montilla several formal visits
after being introduced to her at the club, but he
affirmed he never became at all intimate with her.
On the other hand, the judge pointed out at the trial
that at that time Madame de Montille was seeking to
stifle certain great sorrows by abandoning herself to n
life of debauchery, which she had never previously
led.

Pranzini bought a large knife at a cutler's before
the murder. He told the Court that he wanted this
to mend the chairs of Madame Sabatier, an elderly
Delilah, who kept him. On March 15 the accused
bought a false beard, and tried to borrow money from
a friend on the day before the murder, promising to
repay it on the morrow. When pressed with the
leading question as to where he passed the night of
Marie Itegnault's murder, Pranzini said he could not
tell, as it would incriminate some one. Part of the
time he was with Sabatier, but returned to her at
three in the morning. He afterwards (he said) got
up and walked on the outer boulevards, although the
bulletin of the observatoxy set forth that it
snowed heavily at the time. Pranzini slept by
his victim, and after he cut her throat she
scratched her murderer in her efforts to save
herself and to pull the bell. Scratches were, in fact,
found on Pranzini's hands and on one of his thighs.
Then came the servant, who rushed towards the
room at the sound of the bell. She was quickly
dispatched by the knife, and her child in the cradle
by her bedside had its throat so horribly cut that its
head hung to the body by one single shred of flesh.
Then the jewels were stolen, and a letter presumably
:irom Geissler, as the signature showed, but in
reality from Pranzini, because it was addressed
"Madame Montille " instead of "De Montilla
for the accused never used the particle " de
was put inco a drawer as a blind. Pranzini admitted
that he told Sabatier at the circus on the night
after the mutder had appeared in the papers
that he was afraid he might be implicated
in it, as Regnault had visiting cards of
his in her possession. He denied, however, that he
told Madame Sabatier that he was with Regnault
when the murderer entered her room, and that he
hid himself. Pranzini denied that he telegraphed to
a ycung American lady in New York on tho day after
the murder to say that he was well and was off to
Nice.

After the committal of the crime Franzi.li lost his
head completely. Previous to leaving Paris for Mar-
seilles, he declared to the porter of a house that he
had been to the Morgue, and had seen the bodies of
the victims of the Rue Montaigne murder. He said
the spectacle was terrible, and described with great
exactitude the nature and position of the wounds,
though the bodies have never been publicly exhibited
either at the Morgue or elsewhere.
110 W PRANZINI WAS CAPTURED.
The story of his capture is very interesting. While
the police were scouring Paris and the East of France
in search of the murderer, Pranzini was quietly offer-
ing trinkets for sale at a house of 111-fame at Mar-
seilles. This was on Saturday e.vening. The watch
studded with diamonds, in the form of a heart,
attracted notice, and the police were promptly sum-
moned, but Pranzini had left. Throughout the night
and the following day the police searched high and.
low at Marseilles, but in vain. It was not till the
evening that Pranzini was arrested while attend irg a
performance at the Grand Theatre. At first he blus-
tered,but on being pressed for information respecting his
movements, gave his name as Enrico Pranzini,
doctor, aged 29, and a native of Leghorn. He added
that he had only left Paris on Saturday, arriving at
Marseilles at midnight. When, however, be was con-
frontal with the women to whom he had offered the
jewellery, they were unanimous in pronouncing hitn
to be the man who had called the previous evening.
.Pranzini admitted that he had relations with Marie
Reinault, and had written to her several times. But
this did not prove that be had killed her. Asked why
he had left Paris, he made the strange reply that on
hearing of the crime he had feared that suspicion
might be directed to him. He said that
the police must have found letters and
visiting cards bearing his name at Marie
Regnault's residence; that-he was not Giesler, and
had nothing to do with him. It was a noteworthy
fact that the cuffs of Pranzini's shirt were found to
have been cut off. This he endeavoured to account
for by the remark that they had been soiled in
travelling, so he had thus got rid of them. His bands,
too, were scarred in several places, but again he
declared that these were injuries received on tho
journey. Equally significant, however, was the fact
that the carpet bag, the only luggage which he had at
his hotel, conta ned clothes and linen stained with
blood. The case was an extremely complicated one
throughout.