The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-02 00:00:00

EMS SOUTH
WALES I

MURDER OF A FRENCH GENTLEMAN'

1N TIPPERARY.

The following account of the murder near Cashel,
which we briefly announced yesterday, appears in
the Dublin Evening Pest of Tuesday :
" We have to announce, with deep regret and mortifica-
tion, that a French gentleman, M, Gustave Thiebault, who
recently settled in Tipperary, where he purchased an estate,
was shot dead upon the high road at five o'clock yester-
day afternoon, near his residence, Rockwell, about four
miles from Cashel. This day Mr. J. B. Kennedy, of
Mountjoy-square, agent of the deceased gentleman, received
a telegram requesting his attendance at Blackwell, where
M9,daino Thiebault and her orphan children now remain
awaiting the inquest. The Rockwell estate had been pur-
chased by M. Charles Thiebault, now an extensive mer-
chant settled in Dundee. After that purchase had been
effected, M. Gustave Thiebault came over to reside in hie
brother's mansion at Rockwell, and in order to settle per-
manently in this country, he purchased for himself the
adjoining property of Boytonrath, in the Landed Estates
Court. Subsequently, in consequence of large arrears which
had been due, legal proceedings were taken and an eviction
took place at Boytonrath. It is stated that about two
months siuce, a threatening letter had been sent to Madame
Thiebault, threatening her husband with the death of Roe,'
a former possersor of the estate of Rockwell, who had been
murdered on the high-road near his house about 15 years
ago. For that murder a man named John Lonergan was
tried and found guilty. He was executed in front of Cloy •
mel gaol, with two brothers, Henry and Philip Cody, who
had been condemned at the same assizes for the murder of
a relative of his own, a person named Madden. At the
execution a frightful scene took place. The elder Cody, a
vary powerful young man, having unsuccessfully attempted
to throw the executioner off the scaffold, a struggle ensued
between them. The gaol officials interposed, and with dif-
ficulty saved the life of the executioner. Cody was then
taken into gaol—his hands and feet chained—and in that
condition he was led out and executed with the other two
prisoners. The younger Cody had also resisted the execu-
tioner, but not with so much violence as his brother. Lon-
ergan had takenano part whatever in the frightful scene on
the scaffold, buttlied with great penitence. We have learned
that three men were arrested last night on suspicion of
being connected with the murder of M. Thiebault. Accord-
ing to information that has reached us, the unfortunato
French gentleman, M. Gustave Thiebault, whose life
was sacrificed on this occasion, had manifested the sin-
cerest desire to befriend industrious tenants, and,his con-
duct was uniformly kind and humane. .1:10 had intended
to come to Dublin to-day, on his way to France.
A telegram from Cahir states that three brothers named
Halloran have been arrested on suspicion.
The Tipperary Fe es Press says :—" Mr. Thiebalt was
walking along the road from Cashel, carrying a double-
barrelled gun, when he was joined by a man who had a
three-pronged pitchfork. After some conversation the man
stabbed him with the pitchfork. Having fallen from the
effects of the blow, he then shot the unfortunate gentleman
e lo
dead with
smith i
h his own gun. The fork has been identified by
caansnohtavteinllg. been taken out of his
forge, butn by th
whomcal he locality

A correspondent of the Freeman's Journal, writing from
Clonmel, on Wednesday, says :—" To-day I have learned
that the unfortunate gentleman was walking, not on the
high road, as has been stated, but in a field, in close
proximity to his own house, and that when he was last seen
alive ho carried under his arm a gun—a painful evidence, I
apprehend, that he deemed it necessary not to appear abroad
unarmed. If this should be correct, it is not straining to
assume that, whoever the inhuman ruffian was, he abso-
lutely shot Mr. Thiebault with his own gun. This fact, it
is alleged, indicates the absence of premeditation or of an
organised conspiracy, and in sustainment of this we are
asked to believe in an encounter, a struggle, resulting in
depriving him of his gun, and then followed the shot
which passed through his heart and must have caused in-
stantaneous death. But, if the shot were the offspring
of a struggle, what can be said to account for the body
exhibiting, it is reported, unmistakeable evidence of hav-
ing been perforated with a sharp instrument in three dif-
ferent but approximate places ? Was this pitchfork-like
wound inflicted before or after the contents of the gun were
lodged in the heart ? If it can be ascertained this wound
was inflicted first, it seems to favour the mere hypothesis
that a struggle took place. If this lunge were administered
after the gunshot, and consequently after death, it indicates
an amount of,,parbarous vindictiveness and insatiable
bloodthirstiness almost without parallel in the records of
inhuman acts. It does not seem probable that the fork
wounds could have been inflicted while the deceased was
still armed with his gun, which I believe was a double,
barrel one. In that case it is reasonable to sunrise that
Mr. Thiebault would have fired to disable his assailant, and
that the report of the gun would have attracted atten-
tion. ; but it is asserted that but one discharge was heard,
and that unquestionably was the fatal shot that deprived
M. Thiebault of his life and uric/180;i::
bthhoeughireheanvsewatir- tilveoat
ry Tippera with the blood of an inotlensive fellow- man, It
is net yet perfectly clear Nib,' the 1)
at the conclusion that more than one was engaged in this
noonday assassination. Three men have been arrested
suspicion, but it has not transpired what constitutes the
ground of the constitution—whether their previous
bcoliaatrae
nac_bt character,
tineptroi e
tbbeeei
3i,ne e inb the
wi
ieni numberfoune
dt per-
sons
sented a teal fol sight. The head was dreadfully
di figured. It lay on its side in a
perfect pool of blood, and close by lay the gun and a
three-pronged pitchfork—the double instruments of death.
The latter has been recognised by a smith who lives in the
locality, but he alleges it was stolen from his forge, by whom
ho cannot say. The inquest will commence to-morrow,
formal
after viewing the mangled remains and taking some
evidence, it is likely to be adjourned, to give the
police time to connect the links, which at present seem
rather indistinct."
The Freeman states that a report which obtained some
currency in town on the previous day, to the effect that the
wife of the victim of this diabolical murder had succumbed
to the desperate severity of the shock she experienced when
the fate of her husband was communicated to her, remained
without coufirmation.