The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-19 00:00:00

TRANGE CASE OF MURDER IN

SPAIN.

The Court of Assizes of Saragossa was occupied a
short time since with the trial of Pedro Cal dessa, the
proprietor of a small inn near Sos, in Navarre, Paula
Murillo, his wile, and Carmen Cardessa, their daughter,
for the murder of a man named Gregorio Orensauz, re•
siding in the valley of A eso, two leagues distant from the
residence of the prisoners. It appeared from the evi-
deuce that the deceased had left home on the 22d of
September to collect money due to him by various per-
eons. Some days having passed over without his re•
turning, his family became uneasy, and inquiries were
iesti,usad. N..thint• ..,rther was discovved than that he
day he left home. The male prisoner and his daughter
asserted that they knew nothing about the proceedings
of the deceased, but the mother allowed that he had
called at the house, but after a short stay had taken
his departure. Nothing coming to light to crimi-
nate them, they were merely subjected to several
Iwo
months without being taken into custody.
months after a human leg was discovered in the little
river 9neella, close to the prisoner's residence, and search
being instituted, the remaining parts of the body were
found except the
head, which had been apparently cut
off with some heavy instrument like a cleaver. The
limbs were all dreadfully hacked and mutilated ; some
of the articles of clothing were recognised as having be-
longed to the deceased. Still nothing had been disco-
vered to fix the crime on any party in particular, when
Paula Murillo being taken ill, amd considering herself
on the point of death, sent for the authorities and made
a confession to the followin effect:—" The deceased had
called at her house on September 22, and bad demanded
some money due to him for wheat. Not having it, she
desired him to wait until her husband returned. She
prepared breakfast for him at which he drank copiously,
and at last wanted to take liberties with her. On his
laying hands on her, she pushed him so violently away
that he staggered back and fell wish his head against
the corner of a chest of drawers. She, being dread-
fully alarmed, went to raise him up and help him,
when she found that he was dead, without having
shed a drop of blood. Being afraid of the conse-
quences of such an accident, she determined to con-
ceal the body, and wrapping it up in a coarse cloth,
she carried it down to the cellar, and hid it under a
quantity of faggots. She lett it there for several weeks,
when the heap
of faggots be'dnning to run low, she got
afraid of her husband discovcrine the whole matter, and
taking a cleaver she cut the body into pieces, and placing
the limbs in two baskets carefully covered over, she her-
self took one, and her daughter the other, to the bank
of the river. She then sent the young woman on an
errand to the neighbouring village, and during her ab-
sence emptied the baskets into the water. The daughter
was quite ignorant of what the baskets contained; in the
hurry of filling the baskets she had forgotten the head
in the cellar; she mutilated the features to prevent recog-
nition, and then buried it in a piece of waste gr.und."
This confession, bi coming
known, excited the greatest
commotion, and the woman soon after getting better, she,
her husband and the daughter were arrested. The au-
thorities having caused a very minute search to be made
in the house where the prisoners had lived, found a num-
ber of French sf. pieces concealed, and those the daughter
admitted she had seen with her mother. It was proved
that precisely the same number of sf. pieces had been
paid on the morning of the murder to the deceased by
another party. The mother, on the other hand, denied
that she knew anything about the money in question.
After a trial of great length, the Court acquitted the
father and daughter, but not believing that the deceased
had met with his death accidentally, found the mother
guilty of murder. The Court at once sentenced her to
death, and ordered the execution to take place in front
of the Town-hall of Sos. This sentence was carried
nto;executicn on the 21st ult.