The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-01 00:00:00

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$

LOP 41r, JAN. 1, 1870.

tencea

whom h

tenuatinB

went is s,
strongly aga.

•er, has been sen-
few criminals

without " ex-

tal punish-

)pinion is
_es are disposed

to evade it b , verdicts which result in a
mitigation of natence. There appears to have been
actually some little doubt whether this course would
not be taken with the perpetrator of the Pantin
tragedy; and absurd though such a question may
appear, there can really be no limit to judicial
freaks in a country where four women, convicted
of slow poisoning their husbands in order
to marry their amants, were a few months ago
found guilty with "extenuating circumstances." But
TROPPMANN'S case was too bad even for Frenchmen.
His trial has had the only result possible in a country
where the infliction of death is looked upon, even in
the slightest degree, as a resource of the law. And,
in truth, the history of the Pantin murderer, since
he first took his high place on the scroll of
infamy, has been" sufficiently amazing without addi-
tional matter for wonder in the shape of a mitigated
sentence. The murders were without parallel, and
the capture of the 4-4 was very strange. Then
the Pad public ftibuted their qiare to the
sensation. •Row. greaf Aational questions Were thrown
aside and forgotten, the people of the capital,
including the aristocracy, flocked to the Pantin
Aceldema, how the newspapers were full of small
details and bad engravings for weeks, how, in short,
nothing but the great tragedy engrossed public inte-
rest, are not the least remarkable points in
the story. Then TROPPMANN himself was
watched with undiminished interest up to the
day of trial. We had copious daily bulletins of what
he ate and said, how he looked, the feeling or want
of feeling he displayed, the exercise ho took, and tha
sports in which he indulged. His indifference added
much zest to the sensation. The amount of chicken he
ate was a momentous fact. And it was a solemn thing
to hear that the great man had gazed upon the prison
in which MARIE ANTOINETTE was confined, though
history is unfortunately deprived of the noble ideas
which, doubtless, filled his mind on that occasion. It
has been said that the English are growing
sensational and artificial, but it may be
reasonably questioned whether anything so
artificially sensational has ever been known in this
country.

The procedure at the trial, too, though strictly
in accordance with French practice, is calcu-
lated to shock English notions. No wretch,
however utterly lost, would be subjected to such
an ordeal as the many hours' interrogation of
TItOPPMANN by the President of the Court. No
accused, even if innocent, could fail to make a slip at
some question or other. And when we find the
President assuring the prisoner that his statements
are false, that nobody could believe the story about
the accomplices, that TROPPMANN did it all himself,
that he robbed and murdered the entire family, and
that ha had better make a clean breast of it, we are
constrained to ask what the business of a jury can be,
if the judge settles everything himself. No person,
of course, doubted the prisoner's guilt; he confessed,
in fact; but if the judge is to take the result for
granted, why go through the form of a trial ? The
system of questio'- cr, a prisoner to obtain evidence
is condemned leading English jurists; but
if it be ail .4 its application ought to be
rations' I be no good object whatever in
que.' cused, and at the same time

at his answers are untrue.
) be believed, the questions
ing. If it be the mission of the
prisoner until he has told all, the
. ,jury, and colinspl,.-fitight be

Ong ago sufficient for the pur-
e only use of the late enquiry
ain gaps in the story. This
object, with a trifling exception, has been effected.
TROPPMANN, a native of the Haut-Rhin depart-
ment, in France, worked as a machinist with the firm
of which his father was the chief. Being sent to
Roubaix to fit up some machines, he made
the acquaintance of the linsTex family, and learned
that there was a slight difference between M. and
Madame KINCK respecting the wish of the husband
to increase his property at a place near TROPPMANN'S
own abode. M. KINCK, it appears, was a native of
the same department as TROPPMANN, and was
strongly desirous of adding to his property there,
with the view of some day settling at his own
native place. Madame KiNcic, who lived on the
best of terms with her husband, endeavoured to dis-
suade him. The murderer resolved to turn this differ-
ence between the two parties to account. He often ex-
pressed his desire to be wealthy, as well as his opinion
that America was the only place where wealth was
to be obtained. From the Ifaxcxs he resolved to
procure the means of crossing the Atlantic. He
contrived to get on good terms with the household,
especially the father. At length a journey to the
Haut-Rhin department was arranged between Timex
senior and TROPPMANN. The latter set off first to
his native town, arriving there on the 24th of
August, 1869, and immediately writing to
M. Kure; with the assurance that all the arrange-
ments had been made. KINCK forthwith set off,
taking some blank cheques with him. He met TROPP-
MANN at a place called Bollwiller, and departed with
him to another town. Now, when KINCK senior left
his family, he informed them that he was going to
Guebwiller to see his sister; but he never reached
that town, and, indeed, after joining TROPPMANN at
Bollwiller, was never seen again. He was murdered
after leaving the latter place.
The relatives at Guebwiller, informed that KINCK
senior was coming, and alarmed at his non-
appearance, wrote to his family at Roubaix. Unfor-
tunately, the letter was badly addressed, and
miscarried. Upon this slight circumstance turned
the whole tragedy. TROPPMANN had. every-
thing his own way. He became KINCK senior for
the time being. He represented that "the husband
had hurt his hand, and by writing as his
amanuensis, obtained an order for £220,
though fortunately the money was not paid.
But with the blank cheques, which the murderer
filled up, he was more successful. Baffled in his
scheme of cashing the order for £220, TROPPMANN
next conceived the idea of murdering the
entire family and getting possession of their
property. He had no difficulty in carrying
out this design. The son, GUSTAVE KINCK,
was allured to Paris by a letter, purporting
to come from his father. He was mur
deredl and buried in the field. Immediately
afterwards Madame KINCK and her five
remaining children fell into a similar trap, and shared
the same fate. The remarkable circumstances atten-
dant upon their discovery and the capture of
the murderer, were all disclosed long ago. The
later revelations supply information only as to
the long mysterious doings and death of the father.
Of defence TROPPMANN had virtually none. He fist
confessed and then retracted ; and afterwards in-
sisted that the crimes Were committed with
the aid of three accomplices. But no substantial
evidence was brought forward in support of tAis
theory. The trial was, in fact, a mere form, and, as
we have seen, nit a very satisfactory one. But it is
finished, and it is to be hoped that even the French
public will now have done with TROPPMANN