The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-25 00:00:00

THE MURDERS 4YEAR PARIS.

Public) interest in the Pantin murders increases now
that the names of the victims are certainly known, and
those of the assassins grievously suspected. Tho bodies of
the murdered family 'have been identified as those of
Madame Kinck, who resided at No. 22, Rue de l'Alouette,
Roubaix, and her five children : Emile, aged 16 ; Henri,
14 ; Alfred, 8 ; Achilles, 6 ; and Marie, 3. Madame Kinck
was a fine, well-looking woman, not more thin 35 years
old. They left Roubaix for Paris only on Sunday last,
September 19. They were to have come the Sunday
before, but were prevented by the youngest child having
the dysentery. The name of Jean Kinck, inscribed on
the registry of the Hotel du Nord, Rue Denain, in Paris,
was not that of the young man who wrote it, but of his
father. The young man's own name is Gustave. Jean
Kinck, whose principal occupation was that of a turner of
brush handles at Roubaix, did a very thriving business
there. Besides the house in which he lived he was the
proprietor of two or three others in the neighbourhood.
Jean Kinck, who, as might bo inferred from his name, is
an Alsatian, has property in Alsace, and wishing to
devote the entire house he occupied in Roubaix to
business purposes, he lately proposed to his wife
that she should go with her children to live in
Alsace ; but she, a native of Tureoing, objected, because
she could not speak a word of German. Something like a
quarrel ensued, and upwards of a month ago Jean Kinck
and his son Gustave left the house, not, however, as run-
ning away, but on business, or the pretext of business.
About_three weeks ago Madame Kinck very reluctantly, in
pursuance of a pressing letter from her husband,
drew out a sum of 5,000 francs which was at her
disposition in a Roubaix bank, and remitted it to
him in .Alsace. Very shortly afterwards the father
and son met in Paris. From Paris Jean Kinck
wrote to his wife to come `'fns. a matter of importance,
saying, " Never mind spending a matter of 300 francs, you
will soon make up the sum." On September 19th, as above
stated, she came to Paris with her children, and went to
the address given her, the Hotel du Nord, kept by Rigny,
where she asked for M. Kinck. Gustave Kinck is not the
son of the murdered woman, but of her husband by a first
marriage. It does not, however, at all appear that jealousy
and doubts about the paternity of the younger children
had incited the father to join with his son in committing
the murders. Neither Jean Kinck nor his son have been heard
of since the murder. How it came to pass that Madame
Kinck and her children were attracted to the neighbour-
hood of the spot where they were to be assassinated, and
where their graves were already dug, is yet a mystery.
An inhabitant of Rainey deposes, that between half-past
four and five on Sunday afternoon a lady and five children
inquired at the house of M. Fremont, No. 14, Avenue de
Chemin de Fer, whether he had velocipedes to let. She
wanted two, she said, for her little boys. The witness
noticed that they had caps with gold bands. She
was told by the grocer that he had no velocipedes, but that
the porter at Pavillon de Bondy kept them. She replied
that she had already been to him, but that he had none at
liberty. The party then went towards the railway station ;
and there can be little doubt that they left for Pantin by
the train of 7h. 27m. But in the meantime they dined at
the restaurant of the rand point of the station, kept by M
Dumesnil, who has recognised the bodies. The Pantin
station is about 300 yards from the spot where the bodies
were found buried in the early morning ; and one of the
employes, M. Coulon, says that about midnight he
heard cries of men and women. Five other railway
clerks, however, who were up all night, say they
heard nothing. A watchman of the factory of MM.
Cartier, Bressen, and Co., deposes that he saw, by moon-
light, some people working very hard in the field where the
corpses were found up to about four in the morning. It is
calculated that the burying cf the bodies must have taken
a long time, even for very good workmen. A hackney
coachman has given information that on the night of the
crime -he successively took a lady and a child, then two
children, and a third time two other children, to a spot
near Pantin, where somebody was waiting to receive them.
It is therefore supposed that the victims must have been
murdered separately, and dragged to their graves after
they were dead. A great many of the evening papers, sold
in the kiosks, exhibit photographs of Madame Kinck and
her children, with all the hideous gashes on their faces.
The Figaro gives a ground plan of the house, No. 22, Rue
d'Alouette, in which they lived at Roubaix.