American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1866-07-25
A HORRIBLE CHAPTER OF CRIME

LFrom the London Globe ]

I'm the IIln VI OdIudiJ idSt, Lllu-
die aged widow lady in Paris, Madam
Midy, by profession painter, narrowly
escaped being murdered. A man who
had lately been in her house as work
man, in the employment of a frame ma
ker whom she patronized, was the inten-
ded murderer and he had doubtless been
tempted to the deed in order to rob the
victim Of some small but valuable paint
ings which had been trusted to her by a
Polish prince He called under pretense
of looking fora tool which he had acci-
dcntally left behind Not finding it he
drew from his pocket bolster cover, ask
ing the lady if it did not belong to her
and, as she turned away. annoyed by his
questions, he took the opportunity to throw
the clothover her head so as teeoYer it,
at the same time placing one hand on
her neck and the other ON her mouth
stafiing the liren down her throat so as
to stife her cries. She had been able to
scream a little, however, and her screams,
the noise of the scufae, and the sound of
her fall on the floor, brought brother
painter--the Sieur Yauchelet-who was
in an adjoining apartment, to her assist
ance The prisoner, thus interrupted,
coolly walked away, merely saying that
the lady was i'll; but he was followed aud
arrested The police soon identified him
as the man who was wanted" for hor-
rid murder committed few days before,
and a little more investigation proved
their prisoner, Joseph Philippe by name,
to be one Of those great criminals Of the
DumolIard type, who commit murder By
wholesale, partly from pure blood thirst
mess Of nature, and partly for the H'qn-
der and outrage of their victims. His |
trial has just taken place under one OF
the most formidable actes d'dcc,SUtioH
which the ingenuity of French lawyers
has constructed The prisoner appear
ance and an;ecedents quite correspond
with taa last epoch Of his history. lie
is short, thick =at man, wlth black hair
closely cut beard anI mOustache, luY
forehead, deep set eyes, thick lips, aud
generally ferocious look although dress
ed in the garb Of well to do workman.
Born in 1921, so that he is thirty five
years Of age, he was taken Tor the mill
tury service in 1859, condemned in 1886
to years Imprisonment for misconduct,
and enrolled soon after in one OF those
terrible battalions d'Afrique into which
the scoundrels of the French army are
drafted He returned to Paris in 1861,
unI has since been in numerous situations
as groom, cook, general servant, and
ware house messenger, but staying long
in none on account of his drunken hab-
its. The idea of living by murder and
robbery appears to have originated in the
necessities of his poverty when out OF
employment; and his system is novel, as
tas frst attempt to take advantage of
certain feature in our social life. The
murderer, two years ago, at Florence,
victimized lodging house keepers, whom
he found out as a taiReant lodger, and
whom he was enabled to murder on ac-
aount of their lonely position. Joseph
philippe selected for his operations the
class of unfortunatcs whose degradation
and isolation, and the pecullaritics o.
their miserable trade, expose in high
degree to the danger of assassination
The Waterloo road murder, and the more
recent murder Of Emma Jackon, excm-
piify among ourselves what these dan
gers amount to- But the prisoner is the
first to have seen in the facts the chance
of living. From the evidence now OBJ
tanned, it is certain that he did ac. on
system. More than two years ago he re-
Yealed his secret to one Of these females
~ tuc WeukncSS Ol lntO&lcaIlOn. - IOVe
women well, he said, sand do for them
we'll. | stuff their mouth and cut their
throats Wait bit, and you will hear
me talked about" What passed for grira
jest has become too horrid reality
Several uniortunates had perished in
Paris since 1861, strangled, or with
throats cut, but it is only within the last
two years that cases have been found in
which there is proof against the prison
er. There are three distinct cases, one
of them double murder, in which the
infant of one of his victims was also kill
ed, and the eircHmstances are much alike
in all Three days before his apprehen
sion he accosted, at IL o'clock in the
evening, in the Rue de Vile I rEveque, a
girl named Marie VictoiFe Rodeux; sooo
afterward he was seen entering the build
ing on that street, In which were her
apartments, and a quarter of an hour Ia,
z ter he was observed to leave, by an old