The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-10-22
4, The JTraupmann Murder.


Never, perhaps, was complex crime
conceiyed and carried out with greater
ingenuity, up to certain point, or, after
the crowning act, more wretchedly bun
gled, than Che murder of the Kinoks, by
Traupfnahn,' In France. Jean Baptiste
Traupmann,ia ID half educated boy of nine
teen, was n. workman in Jean Kincks
shop, at Roubaix, where he became ac-
quaihted with the affairs Of the house
hold, and determined, by numbering the
whole family. to POSSESS himself of their
property-amounting to about 80, O,OOOf.
The family consisted of Jean Kinck, the
fathers Gustave Kinck, his eldest son,
approaching manhood; the mother, and
five other children boys, Emile,
Henri. Alfred, Achille, and one girl, Ma
rie, who was but three years of age.
With the view of accomplishing his
fendish design, Traupmann lured the
father to Guebwiller, in Alsace, where he
began the dismal series of slaughters by
his murder. Failing to get tho money,
which Madam Kinck had sent him
through the post Office, by reason of
the proyident caution Of the postmaster,
he beguiled the other members of the
Kinck family to Pantin, near Paris, and
there severally hacked them to pieces in
that field of blood, which the wits of
Parls, always ready to make an cpigram.
even OF murder most foul" havo called
La Cimitiere Traupmann."
With the last blow of tho batchet or
the table-knife. Tranpmnnn's cleverness
seems to havo left him. Tho sloyeuly
way in which the bodies were buried
leading to the almost immediate discovc-
ry OF the murders, and the subsequent
conduct of the murderer himself, are
but new illustrations of the general
truth that the best laid schemes of afro
clous vlllalny are rarely worked out with
lmpunlty and success. Herein tho mur-
derers, considered in the light of the fine
arts, hopelessly break down.
The story of Jean Baptiste Traupmann
IS unparalleled in criminal records. If
there be anything approaching it in COM
pieteness and utter malignity of motive,
Mt least we do not recall it. Men have
lived who .havo murdered, from paltry
considerations of gain or the passion of
hate, greater number of victims in the
course OF a long career of crime But
the killing of eight human beings. as
one round net, perfect in tiendishness,
remorseiess in tho execution Of it, has
no precedent, SO far MS we know, but
that of Probst, who in 1866 murdered
the Deerlng family, of Philadelphia
There was this marked difference, how
ever, between tho two cases; Probst was
stolld peasant, Traupmnnn was n
shrewd, and to some extent, skilled
workman. Probst, in the recesses of his
darkeucd intellect, saw nothing beyond
the slain bodies of his victims; Truup-
mann had visions OF. prosperous living
IN America, on the proceeds of his iiend-
ish work.
It yet remains to be seen whether
a 1f,S oni,,, Il
or the interment of the Kinck family. A
Paris paper gives us somewhat unpleas-
ing picture of Pautin, in the remark
that men wero to be employed in nbun-
dance there who would have performed
Iraupmann's little job for twenty francs
But wi ether he had accomplces in the
physical part of it or not, the central
dominating idea of the stupendous crime
originated with Traupmanu, and his
name will be synonym of terror for
generations in the district of Roubaix.
The funeral of the eight victims took
place at Turcoing. An immense crowd
awaited the arrival of the train at the
station, which was hung with black Tho
Mayor, municipal council and local au-
thoritles were present and Joined in the
procession to the church. All labor in
the town had been, for the moment. sus-
senbled from the neighboring localities.
and who lined the streets through which
the cortege passed, is estimated at SO, 600.
The collins were carried by bearers, that
OF the mother in front, and followed by
the others. in the order of their age.
Each colin was also preceded by child
bearing black cross, on which was in
scrloed the name and age of the victim.
The relatives of the family who followed
were twenty-eight in number. The ground
In the cemetery has been given by the
municipality, which also took to its
charge all the expenses of tho interment.
a public subscription has also been
opened to raise monument over the
tomb. When the collins were lowered
into the grave funeral orations were pro.
nOunccd
The grand jury of Kane County, Illi-
no!s, on Friday last, found an indict-