New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-01-21
TRdUPMdNN.

Judgment on an extraordinary murderer.
Traupmann was more and worse than mere
French phase of Antoine PrObst. The latter
murdered whole family with q savage stu
pdity for which only the wild-bcast theory OF
human nature will account. The awful work
of Traupmann had even less feeling in it.
He butchered the Kinck family with n horrible
fippancy. Phenomena of crime like these are
said to reveal much; but the wonder Is that
they reveal so little. The absence of nearly
every clue to natural feeling is the one
most discernlbie fact in these cases. Their
revelation is a wretched blank. The public
who seek for signs encounter an exil-
btion of animal stupefaction or moral dead
ness. In this respect, I'raupmann was living
corpse, and not one of his eight mangled We
Tins was more dead than he. God created
man in his own image, the image OF life, but
man can uncreate as it were, in the image OF
the devil, and of death. Thus did Traupmann;
and if his crime WAS faithful reflex OF his
soul, humanity may well abandon the task of
attempting to conceive its almost nullity. A
murderer of this class might happen to be one
of the most uninteresting, modifying of brute
beings. his individuality quite lost in the enor-
nifty of his crime.
Traupmann. however, has been study, and
will be, for some time to French thinkers.
He was worse than stupid, for he appears to
have had the venom and the GOODNESS OF
reptile. This prodigiOus GOODNESS has equaled,
if not surpassed, anything that Paris has
known in the way of evil sensations. 1t was
brought out in evidence that he had said to
the mother of the murdered family: lyon
will all be reunited. Yes, | shall bury you
in the same grave" Yet more terrible was
his statement: Il struck them after | killed
them, in order to dSfgure them" But
Traupmann had n remnant of senslbility he
coud be even sensitive, and the man who
killed whole family could feel pang of
virtuous Indignation at being lied against
Here is wonderful passage in the dialogue
between himself and the President OF the
Court which tried him:
President-You said once. al srangled the first child:
he dld not utter a cry. then fetched the second aud
then the third" That your confession Of Nov. %
Traupmann-You love falsehood rather than truth II
yOu will not believe what tell you now: You NAV 40
what Won like with me- am not afraid TO die. But
you knew my for not disclosing the names ofmy
President-one witness only heard cry; it was that
OF a child who called out mamma.
was a Wretched liar. ! would tell him 80 70 his face. !
ought not TO be assaed by these fasehoods There was
Prcsident-Then you were there.
Traupmann-Yes, was.
President-It is proved on all hands that you led
solitary life and were possessed with the idea Of making
a fortune. . $3.50
Traupmann-Much that is false has been said about
me- There is a commissary OF police who wanted 10
rest my father. My father has more honesty IN his
little finger than that magistrate in MS whole body.
The glimpses of character thus afforded only
help us to the general truth that the worst of
murderers is, after all, human being.
Taupmann evidently had plenty of combat;
iveness and personal pride. witness deposed
that in 1864, when he received his first com
munion, he had a quarrel with his brother and
threatened to kill him, whereupOn the witness
said, "You are a second Cain" Traupmann
here interrupted the deponent, saying with
emphasis, "The witness is miserable liar
"and not worth rope to hang himself with"
But the GOODNESS of the murderer singularly
offset this instance of excitement. His "NO,
Monsieur" in reply to a question of the
President, Gould you not save those poor
children you delivered over to your accom-
"pices 7" called forth that functionarys re-
mark, "The GOODNESS with which you say that
"makes ones blood run cold" Yet Traup-
manns attorney drew from him an extraordi-
nary exhibition of feeling. "Speak to him of
"his mother" said the learned advocate; speak
"to him of his family. If In this matter you
task for tears you would only have to recall
"the name of his MOTHER At this point the
prisoner wept bitterly and sobbed, much to the
surprise of the Court. although the spectators
imagined him to be acting.
Traupmann's last words at the guillotine
A. l. l.. 4
The only comment which need be made upon
them is his admission on the 18th of Novem-
Der that he had, alone and unaded, murdered
Madame Kincls and her five children, after
having poisoned Jean Kinck and stabbed Gus
tave Two weeks afterwards-perhaps ashamed
of his monster crime, perhaps with truth-he
declared that he had three accompices
Whether he had or not matters little now to
him or the world. The murderer was dread
fully dwarfed by contrast with the crime he
had committed. lie was but twenty
years old; his aspect was ugly, his
lip drawn up, showing his teeth; he had large
hands and splay feet and the size and seem
ing strength of the former contrasted strangely
with his slight, even frail figure. He conceived
that his passion for crime was cultivated or
inspired by morbid reading of Eugene Sue
The language of his advocate, Laehaud, sums
up his case:
,"Gentlcmen, here is young man Of 20 years and
eight dead bodies of his victims Oh btseech you not
70 believe that The prisoner Is subject 10 one OF the
most frightfnl moral maiadcs which render IRE
spOHsiDe. His crime lit 10 written la the book, the
Wandering jew. Throughout tho whole world there
are men OF science who concerned with this affair
AID WHO have Ler eiea VI IL!sI9uthO VI ~ !sar One