Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-08-12
An Amateur Murderer.

The trials of the communists develop some
startling phases of human deprayty in this gay
center of the world of mode. In one of the
most fashionable streets of the aristocratc
Quarter st. German dwelt noble marquis, in
whose veins the same blood, blue as terrestrial
Turquoise, or ceruean cloud, flowed as once
danced merrily through the veins of the first
Bourbon king of France.
But French bullets find their way through the
cuticle of the king descended, as easily as if ii
covered the carcass of the unwashed canaile OF
st. Antoine. So one July morning, govern.
ment bullet from the chassepoPs deadly tube
found its fated home in the breast of the noble
Gaul-and the useless mouths in Paris the be-
Sieged were less by one, and the academy lost
one Of lis most gifted members.
His house was of course searched for evil
dence to convict Others and the police discov.
cred that here under their own protection had
lived for years a being who had made of death
study and who treated murder as one of the
fine arts. His house was a small one for the
locality and detached from all others. He oc.
cupied two rooms on the second floor as a bed
chamber and library and between the two was
double wall, the space between which was
utilized as closets, with doors opening into each
room. Any one passing from one room to the
other necessarily went through one of these
closets. On the ground floor and directly un.
derneath the bedroom was n room commune
eating with the main street by an alley. This
by its custodian. While the officers of the law
were searching the rooms, a gendarme stepped
into one of these closets and at once found him.
self rapidly descending and finally safely
landed on the ground floor, room or dungeon
We copy the following from the process verbal
made by the sergeant in charge of the party to
the inspector of the district
" The windows of the lower room were built
up with brick, and by an ingenious contrivance
the door leading into the alley was made to
open from the outside into passageway lead
ing to another suit OF rooms, while the real en-
trance from the alley consisted of a swinging
door cut out of the solid wall, the bricks of
which were held together by bands OF
iron encircling the whole mass, which swung
upon pivot. So ingeniOusly e0ntrived, and so
skillfully executed was this work, that only by
chance was it discovered at sill.
"The door leading from the house into this
den had nothing unusual in its appearance on
the outside, but was really double, and of ex-
traordinary thickness, and filled with sawdust
tightly packed. This room was used by the
count ostensibly as a lumber room, for storing
disused property. On sounding the walls of the
dungeon, large and deep closet was discovered
constructed on the same plan as the outside
door, of solid brick, and it would have escaped
detection had not the door given our party the
hint The contents of this closet consisted OF a
variety Of tools used in the construction and ar
rangement Of the rooms, it being evident that
the occupant had performed all this labor by his
own unaided efforts. Here follows a schedule
of the list of the tools, among which are surgi-
cal instruments of every description, jars of
chloroform and narcotics of all kinds, and all
the paraphernalia of a chemists laboratory
A powerful battery, and other instruments, APP
parently for electrical or galvanic purposes,
were found.
The room was lighted by gas, to effect which
he had actually tunneled into the street, and
tapped one of the main gas pipes, and then laid
pipe of smaller calibre into the dungeon. By
means Of flexible tubing he was thus enabled to
conduct the gas wherever he chose. These tubes
and burners were hidden in the closet.
But the most important and hideously inter-
esting object in the collection is quantity of
manuscript purporting to be record kept by
the count for several years, ofeXperiments made
by himself in electricity and galVanism. 1t is
well known that he has, during the past four
years, read several lectures on these and kindred
subjects before the academy, and has advanced
some startling theories relative thereto. One of
the papers, entitled "the mechanism of life"
procured for him a private and confidential in
terview with the emperor.
These manuscripts prove conclusively that
their writer decoyed persons into his house on
pretext of business entertainment or some other
sufficient excuse, and at a convenient moment
the fatal step was taken, the trap was sprung,
which consigned the victim 10 certain DEATH
Most of the experiments seem to have been
made with a view of restoring suspended ami
nation. e., raising from the dead
Such is brief and unadorned statement of
the facts, and since the divulgement, the gossips
call to mind numerous cases of mysterious dis.
appearances, but not breath of suspicion has
ever attached to the count. The neighborhood
of the house is now thronged with those who
delight to "sup on horrors multiplied" and
these retail to new corners, and to one another
exaggerated statements of facts. The above
hnrr atAk 80, nod H.
from visit to the house itself in company with
the project.