The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-02-08
THE PRESS.
THURSDAY MORNING, FEB. s, 1872.
A French Murderer.
AN EXTRAORDINARY AssAssIN--THE CRIMES
FOR WHICH HE WAC ExEcUrrn

AN EXTRAORDINARY AssAssIN--THE CRIMES
FOR WHICH HE WAS EXECUTED.
SINCE the days of that monster whom De
Quincy has immortalized in his''Three Mem
oraDle Murders" the annals of crime have
gwen us no more extraordinary story than
that which has lately spread CONSERVATION ov-
er the little town of st. Omers, in France.
FOR systematic, cold-blooded fiendishness. the
name of Joseph Lemettre is worthy to be set
beside that of Caleb Williams. Tn some ro-
spects his career is even more extraordinary
than that of De Quincey's famous assassin.
What distinguished Williams from ordinary
murderers was not so much the boldness. ey
en-, as the thoroughness of his bloody work.
Within fortnight, in populous quarter of
London, and in narrow district of that, the
in human wretch completely destroyed three
households-in only the last instance leaving
single human being alive under the roof he
had thus devoted to wholesale slaughter. That
single error was his "ruin,' for on the sole
survivors, testimony he was convicted, and
will be hung.
Though inferior in dramatic picturesque
ness and intense horror, Lemettre's career is
In one feature at least, more phenomenal. In
modern times we recall no instance where a
man has SO devoted himself to murder for the
mere sake OF plunder, during so long a series
OF years, not only lncurring no suspicion. but
enjoying to an unusual degree the confidence
and affection of his acquaintance. The
crimes for which Lemettre was lately tried
and has, perhaps, by this time been executed
comprise arson, highway robbery, burglary.
and repeated murders, and range through a
n
ettre, to outward appearance, was one of the
most simple and harmless of French peasants
For many years he had been a servant in the
farmhouse OF Selles, where his amiable dispo-
sltlon and open, smiling countenance made
hlm many friends. His employer had i'm him
always the utmost confidence and even when
suspicion toward the last began to penetrate
the vail OF his sleek duplicity, refused to dis
charge him. Add to this that he was only
twenty-five years old at the time of his trial,
and looked even younger, and that i'm the
court he bore himself with an air of angelic
innocence, and the reader will perceive that
Joseph Lemettre was no ordinary or common
place criminal.
Ever since 1864 the man has led two lives
as utterly diverse as can well be imagined In
one he was the faithful servant, docile, oblig-
ing, cheerful. He marsred in due time, and
when the war broke out he bore arms in de-
iOlioC VI LIS Ill OLner lie
this simple country lad was most cruel and
desperate ruffian. From 1854, when Lemet-
tire was but eighteen years of age, up to a few
weeks past, except while he was away at the
war, the country about the little village of
Andresselles was kept in constant state of
terrorism. Hay-stacks and buildings were
burned in every direction, houses were broken
open and robbed, and frequently most brutal
murders added to the general alarm No less
than six inhabitants of Andresselles were as
sassinated, one being woman. The bodies
of the men were all found to be singularly
aud horribly mutilated. Finally, on the very
morning of the wedding feast, Lemettre at
tempted to rob the honse of a priest in the
neighborhood, and was watched and captur-
ed. After a trial offour days, dnring which
he confessed himselfguilty of most of the out
RACES enumerated and was proved guilty of
of all, he was condemned to death.
Probably such a career would be impossible
in any civilized country outside of France.
There are incidents related in that gallery of
horrors, the ''Memoirs of Vidocq," which at
most equal it in unique hideousness In point
of long immunity, however, and utter blood
thirstiness, the story of Lemettre is surely ex-
ceptional.