Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1872-01-31
A HORRIBLE MONSTER.
Human Tiger and Wholesale
Murderer.

A Human Tiger and Wholesale
Murderer.
From the London Times, of Dec. 21.
All are familiar with stories of the
man-eating tigers of India. But, now,
from France comes fearful record.
For some time past one or two quiet
agricultural villages between Boulogne
and Calais, seem to have been kept in
state of constant alarm by mysteri-
GUS series of outrages. Incendiary
fires, robberies, attempts at murder,
actual murders, accompanied with
brutal mutilations, were perpetrated
year after year, and month after
month. The criminal, after each out
rage cOntrived to escape unobserved,
to his lair; but at length trifing COIN
! cidence in connection with one of the
robberies, threw suspicion upon the
guilty person who has so long been the
Is,coarge of the neighborhood.
Joseph Lelnettre was but Is years Of
age, when, in 1864, he was in service at
the farmhouse of Selles, and had won
confidence by his quiet conduct and
regular habits, and since that date he
is believed to have perpetrated at least
twenty-seven crimes, many of them of
the deepest dye. The acte d' 0ccusa-
t5Ore will be found, as usual in France,
to present a vivid picture of this ca
reer of malignity, but the briefest and
most prosaic summary is sufficiently
appalling. In the autumn of 1864,
some stacks of beans, a house and
shed, and again, some farm buildings,
were on three occasions burnt down.
No motive IS assigned in these in
stances, but the accident of Lemet-
tire having been seen near the spot,
and afterward denying it, threw on him
grave suspicion, from which, however,
he was protected by his general good
character. Early in the next year, the
farmhouse of the man who had sus-
pected him was broken into, and an at
tempt was made to set it on fire, and 1t
may be presumed that in all these cases
fire had been employed in order to COW
er the robbery. Lemettre's master
then died, and the history passes over
an interval Of two years. Lemettre,
however, seems to have remained in
the service of his late masters widow,
and when, in 1867, she was married to
connection of his own, and went to
reside at a neighboring hamlet, he ac-
companied them. At the end of that
year the outrages recommended, not
to be again interrupted until Lemettre's
apprehension. In September his fell
low servant was robbed of 620f. Shots
were fired at his employers, and box
full of powder placed against the wall
of their house. Lemettre, it is said,
now admits that he committed these
outrages in order to frighten his mas
ter and mistress back to their old farm.
Next year, 1868, was marked by a muir
derous assault on q brewers carman, as
he was returning from Andreselles with
some money for his employer. A bar
barous mutllation, moreover, was in
ficted on the victim, which was re-
peated in some of the subsequent
outrages. In the same year widow,
who lived at farm house in Andresel-
les, and who had received a sum of
e1, 200, was aroused at night by a man
demanding her money or her life; she
was brutally stabbed, and her house
partially robbed Once more, in the
same year, the house of the priest was
entered during midnight mass and
robbed of plate and money. The year
1869 opened with two robberies of
money from the same fellow-servant
who had been robbed IN 1867. Le-
METRE, about this time, took house
in Andreselles.
In the course of the summer young
man was found murdered and robbed,
on the evening after fair, with his
Il l. LII L e II
mettre's house. and the body exhibited
the same horrible mutilation as the
previous assault on the brewer. Sus-
picion fell upon the owner of wine
shop, who, however, was soon exon
Grated by being himself found murder
ed with the same marks of brutality
The house had been robbed and at
tempts made to fire it.
A fifth crime i'll this year was bur-
glary at a neighboring farmhouse. The
year 1870 opened with the murder of a
man who had denounced the existence
of robbers in the neighborhood, and
another burglary was committed. LIE
METRE was then absent from home for
six months, serving the Garde Mobile,
end during his absence the crimes
| OStsh'Sot' Oli LILO lCuuih, LII
April, 1871 three successive burglaries
renewed the alarm of the neighbor.
hood, and Lemettre began to be watch
ed. He himself, however, felt suffi-
GENTLY secure to get married, and to
celebrate the occasion with profuse-
ness which no doubt aggravated the
thrifty peasants suspicion.
At length he was observed one morn
ing, by man who had long suspected
him, creeping into cures house, and
was captured in the act of robbery.
His house being then searched, arti
cles stolen in previous robberies were
found in his possession, and he con
fessed to one of the murders and the
singular similarity of these crimes
coupled with the circumstances nov
there to connect him with them pre-
cludes any doubt that he was the per
pertrator of the whole series.
A more horrible revelation of tn,
depth of degradation of which humanit,
is capable, could hardly be presented
than this. 1t belongs to that class O
cases, happily rare, in which the crimi
nal seems to be destitute of any suscep
tibllity to ordinary human feeling, an,
to possess no other motive than a paltr
greed, and no other intellectual facult
than depraved cunning and a suprem
selfshness.