Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1872-01-25
A HORRIBLE MONSTER.
A Human Tiger and . Wholcsal
Murderer.

CAVuA VIC AOuuOu xuucDs Vi O0Cs a.
All are familiar with stories of the
man-eating tigers of India. But, now,
from France comes q fearful record.
For some timo past one or two quiet
agricultural villages between Boulogne
and Calais, seem to have been kept in
a state of constant alarm by mysteri
GUS series of outrages. Incendiary
fires, robberies, attempts ut 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 trifiing com
cidence in connection with one of, the
robberies, threw suspicion upon the
guilty person who has SO long been the
scourge of the neighborhood.
Joseph Lemettre was but 18 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 oi
the deepest dye. The acte d. uccusd.
ton will be found, as usual in France,
to present 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, q 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-
tre having been seen near the spot,
and afterward denying it, threw on hlm
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 it
may be presumed that in all these cases
fire had been employed in order to COW
er the robbery. Iemettre'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 neighboring hamlet, he &C.
companied them. At the end Of that
year the outrages recommended, not
to be again interrupted until Lemettre's 3
apprehension. In September his fel-
low servant was robbed of 620f. Shots
were fred 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 mur-
derous assault on . brewers carman, as
he was returning from Andresel]es with
some money for his employer. A bar
barous mut,lation, moreover, was in
f1icted on the victim, which was re-
peated in some of the subsequent
outrages. In the same year = widow,
who lived at a farmhouse in Andresel-
les, and who had received a sum of
e1, 200, was aroused at night by 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 o1
money from the same fellow-servant
who had been robbed in 1867. LIE.
METRE, about this time, took house
| in Andreselles.
In the course Of the summer a young
man was found murdered and robbed,
on the evening after a fair, with his
head close to the stable.door of LIE.
METRES 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 in this year was q bur.
glary ut neighboring farmhouse. The
year 1870 opened with the murder of 9
man who had denounced the existence
of robbers in the neighborhood, and
another burglary was committed. LIE
METRE was then absent from home fol
SIX months, serving the Garde Mobile,
end during his absence the crimes
ceased. Immediately ON his return, in
April, 1871, three successive burglariei
renewed the alarm of the neigbbor
hood, and Lemettre began to be watch
ed. He himself, however, felt suf6
ciently secure to get married, and tt
celebrate the occasion with a profuse
ness which no doubt aggravated th<
thrifty peasants suspicion.
At length he was observed one morn
ing, by man who had loug suspected
him, creeping into cures house, ani
was captured in the act of robbery.
His house being then searched, arti
cles stolen in previous robberies we1'
found in his possession, and he con
fessed to one Of the murders and tn
singular similarity of these crimes
coupled with the circumstances nov
there to connect him with them pre-
clutles any doubt that he was the per
pertrator of the whole series.
A more horrible revelation of th
depth of degradation of which humanit;
is capable, could hardly be presente'
than this. It belongs to that class Q
cases, happily rare, in which the crimi
nal seems to be destitute of any suscep