Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1872-02-01
A HORRIBLE MONSTER.
4 Human Tiger and Wholesale
Murderer.
m the London Times, of Dec. 81,

All are familiar with stories of the
man eating tigers of India. But, now,
from France comes a fearful record.
For some time 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. lncendiary
fires, robberies, attempts at murder,
actual murders, accompanied with
brutal mutilations, were perpetrated
gear after year, and month after
month. The criminal, after each out
rage, contrived to escape unobserved,
to his lair but at length trifling COIN
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 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 dcte d. dccusd-
ton will be found, Us 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, 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
farm house 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
! a 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 fred at his employers, and a 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 brighten his mas
ter and mistress back to their old farm
Next year, 1868, was marked by mar-
derous assault on brewers carman, as
he was returning from Andreselles with
some money for his employer. A bar
barous mutllation, moreover, was in
hicted on the victim, which was re-
peated in some of the subsequent
outrages. In the same year a widow,
who lived at a farm house in Andresel-
les, and who had received sum of
FL, 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 of
money from the same fellows servant
who had been robbed in 1867. Lee
METRE, about this time, took a house
in Andreselles.
In the course of the summer young
man was found murdered and robbed,
on the evening after fair, with his
head close to the stable-door of Lee
METRES house and the body exhibited
the same horrible mutilation as the
previous assault on the brewer. Sus-
picion fell upon the owner of a 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 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. Lee
METRE was then absent from home for
Six months, serving the Garde Mobile,
end during his absence the crimes
ceased. Immediately on his return, in
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 a 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 seal ched, arti-
Giles stolen in previous robberies were