The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-04-19
TWO PARTISAN HORRORS.
Confronted by n Wax Model of the Corpse
of His vietim---Truth Stranger than
Fiction.

The Murder Trial of Bilioir---The Asse ssin
Confronted by n Wax Model of the Corpse
of His victim---Truth Stranger than
Fiction.
Lucy Hooper, in Paris letter, says:
The trial of Billoir, the sensational as
sassin who killed his mistress, disem-
bowelled her corpse, chopped it in two,
and threw the pieces into the Seine, was
begun short time ago. A dense crowd
was present; many ladies, among whom
was the Prussian ambassadress, the
Princess Won Hohenlohe, being among
the spectators A curious gentleman
disguised himself in lawyers gown to
gain admission, but the cheat being dis
covered, he was ANONYMOUSLY expelled
from the court room.
Among the persons present were noted
Mounet Sully, of the Comedie Franchise,
and Grand Duchesse Schneider, which
last had brought with her fanciful
hand bag in Russia leather full of eat
ables, and who sat munching bon bons
and nibbling mandarine oranges through
the whole course of the proceedings.
The scene was a highly dramatic one
glass jars containing the hair and Wis.,
celu VI VIC NlCtlul, SdulpleS VI btNuuSl
found in the assassin's room, portions of
the flooring, etc. On chair was placed
a large ject covered with a sheet of
paper. At a certain moment in the in
terrogatory the paper was drawn aside,
and Billoir was confronted with the
grinning, ghastly visage of his victim,
not the corpse itself, be it understood,
but the bust modelled in wax. which was
exhibited at the morgue when the re-
mains had become too decomposed for
recognition to be possible. An immense
sensation was created by the testimony
of the physician, who declared from the
perfectly bloodless condition of the body
when found that the poor creature must
have been cut open while she was still
alive.
The president of the court gave a
vivid, but, OF course, wholly imaginary
description of the struggle that must
have taken place between the assassin
and his mistress, whereat Billoir was
visibly affected. He is said not to re-
semble in the least the usual ideal of
murderer, being quiet and respectable
looking elderly man, with a bilious COM
plexion and a vague, dull eye. He was
carefully and neatly dressed in black,
his linen being of irreproachable cleanli-
ness. The trial only lasted two days,
at the end of which verdict was rem
dered of equity without extenuating
circumstances, SO that unless his appeal
to the court of cessation be successful,
Billoir will soon be called upon to under
go the dread penalty of the law, or ac-
cording to Partisan slang, to "kiss the
basket" But am told that petition
for his pardon, based on his military
services, will shortly be presented to the
authorities.
The other criminal, he who threw his
little daughter down dry well alive,
and left her to perish slowly of starva-
ton and Of the injuries received in the
fall, is to be brought to trial likewise in
O very short time. The widest sensa-
tional novel Of crime ever written could
hardly surpass in it's incidents the career
OF this scoundrel. How. after murder
ing his child, he contrived to escape; !;
how he tried to kill his wife and his
father-in-law, wounding them both; how
though his house was surrounded, he
managed to escape a second time, and
how for u month he lived in concealment,
battling all the researches of the police
such are the facts of this desperado's
career. Nor was his capture at last by
the police, but through the intervention
of a former acquaintance who recognized
him as he was examining the pictures in
an illustrated paper, suspended at the
door of a newspaper vender. He, too,
like Billoir, was subjected to sensa-
tional experience by the authorities.
After the first interrogation was over,
he was led into a gloomy hall, one end
of which was concealed by dark green
curtain. At given signal the curtain
was drawn aside, and there was revealed
to the murderer, stretched out on q
marble table, the corpse of his innocent
victim, which had been preserved by
some chemical process. He endured the
sight with stoical frmness, confessed that
he had done the deed, and only regretted
that he had not succeeded in killing his
wife as well.