Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-07-07
A CURIOUS CRIME.
How a Kings Great-Grand-Daugh
Died-Butchered TO Death by
Beggar-Strange Revival OF
Forgotten History.

A most singular revelation has been brought
about by the demolition of an old house in
the Rue Galere, Brest. Thanks to little
sandal-wood Golfer filed with papers, which
the picks of the workmen uncovered, hidden
behind loose stone In the chimney, the VIC
tim of long-forgotten assassination has
been discovered to have been the last descen-
dant of king. In May, 1850, an old woman
named Benoit, who lived in this house with
number of other people equally poor like her.
place ve-mentioned. She was in her
night dress, and, from the appearance of the
room, had been violently dragged from the
bed, and had struggled hard previous to ex-
piring. Her skull had been beaten in evil
IDENTIFY with blows from a bludgeon deliv-
cred with terrible violence. The room was
horribly wrecked, as if the murderer.
crazed by blood and blinded by rage, had ex-
perienced a spite against the very walls.
Two empty brandy bottles and glasses on the
single window-ledge suggested that the
crime had followed a debauch. A blind beg
gar, known as Papa Marechal, with whom
the dead woman had lived, was missing. He
was said to have been in the house the night
before. The police sought, but found him
not. At last an officer came upon his dog,
playing with some other ours, on quai. He
watched and followed the animal to house
in the suburbs. Papa Marechal was veritably
there, and was at once arrested. The blind
assassin, for such he was, made no attempt
to deny his guilt, He had long lived on bad
terms with Nine. Benoit. Her extravagant
expenditure of the fruits of his mendicancy
was the cause. On the night of the murder
both had been drunk. She went to bed first,
aud he sat before the fire drinking. From
time to time from the bed she greeted him
with taunts, curses and foul language. Atlast,
goaded beyond endurance, he CROPPED his
was to the bed and dragged her out. She
was powerful woman, and made a good
fight of it; but he overcame her at last, and
beat out her brains with his heavy staff.
Having satisfied himself that she was dead,
he fed. Papa Marechal was sent to hos
pital under surveillance, and died there. The
crime was forgotten. Then came the reve-
lation made by the box of papers, which are,
with the exception of diary dated 1902,
chiefly the private correspondence of Theo-
dore, ex-king of Corsica. The ex-king was
a Westphalian adventurer named Theodore
Neuhoff, born in 1896. In 1876, after having
been leader in the struggle for liberty
against the Genoese, the Corsicans, in their
general assembly, elected him king. For
some time he played at royalty, but his grow
ing unpopularity compelled him to fly. He
became acquainted with almost every debtors
prison on the continent. Some Amsterdam
Jew at last brought him out of jail in that
city, and in 1913 fitted out an expedition for
him to recover his dominions with. That at
tempt, and one in 1742, failed, and King
Theodore next turned up in England, where,
after brief and successful social career,
the baiitfs once more laid hands
on him and introduced him to the
Among the friends he had made was
Horace Walpole. The statesman interested
himself for the ex-king, and while he was
holding mimic court in the jail, raised fifty
pounds for him by public subscription.
Thanks to this, Theodore obtained his Ibel-
ty. He was ungrateful, however, and his
benefactor abandoned him. He died in the
shop of poor tailor in Soho. In spite of
his shameful treatment of him, Walpole re-
tanned sufficient forgiveness for the wretched
ex-kjng to erect tombstone over his remains
in St. Anne's churchyard, Soho. Theodore
had one child by Spanish mistress. Colonel
Frederick, as he was called, was a we'll
him. He was an intimate of Count Ponia
towski, afterward king of Portugal. After a
life of varying distresses, ending in perjury of
the most horrible sort, he borrowed a pistol
and shot himself in the porch of Westmin-
ster abbey. He left two daughters. One
married man named Clarke, and left a
daughter, who obtained some fame as min
iature painter in London. The other drifted
into France. and became the mis-
tress of wealthy trader at Mar
settles. Her only child was the MUIR
dered Nine. Benoit. Miss Clarke, the
miniature painter, was run over by dray
and killed in 1929. Her aunt, Mime. Be-
noit's mother, was poisoned, after years of an
unhappy iaison, by her lover, the Marseilles
merchant, in fit of jealousy. The MUIR
derer died at the galleys. The last of the i'll
fated family persisted as we already know.
The irony of fate pursued them to the grave.
The snobs and tuft-hunters of Brest have COL
lected subscription and erected a monu-
ment over the grave of the distinguished
woman who died among them" (Uide the Cir
cular), "only unrevered because she was I'M
known" So that the blind beggar's mis-
tress and victim, the last of the line of men
dicant Corsican royalty, enjoys at last the
satisfaction of having a slab to keep her
Wondering bones down. Her casket has
been placed In the local museum.