The daily gazette., 1878-04-17
"A Belgian Butcher.
He Murders His Drunken Wife
and Hews Her Body to
Pieces.

a
past week been occupied with remark
able murder trial, that of Mestag, which
has developed story Of horror almost
in criminal annals.
"Gustave Mestag was stone-outter of
Anvers, thirty-three years of age, OF
more than ordinary intelligence, disci-
pie OF the International and somewhat
given to drink, when in 1875 he fell in
with Jeanne Vingeroets, the widow of
one Asselberg, woman of forty-eight,
and mother of several children, all of
age, and some Of them older than Mes
tag. She had a paying business and
some 10000 francs in cash. Whether it
was simply to obtain from the former
a living without hard labor or to secure
the latter by fraud or force cannot be
said, but only tbis:-Mestag married her
June II, 1876, old and ugly as she was,
and at first the life of the ill-assorted
couple was not openly unhappy, even
though she as well az he was Of intem-
perate habits. A year afterwards, how
ever, they lived in open war; he beat
her habitually and most cruelty, and she
by her acrid speech and by refusing him
money SO retorted upon him that in Au-
gust, 1877, he said to his stepson, Moth
ing that 1 can do seems to please your
mother; l mean to leave her / really
don't know what else to do
"a few days later Mestag called at the
police station and said that his wife had
disappeared. They had quarreled, he
said she had provoked him to beat her
and had fled; three days later she came
back at bedtime, drunk he also was the
worse of liquor, and when he wakened
next morning she had gone-where he
could not say. At first he thought that
she had gone to Brussels, az she often
did, to purchase goods, but her prolong-
ed absence had alarmed him, and as he
feared that she had met with some acci-
dent or had taken her life, he had
thought it wise to report her disappear
ance. The police had their suspicious,
and at once made descent on the house
and searched it narrowly, but found no
trace OF the missing woman nor any in
dication OF foul play; and so Mestag's
story was accepted as true, nor was the
matter again thought of till early in JAN
uary, when detective heard that on the
l4th OF August, the day after Nine. Mes
tags disappearance, her hus badd had
drawn water some fifty times at the
pump, and after keeping it in the house
little while had emptied it into a cess
pool near by, the witness adding that
the water thus disposed of seemed of a
reddish hue and as if it had fragments of
some solid body In it. This cesspool had
been sounded and probed at the first
search; now the police had 1t empti ed
and arrested nj estag on the evidence it
disclosed, this evidence consisting Of 1853
CHASTITY fragments of woman's body
tendons, muscles, flesh, organs-com-
paratively few bones being found other
than broken ribs and pieces of the skull
IN estag on the 4th of January denied
that he knew anything about the pres
ence and origin Of these fragments Of
humanity, but this was only to gain
time, and next morning he was prepar-
ed with his story. 'We went to bed to-
gether on the night of Monday, August
13, both drunk. At 8 O'Clock wakened,
and leaving her sleeping quietly, went
to the tavern, whore remained till 2.
On returning then found my wife lying
on the floor In pool Of blood, a tumbler
by her side, the liquor in which had been
spilled; her head bearing a deep wound,
which had caused her death. On seeing
this horrible sight, ! at once thought OF
the dishonor which would attach to her
memory II people learned that she had
died drunk, and l resolved to rid myself
of the body. After vainly endeavoring
to squeeze it into bag, cut it in two
at the waist, and putting half of it into
the sack carried it as far as the city gate.
There | recognized the difficulty and
danger of my task, and so / hurried
home and set to chopping the body up
and detaching the flesh from the bones.
This occupied me all night and part of
the day; it was to wash up the floors
soaked with blood that / drew so much
water at the pump. The flesh torn from
the body threw into the cesspool; the
bones l carried in bag next night to
the cemetery, and, climbing over the
wall, | buried them in holy ground in a
hnla that dnn xryif1, my nd
piece of pointed stick. Ny wife's cloth
ing and my own, the bag, and the knife
with which cut the corpse in pieces,
buried
"This story the authorities declined to
accept as true. The house where the
Mestags dwelt sheltered many other
families and the tenant of the adjoining
room could distinctly hear the husband
and wife when they conversed. Had
the woman fallen against any article OF
furniture with violence sufficient to
fracture her skull and cause her death
the shock would have been heard. As
not soul in.the house was disturbed by
any unusual sound that night, the pre-
sumption was that Mestag lied, and the
prosecution set up the theory that on
coming home he had found his wife in a
drunken sleep, and had seized the op-
portunity to kill her with one deadly
blow, then had hacked the body to
pieces and disposed of it as he had
said.
"The trial began on the 18th, and at
tracted an immense throng. Mestag
stuck to his story, the details Of which
he related with much persistence and
sangfroid, but the witnesses against him
were numerous and convincing, to say
nothing of the horrible evidence placed
in vials of alcohol upon the table before
the jury-one of the dead woman's ears,
part vf the breast, and pieces of the
stomach and abdomen, that, SO fearfully
were they lacerated, seemed to have
been whitfield off with dull knife. Mes
tag never lost his nerve, but frequently
interrupted the proceedings with COM
ments and protests. Once, when the
prosecutor, in summing up, said, BE-
fore God and these shapeless fragments
OF your wretched wife, l declare that
you were her murderer Mestag broke
in violently, You liep
"'Mestag, be quiet cried the Judge.
"'He is trying to make me out muir
derer,' shouted Mestag.
Silence, or / will have you remov-
ed; continued the Court.
"I am no murderer! / am no muir
dererp yelled Mestag, pounding with
his clenched fists on the dock.
"The prosecution closed his speech as
follows:-'R Recall the day when you said,
There is no God / blaspheme Him