The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-12-30
Afscel1a
A RECENT FRENCH MURDER
TRIAL.

At Laon, the ancient capital Of France
proper, and even now one of the mos
interesting of old French cities, the cur
tain fell, a few days ago, on the las
scene of tragedy which in some of it.
main features was peculiar to France anc
the French people. We refer to the tria
before the Court of Assizes of the Aisne
of a young girl named Virginie Dumaire
for the murder of Dr. Picart.
Two or three years back, Picart. ther
medical student attached to the hospi'
tai of Laon, became assiduous in his de-
votions to Virginie Dumaire, the princi'
pal legatee of an old official named Her
bin, in whose employ she had been al
the time of his death. Picart was poor
and the girl he professed to love paid hi:
examination fees out of her own pocket
and thus enabled him to enter upon the
practice of his profession. He promised
to marry Vlrginie, but had no sooner
'airly started in practice in village neal
Laon, than he broke off all relations
with her. and became engaged to a
Mademoiselle Laloi, the daughter of a
wealthy landowner of the vicinity,
This was too much for the wronged
girl, who moved at once to the village
near which her rival dwelt, and warned
her faithless lover that misfortune would
come to him if he persisted in wedding
his new sweetheart. Accordingly on the
day when the Laloi family and Picart
met to draw up the marriage contract,
Virginie, half mad, burst into the room
where the party was assembled, and in
terrupted the notary, crying out. "This
marriage will never take place. Never !"
Plcart remained impassive.
A few days later, on the morning OF
the last day of April, 1880, Plcart left
Vendresse, the village where he lived,
for Laon, to buy some wedding presents
for Madenoselle Laloi, who was to ac-
company him. Not far from his home
he heard a womans voice calling him.
1t was Virginie, who ran after him and
overlook him. Her right hand was con-
cealed beneath her cloak. She stopped
Plcart, and in supplicating tone cried ;
us it then true that you are going to
marry her ?" Eyes" "Then, shall l
never more be anything to you2" He
replied by gesture of Impotence. at
is WELL" said Virginie, after moment
of silence kiss me" He leaned to-
ward her and embraced her, and at the
same moment the young girl drew a re-
volver, til then concealed, and fired.
rhe bullet struck Picart in the left tenn
Pile, and he fell dead. Virginie tainted,
and was found unconcious by the side of
the dead man.
The next act in this dismal drama was
in August last when Virginie was
brought to trial for the homicide. The
prosecution, in accordance with that
method of criminal procedure which is
in use in France, sought to prejudice the
jury against the accused by great deal
of indefinite heresay evidence bearing
on her past life, but not having anything
whatever to do with the specific crime
for whic she was on trial All this evil,
dence, however, amounted to nothing,
and was success sfully controverted by
her advocate, the famous lawer Lachaud.
The conduct of the defence was not an
easy task, as the prisoner did not at
tempt to defend herself, but said in open
court II should kill Picart again if it
was to be done over. | should rather
sec him dead than married" :" Still the
jury were impressed in her favor, and
she would then have been acquitted if
the Court had not lent ltselfto a strange
perversion of justice by adjourning the
further hearing ofthe case on the even
ing before it was to have gone to the
jury. Any American not familiar with
the French procedure would suppose
that this could be done only on the
ground of some newly discovered evil
dence material to the case. But no; the
prosecuting officer merely said that he
mad heard that man named Thuillier
stated that he had met the accused in a
place of bad repute in Paris, in 1871,
nine years before the murder for which
she was being tried; and the case was
put over and Virginle remanded to pris-
on ostensibly in order to allow this man
to be produced. This mode of getting
rid of a jury disposed to acquit was a
little too mucn for the French press and
was pronounced not exactly in accord,
ance with a healthy administration of
Justice
Three months passed and Virginie was
again arraigned, now before new jury.
The witness Thuillier was not produced
but the defence showed by many wit
nesses that his alleged testimony was un'
true. The evidence apart from this ex-
traneous question, was the same as in
August. The accused appeared worn
and her voice was weak. The judge,
President Plichon asked her if she re-
GREETED having killed the faithless one,
and she answered No; l prefer that he
be dead than married. l could not re,
concile myself to seeing his child and
mine abandoned by its father"
ATong the spectators at the trial were
Laloi dressed in a con~
splcuous toilet and evidently not incon-
solable for Picart, and long train of the
poor relatives ofVirginie. The evidence
showed that Picart had been in the habit
of borrowing money from women, and
that he only valued Virginie because she
lent him money.
The jury found her guilty with extern
uating circumstances. She was senten.