The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-02-16
Che minds Of the jury. His efforts were

completely successful
Courrioi. Bernard and Lesurques were
pronounced guilty of highway robbery
and murder. Richard was found guilty
of receiving stolen property. Guesno
and Bruer were acquitted.
Lesurques turned pale with horror
when he heard the unexpected verdict,
and raised his hands as if in depreca-
ton. Then. conquering his emotion he
stood up, and with the calmness and Dig
nifty that characterized his bearing to
the end said: ''Unquestionably the crime
Of which I am accused is terrible one.
and deserves to be punished with death;
but if murder on the highway is crime,
the abuse of law to strike an innocent
man is no less criminal. The day
will come when my innocence shall
be esta ']lished; then my blood be on the
hea Is of the jurors who have convicted
me without due reflection, and on the
Judge who has Influenced them to do
SOL
Courriol now made his first effort to
save Lesurques. He rose from his seat,
and cried out: "Lesurques and Bernard
are innocent! Bernard only lent the
horses. Lesurques had nothing to do
with the matter" These remonstrances,
of course, availed nothing. 1esurques,
Courriol and Bernard were condemned
to death; Richard to twenty-four years
imprisonment. The property, real and
personal, of all four was confscated.
Courriol had two interviews with the
authorities, in the hope of saving Lesur-
ques. He gave the names of his accom-
plices as .Durochat, Vidal. Dubosc and
ROussy. He said that Durochat, under
an assumed name, had taken his place
on the coach beside the courier, and
that the rest of them had met at the
Barriere de Charenton, and proceeded
on horseback to Lieursaint, dining on
the way at Montgeron; and declared
that the spur found on the ground be-
longed to Dubosc, who resembled [ e.
surQues, and was COMPOUNDED with him
by the witnesses. He appealed to his
mistress in confederation of his state
ments as to the resemblance between
Dubosc and [ esurIues.
She affirmed that there was a strong
likeness between them, which was much
heightened by blond wig worn by
Dubosc on the day of the murder, and
confirmed all the other particulars given
by Courriol, so far as she was acquaint-
ed with them.
These developments melted Lesurques
and his friends to renewed exertions,
and they succeeded in bringing the case
to the notice of the Directory The
Directory referred it to the Council of
Five Hundred, and the Council referred
it to committee.
But all was in vain. The committee
reported adversely to Lesurques, and
nothing now was left for him to do
but to prepare for death. He took leave
of his wife and children the day before
his execution, and ON the evening of the
same day cut off his hair with his own
hands, and inclosed it in packet for
his wife, which he touchingly addressed:
ga la cheyenne Veuve Lesurques.
At the same time, he again babe her
farewell in the following pathetic
lines:
When you read this letter I shall be no
more; the cruel knife will have cut short my
days-days so happily cOnSecrated to you.
am to be Judicially murdered. 1t is my fate
and there is no escape fromit. / have endured
my lot with all the constancy and courage Of
winch human nature is capable. May hope
that you Will initiate my example? Your fe
is not yours; it belongs to your children and
to your husband if he was dear TO you
''This is all have to ask.
"a little packet of my hair will be handed to
you Keep it carefully, and when my chill
dren are grown share 1t with them. 1t is all
that have to leave them for inheritance.
Farewell forever. My last sigh SHALL be for
you and my unfortunate children
He wrote, also, to his friends in these
words:
THE truth could not manifest itself, and 1
am aboutto perish the victim of a mistake.
May hope that you will entertain for my
wife AMI children the same friendly feelings
that you have always shown for me, and aid
them under all circumstance ? / thank NJ
Gunner, my defender, for the pains that he has
Now receive, one and all, my last fare
we'll"
Lastly, he addressed an open letter
to Dubosc, for insertion in the news
papers:
''You, in whose stead am about to die. rest
content with the sacrifice of my life If ever
you fall into the hands of justice, think of my
their mother: prey to despair, and do not pro-
long the misfortunes caused by the fatal like
ness that bear to you"
Lesurques, Courriol and Bernard
were executed on the 30th of October,
1896:
AS soon as Lesurques mounted the
cart tina was to carry him to the place
of execution, Courriol pointed him out
to the crowd, and cried in loud voice:
Il am guilty, but Lesurques is inno-
cent? and he continued so doing I'M
til they reached the foot of the guillo-
tine.
Lesurques, clad all in white, in token
OF his Innocence, never, for a moment
lost his self-cemmand. When his turn
came, he, assembled the scaffold with a
firm step. and uttered few words of
forgiveness for his Judges, then he laid
his head upon the block, and so passed
into the presence of the never-erring
Judge. @
-Four months after these events, the
police succeeded in arresting Durochat.
He was fully recognized as the pretended
traveller on the Lyons coach, and
eventually made full confession, sus-
tanning in every particular the account
given by Courriol. He declared that
Bernard not only lent the horses, but
had share of the plumber With ref
erence to Lesurques he said: II have
heard that man named Lesurques was
condemned for completely with us.
Truth compels me to say that | never
knew the man, neither when we
planned the job nor when we did it.
| did not know him and | never saw
him."
Vidal and Dubosc were captured be-
fore Durochat was executed, and he
identified them both; but they escaped
from prison before they could be brought
to trial. Vidal was soon recaptured,
tried, condemned and executed. Du-
bose remained at large for some time,
but at length he was retaken, and con-
fronted with the ten witnesses who had
sworn against Lesurques. One of the
ten maintained and one retracted his
evidence given at the first trial; the re-
manning eight declared that they could
not say whether Dubosc or Lesurques
was the man whom they had seen. d.
bose, for his part, denied everything, as
Vidal had done before him, and seized
e"ery advantage offered by his resem.
blance to Lesurques, and the latter S
conviction and execution; but all in
vain. He was. guillotined on the 10Th
of December, 1900.
Ro,,ccx- Lot of c.