Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-01-24
REMARKABLE CASES OF CIR
CUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

Cases exhibiting the precarious ma
ture of circumstantial evidence, indie
pendently of the deep interest which
generally attaches to them as mere
narratives, are calculated to work Sc
beneficial al effect on the public mind
that they cannot, it seems to US be toe
frequently or too prominently brought
forward in pages adapted for popular
reading. By no other means can man
kind be so strongly impressed with 6
salutary conviction of the necessity O
making the strictest and most minute
investigations, ere the life of fellow
creature be arbitrarily shortened, ol
guilt of whatever kind be Gecisively
laid to any ones charge. The follow
ing cases of circumstantial evidence are
collected from various sources. The
first we find in the able notes to q
Scotch edition of Bentham's Works
and the authority adduced is one ofthe
collections of French criminal causes
that have been published at various
times. The case is given in the original
French, OF which the following is a
literal translation
Previously to the rebuilding of that
long range of houses which line the
Place St. Michel, at Paris, in front ol
the Rue ST. Hyacinth, an aged widow
lived near that spot, being the occupant
of small shop, to which was attached
a back -parlor where she slept. She
was believed by the neighbors to have
amassed a considerable amount of
money. One young lad constituted,
for a long time her entire household.
He slept on the fourth floor of the same
building, but the staircase leading to
his apartment had no communication
with the dwelling of his mistress. The
lad was obliged to go round by the
street, when he had to enter the shop,
and when he left it to go to bed, he
shut the outer door, and carried away
the key, of which he was the sole de-
pository. One morning the shop door
was noticed to he earlier open than
usual, while at the same time no move
ment indicated that either the old shop
keeper or assistant had arisen This
quietness alarmed some of the neigh
bors On entering, they perceived no
marks of violence about the door, but
they found bloody knife lying in the
middle of the shop and on her bed, in
the back apartment, lay the shopmis-
tress, dead-stabbed, to all appearance,
with the weapon mentioned The
corpse held in one hand small hand
full of hair. and in the other cravat or
neckcloth. Near the bed was the
money-box, hich had been forced aud
pillaged. The young shop-assistant
was Immediately seized, and he admit
ted that the bloody knife belonged to
him. The cravat which the murdered
woman held in her hand was his. They
compared his air with that grasped in
the other hand the two were the same,
in color and in every other respect.
Finally, the key of the shop was in his
possession; he alone had the power,
by means of that key, of entering the
shop without resorting to force. On
the strength of this accumulation of
evidence he was put to the torture ;
under its agonies, he admitted the
crime, and was broken on the wheel.
Shortly afterW ards, tavern boy was
taken up for some crime of a different
nature. In the declaration emitted by
him after conviction and condemnation,
he confessed that he was the sole actor
in the assassination of the old woman
in the Place st. Michel The tavern
where he served adjoining her shop,
shop-boy To the latter he acted as
hair.dresser, SO far as regarded the
periodical arrangement of the lads hair
en- queue and always when he used
the comb, he carefully gathered those
hairs which the instrument detached.
By little and little he had thus collect
ed the handful which was found in the
grasp Of the murdered woman. The
knife, and one of the cravats of the lad,
he had procured without difficulty, and
the terms of intimacy on which they
were, enabled him with equal ease to
take an impression in wax Of the shop
key, for the fabrication of false one.
By these means he entered and COM
mitted the deed, leaving things in the
state which has been related.
Such is the story as told by French
writer. Seldom has there been piece
of viliainy so coolly planned and so
ruthlessly executed, at the foreseen and
expected cost of existence to two un-
fortunate beings. The succeeding two
cases are of similar order, exhibiting
the fall of innocence before premedi-
tated villainy, and are from the Causes
Celebres, first series, volume third
(Amsterdam edition of 1775)
THE JEWS.
In hotel or lodging-house at Milan,
q Frenchman and two Jews were resi-
dent at one and the same time. The
Jews occupied a chamber adjoining
that of the Frenchman, who formed an
acquaintance with them In consequence,
observed them to be very rich, as they
often counted great bags of Spanish
pistoles in his presence. This led him
to the following guilty device. He cut