The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-04-20
AN EXTRAORDINARY CRIMINAL.
The Career of a wife-Murderer Now Under
Sentence of Death.

Sentence of Death.
Burlington (Vt Correspondence New York Herald.
Henry De Bosnys one of the most extra
ordinary criminals of the age, is to be hanged
April 81, at Elizapethtown, N. Y, a little
village on Lake Champlain, directly oppo-
site this city. His crime is commonplace
enough being that of wife murder, but his
career has been most remarkable one.
year ago last summer he drifted from
New York city up the Hudson, and thence
along the western shore of Lake Champlain
until he reached the town of Essex, where
he procured employment as farm laborer.
After brief courtship he married
Elizabeth Wells, widow much his senior
in years, who owned a small property. On
the LIST OF August, 1882, Mr. and Mrs. De
Bosnys were seen driving out of the village,
and after brief interval De Bosnys was
seen continuing the journey alone The
woman not making her appearance search
was made, which resulted in the finding of
her mangled and lifeless body concealed
under mass of leaves and rubbish near the
side OF the road Circumstances plainly
pointed to the husband as the murderer
He was arrested and upon his person was
found quantity of articles of personal prop
erty which were identified as having be-
longed to his wife. The trial took place last
March, and the evidence, though entirely
circumstantial in its character, was over
whelming as to the respondents guilt The
jury was out only ten minutes and returned
with verdict of guilty of MURDER in the
first degree
De Bosnys was born nearly fifty years ago
it appears at Belem, Portugal, two miles
from Lisbon, on the river Tagus, When he
was very young his parents removed to
France and he was educated at communal
school, the seminary of St Brieux, and the
Normal Superior School at Paris. His edu-
cation was thorough and extensive, and he
can write and speak six languages-Engish,
French, Italian, Spanish, Greek and Portu-
guese-and can less~perfectly speak and I'M
derstand several other languages. While
yet mere lad he sailed with a North Polar
expedition under Leclaire and was gone near
ly two years-February 1913, to October
1850. In 1854 with his father and brother
he volunteered for the Crimean war, and
served in the French army in the Crimea for
a couple of years. A few years of peace fol-
lowed, in which De BoSnys completed his
education, but on the breaking out of the
war with Austria, in 1859, he joined Mac
Mahon's army, in which, however, he
saw but few months service sailing in the
autumn to China with the French contin-
gent Returning to France. he joined the
French expedition to Mexico in 1861, and
after few months joined the Mexican side
becominga captain OF guerrillas under Lopez
In this service he was severely wounded in
an engagement and, oonceiVing dstate for
the Mexican system of warfare, he came
North, and, being cured of his wound, en-
listed in the Fourth Pennsylvania Volun-
teers in 1864.
A short time afterward the battle OF Gettys-
burg was fought, and in it De Bosnys was
severely wounded in the head and Loft hand.
His injuries procured his discharge from the
army, and in 1864 he went back to France,
where, in two months, he married Mile
DesmaraiS. Matrimony, however, failed to
eradicate his love OF adventure, and after
honeymoon of only two months
he sailed on another Arctic expe-
dition, and was absent in the polar
regions nearly three years-from July, 1864
to February, 1867 Returning he went to
Rome, thence to Paris thence to New York
and thence to the Indian Territory. The out
break OF the Franco-Prussian war called him
from his aboriginal retirement. and he cross
ed the sea ard entered the French army ris-
ing by successive promotions until he be-
came colonel under General Bourbaki. He
served all through the war with VARYING for
tunes, at its close escaping to Marseilles,
whence he shipped for America. On this
side of the ocean his career was much less
brilliant. He fell by degrees until he be-
came a tramp, wandering about the country
and doing odd jobs of work as a painter and
farm laborer, and finally came the crime
which will put an end to his restless career
Besides the extraordinary facts of his life
there is a good deal of mystery about the
man. DE Bosnys is merely an assumed name,
and what his real name is no one
knows nor from the present outlook, ever
will know The murderer is extremely
reticent about his personal antecedents.
his family and his friends Since his arrest
he has communicated only with the French
consul at New York, but of course that Off
cial could do nothing to shield him from
the consequences of his crime. AT the time
of the trial De Bosnys was very sick and had
to be taken into court. He listened to all
the proceedings with an air of the most COM
plete indifference-an indifference which
disappeared only at the passing of the
death sentence, when the wretched man
broke down and wept and sobbed aloud. He
subsequently attempted to starve himself to
death, but the Jail authorities frustrated the
attempt. OF late he has manifested toward
jailors and visitors the most ferocious saw
agery, and no one can do anything with him.
His time he spends in writing his autobiog-
raphy and a singular document it must
prove to be. Altogether it is most ex-
traordinary case, and De Bosnys is a most
extraordinary man.
The Georgia Gold Mines.
Louisville Courier Journal