The Penn's Grove record., 1884-05-24
Crime IN Paris

Recently s.Mons.el. Ge raTis," as
the Paris populace nickhLmed the exc,
cutioner, pulled a peg out OF a Plece Oh
framework that supported atrlahgulaI
piece of steel and there fell INTO the
bag of sawdust, the common receiIa-
Gle of such offerings, the bleeding
head of one of the greatest scoun-
drels that ever thrOve in the poisonous
atmosphere of a great city. The mo-
tive of the crime for which he suffered
was a mean one. He murdered Two
helpless old men in their sleep for the
sake of money. He lacked the COM
mon courage of the b%uleteer his nerve
failed him at the last moment and ne
| fled from the scene Of the murder be-
fore his task was accomplished and had
to return to complete his hideous Work.
But he succeeded in exciting q degree
of romantic interest among the popiua-
ton of the capital usually only accord
ed to those who have earned a reputa-
ton in its criminal annals by wholesale
slaughter, such as that of Dumallard,
who enticed a great number of seryant
girls to his house and murdered them
for the sake of their paltrey savings;
Troppmann. who murdered the whole
family of Knicks, eight IN all, without
the and of an accomplice the skhIul
poisoner, La Pommerage, a physician
in great practice and an accomplished
/ scholar, or the murderer IN the tualdes
case, who chopped the victim into mi
mute pieces while music was being
played to drown the noise.
1t was not the circumstances of the
crime that lent a peculiar interest TO
tile criminal in Campi's case. what
made the public take an interest In him
was the fact that he managed to con-
ceal his real name, and gave, as MS
reason for so doing, the fact that ne
had a brother, who belonged TO the
honorable profession of arms and wore
the uniform of a French officer in a
line regiment, whose agony and shame
at seeing one of his own name die a
felon's death would drive MN 10 de-
| spair and ruin the prospects OF his NE.
| The high standing of Laguerre, Camps
LAWYER. forbids the supposition that
Campi's story was a device to excite
COMPASSION and cheat the ~gulllotlne.
| But the murderer's attitude in court
I was extremely theatrical and the cheap
eloouence of the heroes of boulevard
melodrama was always in his mouth. In
his cell he gave vent to fits of savage
passion. like a wild beast. Yet if it be
true. and it no doubt is, that he con-
demned himself to silence to a V a
brothers. reputation the idea was d
noble one and shows that even IN the
darkest depths Of the most degraded
human heart there sometimes nltters a
ray of purer light to reveal the unlVer-
sal kinship of mankind
In Troppmann's case the unlikeli-
hood of an unaided man being to
destroy eight human beings was worked
to the best advantage by his lawyers
and by some of his criminal associates.
for Troppmann belonged to the lowest
type of criminals. 1t was during the
Second Empire, and notwithstanding
the enormity of his crime, he made an
application to the Garde des Sceaux for
the. communication. Of bis sentence. 1t
received a bundle of letters, written in
the fine handwriting Of a woman, adj
dressed to a Madame Braig, who kept
a small tavern in the Rue Grange-Bat-
eliere. The writer pretended to possess
LllOl uldUiOu W tudO LlOppulduu
could not have committed the crime by
himself, and that if a trustworthy per-
son were sent to a certain address
proofs would be produced. An inyes-
LEGATION set on foot resulted in nothing.
1t was a simple device to obtain a stay
of execution. But the most curious
part of the whole transaction was that
the person who wrote the letters did
not know Troppmann, except by NAME.
She was a criminal like himself and
the interest she took in him was purely
a professional one. 1t was al instance
of the free masonry of crime.
Troppmann hoped against hope until
the fatal day of his execution. Mon
sieur Claude, the Project of Police,
asked him on the scatfold to reveal the
names of his accomplices, if he had
any. Troppmann repeated II cannot'
again and again. When the execution
er's assistants tried to put his head in
its proper position under the axe all the
violence of that wild-heart nature as
serted itself. A terrible scene followed.
The rawlings of the mob around the
scaffold on tue Place de la Roquette in
January, 1870, battle description. Such
excitement, such an Orgie of blood,
that when in the following March
LathOuvers, the footman who had
murdered his aged mistress, was con-
demned to death, the Emperor to
avoid a repetition of such scenes,
committed his sentence to Imprisonment
for life.