Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1884-05-28
Crime I'm Paris

Recently monsieur de Paris" as
NE Paris populace nicknamed the exc
Eutioner, pulled peg out of a piece OF
framework that supported triangular
piece of steel and there fell into the
bag of sawdust, the common recefta-
Gle of such offerings, the bleeding
head of one of the greatest scoun-
drels that ever throve in the poisonous
atmosphere of 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 buleteer; his nerve
failed him at the last moment and he
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 a degree
of romantic interest among the pOplua-
tion of the capital usually only accord
ed TO those who have earned reputa-
ton in its criminal annals by wholesale
slaughter, such as that of Dumallard,
who enticed great number OF servant
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 aid of an accomplice; the skilful
poisoner, La Pommerage, a physician
in great practice and an accomplished
scholar, or the murderer In the Fualdes
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 peculiar interest to
the 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 his
reason for so doing, the fact that he
had brother, who belonged TO the
honorable profession of arms and wore
the uniform of French officer in a
line regiment, whose agony and shame
at seeing one of his own name die a
felon's death would drive him to de-
spair and ruin the prospects of his life.
The high standing of Laguerre, Campi's
lawyer, forbids the suppo5ition that
Campi's story was device to excite
compassion and cheat the guillotine.
But the murderer's attitude in court
was extremely theatrical and the cheap
eloquence of the heroes of boulevard
melodrama was always in his mouth. In
his cell he gave vent to hts 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 save a
brothers reputation the idea was a
noble one and shows that even in the
darkest depths of the most degraded
human heart there sometimes filters a
ray of purer light to reveal the uniyer-
sal kinship of mankind.
In Troppmann's case the unlikell-
hood of an unaided man being able 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 loves
type or criminals. IL was during the
Second Empire, and notwithstanding
the enormity of his crime, he made an
application to the Garle deS Sceaux for
the Communication of his sentence. 1t
was refused, but the Empress Eugene
received bundle of letters, written in
the fine handwriting of woman, ad-
dressed to Madame Braig, who kept
small tavern in the Rue Grange Bat
eliere. The writer pretended to possess
information showing that Troppmann
could not have committed the crime by
himself, and that if a trustworthy per-
sou were sent 10 a certain address
proofs would be produced. An inyeS-
tigation set on foot resulted in nothing.
Ii 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 q criminal like himself and
the interest she took in him was purely
professional one. 1t was ah instance
Of the free masonry Of crime.
Tro2pmann hoped against hope until
the fatal day of his execution. Mon
sieur Claude, the Prefect of Police,
asked him on the scaffold to reveal the
names of his accOmpliceS, if he had
any. TroDpmann repeated Il 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 the Place de la ROquette in
January, 1870, battle description. Such
excitement, such an orgie of blood,
that when in the following March
Lathouyers, 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.