The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-02-03


her positive Identification of two IN
inoceDt men as her cousins murderers.
Another similar miscarriage of justice
occurred with regard to the Perreaus,
who were executed towards the end
of the last century for a forgery upon
Mr.. Adair. But one of the mos.
curious and interesting cases of the
kind ON record happened in France
shortly afterward-that is to say, in
1886. This was the famous case OF
Lesurques. which forms, as all play
goers know, the groundwork of The
popular drama of the Lyon Mail. On
the 9th of May, in the year above
named, the Lyons mail was stopped
and robbed by four highwaymen, and
the position and the courier murder
ed. For this crime young man of
good family and some wealth named
Lesurques was arrested, and identifi-
ed by the servants at the inn at which
the highwaymen had refreshed them.
selves, and by certain people in a cafe,
as the leader of the band, nine persons
in all swearing to him. He proved
an alibi, and a woman who was con-
stantly with Dubsoc, the real Grimm
al, swore that he, and not Lesurques,
committed the crime, but all was in
vain, and the latter was condemned
and executed, protesting to the last
his entire innocence. Five years after
ward Dubosc was arrested for another
crime, and being then confronted with
the nine witnesses who had sworn
away the life of Lesurques, they de-
clared that they had been deceived by
the great resemblance between the two
men, and that they had no doubt that
Dubosc was the real criminal. What
MAKES the case still more extraordin-
airy, and renders it easy to see that
Lesurques, despite his alibi, had little
chance of escaping, is that both he
and Dubosc had scars in similar posi-
tions on their foreheads and hands,
and these being made the turning
points of the case, seemed conclusive
evidence against the innocent man.
A FAMOUS CASE.
A vast number of other cases might
be quoted in which the victims of
fatal resemblances, though not suffer
ing the last penalty of the law, have
been put to much trouble and misery,
and often imprisoned, until some
fortunate accident revealed the real
criminals. Thus, for example, much
unhappiness was caused to a certain
Martin Guerre, the hero of one of the
most famous cases of mistaken identity
that ever occurred, and this, too, took
place il France, coming before the
Parliament of Toulouse in 1860.
Martin Guerre was a married man,
and very foolishly, as the result show
ed, left his wife for the space of eight
years. While he was away it occur
red to a certain adventurer, named
Arnauld Dutille, that it would suit
him very well to take the place of
Martin Guerre, to whom he bore an
extraordinary resemblance, install
himself as the missing husband, and
become possessor of his property.
This pleasing plan was but into
execution. Dutille appears to have
been received as the returned Martin,
and the Iatter's four sisters and two
brothers.ln-law seem to have had no
suspicion that the adventurer was not
their relation. Children were born
of this union, and all would have
gone on smoothly had not Dutille's
identity happened to become a subject
of dispute, and then the conflict of
testimony was certainly astounding.
Some hundreds of witnesses were
examined, and of these forty or more
swore that the man was Arnauld
Dutille, while an equal number were
ready to avow as positively that he
was Martin Guerre; great many
Others also declining to give an opinion,
declaring that the likeness between
LIE LWO lucu wac gu SAsA00AoAnohy
that they would not undertake to say
whether Dutille was an impostor or
not. The opportune arrival of the
real Martin Guerre would, we should
have thought, have settled the matter
at once, but even then Dutille brazened
it out, and it was only with difficulty
that the cuckoo-like adventurer was
ousted from the snug nest he had
usurped, many people believing him
to be an injured man. Here the
resemblance, of course, must have
been very strong, but it is impossible
to avoid a suspicion that Mime.
Guerre must have been ola singularly
confding nature, and surely more
evidence than mere facial resemblance
must have been forthcoming that is
to COW the imnostor must have been