The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-23
A STRANGLER OF PARIS.
TIE AFFAIRE GoUFFE DEVELOPS
TWO REMARKABLE CHARACTERS.

Fast in Her Arms the Man Whom Her
Lover Was Strangling TO Death -
Then She Slept Peacefully in the
Same Room With the Corpse-was
She Hypnotized by the Strangler2
French Detectives in New York
After tho Man With Great Hands
From the Netc York sun.
All that is needed now is an Edgar Allen
Poe and the literary world may be endowed
with tale to rival 1.-THE Murders in the
Rue Morguen and "The Mystery of Marie
Roget" The facts are ready made over in
Paris, and merely the hand of genius is
necessary TO get them together into an
array that shall make 1.-THE Affaire Gouffen
thrill and interest succeeding generations
fully as much as 1t is now thrilling and in
teresting the present generation in France,
and, to a certain extent, throughout the
world, for the GGdire, as might be ex-
Tected of any we,l-regulated mystery in
these days of express trains aud ocean
racers. has already reached out until its
clews have to be sought in San Francisco
and New York, as well as in France and
England, aud promise before the thing is
Republic and into even further regions of
South America. Two French detectives
| arrived in this city this week, aud, although
they are concealing their identity, it is
believed that one of them is Inspector
Gen. Jaime, famous detective officer, who
has been working up the case iii France
AT any rate whatever may be their names,
they have come over on business connected
with the Affaire Gouife, and hope to be
able to return in a short time with the man
who is entitled above all others to be known
as 1.-The Stranger of Paris"
Meantime. any one who runs across a
man about A years old, 5 feet inches or so
| in hight, with hands of remarkable size and
strength, looking as if made on purpose for
strangling, will obiige the French police
and assist in clearing up mystery by call
ing a policeman ana having the follow
| taken into custody at once, on suspicion Of
having murdered one Gouife in Paris on or
| about July 20 last.
M. Gouffe was, up to the latter part of
| last July, a well-known and prosperous
| HuiSSier or marshal, sort of combined
process server and petty magistrate, in the
| quarter Montmartre, in Paris. He was 4S
| years old, widower with two young
| daughters. Aside from the income of his
| Office. which was considerable, he carried
| on quiet little monev-lending business,
| dealing chiefly with persons Of not uncer-
| tain character who lived in the quarter
whore he made his home. He was thus on
| terms of intimacy with and his circum-
| stances were likely to be well known to
persons more apt to be governed by their
| financial desires and necessities than by
| aay moral scruples. Besides this he was
| fond of the company of women, was good
! looking, and was known to BE- wealthy.
His disappearance first came to the ears
of the police on July q last, when his
brother-in-law, NJ. Landry, and his friend,
| NJ. RemY Launaz, asked for assistance TO
discover him. 1t was learned that Gouffe
had been seen the evening before at the Cafe
| Vernon, but after that he had not returned
ito his house, and no further trace of him
| could be discovered. The first clew was
| furnished by the concierge of the house in
! which he had lived, l4S Rue Montmartre,
| who remembered that about two hours after
| the time at which Gouffe had been seen at
| the cafe an unknown man had entered the
| house and gone to the room which Goulfe
used as an Office. With 70 more evidence
| than this to sustain tie theory the police
| decided that a murder had been commit ed,
| and that it was not merely a cgse of flight
or suicide. as had been deemed possible at
first, and an inquest was begun.
| M. Landry had destroyed portion Of the
| correspondence of his brother in-law before
he had called in the police, presumably be-
| cause II contained references to matters OF q
| private nature that the family preferred not
| 10 have heccma public, and from what was
| left the police we're able 10 gain no assistance
| They did discover. b Jweyer a pcrs III ne med
| Hauterive, who testified That a man HON
he had known by sight for a good while,
| but of whose name he was ignorant, had, on
| the evening of Goulfe's Disappearance, at
about 7:2) O'Clock, on The Boulevard Mont
martre, handed him letter, with iGstruc-
lions to give ii to Goulfe, who was approach
| ing, and that when he had handed the letter
| to the marshal the latter smiled and said :
| "All right; tell him [ am gong there" The
| stranger upon hearing this message had pre-
| tended to walk in another direction, but had
| finally set off after Gouife in the direction
of the Porte st. Martin.
| No further progress had been made in the
case when, on Aug. -, some countrymen
discovered in an unfrequeated spot at
| Millery, near Lyons, the body of o man
| tied up in sack and flung into ditch.
| The body was so much decomposed that 1t
was difficult to identify it, and at first it
was supposed to be that Of man named
Dandier, commercial traveller who had
| recently disappeared. But the father of
Dandier could not recognize 1t, and it oc-
| CURED to inspector Jaime, at Paris that
| the body might be that of Gouffe.
Inspector Soudais of the Paris police
was sent to Lyons, and the same day that
| ne got there the police arrested hack
man named Laforge, who told a story
OF three young men, WAC, be said, had
| got hin to drive them out in the country
| with heavy trunk, and, after unloading
| it at lonely spot. had sent him back. His
story was evidently made to fit the disap-
| pearance OF the commercial traveller Dan
dior. and for awhile it threw the police off
| the track; but they finally concluded that
Laforge was simply a monume7t tai liar,
with a longing for notorety, and returned
to the ida that the BODY might be that Of
| Goutfe. Although the marsnars brother
1n-law uld not at first recognize the body,
| careful examination finally proved that
| it was that of Gouffe beyond question-three
things, swollen knee, an old fracture of
an Instep bone, and the traces of an opera
ton for necrosis on the shin bone, making
the Identification complete.
Meantime the fragments of a heavy trunk
had been found hidden in piece Of woods
some distance from the spot where the body
was found, and after they had been put to-
gether the trunk was identified as one
Goat had been taken from the Hotel Bor-
! deaux at Lyons one day in July, by young
man and woman Of respec. able appearance,
who had arrived from Paris the night be.
FORE The trunk had been taken away in
small caoriolet, and livery stable keeper
was found who remembered having let such
a vehicls to a man who answered the de-
inf Of bod cfr of na