The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-02-09
BODIES PACKED
In TRUNKS.
CASTOR Gavarni Interviews a Paris
Magistrate on The Subject.
Eyraud, the Stranger, Only an Imitatot of
Other Murderers How Trunks Have Fig
ured in French Assassinations.

Michael Eyraud, of whom all the world
is talking said he, " is only copyist, a
plagiarist and fraud. The packing in the
trunk OF his victims corpse and the transfer
OF the funeral package to Lyons-all that
is but ancient history and offers nothing
very bold, very original or very new. Many
| scoundrel, before the vulgar stranger of
| the Rue Tronson-du- Coudray, had employed
that method of causing the disappearance of
the trace of crime identical with that which
wiped the notary Gonffe from the land of the
living and Of pleasure-seelsers
why, more than hundred years ago, in
the morning of February 8, I777, small
man, with wan and wrinkled face, wearing
alter the fashion of the day lilac-hued
overcoat in the English style and carrying
| in his hand a gold-headed cane, was passing
along the narrow Rue de la Mortellerie, in
the neighborhood of the Hotel de Vile.
At the junction of the Rues Geoffroy y Asnier
| and des Nonnains-d Yeres, he noticed upon
the front of house this placard: Cellar
to Rent He Immediately entered the
house and came out ten minutes later with
a satisfied and jubilant air. while the pro-
prietress of the building certain Nine.
Mason, wife OF former register OF the
civil depot of the Charlottesville 10 one Of
her neighbOTs:
hdFC Juot MY IL Ludb pCi-
son for the storage of Spanish wine. which
he has no room for at his place
The next day the same small man re-
turned to the Rue de la Mertelerie
He accompanied a dray ON which was a
cask and a huge trunk enyeloped in a big
piece OF canvas. They were lowered into
the cellar by the drayman, a charcoal-d ealer
of Port Saint-Paul, who was passing and
willingly lent a hand, and a water-carrier
who lived in the house.
A CHASTITY DISCOVERY.
Some time afterward the rumor
spread through Paris of the disappear
ance of one Madame de la Motto, wife OF
Sieur Saint-Faust de la Note, ex-grOom of
the grand stable Of his Majesty. That lady,
at the time she had ceased to be seen. lived
at the house of grocer of the Rue Beau
bourg, named Desrues. to whom she had
recently sold piece of land she possessed
near Vileneuve-l e- Roi- lessons.
"DtSrueS was arrested One of his credi-
tors recollected having met him In the Rue
de la Mortel!erie, walking behind huge
Madame Mason had spoken to the Com
missary of Police of her quarter concerning
| the renter of her cellar, whom she had not
since seen. On April 18th the officers of
justice appeared upon the spot. The door
of the cellar was broken open. The trunk
| was found in little nook beneath the stair
way. 1t contained the corpse of woman
covered only with n chemiSe; the head was
sewed up in a bit Of oiled silk.
THE body was recognized by its ear
rings with pendants as that OF Madame dc
la Motto.
"Desrues had poisoned her SO as to avoid
paying her the price Of the land he had pur-
chased from her.
The wretch was executed on the Place
de Greve May 9th following.
''in 1903 a butcher of the enyirons of
Melun, named LespinoiS, drew one of his
creditors into an ambuscade. slaughtered
and bled him like an OK, and then shut him
up in trunk, which he shipped to Paris in
a vessel, marked sailed meat
''LeSpinOiS was executed.
sit was likewise in a trunk of English
origin that IN 1917, at Bretaux, was dis
| covered the body of banker y. Of Mar
settles, who had quilted that city fortnight
before In company with two foreigners. The
| latter were never captured.
COOL wIFE-atURDERER.
sin 1888 the authorities of Lille were in
| formed of the disappearance of woman
| named klOotZ, married to Belgian work
| man. The officers went to the house of the
latter whom they found seated on an old
| trunk of small dimensions, calmly smoking
| his pipe. They demanded of him where his
wife was.
She's not far off. that's sure!' he an
| swered, TRANQUILITY.
'She was in the trunk, where he had
| placed her after having killed her in a fit of
rage. AT the Court of AssZes astonisn-
ment was expressed that he had been able
| to pack the unfortunate woman away in
] such small space.
"'Oh Monsieur the President replied
| the murderer, 'Pll bet that there was yet six
| inches to spared!
"Klootz was sentenced to hard labor for
| life
ION April %, 1912. curious thropg had
| invaded the courtyard of the Messageries
| Generates at Orleans; the Procureur du Roi
| CommisSary of Police, several officers and
| some gendarmes had made descent upon
| the baggage-shed belonging to that estab-
| lishment.
while the Procureur du Roi was looking
| over the register of departures. certain
| Benand, who kept, in the Rue de la Halle
barde, the Hotel de Europe, approached,
and, catching sight of an enormous trunk
| lying on the floor, said:
That's itp
'They broke the lock of the trunk. 1t
| contained roll of bagging This was un-
| folded and they perceived two human legs
| detached from mutilated body placed be-
meath these bloody fragments. The corpse
was examined, and one OF those present ex-
| claimed:
1T is, indeed, our concierge at the bank,
| our poor Bosselierp
The latter had gone out to make collec-
tions on the morning of the previous day.
The bank people were amazed at not seeing
| him return in the evening. They made in
qulries and learned that BOOKSELLER kept
company with individuals of doubtful NOR
atty, among others a certain Montely, the
agent of an insurance company of Saint-Ger-
main-en-Laye.
'lt was this Montely who had lured Bois-
seller into chamber of the Hotel de
| Europe, where be had cut his throat in
order to get possession of his wallet aud
sack and then carved up the corpse of his
victim to pack in trunk which he had
afterward had carried to the Messageries
TO be transported to Toulouse.
"Montely confessed his crime.
The records state that he underwent CAPT.
tai punishment with the repentances, the
courage and resignation of o Christian
TRUNK THAT swEATED RED.
''Some years later the employees of the
railway depot at Dornach, near Mulhouse.
noticed that trunk, left to be called for by
an unknown female traveller, had the APP
pearance of sweating red, as the police say.
1t was opened. 1t contained the torso and
head of u woman, whose legs were picked
up some days afteward on the banks of the
Canal de la Marine at the Rhine.
"a singular circumstance about this affair
was that the identity of the murdered
woman was never established
"a hotel keeper, by the name of Bletrv.
at whose house she had lodged and who was
accused of having killed her, benefited by
this mystery. After a sensational trial,
fertile in twists and turns, the Court of
AssiZes of the Haut-Rhin acquitted him. as
well as his wife aud two of his servants, his
three presumed acc0mplices.
"a trunk also played an important part
in the assassination. in Paris, of the mer-
chant of bronzes, PORTER Desfon,aIne, by
his servant, Viau.
ITO conclude, people have not forgotten
the tragedy of the Rue du Paradis-Poisson
Mere, which sent Lebiez aud Barre to the
scaffold. A trunk had been prepared by
these two wretches TO receive the BODY Of
the milk woman, Gillet,"
The old magistrate had completely made
out his case and fully established his charge
that Eyraud had simply followed 10 the foot
steps OF other murderers.