New-York tribune., 1891-05-02
TUE CASE OF FRENCHY.

Tbero seems TO be no doubt that the person
whom Inspector Byrnes has captured Tor the
murder of the Shakespeare" woman ana
around whom he has woven close net OF evil
dence NAV safely be classed among the surplus
nonulation. if not among those whose existence
is n menace TO the public peace. 1t would ap-
oarentlv be difficult if not impossible for
" Frenchyr to Justify himself for even the air ne
breatbes, He is evidently a brute. But it is
occasionally necessary to remind police de-
toctives that tho general undesirability OF
human being does not furnish valid reason
for making him suffer for crime that ne old
NOT commit We are far from saying that
"Frenchy' is innocent OF the shakespeare
creatures death. 1t looks good deal as II ne
were guilty. The Inspector tells straight-
forward and reasonable story, and some parts
of pont plainly to " Frenchy." But it is still
a long way from affordng downright PROOF OF
guilt, and the public is not safe IN assuming
on what il now is permitted to know that the
murderer has surely been caught.
"Frenchyr occupied room in the hotel den
where the tragedy occurred across the hall from
the room in which the woman had rureu
with an Unknown. So much the bartender wit
nesses The Unknown in this situation woulu
be a most useful person to have in sale Keep
ing. but he has got off, and evidently means TO
keen his distance When "Frenchy' was
caught. about twenty-four hours after the muir
der. he lied abundanty lie lied as to all his
movements for a week. Nothing he said turned
out to be true. He lied especially concerning
his whereabouts on the night of the murder, and
that. Of course, is most suspicious. As to what
o,,H
testimony is conclusive. Moreover, When caugho
he had human blood on his clothing. There was
a large spot OF it on his shirt several spots on MS
trousers and what seemed to be the DlOody
traces of a human hand on his coat-colar. Inc
Inspector, in following this line OF evidence
which. of course, is highly significant, lays par
tjcuar stress on the results OF chemical
analysis of the materials scraped from beneath
his finger nails, but it is to be hoped that the
operation by which those materials were col
lected was delicately performed. for, OF course,
there is a way of scraping which might procure
the bl.od of Frenchy" himself rather than that
of another victim 1t might be difficult to per-
siade Jury that it would be possible to sub
iect an unwilling person to this operation with
out a measure of violence sufficient to draw
some trace OF blood.
OF these bloody evidences the physicians and
chemists testify, and here for the first time ap-
pear witnesses who are open to no form of sus-
picion The women who tell )of " "Frenchys'
former acquaintance with Shakespeare" ana
the barkeeper who says he occupied the neigh
boring ROOM are of bad antecedents. The de-
ectives who report his lies may be thought to
be over-anxious 10 vindicate Themselves. But
everybody will assume that the physicians and
chemists believe what they say. Some OF them
are counted upon to declare that bloody marks
were found in "Frenchy's" room, on its door,
chair and bed, and that there was faint trail
of blood from the one room into the other. But
if any such marks exist they escaped the atten-
| ton of the reporters who came IN upon the
scene while the murdered woman yet lay where
she fell and to do that they must have been
very faint indeed. II will not be claimed that
the eyes even of reporter are as certain and
| trustworthy as the tools Of chemist, but eVl-
dence of this sort obtained az so short time
after tragedy loses its convincing force in pro-
portion as it becomes intangible.
Here the evidence against FIenchy" stops
abruptly. The Inspector says there is more, al
luding probably to the history of the weapon
with which the deed was done. and it will be
admitted that If this knife can be surely traced
into the possession OF the prisoner remarkably
strong case will be made out. Even, then, how
ever, it will be circumstantial throughout. and
the reluctance of juries to take human life on
this kind of evidence is always hard for prose-
cutor to contend with.