Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1895-01-14


The trial of Nine. Henri Joniaux on
a charge OF having murdered her
brother, sister and uncle, in order to
get their life insurance, began in Ant
werp last Monday. Nine. Jonaiux de-
MED that she committed the murders,
but admitted that she gambled, and
thus incurred debts. Her first husband
burdened her, she said, with debts
amounting to 100000 francs. More
than 250 witnesses will be examined.
Nine. Henri Joniaux, daughter of
General Ablay and wife of the Chief
Engineer of Bridges and Roads for the
Began Ministry Of War, was arrested
in Antwerp on April is, last year, or a
charge of the wholesale murder of her
relatives. She is accused OF poisoning
her sister, Leonine, and her brother,
Alfred Ablay, in order to obtain insur-
ances of 70, ,000f. and of 100, ,000f. on their
lives, and also OF poisoning her uncle,
Jacques Van den Kerchove, in order TO
inherit her share ofhis estate. The prose-
cution is the result of the action of an
English insurance company. which
issued the policy on Alfred Ablay's life.
Leoniue Ablay died on February "a,
1892, and il was supposed that Influenza,
complicated with pneumonia, was the
cause of her death. The physician had
no suspicion that the death was not due
to natural causes
Or March IS, 1898. Nine. Joniaux
gave banquet to celebrate the pro-
motion of her husband 10 his present
position. Ons of her guests was her
uncle, Jacques Van den KerchoVe, q
man sixty years old, ,of large fortuue, ,and
resident il Client, who was shortly to be
married to his mistress by whom he had
a SOD, whom he had legi;imized, though
the fact of his coming marriage and Of
the legitimization was not known to
his family. After the banquet, which
lasted five hours, M. Jacques Van den
Kerchoye fell in fit, and died the
next morning, as the doctors thought,
of apoplexy, to the great grief of M.
and Nine. JoDiaux.
Alfred Ablay rowing brother of
Nine. Joniarx, had gone into the
army, married and lost his wife, migrat-
ed to Buenos Ayres and to Paris with
out making his fortune, and then turn
ed up like bad penny in Antwerp,
where he took up his abode with his
sister. He did not long enjoy her
hospitality, for few weeks after his
arrival, or or March 6 last, he sudden
ly died of heart disease, or of what
passed for it. Alfred Abbey was in
sured in the insurance company for
100000 f. for the benefit Of his sister,
and the company, becoming suspicious,
took steps to have Alfred's body exam
ed and post mortem examination made
o. it. This was done shortly after t.
arrest of Nine. Joniaux, and it WAS
subsequently, stated that ten grains ef
morphia-more than enough to have
killed him-werc found in the stomach.
Nine. Joniaux has not ceased since
her arrest to protest her innocence,
and the case has aroused much inter
est throughout Belgium because of the
social position of the accused, who he
longs to one of the best families of the
kingdom.
The evidence against her was SO
strong that The public became con-
vinced of her guilt in advance of trial,
and the detestation of her crime is so
great that there is q general popular
clamor for the woman's head. There
was no attempt to conceal the univer-
sal loathing when the woman was
placed in the dock on Monday.
1t is, perhaps, the best tribute of her
wonderful qualities 70 say that when
her four days duel for her life with
the presiding magistrate was finished
Friday evening, there was q strong re-
action in public sentiment in her favor.
The trial will continue another ten
days, but it is hardly possible to ex-
ceed the dramatic interest of the long
inquisition of the prisoner at the hands
of the magistrate.