Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1896-11-19
HISTORIC TRAGEDY.
CONVICTION OF JOSEPH LEsURoUEs
AND THE SAD SEQUEL.
An Unfortunate Resemblance and a Fatal
Combination of circumstances Caused
the Execution of a Man Whose limo
cence Was Afterward EstabIished.

/ Se AAecutoh OF Man Whose limo
cence Was Afterward Established.
Although Lesuques was executed a.
far back as 1896, though his innocence
was established in 1901, though his
property was restored TO the family in
1924, the corps legislatif, after the fam
lly had tried for over half a century to
have his memory judicially rehabilitat-
ed, definitely refused in 1869 to Der
form this last remaining act of Justice.
The pedantry Of French law forbade the
questioning Of jury's verdict by any
one save the person directly interested.
But though the law has failed " re-
move the stigma on the name of an in
nocent man, literature and the drama
have made him popular hero. ''The
Lyons Mail, in which his honor il
thoroughly yindicated, has been one of
the most popular Of all French meIo-
dramas, and the combined genius CT
Charles Reade and Of Henry Irving have
made it one Of the great successes Of the
modern English stage
Poor Lesurques, who, when he perish
ed on the scaffold, was but 33 years of
age, was q good husband, a good father
and good citizen. He married. in
1880, Mile. Campion, lady Of respect
able family in Douai and possessed of a
handsome dowry. Their children there
fore We're very young and it was in or
der to give them the benefit Of a supe-
rior education that ne relinquished a
public appointment ut DoUai and came
to Paris, there to live on his own private
fortune, which amounted to about Z, 500
francs year. He had but just arrived
in the capital and was experimenting
the furnishing Of his new home when
the thunderbolt fell.
On April ~, 1896, the mail coach be-
tween Lyons and Paris was attacked
and plundered and the position and
courier We're murdered There We're no
witnesses to the crime, but it was re-
ported that party Of horsemen had
been seen in the vicinity at about the
time it was committed These horsemen
had taken dinner ut an inn at Mont
geron. One of Lesurques' friends nam
ed Guenot was arrested on suspicion and
his private papers were seized. There
was no evidence to hold him on except
that he answered the description of one
Of the supposed murderers, and be was
dismissed. Next day he was told to call
for his papers at the central bureau. He
was accompanied thither by Lesurques,
an act Of madness on the part Of the
latter had he been guilty.
1t happened that just at that time the
judge was taking the depositions of wit
nesses who lived in the neighhOrhood Of
the scene Of the murder. Among these
were two maidservants of Montgeron,
who uttered simultaneous screams at
the appearance of the two friends They
were put into the witness box and swore
positively that two of the horsemen
were present in the audience. When
confronted with Lesurques and Guenot,
they positively identified them. Both
were arrested and thrown into prison.
At the trial four other witnesses cor
roborated their testimony with equal
emphasis as regarded Lesurques but
were doubtful about Guenot. The latter
succeeded in establishing a satisfactory
alibi and was released. The formers at
tempted alibi seemed to break down
badly when the daybook Of the jeweler,
Lagrand--to whom he swore he had sold
bill Of goods on the very day Of the
murder-was produced in court and the
date Of the charge was found to have
been altered. In vain the jeweler pro-
tested that the first date was a mistake,
which he had Immediately corrected,
and he and all the other witnesses for
Lesurques were looked upon as self con-
victed perjurers. Lesurques was found
guilty and executed, together with one
Of the real murderers, named Courriol,
who, ON mounting the scaffold, confess
ed his own guilt, but declared the in
nocence of Lesurques. Doubts began to
arise as to the justice Of Lesurques' sen
tence and finally it was discovered that
he had suffered through an extraordi-
nary resemblance to one Dubose, the real
criminal, who was brought to justice in
1901, convicted and executed.
This deplorable case had most deplor-
able sequels. The unhappy Mime. Le-
surques went mad on hearing the news
Of her husbands condemnation. The
children were as yet too young to under
stand their trouble, but as they grew
up one thonght alone possessed them
that of vindicating their dead father. 1T
is easy to understand how broOding over
this purpose drove one daughter to the
madhouse in which her mother had been
confined
1t is curious that one of the witnesses
against Lesnrques-the woman Alfroy
also went insane from grief and re-
morse at her error. Still another victim
was another daughter Of Lesurques, who,
worn out by the fruitless struggle with
the pedantry Of the French laws, drown
ed herself in the Seine. His son left
France, took service III the Russian
army and courted and found death
there. AS regards Lesurques' fortune,
which had been confscated, his unhap-
py family were more successful. In
1924, just 2s years after their fathers
death, they obtained grant Of 244, 600
francs, supplemented in 1895 by another
grant Of POP, 600 francs. London Pub
lie Opinion
An Astonishing Admission.
'There goes a feller," said the man who
was whiting a shingle, tibet is the ig
n'rantest man in this huh township
That's pretty hard thing to say.
He practically owned up ter it hisself,
though We wuz talkin things over in the
store the other night, an I'm dumgasted q
he didn't come right out an own up thet
he didn't know exactly how this COVER
ment orter be runP Washington Star
The Irony OF Fate.
He'd defied the foods Of Pluvius. scaled the
crater Of vesuvius,
Had triumphed over fevers in the jungles
lone and lorn,
He had fought in Abyssinia, he had battled ID
Virginia
And had danced pigeon wing upon the
dizzy Matterhorn.
He had braved thousand dangers in the Land
Of savage strangers
War and famine, fire and tempest. epidemics
and the like
But yesterday at seven, in the calmness Of the
even,
He was killed BY collision with a woman
on a bike.
why She Was Sober.
Said little Fannie Chafiie, Mamma,
this IS the place where some little girls