The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-24
A STRANGE MURDER STORY
THE CRIME OF TWO YOUNG LADS
FROM PARIS IN LOUISIANA

Money Recklessly-Led Back to the
Scene of Their Crime by Haunting
Thoughts of the Victim.
New Orleans Letter to New York Sun.
New Orleans has been treated this week
to the last chapter in a very thrilling
yellow back" story of murder The muir
der itself was a confessed plagiarism from
a very popular book among juvenile Grim
inal literature, THE Life of Jesse James"
but it had variations of its own.
In April last Martin Begneaud was found
dead in his bed in the little town of Scott,
La, some $50 miles from New Orleans, on
the Southern Pacific railroad. Begneaud
was the richest man In that section, a
Frenchman who had made a fortune as a
merchant and storekeeper He was an
old man, jolly and good natured, very
charitable, very popular, and without an
enemy in the world. One day. when his
failure to appear about the house had
aroused suspicion, the place was broken
into 1t and Mr.. Begneaud was found bound
hand and foot and bandaged up with
pieces of calico. When the calico was re-
,
hicted with a poniard or other sharp wea-
pom. A majority of the wounds had evil
IDENTIFY been inflicted not with any inten-
ton of killing the old man, for they were
not in vital parts, but for purposes of tor
ture. He had been prodded in the neck,
chest and sides, and through the tongue,
in order, by torture, to extract from him
the hiding place of his keys or the COM
bination of his safe; and when he had sur
rendered in his agony, for the open safe
told that part of the story, the murderer
had searched for his heart with the dag
| ger, and, after two or three ineffective
blows near 1t, had completed his work.
| The torture must have lasted some time
for the dead mans face showed suffering
| in every feature, and his neck and arms
had been badly cut by the ropes in his
| struggles. 1t took the detectives little
| time to understand that he had been first
| tortured for his mony, and then killed
| and that the murderers had been conceal
| ed about the premises. Begneaud. who
| was bachelor, had had a card party on
| the night of the murder, and his brother
| Simeon Begneaud, as he had hidden him
good night, had seen him lock up the store
| and house, for like most storelxeepers in
| Southern Louisiana, he lived behind his
| shop The murder had been perpetrated
for robbery. There stood the safe open
and empty, and two large bags were miss
] ing from the store, in which the murder
| ers had evidently carried off their plum
der.
The people were deeply aroused by the
| crime, and nearly every one contributed
| to the reward offered for the capture Of
the murderers. The finest pack of blood
| hounds in Louisiana was put on the trail,
/ but failed to track the criminals. There
was not the slightest clue to the murder
ers, and 1t was felt that it was a case
which justified rather extreme measures
| in the matter of arrests. 1t was a bad
time, that spring, for tramps travelling
along the line of the Southern Pacific rail-
! road in Louisiana, for every person against
whom the slightest suspicion pointed,
every one who could not explain where he
had been on the night of April %, was
| liable to arrest. One man was arrested
| for no other reason than that he was the
owner of a three-edged stiletto that fitted
| the wounds in Begneaud's body exactly,
! and a quack doctor and strollng mounte-
bank was Jailed because he had left the
| parish a couple of days after the murder,
and it was fortunate for both that they
had alibis ready, or 1t would have gone
| hard with them.
During all this time the two real muir
| derers passed Begneaud's store daily and
were present at the funeral without the
| slightest suspicion resting on them, for
| crime had been committed by two boys,
one of them delicate little follow with
| an angelic face and pleasant manner Yet
| the crime had been planned and carried
| out by Ernest and Alexis Blanc, both I'M
| der l6 years of age; and not only had the
! idea of the murder been suggested to them
| by 1.-THE Life of Jesse James," but the de-
tails in that story had been accurately and
carefully carried out
| The two boys were brothers. They
were born in Paris, France, and their
mother was a seamstress. They were
bright boys, profoundly interested in Ga
| boriau and in stories of crime and adj
venture. Regarding even Paris as hum
drum, they came to America a year ago
to go out west and grow up with the In
| dams and cowboys. They spent some
\ time in New York, but, not finding it wild
| enough started further west and got to
| Southwest Louisiana. The fact that a
majority of the population spoke French,
| their mother tongue, induced them to re-
main some months here. They worked on
| Col. Dransin Boudreaux's place, a mile
from Scott. They were popular boys and
| well thought of by all, and every one who
| could lent them books, for they seemed to
have a well developed taste for literature.
I both English and French, but mainly of
the lurid order. The Life of Jesse
| James" attracted them most, and they
highwaymen. AS, however. the opportu-
mites for highway robbery were not good.
they concluded to try simple murder first.
For three weeks they talked over their
plan, being determined to arrange all the
details In advance, and go about 1t in a
systematic, business-like, yet dramatic
way After discussing the relative merits
of various wealthy men In the neighbor-
hood, they finally fixed on Martin Beg
neaud as their victim, because he was an
old man and was reported to keep large
amount of money in his store. It took
them fully two weeks to arrange the de-
tails Of the murder. They even picked
out the place where the money was to
be buried after they had killed their vic
tim and taken 1t, and prepared the hole
for it, They bought revolvers and sharp
ened a file to make poniard
When, however, the day came for the
murder and the boys went to Begneaud's
house, their courage weakened. They
skunk home and accused each other Of be-
ing towards and not up to the Jesse James
standard. They determined to try II again,
and went TO Begneaud's on the evening
of April %, determined to prove to each
vuara mon and heroes