The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-02
TRUE STORIES OF CRIMES AND CRIMINALS
By K. II. SHER A r D

business as an innkeeper, a trade which he
combined with that of a mushroom grower.
His inn was situated in a lonely part OF st.
Ouen, over the quarries, in which natural
catacombs were his mushroom plantations.
The Italian was, financially. i'm a very bad
way, and this was known in the neighbor-
hood. Still. no suspicion attached to him at
first when it became known that the col
lecting clerk who visited the St. Ouen dis
trict had mysteriously disappeared. and with
him sum of several thousand pounds He
admitted having received the clerks visit
and produced the draft which ''had caused
him many sleepless nights but which, in
spite Of all. he had managed to pay" After
| Investigations which lasted over a week, the
bank authorities came to the conclusion
that their employee had absconded, and a
hue and cry was raised. A day or two after
wards woman presented herself at the
head police office and made the following
| statement: This morning. Madame Carrara,
whom we all know to be i'm bad straits.
came to my shop-I keep a grocery not far
| from their inn-and paid long-standing
account. rather a big sum. which. confess,
had looked as lost. /
| surprised but what surprised me more
was to notice amongst the coins which
| she gave me a certain five-franc piece
| which recognized at once one which
| had paid to the bank clerk on the day of his
disappearance. 1t was an old-fashioned
| piece, and / had had doubts as to its cur
rency. so was very glad when the bank
clerk took it with the rest of my money.
| The question appears to arise: How did that
| fve-franc piece come into Carrara's posses
| Sf0 fhr1c
the Italians and a visit of the police to the
| inn followed. So embarrassed did this sim
lister couple appear when questioned as to
| how that particular coin had come into their
possession that a search of the premises
was at once ordered and carried out. Neither
in the house nor in the catacombs beneath it
was anything found, until 1t occurred to one
of the magistrates to turn cinder
| heap in the subterranean plantation. On TO
| this cinder heap Carrara used to empty the
ashes from one or two braZiers which he
kept burning to keep up the requisite tenn
perature for forcing his mushrooms. And
then traces Of the unfortunate bank clerk
were discovered. Not much. charred button
or two. embossed with the name of the bank,
and the twisted metal work of bank satch-
ell Then the woman confessed. In their great
distress the temptation had been too strong
| for them when they had seen the bearer of
so much money in their lonely inn, out of
human sight and hearing. Carrara had
| struck him down and afterwards lowered
the body, head downwards, over the fiery
underground furnace, and all had been con-
| sumed-all except a button or two-enough
to send the man to the guillotine. 1t was the
| dissertation of the corpse, no doubt, which
hardened the hearts of the jury. for in
France the dead are held in sacred rever-
ence.
MOST CYNICAL" OF MURDERERS.
The famous Lacenaire was, L think, the
! originator of this form of crime, and the
| trap he laid-it was i'm the early forties-for
| the bank clerk Genevay was almost success
| full. He had laid his plans carefully, select
| ing an address so that Genevay called there
| at the end of his rounds, that is to say when
] his satchel was full. That a bank clerk,
| bearing thousands of pounds. should VEN
| ture after nightfall into garnet furnished
| with a couple of chairs and table, and oc-
cupied by shabby and mysterious stranger
| will strike one as imprudent. and if Genevay
escaped with only wound from the brad
awl which Lacenaire had prepared for him
| in payment of the draft which he had drawn
| on himself it was because the latter had not
yet ''got his hand in i'm the the art Of
| murder. He became past master in assas-
| sination later on. and so numerous were his
| crimes that after he was sentenced to death
| for the cowardly murder of an old woman,
the King. to mark his approval of this sem
| tence, wrote Louis Philippe in full across
| the head of the warrant. instead Of his ini-
| tials only. Lacenaire was the lion of Paris,
poetized and postured to the end; the most
| cynical murderer whose head ever fell un-
| der the knife Of the guillotine.
| That burglars in France should venture to
break into banks is because France is full
| Of small banking concerns which are not
| safeguarded as are our big English banks.
| Every small money-changer and some solicit
| tors carry on banking businesses. The plum
| der usually takes the form of scrip, stocks
and shares. and invariably finds it's way to
| London. Indeed, most bank robberies COM
| mitted on the continent are the work Of
! English thieves. Now. as all stocks and
| shares are numbered their sale in the open
market is stopped at once. However, the
| thieves, through an agent, who is some
| times a solicitor, always manage to get a
| fair reward for their "labors." The Lon
don agent writes to the man who has been
1 robbed on the continent and offers to return
\ him his property on payment of a commits
| sion which is meyer less than 80 per cent.
| of the market Value of the stolen shares.
| AS, for legal reasons, into which it is un-
/ necessary to go here. the English police are
| unable to assist the foreign victim in the re-
| covery of his property; he has to submit to
| these conditions, and does on the princi-
| pie that half a loaf is better than no bread.
| Thus in 1877, Nj. Burat. banker in Paris,
had to pay $4,000 to get back stock worth
| 10000, of which he had been robbed. In
| 1884. Rodrique, banker in the Rue de la Paix,
paid commission of 80 per cent on e14.000
| worth of shares which had found their way
| from his fractured safe into the hands of
/ the thieves London bankers. In 1884, $4,000
| worth of stock had To be bought back ION
| the usual terms" in London. This nefarious
I business prospers and is of constant occur
| renee, but foreign bankers are clamoring
| for a reform of the English laws dealing
| with stolen property in the hands of English
receivers Pending this reform they are. as
| they are well aware, ill-advised in APP
preaching the powerless English police.
| Their movements are watched. and any visit
| to Scotland Yard Immediately sends the
| commission demanded up by 20 per cent.