The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-19
TRUE STORIES OF CRIMES AND CRIMINALS
By r. ii. S IL E r A K D

/ somebody -eise-a woman-using the same
/ address. You shall have another powder
/ tomorrow. He is looking dreadfully i'll.
and / think we shall soon be rid of kim
| The man hurried off 10 the police, a trap
was laid and the accomplices were quickly
arrested. Then the truth came out. The
| wretched woman. it appears, was furious
at having been so played with, instead of
rejoicing that she was guilty of intention
| only. As there were no grounds for a
| prosecution the couple were released, and
the husband never knew with what danger
he had been menaced. The woman after
wards became model wife and is the
mother Of children.
DOCTORS AWFUL CRIMES.
Infamous as are crimes such as the one
which this woman contemplated. or that for
| which Madame Lafarge was sent to life
! long Imprisonment, what can one call those
perpertated for gain by doctors, Amongst
| these monsters L think Couty de la Pom
| meraye stands first in the annals of crime,
| although the English Palmer runs him
| close, and Castaing comes a good third.
Castaing, who inspired Victor Hugo with
passage OF epic horror slowly poisoned to
| death an unfortunate youth who had been
placed under his medical care. He took
him into the country, as he said, for the
benefit of the air. AS a fact he had cal
culated that in strange place it would be
easier for him to carry out his wicked
plans. And thus it was that the charming
riverside inn-The Black Head-at st.
Cloud won a notoriety which has not yet
died out. Strychnine was Castaings poison,
as it was Palmer's. La Pommeraye used
4 i0it xrh 10 IF
Digitaline kills by exhausting the heart and
takes twenty-four hours to do so, twenty
four hours of undesirable torture. Cast
aing coveted a small sum of money and
some jewelry; La Pommeraye, like Palmer
played for high stake. He had insured
the life of a wretched woman-Madame de
Pauw-for 10000 and finished her off after
the first premium had been paid. He had
laid his plans with supreme cunning, but he
wrecked his ship for the sake of a
penn'worth of tar. One can still see the
miserable room in which Madame de PAW
died-a seventh-foor garnet in a hotel in the
Rue Bonaparte. When one has seen it.,
one understands why the insurance COM
panies found it strange that a woman living
in such den should be insured for such
a sum. Had the victim been provided with
1
money-a very little would have done for
the short time she was to live-suspicion
would never have been aroused. AS it was,
the murderer was not arrested till month
after the woman had been buried. He was
a nobleman and was supposed to be I'm a
very good position. He gems to have had
something Of the homicidal maniac in his
composition, for when his apartment In the
| ID c..
cupboard of poisons of every kind were
found. Yet to look att have his photo
graph before me as 1 write-he was a mild
and handsome young man. He had remark
ably fine eyes, the eyes one describes as
good" His precautions had so well been
taken that his counsel had splendid weap-
ons for the fight for his life. But such
weapons often cut both ways, and they
proved fatal to the handsome young doc
tor. After trial which lasted eight days
he was convicted, and was executed on
June .. 1864. in spite of the Empress Eu-
genie's appeal to the Emperor, prompted
by compassion for his wife. have spoken
Of his supreme cunning. Here is an ex-
ample of it: You must pretend to be ill and
take your bed" ne said to Madame de
Pauw. about a fortnight before he killed
get frightened and they'll make you q good
offer to release them from their bargain
probably handsome annuity, which they
won't expect to pay long" And the
: wretched woman, who certainly was an
accomplice In the projected fraud, followed
that advice and took to her bed, so that
when some days later she died, the people
in the house had suspicious at all. In
| of he
: votion to his poor patient. On the last
> day he carrie to see her four times The
fact was that he was anxious as to the
effect of the something" he had given hei
to take. II must give you a little some
thing in a cup of coffee" he had said Il
her on the night before her death, because
tomorrow the medical inspector of the In
surance companies will come to see you
and. of course, you must appear to be yer,
ILL., It's quite harmless, but it will max,
{ your heart beat very fast" The wretcheC
: woman agreed. and drank up the coffe,
which the doctor with the good eyes handed
to her.
0 VEGETABLE POISON.
4 The people who, like La Pommeraye
Palmer and Castaing. use vegetable poison
u rely for inpunity the supposition tina
these are Immediately absorbed by the sys
tenn and leave no traces as mineral poison
/ do. Fortunately for society, if these poi
sons cannot be recovered by the analysts il
their original state they do leave traces
as legible to scientific men as would be tn
a murderer's visiting card. This fact shout,
' be remembered by those who may be tempt
ed to the most wicked and cruelest o
/ crimes And such would be ill-advised t
hope for impunity for the use of arsenic
because of the recently enhanced difficult,
u Of proving it's administration. Absolute
scientific preof IL is impossible to give an,
jurymen know this. In most poisonin,
cases Is Is from surrounding circumstance
L that conviction is derived Scientifically
neither La Pommeraye's guilt, nor that o
e Castaing nor that Of Marie Lafarge wa
a proved, and yet in each case by othe
y means IL was made as clear as day Tn
:, mystery in these and similar cases lie
rather in the manifestation of huma
5 turpitude of so black dye. The ordinar,
:. mortal hardly conceive it's existenc
o possible in brother man or sister woman
That is to him the mystery. the impene
e trable mystery.
d Next Week: THE Killers of Women"
m | TCOpyright I'm the limited States of Auoar,c