The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-26

rave you anything 10 dud 10 your ue-
fense?'' he answered, Il have to begin it
over again. and then begun Grafton
which lasted for two hours and which deep
~ impressed court. bar and pub
lie. saw some of the jury
men wiping their eyes, but these
no doubt recovered their balance after they
had retired to consult, for he found
guilty unanimously. CIn France verd;cts are
given by a majority of voices) Yet his de-
Tense had been so able that doubt fingered
after his conviction in the minds of the au-
thorities. A chance was given him to eluci-
date certain obscure points and some days
before his execution an official was dis
patched by the President to interrogate him
in his cell. That he failed to satisfy this
official was proved by the fact that his exc
cution followed.
Another killer of women, quite as ferocious
and cowardly as those have named, but of
much less notoriety kind of Jack the
Ripper. Prussian named Grum Balthasar
who. like his London imitator, used to select
as his victims the most wretched old women.
However, Grum had an eye to the main
chance also, which the Ripper had not.
After doing much business in his native
land he came to Paris, where, for an at
tempted ne was arrested. however,
for some reason, he was set free and then
began fresh series of crimes. His last vic
tim was a woman called Cecile Renoux,
whom he stabbed in six places. He managed
to escape to Germany. but was arrested
there, and whilst detained, pending extradi-
ton, hanged himself in his cell in the prison
of Cassel. He twenty-five years of age
and numbered at least as many victims.
SHADOwING A MURDERER.
That after an attempted murder a prisoner
| should be set free may surprise English
readers. 1t must be pointed out that this is
one of the tricks of the French police. If
| their case against a suspected under
arrest be incomplete-for instance If his
possession of the booty has not been proved
against him-they let him go and follow
him. He is a man with a shadow. In most
cases he acts in such way after his
lease to strengthen the case against him
-betray his cache. and shows who were his
accomplishment then he is arrested again.
In some cases the trick fails and the man
manages to cast his shadow off, as did the
murderer of Maria Fellerath, Pole. This
woman was murdered on Feb. %, 1879. and
robbed. The Pole was denounced as her
murderer, and the moral gertrude of his
/
lice. But they wanted material proofs, they
wanted to know where he had hidden his
| plumber, and so let him go and followed
him. He managed, however. to give them
the slip, and has not been heard of again.
1t is quite possible that later victim of his
was the woman, Marie Jouin, who
found strangled in her home in the Rue
| Condorcet
"A MAGNIFICENT DARLING"
This man kept his head, in two senses of
the phrase. 1t was for the want of similar
sang froid that Pranzini lost his. After
barbarous triple murder in the Avenue Mon
taigne, he had managed to make good his
escape. The police had no clew whatever.
and were careering about Germany after a
certain Castor Geissler, whom they wrong
fully suspected. and who. all the time. was
fast in Mazas gaol, where he was being de-
| tanned as a vagabond. Meanwhile, Pranzini,
who had fled to Marseilles, could find moth
| ing better to do for his safety than to pre-
4 sent various women there with the very
Jewels of which he had robbed his victims,
| jewels easy to be recognized, or which the
description was in the hands of every police
officer in the world. His defense was
/ clumsy one, but he persisted in proclaiming
his innocence to the end, and died cursing
/ the magistrate who sent him for trial. This
! man was the typical imam of prey to whom
women fell easy victims. How 1t was, don't
/ know. / often saw the fellow touting
| guide outside the Grand Hotel on the Paris
! boulevards. and he certainly never struck
me as a man of the lady-killer stamp. q
mean sinister pleasantly Yet sheaf
| of love letters from ladies in good positions
was found in his lodgings, and al the time
| OF his arrest he was actually engaged to be
married to a young American girl of great
/ wealth and beauty. She used to begin her
| letters to him, My magnificent darling;"
| and il is supposed that 1t was in order to
/ get the money with which to follow her to
] the States that he planned and executed his
/ triple murder. In spite of his infamy he re-
/ NAMED a ladies man. to the end. The
| court at his trial was crowded with fash
ionable DANES. and after his conviction the
| President OF the republic was assailed with
/ letters, in feminine writing, imploring his
/ clemency on behalf of the magnificent dar-
/ ling. Had these women ever seen the photo
| graph of his three victms-one OF whom
| was a poor little grl-which was taken by
| the police Immediately after the murder?
On can hardly think As to Geomay, one
| of the three brave soldiers to whom 1 have
alluded. he was oblging enough to leave, by
the side of his victims corpse the envelope
| of letter giving his name and address, a
real visiting card for the police. Monsieur
Fulgence Geomay, Corporal in the Eighty
| seventh Line, st. Quentin" He had muir
defed an old woman, wine dealer of mis-
erly habits. Mother Gironde." who kept
shop on the Boulevard st. Germain.
After / had killed her." he said, 81 was
so frightened at the sound of the people
walking in the street outside, that l sank
down on a chair, and cold perspiration pour
ing down my face, pulled out my handker-
chief to wipe it away. 1 suppose that enve-
lope came out of my pocket as L did so''
Thus does hazard often fight the battle of
| society against crime. But for that accident
Geomay would probably be killing women
| TO this day.
| Next Week: How Foreign Bankers Are
| Victimized."
(sCopyright In the United States of America
| by ID. Il. Pierce All rights reserved