Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-12-26

4 man presented himself at police
headquarters in Tours, France, July
Il and said he wanted to give himself
up, being torn with remorse for a
crime he had committed. The police
asked for further details. The man
said his name was Bourreau, he was
ragpicker. and on April 81, 1901, he
had killed five sleeping children in a
lonely farmhouse at Coranccz, says
, the New York World.
Tne police looked up the records
and found that on that very date the
five children Of q farmer named Brierre
had been hacked to death with a
p1Oughsharc while they slept. But the
records showed also that Bricrre, their
father, had been arrested, tried, con-
victcd and sentenced to life irprison-
n1ont in French Guiana. where he had
died after several years of hard labor.
Had an innocent man perishedc
Two examining magistrates took
Bourreau in hand, cross-eXamined him
and secured from him a infinitely de-
tailed description Of the crime. of the
farm where il had been committed, OF
the precise hour and all of the smallest
circumstances in connection with it.
In almost every detail his story cor
responded exactly with the actual
facts as they had been brough out at
the trial of Brierre. There were, how
ever. few discrepancies. Bourrcau
said he had slain the sleeping children
with Ratchet; the records shove
that the weapon used had unqucstion-
ably been n ploughsharc. 1t was not
probable that q murderer haunted by
his crime would, even after nine years.
forget the instrument with which he
committed it, especially when this IN,
strument had been of so unusual q
nature as 4 ploughshare. Still il was
possible.
Bourreau's record was looked up.
He had been in prison twelve times.
but each time for some minor Of
Tense such as NagabOndaGe. peddling
matches without a license, smuggling.
theft, etc. but what looked like n
significant confirmation OF his story
was found in the fact that he had
been liberated from prison on April
4, 1901. ana arrested again on August
I. of the same year, so he had been
at liberty when the crime was COM
mitt4d.
Seemingly justice had erred. Seem
ingly an innocent man had been found
guilty and n bcrcaved father had
persisted miscrably working as con-
vict in the fetid swamps Of the
French penal colony in equatorial
America.
But psychologists told the police
they need not worry yet awhile, for
Bourrcau. in accusing himself of that
brutal murder. was probably lying.
TO those who have not studied the
of the unbalanced mind it seems in
conceivable that any man should de-
liberatcly accuse himself of n murder
Of which he is innocent. Yet students
of the mind say such confessions are
not all uncommon. And police rec
or1s bear them out. The Steinheil
case in Paris furnished striking il
lustration of this phase of morbidity
when young man confessed that he
was the murderer Of the painter, Stein
he'll, and of Nine. Steinhel's mother
1t took only few minutes of investi-
CATION to prove that this youth was
absolutely innocent.
And so it turned out in the case of
Bourreau. A few days Of incarcera-
ton were followed bv q closer cross
examination by magistrates, who, IN
the meantime, had gone over the rec
ord of Brierre's trial and convinced
themselves that, in fact, the guilty
man had been convicted. Under this
probing Bourreau broke down and
confessed that he had lied.
Auto-accusation is phenomenon
about which much has been written