The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-12-09
CHAPTER 1.


given over to feastlng and frivolties
and Joining with utter abandon in the
son of pennance. fasting and self-de-
nial which began with the morrow,
there was committed at LaJonchere,
l. little hamlet just outside the gay
metropolis, a most atrocious murder
chat was shrouded in the deepest mys-
Terry.
The assassin, apparently, had COW
cred his every trace and left not a
single clue. The police and detectives
and other agencies of justice were
completely baftied.
There lived in Paris one NJ. Tar
haret, who after an active life when
well advanced in years had retired on
competence Of such proportions as
TO permit to indulge his fads and
hobbies, and as a mere pastime or
amusement, he had taken up the solv-
ing of mysteries and the detection
Of such crimes as he considered suf-
fciently involved to justify the APP
plication of his methods, which were
entirely different from those of the
laws regularly constituted agents. He
worked entirely Independent of the
officers, without compensation and
paid his own expenses.
The old man won the admiration
OF and become very intimate with a
young subordinate in the detective
service named lacoq and at the solicit
tation of this young officer the inves-
tigating magistrate, finding his own
men all at sea invited NJ Tarbaret to
take up an investigation of the La
Jonchere tragedy.
The old amateur detectives methods
we're similar to those of the more
modern Sherlock Holmes. He builded
up his theories and clues by reason
ing from effect to cause and then by
processes Of deduction and elimina-
tion arrived at his conclusions.
In absorbing interest and in thrill
ang and sensational climaxes no narra-.
tive in the annals Of French GRIM
,nology approach the story of his, M.
Tarbaret's, unravelling Of the tangled
details surrounding the assassination
of the Widow LaRouge," which is
here recorded.
On Thursday, the 9Th of March. 1862,
two days after Shrove Tuesday, five
women belonging to the village of
La Jonchere presented themselves at
the police station at Bougival. They
stated that for two days past no one
had seen the Widow Lerouge one
Of their neighbors, who lived by her
self in an isolated cottage. They had
several times knocked at the door,
but all in vain. APPRENTICESHIP of a
crime, or at least OF an accident, they
requested the interference of the po-
lice to satisfy their doubts by forcing
The door and entering the house
The commissary OF police at first
refused to listen to the women, finally
sent for the corporal of gendarmes,
with two of his men, called inlo re-
quisition the services Of locksnith,
and followed the neighbors of the
Widow Lerouge to i1er cottage. This
cottage consisted merely of two apart
ments on the ground floor with a loft
above. Around it extended a much
neglected garden.
The commissary knocked several
times loudly with his loaded cane,
first at the door, and then success
lively at all the window shutters.
Hearing nothing, he turned to the
Yocksmith
"Open!" said he.
The workman had already intro
duced a skeleton key into the lock,
when a loud exclamation was heard
from the crowd outside the gate. ;,
THE key!' they cried. Here is the
key:"
in ditch by the roadside: he had
picked it up and carried it to the cot
tage in triumph, it proved to be the
key of the house.
Those who anticipated the discovery
Of a crime were unhappily not de-
ceived. Everything in the first room
pointed with a sad eloquence to the
recent presence of the malefactor. The
furniture was knocked about, and
chest of drawers and two large trunks
had been forced and broken open. In
the inner room, which served as
sleeping apartment, the disorder was
even greater. 1t seemed as though
some furious hand had taken fiend-
1sh pleasure in upsetting everything.
Near the fireplace, her face buried in
ashes, lay the dead body of Widow
erouge. All one side Of the face and
the hair was burned; it seemed mir
acle that the fire had not caught her
clothing.
The commissary commenced his in
vestigations in regular form.
Who was Widow Lerouge? Where
did she come from? What did she do?
Upon what means. and how did she