Indiana daily times., 1922-06-24
CRIME EPOCH
BATTLING COPS
OF FRENCHC CITY
Horrible Record in Paris
Serves to Stir Entire Ma
ton to It's Depths. M

| PARIS, June 24-France is in the
( thr0es Of an unparalleled epidemic of
crime.
Crime wave" doesn't begin to describe
the situation. 1t is an after the war coE-
! dition that clings and cings.
! 1t is a genuine epidemic" because
even the police and. of course physicians
and scientists realize that most crimes
especially the sort that are being com
mited here every day now-are Of psy-
cLopathic origin. Nerves shot to pieces
by war or economic pressure or modern ,
speed" are the chief cause of the horror
| crime.
The horror crime is a crime in which e
the person who commits il wantonly de-
stroys life OF property for the seeming
I purpose of destroying it and attempts 10
| do a job at once thorough and pictur
! esque. Ii has been prevalent all over the
world since the war, and France has had
| its fuu share Of It,
! To most uniformed persons it will not
come as a shock to learn that Paris is a
! crime center. Paris to many Americans
| implies "Apaches" and 'garr0Jers" and
/ Arsene Lupin. On the contrary, Paris,
/ before the war, was a city Of comparative
safety and good conduct. Immoral in
| spots, but criminal No more than else
/ where. Now, in spite of its efficient po-
lice force, it is a constant source Of hor-
ror-crime stories, and the country sur
rounding is no less prolific of them.
GERMAN DOPE"
CAUSES CRIME.
Importation Ct cocaine frorn< Germany,
impossible absolutely to prevent, is held
! TO be one cause of the crime epidemic
Dope, as is well known, may cause horror
crime as easily as loss of mental control
Many stories Of cocaine smuggling are
doubtless mere anti-German propaganda,
| but there. must be a basis of truth in tho
| point made by French writer's that since
cocaine is known TO be manufactured in
Darnstadt and elsewhere on the Rhine
the amount Of dope that at present is
consumed in France must come from
somewhere and hence probably comes, in
hatbanGs, cane-handles. or false -bottomed
satchels, across the border from Germany.
knowledge Of the effect of nervous
diseases and of the dope habit on the
horror crime has led to the proposal to
| build a criminal hospital in Paris to
take care OF what used to be called the
| "criminally insane and are now more
accurately known as the "criminally
psychopathic."
| Meanwhile. day after day French
newspapers carry one horror crime story
after another. These stories are not
play ed" the way American dailies play
crime stories. Most Of them begin at
The beginning of the story and tell
through to the end, with the crime in
the last paragraph.
WEEKS
CRIME RECORD.
Here's a weeks record, picked at rsn->i
I dom from the Paris press, a week of
sordid horror and terrific life crises-yet
/ only a week like other weeks:
Monday-A drunken plumber, in
Versailles, beats his mother nearly to
death and Is in turn shot by his brother.
At Toulouse two young Spaniards slay
| two octoGenarians for their money. At
Nantes a wife shoots her husband before
| the eyes Of their 11-year-old son. Inves-
( tigation continues Of the mysterious
death Of a little stenographer found,
probably slain, at Nogent-le- Ritron. Two
men are guillotined for strangling their
wives. In Paris a wife, after a domestic
scene. cut her husbands throat with a
/ razor.
! Tuesday-A drunkard or dope fend, in '
Anglers, kills one OF his six sons, shoots
at his wife and commits suicide. Proof
/ is attained at Castressur-A gout Of the
identity of the slayer of what corresponds
| TO our district attrney, who was called
to his door and shot. In Paris, a wom-
an is sentenced to two years in prison for
stealing another woman's baby in or
der to hold a lover who was becom-
Ing estranged. The baby subsequently
died. In Paris, also a shoemaker, in a
/ fit of insane rage, kills his mistress with
one Of his sharp tools.
/ Wednesday-Body Of a little girl t&
/ found near Brest horribly mutilated- In
/ Paris q plot is discovered to steal chill
dren and teach them to pick pockets. In
one Of the Paris department stores purse
/ snatchers make getaway" with a wom~ !
ans handbag containing a necklace of /,
/ niRety three pearls and other valuahlsS
! WOMAN HANGS
| HER FATHER
/ Inulsday-in a mad ft or tempeS q
Normandy housewife knocks down her
! aged father and then hangs him with
rope until he is dead. At Le Mans In
/ vestigation continues into the death OF
a young stenographer found dead, after
/ an apparently violent struggle with her
assassin. In Paris a young man, psy-
/ chopathic, amuses himself by squirting
ink from a fountain pen filler on the
white clothes of young girls who please
or displease his fancy.
/ Friday-Near Nice a young man shoots
his mistress and then attempts suicide
Maurice the Terror" of the Paris un-
derwOrld, slays Chariot the Killer
same address. A patient from the Amer
lean hospital at Neuilly- sur-seine, suf-
fering from mental disorder, escapes and j.
runs nude through the streets. In Parix}
a series Of hotel robberies are traced
to a crook who passed in high society
as a viscount.
Saturday-Crying, ''I want TO kill you
because I love you so much!" d crazed
young man cuts with a razor the throat
of dancer in Latin Quarter cafe.
Three suicides by jumping into the
/ Seine are recorded, and an entire series
/ If suicides lasting ali week are reported
from Toulouse. Acid throwers appear
again in Paris. A IL year old boy hangs
himself.