The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-04-15

Paris. April 14-Documents reputed to have been left by Henri Landru, French Bluebeard. in his cell On the day of his execution for the murder of ten women have just been reveal ed. One of them, and undoubtedly the most extraordinary. was written the evening before Bluebeard was guiIlotined, at a time when Landru knew that he had but a few hours to live. It was addressed to Monsieur Godefroy, public prosecutor during Landru's trial and who asked that sentence of death should be passed on him. The document is written in a clear and firm hand. It covers seven pages of foolscap paper and is here given in part:
 ''It is now three months since we first met. In a few hours I shall be no more. I can now surely ask you to look back on that trial wherein I met death.
 You came there marvellously pre- pared, armed with the most formida- ble documents ever constituted against one man. You knew the latter perfectly. You had most detailed and secret notes about me. I did not know you. I was alone, shut away in cell. had no documents A study of the documents drawn up against me revealed to you the in- dictment against me. It did not re- veal the accused to you. Your first duty was a study of your prisoner.
 Used All Your Powers.
 You used all your powers against me. You tried persuasion. you threatened penal Jaw, you tried emo movement. the slightest sign of fear. I did the same regarding you. Excuse me for this. but I think I had some sort of right to do so. I watched you not day by day, but hour by hour.
 Astonished at first ( a rare thing usually for a public prosecutor) on account of my precise replies, doubt came into your mind, a terrible doubt for you whose duties obliged you to support the accusation. I mo- ticed this doubt creep into your mind and you forever watching me knew that I had understood.
 'As you, at that time, were trying to obtain an aVowal you became troubled seeking in those intermina- ble dispositions of witnesses, of which beforehand you knew the insignifi- canoe. something which would reas- sure you.
 layed the more the distress in your mind became apparent. With your fine observant talents you realized that the prisoner, although subdued but easy and calm, could only be so because innocent.
 Followed Your Thoughts"
 '"The trial dragged on. I followed
 
 object of your preoccupatioR- Wit nesses. poor and value1ess objects which could not explain the alleged crimes, called your attention You were waiting for the second part of the trial. Your hopes were based on the famous cooking range. You ex- pected some feverish gesture, a falter- terrible phrases. But when you saw it, small and more adaptable to chil- dren's fun of cooking, then you real ized that there could not have been and had not been perpetrated in it those abominable atrocities of which you accused me. Isn't it true that my cooking range frightened you?
 "You reproached me for being se- were. Was I severe that day? I could have asked that the grate be taken out and shown that it was bare ly as big as a poilu's di&ie can.- Everyone would have smiled to think that bodies could have been burned in it. You felt this clearly enough and how those strings loosely strung around the range and held down with red seal. seemed frail to you.
 Do you remember the emotion forward to state that never had she seen anything of a suspicious char acter in that grate?
 tSThose Seals Be Broken,
 To-day I can now state at the time I almost had the inconceivable idea of demanding that all those seals be broken and that every one see that grate- l had understood you however, and I did not want to in crease your anxiety against which your honesty was struggling
 Tn your turn tell me why YOU so carefully and apparently hastily ordered the veriflcations of certain indications which reached you If you were so absolutely convinced had disappeared had been burned in that range why did you look 1or them elsewhere?
 The next day the range had dis appeared. Experts had come for ward to say one that he had sifted cinders therefrom, another that he had burned a sheep's head. But the grate which could have been used to demonstrate their sayings bad gone. In its stead a pig blackboard