The Cordova daily times., 1922-07-08
FRENCH POLICE BAFFLED BY
 EPOCH OF HORRIBLE CRIMES

PARIS, July S.-France is in the throes of an unparalleled epidemic of - crime.
 Crime wave," doesn't begin to de- scribe the situation. It is an after the war condition that clings and clings.
 It is a genuine epidemic" because even the police and, of course, physic- ians and scientists realize that most crimes-especially the sort that are being committed here every day now are of psychopathic origin. Nerves shot to pieces by the war or economic pressure or modern "speed" are the chief cause of the horror-crime.
 The. horror-crime is crime in which the person who commits it wantonly destroys life or property for the seeming purpose of destroy ing it and attempts to do job at once thorough and picturesque. It has been prevalent all over the world since the war, and France has had it's full share of it.
 To most uniformed persons it will ot come as a shock to learn that ~S1aris is a crime center Paris to many Americans implies "Apaches" and "garroters' 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 elsewhere. Now, in spite of it's efficient police force, it is a constant source of hor- ror-crime staries, and the country surrounding is no less prolific of them.
 DOPE" CAUSES CRIME.
 Importation of cocoaine from Ger many, impossible absolutely to pre- vent. is held to be one cause of the crime epidemic. Dope, as is well known, may cause horror-crimes as easily as loss of mental control. Many stories of cocoaine smuggling are doubtless mere anti-German propogan- da. but there must be basis of truth in the point made by French writers that since cocoaine is known to be manufactured in Darmstadt and else where on the Rhine the amount of dope that at present is consumed in France must come from somewhere and hence probably comes, in hat bands, cane-handles, or false-bottomed satchels, across the border from Ger many.
 Knowledge of the effect of nerv'; diseases and of the dope habit on the horror-crime has led to the pro- posal to build criminal hospital in Paris to take care of what used to be called the "criminaily insane" and are now more accurately known as ,the "criminally psychopathic." X Meanwhile, day after day French \ newspapers carry one horror-crime story after another. These stories are not played" 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
 
 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 otogenarians for their money. At Nantes wife shoots her husband before the eys of their eleven-year-old son. Investigation continues of the mysterious death of a little stenographer found, probably slain, at Nogent-le-Ritron. Two mon are guillotined for strangling their wives. Tn Paris wife, after domes- tic sccn", cut he" husbands throat with 9 razor.
 Tuesday-A drunken or dope-fiend, in fingers, kills one of his six sons, shoots at his wife and commits sui eide. Proof is attained at Castres- sur-Agout of the identity of the slay- CT of what corresponds to our dis trict attorney, who was called to his door and shot. Tn Paris, woman is sentenced to two years in prison for stealing another woman's baby in or d 4e l, a1l