New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1926-08-28
.SLAYERS RE-ENACTS'
GRUESOME Crime
French Court Moved to Open
Field to Permit Demonstration

Meaux, France, Aug. IS R,-The
brutal Staying of simple country
girl by her rich lover from the city
city yesterday while a crowd of
1900 Parisians and peasants gazed
on the spectacle morbidly. In Paris,
IS miles away, and in all the big
cities and towns of France, millions
of others eagerly awaited details of
the spectacle in the afternoon
papers.
Castor Guyot, Paris stock
broker, has confessed to strangling
Marie Louise Beulaguet while mo-
toring with her on the evening OF
Aug. 10. He said he had placed the
body near a haystack in the field.
which was later burned. The pris-
oner was brought from his prison
cell to show the police how it all
happened.
The thrill-loving public in this
country does not always have to de-
pend on its Imagination plus picture
newspapers for the details of q SEN
sational crime. 1t not infrequently
happens that the police confront an
accused prisoner with recon
structed" crime in all its proper set
ting and all its characters present
except the dead and buried victim.
So it was today. Guyot, whose
crime for fortnight has almost sue
ceeded in taking the public mind off
high prices and the falling franc was
brought to here to reconstruct his
crime on the scene where he con-
fessed it had occurred. A steady
stream of automobiles came from
Paris bearing spectators, and all the
roads around resounded with the |
clipping of the sabots of the villag- !
ers hurrying to the spectacle.
Policeman Acts as Victim.
Guyot's long. low, red automobile ,
was brought out by the police and |
the accused placed at the wheel. A
big policeman sat beside him playing |
the role of the dead girl. Guyot was
strangled his sweetheart with his
right and and driven with his left.
Guoyt stepped on the
gas, pretended to argue with the
and gripping the wheel
with his left and reached over with
his right and clutched the thick
necked gandarme by the throat.
1t was not such a formidable grip
is that which left the liivd marks on
he dead girls neck. The policeman
lid not lose his breath. He did not
even cough when Guyot released his
clutch.
Guyot told the police that he thus
'hoked the girl to death with his re-
entless grasp. When she slumped
Town in her seat, quite dead, he said,
lie turned off on side road and
stopped by bayfield,. With much
animation he showed how he drag
sed the body of the girl from the
ar and placed it on the new-mown
'tubble near a haystack. which was
ound completely burned when the
,ody was discovered by the police.
Then the police brought up bales
VI hay, with which they reconstruct
ID the stack, SO that Guyot might
wen more wildly reenact the scene.
lie explained that he did not intend
o set fire to the haystack on the
evening of the crime. He said 1t
vas an accident.
Nonchalantly Fires the Stack
Turning to a journalist, he bor-
owed a match to light his pipe, and
hen tossed it aside carelessly on the
lew stacked hay. To the amaze
nent of all the bystanders, whose
ong experience had left them little
aith in the ignition of French
matches, the haystack Immediately
'aught fire and quickly burned to the
ground.
A chemist rushed up and took
specimens of the smoke in jars, il'-
Heating the defense may contend
hat the girl died of asphyxiation.
Iuyot then explained to the police
hat if he had wanted to burn the
oody he would have surrounded 1t
more carefully with the hay.
After the spectacle was over the
peasant and the city folk sat down
o luncheons under the nearby
.rees. A charabanc loaded with
American tourists on their way to
he Marine battlefields drew up. The
guide pointed out one sit not on the
usual program, and just then the
'armer who owned the haystack'
,ushing up to Guyot, demanded ~
500 francs for the hay that was
burned on the night of the crime,
The millionaire broker, with an air
If disdain, turned from the indig-
liant farmer to the police officials
md said:
Go ahead, pay him. I'm above
such details"