The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1928-11-28
MURDER WRITES FINS TO FANTASTIC
STORY OF SCHEMlNC FRENCH DON Juan
Butcher Boy Storms Convent
Walls to Win His Youthful
Sweetheart
Girl of High Estate Responds
But Lover Kills Her rs
Passion COols
By MINOT1 SAUNDERS

Paris. Nov. 2s.-(NEA)-How a
delivery boy with the romantic mind
Of a Don Juan carried off his
youthful sweetheart from her high
estate and killed her when her love
cooled. was revealed in the remark.
able Valentin Fontaine at Ille-et-
Vilaine, Rennes.
The story heard by the court was
as fantastic as anything out of Bal
zac or Dumas. It included infatua-
ton, plotting against parental scorn,
the storming of convent walls, trick
marriages md finally murder.
Valentin Fontaine, although at %
working as a butchers boy, was
quite a cut-up in the village of Com.
bourg. "They tell me I am hand
some," he wrote in his diary. which
appeared in evidence, land that is
very pleasant"
Won Her Love
With this self-assurarce he de-
livered meat to the distinguished
home of NJ. Anger, whose 15-year-
old daughter. Eugene. often received
it. She, pretty and impressionable,
fell wildly in love with Valentin. Her
father, wealthy agriculturist, dis
covered the romance, and speedily
sent Eugene away to the security
Of a convent.
Valentin quit his job and went to
| Charities, where he cleverly man.
aged to be engaged in similar ca
pacity by the butcher who supplied
meat to the convent. He gained the
confidence of a cook at the convent
and was able to enclose in the meat
packages little love rotes for Eu-
genie.
Valentin couldn't get in and Eu-
genie couldn't get out, but the love
letters kept the romance alive. His
next strategic move was completely
disarming. He married q girl of
his own position in life, Cecile LORE,
at civil ceremony, but did not 60
Through the religious ceremony, GUS
!tomary among Catholics in France.
When NJ. Anger heard the news
Of the marriage he thought that
Valentin had recovered from his
love madness and allowed Eugene
to return home. Curiously enough
Cecile LORE cooperated with her
husband in arranging an elopement
of Valentin and Eugene. When
everything was arranged, Cecile re.
Tired discreetly from the scene
Valentin took Eugene to the Cure
of Ciboure and, presenting the pa
lpers Of his civil marriage with &c.
cile and representing Eugene as his
legal wife, they went through q re-
ligious ceremony.
| Deserted by Sweetheart
M. Anger, having learned the
truth of his daughters romance
caused Valentin to be arrested fol
bigamy. The court ruled that Val.
entin was not guilty Of any crime
. since the religious ceremony was not
recognized by law as a legal mar.
rage.
But the young girls eyes hae
been opened. She returned to he1
. father and in May of this year be
came a mother. Two days latel
Valentin entered her room in tn,
nursing home and begged her to re
turn to him. She refused. He be
! came enraged and shot and killet
her. In an attempt to commit sui
, eide he shot himself in the mouth in
flicting a wound from which he re
covered.
At the trial Valentin maintained
: that his only impulse was his low
{ for the girl and that he had no in
/ terest in the family fortune. H
escaped the death penalty, too. Tn
jury in the thrilling trial sentences
him to life Imprisonment.