New Britain herald., 1929-10-26
NOTORIOUS CROOK
 IS BURIED ALIVE
Fake Marquis Makes Bad Error
 and Is Asphyziated
By MINOTT SAUNDERS NEA Service Writer


 Paris, Oct. 26.-In the sensational departure from this life of Clement Pessal, better known to the police by his self-assumed title of Marquis de Champaubert, who buried himself alive only too thoroughly in order to create publicity for his memoirs France has not only lost one of her most vivid swindlers, but a writer with a lurid imagination for situa- tions of blood -curdling horror who might have made Edgar Allen Poe look like an amateur.
 The memoirs probably will never be published because apparently the false Marquis never got any further with them than draft outline of chapter heads, but his fanciful ge- nius was at it's best when his last adventure turned out rather more dramatic than even he had planned it, His literary docum ents were found buried near where he was peacefully laid to rest as hoax.
 The frightful news of Pessal's un- timely end shocked all France His bcdy had been found underground .n makeshift coffin from which 4 leaden pipe reached above the sur face. He had been left to lingering agony, lasting until death.
 Letters Barred Horrors"
 Letters teceived by friends and 2 local newspaper, signed by the chief or a mysterious band of Knights of Themis''-the goddess of justice told of his punishment by torture in a living grave. The cruel knights were sworn to fittinglv punish swindlers who escaped with light sentences from the courts The studied brutality of the crime was stunning.
 Twenty-four hours later. France couldn't help but smile while read ing the police solution of the "crime" after feverish investigation The late Marquis was the one and only Knight of Themis. He himself ha written the fiendish letters, had built the coffin. had had himself buried and had intended to stay un- derground. with martyr like pa tience and the help of the con- municating pipe with the open air until he was rescued. Then he in- tended to get on with his memoirs while publishers clamored for the manuscript.
 But Pessal. for all his skill in getting easy money from those who , had much, was not much of a scien- tist. What had happened was that the carbonic acid gas residue from the breathed air had no means of exit. With all his genius of spring. ing surprises on a>gullible public, he must have got the surprise of his life when 70 began. most unac- countably 10 him. 10 suffocate. He | did not know that second pipe would have been necessary to evac. i nate the foul air.
 Staged n Rehearsal
 So we'll had the Marquis" plan l ned his publicity stunt, that he con ] ducted @ rehearsal before he allow ] ed himself to be buried in tn, 1 ground in the thick wood of Verne l uil. 30 miles northwest of Paris. H. had himself nailed in his coffin a i home and remained there quite com { fortably for nine hours, but the bo, i was not strongly made and the fou : air then could escape througt | cracks.
 An accomplice. Henri Moulogne 27, has confessed the whole plot an; ! is now awaiting trial on a charge o homicide by imprudence. Ate 1 burying the Marquis" he left tn, wood to mail some more letters in tended to start the search, and re turned some hours later with som, | coffee for his friend. There was nt answer from the lower end of tn, pipe. He became alarmed, and witt another accomplice, Pierre Durot hastily despatched letters to friend 1 and the mother of the Marquis, signed like the others, but giving the location of the burial The police