The Potteries Examiner : — 1878-08-03 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

REVOLTING MURDER IN FRANCE.  The details of a crime of extraordinary atrocity were, says the Paris correspondent of the Times, revealed to the public on Monday at the Court of Assizes of the Seine, where the trial of the three accused persons began. On the 24th of March a woman named Gillet, who gained her livelihood by selling milk in the morning and working ae a charwoman during the day, suddenly disappeared. Her friends informed the police of the oeeurrence, and the dwelling of the missing woman woe searched. Some £2O in Rent,es and gold were found concealed, but, according to the friends of Madame Gillet, she porseesed a capital of about .£520, of which no clue was obtained. About the same time another mystery was brought before the police. On the same day an the woman Gillet disappeared two young men hired a furnished rnora in the Rue Polivean, one of them signing himself "Ensue Gerard, aged twenty-six years, student,' and paying a week's rent in advance. One of them came back early the next morning with a parcel, and went away again, taking with him the key of a cupboard in the room in which he had deposited this uareel. As neither of the young men returned again, after the time for which they had hired the room had expired, the proprietress of the house opened the cupboard and discovered that the parcel contained the arms and legs of a hnman body wrapped up in old shirts bearing the " L. M." The limbs were those of • woman and bore traces of a struggle, which must have shortly preceded death: while the cutting had evidently been performed by someone who knew a little of anatomy. This was the story that was laid before the public three months ago. The police became at once convMced that the limbs were those of the missing woman, Gillet, and that the purpose of the murderers was to rob her of her money, of which no trace had till then been found on the premises. Her memoranda of purchases were, however, afterwards discovered, and genie of the numbers of the securities she had bought were traced to money.changers, who bad received them from an agent tie ch,ange named Barre, who, it was ascertained, had just before been recommended to her as a good medium for her laved mente. Barre wan apprehended and his apartments. searched. In them were found shirts bearing the initial "L. M.," and identical with those in which the I limbs found in the Rue Polivean were wrapped up. Barre, confronted with these proofs, confessed that he I had murdered the woman Gillett, and mentioned the name of an accomplice, Lehi., a student of medicine, who was at once likewise apprehended, as well as the mistress of Barre, Leontine Morris or Lepin, whose initials were those on the shirts in question. From their confessions and farther evidence, it appears that ! Barre and Lebiez both received a good education at the ! College of Angers, and are the sons of very respectable 1 residents in that town. They were both of exceedingly loose habits, and continually in pecuniary difficulties. Barre came to Paris to prepare himself for admiesion as a notary, but from gambling occasionally on the Bourne he came to devote himself entirely to it, and set up eventually a money agency. Lebiez, a medical student , in Paris. of equally disselnte habits, was his bosom I associate. The woman Gillet having employed Barre I as her exchange agent, the latter learnt that she was in I possension of some wealth, and he and Lebiex determined to help themselves out of their immediate difficulties by murdering her and stealing her property. Their project was carried out on the 23rel of March. Barre, passing the victim at her 'Land, asked her to ! bring some milk at once to his apartment. A box had ! been purchased for her body, and when she arrived in I his room Barre struck her on the head with a hammer, j while Lebiez stabbed her. Lehieo then cut up the body. as it would not all go into the box, and &spewed of the  rest in the way already described. The box was taken to the Orleans Railway Station as luggage, Barre taking a ticket for Mane, which he did not use. Immediately after the murder Barre went to Madame Gillet's apartment with the key he found in her pocket and obtained nossession of the greater part of her securities. This is the story tubl by the acle &accusation. The woman Lepin I, :doe being tried for knowingly receiving stolen goods.