The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1841-05-21 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

COURT OF ASSIZES AT•ROUEN.  DELIBERATE MURDER.—The Court of Assizes at Rouen was, a few days since, occupied with a trial of a man named Pierre Gustave Ferry, on a charge of murder. The circumstances attendant on this cold-blooded crime excited the attention of the public to a high degree, and the court was consequently very crowded. The prisoner was throughout the trial perfectly unmoved, and replied with calmness and sang -frotd to the questions addressed to him by the president. During the whole proceeding he did not exhibit the slightest feeling of sorrow for what he had done. From his own confession, it appears that, on the night of the 28th of December last, he conceived the idea of murdering some one, when his attention was fixed on the widow Toussaint, a venerable old woman, 76 years of age, and who was generally known by the appellation of the " Orphans' Mother,' in consequence of being in the habit of frequently adopting orphan children, and bringing them up at her own expense. At the time of her falling a victim to the murderous attack of the prisoner, she was residing with a man of the name of Dolitais, who had been left an orphan and had been brought up by her from an infant. He chose the time when he knew this individual was absent on his usual avocations, when he felt sure of finding his intended victim alone in the house. " I went to the house," said the prisoner, " about ten minutes past seven in the morning, but the widow was still in bed ; I knocked at the kitchen door, she asked who was there, to which 1 answered It is Pierre. lam come to borrow your pitchfork to clean out the stable of your neighbour Romain Brument.' She'got up, came into the kitchen, and gave me the fork, and then stooped down and began picking up some bits of stick that were strewed about near the chimney. While she was in this position, I laid hold of a cleaver that was lying on a table and struck her a heavy blow with the flat of it. She fell from the blow, when I repeated it three or four times, and in about five minutes she was dead. I then broke open the cupboard in the kitchen, threw out the linen and articles of wearing apparel which it contained, and finding a small bag containing money I put it into my pocket. I afterwards found it to contain about 30 francs in silver. I then opened other parts of the house and took all the money I could lay my hands on, but do not recollect the amount. I chatted with the old woman about five minutes before I struck her, and stopped in the house about ten minutes after she died, in examining the cupboards, drawers, &c. During the whole of the previous evening, I had been haunted with the idea that I must murder some one, and at first thought of venting my violence on a man of my acquaintance, with his wife and daughter, but something happened to prevent this taking place. I then thought on the widow Toussaint, and could not resist the impulse which hurried me to commit the deed." This confession be made on being first taken up fur the crime, and repeated the same on his trial with the most perfect nonchalance. After a deliberate examination, the court pronounced a verdict of guilty, without extenuating circumstances, and the president immediately passed on him the sentence of death, an award which he heard with the same indifference as he had shown throughout the whole of the trial.