The Potteries Examiner : — 1872-06-15 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

REVOLTING DOUBLE MURDER..  A revolting case of double murder has just boon tried before the Ccurt of Apwises of the Rhone, the assassin being a young man of 25, named Barthelemy Bernard, the eon of s rich landed proprietor in the neighbourhood of the market town of impose. The parent, f the victim and her infant kept, it appears, a small cafe at the entrance of the town; and Bernard, attracted by the good looks of the daughter, Benoit° Perot, aged '23. spent a great &menet of his time in the hence or its neighbourhood. His frequent visits and Ids aesiduous attentions to the landlord's daughter soon became matters of notoriety throughout the town and vicinity, and they ended, as each adventures eo frequently do in France, when there are not sufficient money attractions on the weaker side, in an unlawful lia ;kir, and its attending shame. Barthelemy Bernard had, of course, promised to marry the unsuspecting girl whose ruin he soon wrought, and whom) shocking death, with that of her infant son, heshortli afterwarde anwimplished. °nth* 9th of October, 1871, the bodies of the mother and her illegitimate child were found by farm labourers at the bottom of a omit lila field near the town; that of the mother bore no lees than nineteen wounds, inflicted with a sharp instrument, and the child had been struck in four different places, each tieing sufficient to came its death. The mime was anemiaplished near the house of the murderer's parents,and the bodies were afterwards thrown into the well. For some little time the murder was veiled in mystery, but the tonguecs of the gossiping neighbours and the knowledge of the criminal relations entertained by Barthelemy Bernard with Benoite Pant led to his arrest. All the witnesses examined deposed to the uniform gentlenece of the unfortunate young woman, and her deep attachment to her paramour and her infant. On the Bth of October Bernard induced her to leave leer home, promising to carry out his promise of marriage, but adding that i 6 must take place at some distance from their respective homoe, and that her father should not be made acquainted with their project. The poor young woman, however, took her father into her confidence, and got him to purchase a pair of shoes for the child, while she collected her linen and wearing apparel, saying, "Papa is going to take no away." She proceeded with her son, two years of age, to a field he indicated an the rendezvous, and, on arriving there, met with the fate awaiting her. The prisoner denied everything—hie liaison with Benoite Perot, his paternity, and, of course, every circumstance which led to the crime. The evidence against him was, however, overwhelming. It happened—for "murder will oat "—theta soldier was in the immediate neighbourhood, and heard and raw most of the incidents connected with the tragedy. He afterwards recounted them to a gendarme, and his evidence, combined with the revelations made by the neighbours of the unfortunate young woman, and the accueed's wateh being found in the immediate vicinity, left no doubt on the minds of the jury. Barthelemy Bernard was found gillty, and eentenced to be guillotined on ono of the public equaree of Lyons.