Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1887-04-16 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

COLD-BLOODED MURDER IN PARIS.  EXTRAORDINARY YE RDICT.  At the Seine Assizes the trial of Georges . Ducret, for the murder of Madsm Chanvellier, came off on Wednesday. The prisoner is the sou of Madam Fould's cmicie7-ges—very respectable ' peeple—and he occupied a bed-room in an outbuilding of her house in the Rue Bergire. In this outbuilding were also located Madam I Fonld'e coachmen with their families and other servants. Madam Chauvellier was the wife of the head coachman. Od the evening of March 1 Madame Chanvellier was alone in her room. About half-past eight o'clock, when her husband came upstairs after dining with the other servants, he found her lying strangled on the ground. The body was not yet cold, but , every effort made to restore the mar- I dered woman to consciousness proved futile. In the meantime Georges Ducret had let , himself out by the front door. He went I quietly to an entertainment, passed the night at a small hotel, and on the following day sent • ' letter to Madam Fould in which be confessed that he was the perpetrator of the crime. The fact seems almost incredible, but fer four days he was allowed to wander about Paris undetected, spending his time in reading the newspapers and in pawning for the paltry sum of forty-two francs the only property on which he had succeeded in laying his hand. Finally, after squandering the money he voluntarily surrendered himself to the police at Passy, one of the suburbs of Paris. He is a weakly sallow youth ,of twenty, whose mind had been corrupted by the reading of unwholesome literature. It transpired at the trial that he had borne a very 1 bad character, and had already got into several ' disreputable scrapes. Chauvellier and the other servants stated that the murdered woman had lived in dread of him, and had repeatedly expressed the fear that he would murder her or set the house on fire. Throughout the trial Georges Ducret behaved with the utmost impudence, and tried to get the case postponed to the next assizes because one of the witnesses had not pat in an appearance when the proceedings began. He did not even deny that the crime was primeditated. A great sensation was created in court when Chanvellier explained that ho had shared the apprehensions of his wife, and that as soon as he saw her lying dead in their room he exclaimed that she most have been murdered by Georges Ducret: and he significantly added that his opinion was endorsed by all the other servants. The public prosecutor asked the jury to find a verdict of guilty without extenuatiug eircumstances ; the prisoner deserved no pity as he had killed the poor woman with premeditasion and iu cold blood. Even Georges Ducret endursed his arguments, for, when asked by the judge if he had auything further to say, he held out his hand towards the jury, exclaiming that if any of them gave him the benefit of ext ?nesting circumstances he would be a dastard. Nevertheless, the jury, faithful to the traditions of the Seine Assize Court, found Georges Ducret guilty with extenuating circumstances, and he was accordingly sentenced to hard labour for life. When the Judge reminded him that he had three days before him to present an appeal, the prisoner retorted that it was not worth while to do so.