The Sun. — 1845-09-29 (London, England)

PARISIAN ROBBERY AND CUSSING  HO,  A. gang of endormeurs (hocussers) to the number of sixteen, were tried last wee before the Court. rootmes committeot by them. With the exception of two, who were somewhat older, all the prisoners were only from nineteen to twenty-five years of age. There were three women amongst them. All the men were described as belonging to regular trades. One or two were masters, one (named Mayas) being a master tailor, another (named Mulot) a grocer and wine-merchant, &c. The name of endormeurs, or hocussers, had been given to the gang because it was a generally received opinion that several individuals had been decoyed by them into public-houses, and there drugged with some narcotic preparation, and, being thus sent to sleep, had been stripped of their watches, and of all that they had about them. The indictment, however, specified only one case of this kind, and it took place in the house of Mulot, the wine-merchant. It appeared that about nine o'clock in the evening, in May, 1843, Lanckpaep, Mayas, and Lepeule, (three of the prisoners) met in the street of the Faubourg du Temple a youth named Ledoux, a lad belonging to a timber-yard, and they decoyed him to Mulot's, with the intention of rifling him. There they made him drink two wineglasses full, into which Mulot put out something of a nature to send him into a deep sleep. They, however, changed their minds as to one part of their scheme, and determined to take him to his home, and there commit the robbery. On their way to his lodgings Mayas proposed (according to the declaration of Lanckpaep) to murder Ledoux (who was all the time fast asleep), but that proposal was rejected. Finally, and whilst he was still asleep, they took from him his boots, trowsers, and other articles of dress, together with some gold buttons. The other robberies of which 'the prisoners were accused were very numerous, and, like the crime just mentioned, had taken place two or three years back. They were chiefly committed in lodgings, when the thieves knew that the tenants were out, and they effected their entrance by &lie keys, or else by breaking open the door of the apartment. They prowled about in parties of two or three together, and being respectably dressed, went up and down stairs of the houses without suspicion. Sometimes they wore blouses, under which they could easily conceal the property stolen. One of the robberies, however, was of a different kind, and deserves to be described fur its audicity. Lanckpaep, and another of the prisoners, named Danzelle, being tempted by the sight of a casket, containing 401. in gold, which they saw in a jeweller and moneychanger's window, drew lots as to which of the two should break the superb pane of glass under which the casket lay. Then waiting for the passing of a cab, Danzelle, favoured by its noise, smashed the pane with a stone into a thousand pieces, and Larickpaep at the same instant snatched up the casket. They both ran off, and succeeded in escaping. The produce of all these robberries seems to have been disposed of in a variety of ways, part being pledged at pawnbrokers, part being sold to one of the female prisoners, who kept a disreputable lodging-house, and well knew the property to be stolen, or to dealers in clothes, &c. Lanckpaep, who seems to have been present at every one of the robberies, and one or two others, split against their accomplices, and gave important evidence. They were all (after a trial which lasted three days) found guilty, and severally sentenced to the galleys, for periods varying from twenty to six years, except the women, who were sentenced to minor punishments. One of the men was furthermore to be exposed in the pillory. Another of the convicts (Lepeule) was not sentenced, bat it was for the very good reason that he had been already condemned to the galleys for life—a punish meat that he is now undergoing.