Year: 1866

as we'll as the mattress on the bed, had
been rummaged for valuables 1t was
| found that the murdered woman's purse,
containing e3, and several articles OF
jewelry, had been stolen and, luckily,
there we're foudd in the prisoners pos
sessiop. sufficient articles to identify him.
Before. leaving he had had time to wash
his hands in a basin which stood on the
dressing table in the apartment. The
two othor murders with which he is con-
nected we're committed in the spring of
1864 One morning in April that year,
an unfortunate named Julie Roberts, not
having appeared since the evening Of the
day before, was found in her apartment
in the Rue st Joseph with her throat cut
in a similar ieshion to that of the girl
Bodeux-her pockets and the whole
apartment bearing marks of hasty rihing,
and the handbasin in like manner marked
with blood stains. The prisoner is said
to have taken with him a handkerchief
which has been identified as the deceas.
ed's property, and he is proved to have
been spending money freely at the time,
although he had but newly entered on an
employment after term Of idleness, and
had yet received no wages. His strange
demeanor and agitation at the time have
also been remembered against him. The
most horrible affair OF all was the murder
in November following, in the Rue st.
Marguerite, of woman named Mage,
and her two-ycais old child. On Sunday
morning. in that month. workmen passing
to their work observed for a moment a
woman in her chemise at window hoarse-
ly crying out and gesticulating strangely;
but thinking she was drunk or mad, they
passed on. She was neither drunk nor
mad, but in the fatal grasp of murder
er. Nor G;l her cries bring the asss-
tance Of neighbors Half an hour after,
a man resembling the prisoner was seen
to descend from the house and depart,
leaving the key Of the apartment on the
landing There was some suspicion, and
on an entrance being made, the two bod
les were found horribly mutilated and
bruised the woman having pla My gone
through a tremendous struggle before her
antagonist succeeded There we're the
same marks Of rifing left as in the other
cases, showing the same author The
prisoner was not only identified by those
who saw him leaving but another unfor.
tunate whom he had addressed the same
evening, had been so frightened at his
looks that She would not take him home,
aud had seen him afterwards going home
with the deceased. She was not the only
woman Of her class who testifies to hay
ing been saved from probable murder by
similar fear. The strangest fact of all
remains, and that is the horror of the
prisoner at his own crimes. His sleep
was disturbed by frightful DIRE ans. Af-
ter the last mentioned murder those in
the house where he lodged heard him
raising frightful cries, as if some bloody
appariton had appeared before him. He
plunged into deeper debauches to drown
the terrors of his conscience One would
almost have expected that so Wholesale
criminal would have been more har.
dened Such is one of the most fright
full chapters of crime that has lately been
recorded. The prisoner, we learn, is not
to escape the least penalty of the law, al
though it is considered that the 1864 gases
are not quite established against him
Even French jury has found it impos-
sitle to give him the benefit Of extenua-
ting circumstances.


We must also remark that the affair is
by no means creditable to the French po.
lice. There are said to have been 21
cases since 1861, but they all failed to
find out the murderers, or rather murder
er, since the records all showed striking
similarity of method.