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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/446-h.zip b/446-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b711095 --- /dev/null +++ b/446-h.zip diff --git a/446-h/446-h.htm b/446-h/446-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b61d68 --- /dev/null +++ b/446-h/446-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9701 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + A Book of Remarkable Criminals, by H.B. Irving + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +Project Gutenberg's A Book of Remarkable Criminals, by H. B. Irving + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Book of Remarkable Criminals + +Author: H. B. Irving + +Release Date: November 28, 2009 [EBook #446] +Last Updated: January 26, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF REMARKABLE CRIMINALS *** + + + + +Produced by Mike Lough, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + A BOOK OF REMARKABLE CRIMINALS + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By H.B. Irving + </h2> + <h4> + TO MY FRIEND <br /> <br /> E. V. LUCAS + </h4> + <blockquote> + <p> + "For violence and hurt tangle every man in their toils, and for the most + part fall on the head of him from whom they had their rise; nor is it + easy for one who by his act breaks the common pact of peace to lead a + calm and quiet life." + </p> + <p> + Lucretius on the Nature of Things. + </p> + </blockquote> + <div class="mynote"> + <p> + Transcriber's Note: + </p> + <p> + The upper outside corner of page 15 and 16 has been torn from the + hardcopy. The spots are marked with ?? and a best guess at missing words + is in brackets. Footnotes have been moved from end of page to end of + paragraph positions, sequentially numbered. + </p> + <br /> + </div> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>A BOOK OF REMARKABLE CRIMINALS</b> </a> + </p> + <br /> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_INTR"> Introduction </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> The Life of Charles Peace </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> The Career of Robert Butler </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> M. Derues </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> Dr. Castaing </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> Professor Webster </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> The Mysterious Mr. Holmes </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> The Widow Gras </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> Vitalis and Marie Boyer </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> The Fenayrou Case </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> Eyraud and Bompard </a> + </p> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + A BOOK OF REMARKABLE CRIMINALS + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Introduction + </h2> + <p> + "The silent workings, and still more the explosions, of human passion + which bring to light the darker elements of man's nature present to the + philosophical observer considerations of intrinsic interest; while to the + jurist, the study of human nature and human character with its infinite + varieties, especially as affecting the connection between motive and + action, between irregular desire or evil disposition and crime itself, is + equally indispensable and difficult."—<i>Wills on Circumstantial + Evidence</i>. + </p> + <p> + I REMEMBER my father telling me that sitting up late one night talking + with Tennyson, the latter remarked that he had not kept such late hours + since a recent visit of Jowett. On that occasion the poet and the + philosopher had talked together well into the small hours of the morning. + My father asked Tennyson what was the subject of conversation that had so + engrossed them. "Murders," replied Tennyson. It would have been + interesting to have heard Tennyson and Jowett discussing such a theme. The + fact is a tribute to the interest that crime has for many men of intellect + and imagination. Indeed, how could it be otherwise? Rob history and + fiction of crime, how tame and colourless would be the residue! We who are + living and enduring in the presence of one of the greatest crimes on + record, must realise that trying as this period of the world's history is + to those who are passing through it, in the hands of some great historian + it may make very good reading for posterity. Perhaps we may find some + little consolation in this fact, like the unhappy victims of famous + freebooters such as Jack Sheppard or Charley Peace. + </p> + <p> + But do not let us flatter ourselves. Do not let us, in all the pomp and + circumstance of stately history, blind ourselves to the fact that the + crimes of Frederick, or Napoleon, or their successors, are in essence no + different from those of Sheppard or Peace. We must not imagine that the + bad man who happens to offend against those particular laws which + constitute the criminal code belongs to a peculiar or atavistic type, that + he is a man set apart from the rest of his fellow-men by mental or + physical peculiarities. That comforting theory of the Lombroso school has + been exploded, and the ordinary inmates of our prisons shown to be only in + a very slight degree below the average in mental and physical fitness of + the normal man, a difference easily explained by the environment and + conditions in which the ordinary criminal is bred. + </p> + <p> + A certain English judge, asked as to the general characteristics of the + prisoners tried before him, said: "They are just like other people; in + fact, I often think that, but for different opportunities and other + accidents, the prisoner and I might very well be in one another's places." + "Greed, love of pleasure," writes a French judge, "lust, idleness, anger, + hatred, revenge, these are the chief causes of crime. These passions and + desires are shared by rich and poor alike, by the educated and uneducated. + They are inherent in human nature; the germ is in every man." + </p> + <p> + Convicts represent those wrong-doers who have taken to a particular form + of wrong-doing punishable by law. Of the larger army of bad men they + represent a minority, who have been found out in a peculiarly + unsatisfactory kind of misconduct. There are many men, some lying, + unscrupulous, dishonest, others cruel, selfish, vicious, who go through + life without ever doing anything that brings them within the scope of the + criminal code, for whose offences the laws of society provide no + punishment. And so it is with some of those heroes of history who have + been made the theme of fine writing by gifted historians. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Basil Thomson, the present head of the Criminal Investigation + Department, has said recently that a great deal of crime is due to a + spirit of "perverse adventure" on the part of the criminal. The same might + be said with equal justice of the exploits of Alexander the Great and half + the monarchs and conquerors of the world, whom we are taught in our + childhood's days to look up to as shining examples of all that a great man + should be. Because crimes are played on a great stage instead of a small, + that is no reason why our moral judgment should be suspended or silenced. + Class Machiavelli and Frederick the Great as a couple of rascals fit to + rank with Jonathan Wild, and we are getting nearer a perception of what + constitutes the real criminal. "If," said Frederick the Great to his + minister, Radziwill, "there is anything to be gained by it, we will be + honest; if deception is necessary, let us be cheats." These are the very + sentiments of Jonathan Wild. + </p> + <p> + Crime, broadly speaking, is the attempt by fraud or violence to possess + oneself of something belonging to another, and as such the cases of it in + history are as clear as those dealt with in criminal courts. Germany + to-day has been guilty of a perverse and criminal adventure, the outcome + of that false morality applied to historical transactions, of which + Carlyle's life of Frederick is a monumental example. In that book we have + a man whose instincts in more ways than one were those of a criminal, held + up for our admiration, in the same way that the same writer fell into + dithyrambic praise over a villain called Francia, a former President of + Paraguay. A most interesting work might be written on the great criminals + of history, and might do something towards restoring that balance of moral + judgment in historical transactions, for the perversion of which we are + suffering to-day. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime we must be content to study in the microcosm of ordinary + crime those instincts, selfish, greedy, brutal which, exploited often by + bad men in the so-called cause of nations, have wrought such havoc to the + happiness of mankind. It is not too much to say that in every man there + dwell the seeds of crime; whether they grow or are stifled in their growth + by the good that is in us is a chance mysteriously determined. As children + of nature we must not be surprised if our instincts are not all that they + should be. "In sober truth," writes John Stuart Mill, "nearly all the + things for which men are hanged or imprisoned for doing to one another are + nature's everyday performances," and in another passage: "The course of + natural phenomena being replete with everything which when committed by + human beings is most worthy of abhorrence, anyone who endeavoured in his + actions to imitate the natural course of things would be universally seen + and acknowledged to be the wickedest of men." + </p> + <p> + Here is explanation enough for the presence of evil in our natures, that + instinct to destroy which finds comparatively harmless expression in + certain forms of taking life, which is at its worst when we fall to taking + each other's. It is to check an inconvenient form of the expression of + this instinct that we punish murderers with death. We must carry the + definition of murder a step farther before we can count on peace or + happiness in this world. We must concentrate all our strength on fighting + criminal nature, both in ourselves and in the world around us. With the + destructive forces of nature we are waging a perpetual struggle for our + very existence. Why dissipate our strength by fighting among ourselves? By + enlarging our conception of crime we move towards that end. What is + anti-social, whether it be written in the pages of the historian or those + of the Newgate Calendar, must in the future be regarded with equal + abhorrence and subjected to equally sure punishment. Every professor of + history should now and then climb down from the giddy heights of + Thucydides and Gibbon and restore his moral balance by comparing the acts + of some of his puppets with those of their less fortunate brethren who + have dangled at the end of a rope. If this war is to mean anything to + posterity, the crime against humanity must be judged in the future by the + same rigid standard as the crime against the person. + </p> + <p> + The individual criminals whose careers are given in this book have been + chosen from among their fellows for their pre-eminence in character or + achievement. Some of the cases, such as Butler, Castaing and Holmes, are + new to most English readers. + </p> + <p> + Charles Peace is the outstanding popular figure in nineteenth-century + crime. He is the type of the professional criminal who makes crime a + business and sets about it methodically and persistently to the end. Here + is a man, possessing many of those qualities which go to make the + successful man of action in all walks of life, driven by circumstances to + squander them on a criminal career. Yet it is a curious circumstance that + this determined and ruthless burglar should have suffered for what would + be classed in France as a "crime passionel." There is more than a + possibility that a French jury would have found extenuating circumstances in the + murder of Dyson. The fate of Peace is only another instance of the wrecking a strong man's + career by his passion for a woman. In Robert Butler we have the criminal by + conviction, a conviction which finds the ground ready prepared for its + growth in the natural laziness and idleness of the man's disposition. The + desire to acquire things by a short cut, without taking the trouble to + work for them honestly, is perhaps the most fruitful of all sources of + crime. Butler, a bit of a pedant, is pleased to justify his conduct by + reason and philosophy—he finds in the acts of unscrupulous monarchs + an analogy to his own attitude towards life. What is good enough for + Caesar Borgia is good enough for Robert Butler. Like Borgia he comes to + grief; criminals succeed and criminals fail. In the case of historical + criminals their crimes are open; we can estimate the successes and + failures. With ordinary criminals, we know only those who fail. The + successful, the real geniuses in crime, those whose guilt remains + undiscovered, are for the most part unknown to us. Occasionally in society + a man or woman is pointed out as having once murdered somebody or other, + and at times, no doubt, with truth. But the matter can only be referred to + clandestinely; they are gazed at with awe or curiosity, mute witnesses to + their own achievement. Some years ago James Payn, the novelist, hazarded + the reckoning that one person in every five hundred was an undiscovered + murderer. This gives us all a hope, almost a certainty, that we may reckon + one such person at least among our acquaintances.(1) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (1) The author was one of three men discussing this subject in a London +club. They were able to name six persons of their various acquaintance +who were, or had been, suspected of being successful murderers. +</pre> + <p> + Derues is remarkable for the extent of his social ambition, the daring and + impudent character of his attempts to gratify it, the skill, the + consummate hypocrisy with which he played on the credulity of honest folk, + and his flagrant employment of that weapon known and recognised to-day in + the most exalted spheres by the expressive name of "bluff." He is + remarkable, too, for his mirth and high spirits, his genial buffoonery; + the merry murderer is a rare bird. + </p> + <p> + Professor Webster belongs to that order of criminal of which Eugene Aram + and the Rev. John Selby Watson are our English examples, men of culture + and studious habits who suddenly burst on the astonished gaze of their + fellowmen as murderers. The exact process of mind by which these hitherto + harmless citizens are converted into assassins is to a great extent hidden + from us. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps Webster's case is the clearest of the three. Here we have a + selfish, self-indulgent and spendthrift gentleman who has landed himself + in serious financial embarrassment, seeking by murder to escape from an + importunate and relentless creditor. He has not, apparently, the moral + courage to face the consequences of his own weakness. He forgets the + happiness of his home, the love of those dear to him, in the desire to + free himself from a disgrace insignificent{sic} in comparison with that + entailed by committing the highest of all crimes. One would wish to + believe that Webster's deed was unpremeditated, the result of a sudden + gust of passion caused by his victim's acrimonious pursuit of his debtor. + But there are circumstances in the case which tell powerfully against such + a view. The character of the murderer seems curiously contradictory; both + cunning and simplicity mark his proceedings; he makes a determined attempt + to escape from the horrors of his situation and shows at the same time a + curious insensibility to its real gravity. Webster was a man of refined + tastes and seemingly gentle character, loved by those near to him, well + liked by his friends. + </p> + <p> + The mystery that surrounds the real character of Eugene Aram is greater, + and we possess little or no means of solving it. From what motive this + silent, arrogant man, despising his ineffectual wife, this reserved and + moody scholar stooped to fraud and murder the facts of the case help us + little to determine. Was it the hope of leaving the narrow surroundings of + Knaresborough, his tiresome belongings, his own poor way of life, and + seeking a wider field for the exercise of those gifts of scholarship which + he undoubtedly possessed that drove him to commit fraud in company with + Clark and Houseman, and then, with the help of the latter, murder the + unsuspecting Clark? The fact of his humble origin makes his association + with so low a ruffian as Houseman the less remarkable. Vanity in all + probability played a considerable part in Aram's disposition. He would + seem to have thought himself a superior person, above the laws that bind + ordinary men. He showed at the end no consciousness of his guilt. Being + something of a philosopher, he had no doubt constructed for himself a + philosophy of life which served to justify his own actions. He was a + deist, believing in "one almighty Being the God of Nature," to whom he + recommended himself at the last in the event of his "having done amiss." + He emphasised the fact that his life had been unpolluted and his morals + irreproachable. But his views as to the murder of Clark he left + unexpressed. He suggested as justification of it that Clark had carried on + an intrigue with his neglected wife, but he never urged this circumstance + in his defence, and beyond his own statement there is no evidence of such + a connection. + </p> + <p> + The Revd. John Selby Watson, headmaster of the Stockwell Grammar School, + at the age of sixty-five killed his wife in his library one Sunday + afternoon. Things had been going badly with the unfortunate man. After + more than twenty-five years' service as headmaster of the school at a + meagre salary of L400 a year, he was about to be dismissed; the number of + scholars had been declining steadily and a change in the headmastership + thought necessary; there was no suggestion of his receiving any kind of + pension. The future for a man of his years was dark enough. The author of + several learned books, painstaking, scholarly, dull, he could hope to make + but little money from literary work. Under a cold, reserved and silent + exterior, Selby Watson concealed a violence of temper which he sought + diligently to repress. His wife's temper was none of the best. Worried, + depressed, hopeless of his future, he in all probability killed his wife + in a sudden access of rage, provoked by some taunt or reproach on her + part, and then, instead of calling in a policeman and telling him what he + had done, made clumsy and ineffectual efforts to conceal his crime. + Medical opinion was divided as to his mental condition. Those doctors + called for the prosecution could find no trace of insanity about him, + those called for the defence said that he was suffering from melancholia. + The unhappy man would appear hardly to have realised the gravity of his + situation. To a friend who visited him in prison he said: "Here's a man + who can write Latin, which the Bishop of Winchester would commend, shut up + in a place like this." Coming from a man who had spent all his life buried + in books and knowing little of the world the remark is not so greatly to + be wondered at. Profound scholars are apt to be impatient of mundane + things. Professor Webster showed a similar want of appreciation of the + circumstances of a person charged with wilful murder. Selby Watson was + convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The sentence was afterwards + commuted to one of penal servitude for life, the Home Secretary of the day + showing by his decision that, though not satisfied of the prisoner's + insanity, he recognised certain extenuating circumstances in his guilt.(2) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (2) Selby Watson was tried at the Central Criminal Court January, 1872. +</pre> + <p> + In Castaing much ingenuity is shown in the conception of the crime, but + the man is weak and timid; he is not the stuff of which the great criminal + is made; Holmes is cast in the true mould of the instinctive murderer. + Castaing is a man of sensibility, capable of domestic affection; Holmes + completely insensible to all feelings of humanity. Taking life is a mere + incident in the accomplishment of his schemes; men, women and children are + sacrificed with equal mercilessness to the necessary end. A consummate + liar and hypocrite, he has that strange power of fascination over others, + women in particular, which is often independent altogether of moral or + even physical attractiveness. We are accustomed to look for a certain + vastness, grandeur of scale in the achievements of America. A study of + American crime will show that it does not disappoint us in this + expectation. The extent and audacity of the crimes of Holmes are proof of + it. + </p> + <p> + To find a counterpart in imaginative literature to the complete criminal + of the Holmes type we must turn to the pages of Shakespeare. In the number + of his victims, the cruelty and insensibility with which he attains his + ends, his unblushing hypocrisy, the fascination he can exercise at will + over others, the Richard III. of Shakespeare shows how clearly the poet + understood the instinctive criminal of real life. The Richard of history + was no doubt less instinctively and deliberately an assassin than the + Richard of Shakespeare. In the former we can trace the gradual temptation + to crime to which circumstances provoke him. The murder of the Princes, + if, as one writer contends, it was not the work of Henry VII.—in + which case that monarch deserves to be hailed as one of the most + consummate criminals that ever breathed and the worthy father of a + criminal son—was no doubt forced to a certain extent on Richard by + the exigencies of his situation, one of those crimes to which bad men are + driven in order to secure the fruits of other crimes. But the Richard of + Shakespeare is no child of circumstance. He espouses deliberately a career + of crime, as deliberately as Peace or Holmes or Butler; he sets out + "determined to prove a villain," to be "subtle, false and treacherous," to + employ to gain his ends "stern murder in the dir'st degree." The character + is sometimes criticised as being overdrawn and unreal. It may not be true + to the Richard of history, but it is very true to crime, and to the + historical criminal of the Borgian or Prussian type, in which fraud and + violence are made part of a deliberate system of so-called statecraft. + </p> + <p> + Shakespeare got nearer to what we may term the domestic as opposed to the + political criminal when he created Iago. In their envy and dislike of + their fellowmen, their contempt for humanity in general, their callousness + to the ordinary sympathies of human nature, Robert Butler, Lacenaire, + Ruloff are witnesses to the poet's fidelity to criminal character in his + drawing of the Ancient. But there is a weakness in the character of Iago + regarded as a purely instinctive and malignant criminal; indeed it is a + weakness in the consistency of the play. On two occasions Iago states + explicitly that Othello is more than suspected of having committed + adultery with his wife, Emilia, and that therefore he has a strong and + justifiable motive for being revenged on the Moor. The thought of it he + describes as "gnawing his inwards." Emilia's conversation with Desdemona + in the last act lends some colour to the correctness of Iago's belief. If + this belief be well-founded it must greatly modify his character as a + purely wanton and mischievous criminal, a supreme villain, and lower + correspondingly the character of Othello as an honourable and high-minded + man. If it be a morbid suspicion, having no ground in fact, a mental + obsession, then Iago becomes abnormal and consequently more or less + irresponsible. But this suggestion of Emilia's faithlessness made in the + early part of the play is never followed up by the dramatist, and the + spectator is left in complete uncertainty as to whether there be any truth + or not in Iago's suspicion. If Othello has played his Ancient false, that + is an extenuating circumstance in the otherwise extraordinary guilt of + Iago, and would no doubt be accorded to him as such, were he on trial + before a French jury. + </p> + <p> + The most successful, and therefore perhaps the greatest, criminal in + Shakespeare is King Claudius of Denmark. His murder of his brother by + pouring a deadly poison into his ear while sleeping, is so skilfully + perpetrated as to leave no suspicion of foul play. But for a supernatural + intervention, a contingency against which no murderer could be expected to + have provided, the crime of Claudius would never have been discovered. + Smiling, jovial, genial as M. Derues or Dr. Palmer, King Claudius might + have gone down to his grave in peace as the bluff hearty man of action, + while his introspective nephew would in all probability have ended his + days in the cloister, regarded with amiable contempt by his bustling + fellowmen. How Claudius got over the great difficulty of all poisoners, + that of procuring the necessary poison without detection, we are not told; + by what means he distilled the "juice of cursed hebenon"; how the strange + appearance of the late King's body, which "an instant tetter" had barked + about with "vile and loathsome crust," was explained to the multitude we + are left to imagine. There is no real evidence to show that Queen Gertrude + was her lover's accomplice in her husband's murder. If that had been so, + she would no doubt have been of considerable assistance to Claudius in the + preparation of the crime. But in the absence of more definite proof we + must assume Claudius' murder of his brother to have been a solitary + achievement, skilfully carried out by one whose genial good-fellowship and + convivial habits gave the lie to any suggestion of criminality. Whatever + may have been his inward feelings of remorse or self-reproach, Claudius + masked them successfully from the eyes of all. Hamlet's instinctive + dislike of his uncle was not shared by the members of the Danish court. + The "witchcraft of his wit," his "traitorous gifts," were powerful aids to + Claudius, not only in the seduction of his sister-in-law, but the + perpetration of secret murder. + </p> + <p> + The case of the murder of King Duncan of Scotland by Macbeth and his wife + belongs to a different class of crime. It is a striking example of dual + crime, four instances of which are given towards the end of this book. An + Italian advocate, Scipio Sighele, has devoted a monograph to the subject + of dual crime, in which he examines a number of cases in which two persons + have jointly committed heinous crimes.(3) He finds that in couples of this + kind there is usually an incubus and a succubus, the one who suggests the + crime, the other on whom the suggestion works until he or she becomes the + accomplice or instrument of the stronger will; "the one playing the + Mephistophelian part of tempter, preaching evil, urging to crime, the + other allowing himself to be overcome by his evil genius." In some cases + these two roles are clearly differentiated; it is easy, as in the case of + Iago and Othello, Cassius and Brutus, to say who prompted the crime. In + others the guilt seems equally divided and the original suggestion of + crime to spring from a mutual tendency towards the adoption of such an + expedient. In Macbeth and his wife we have a perfect instance of the + latter class. No sooner have the witches prophesied that Macbeth shall be + a king than the "horrid image" of the suggestion to murder Duncan presents + itself to his mind, and, on returning to his wife, he answers her question + as to when Duncan is to leave their house by the significant remark, + "To-morrow—as he proposes." To Lady Macbeth from the moment she has + received her husband's letter telling of the prophecy of the weird + sisters, murder occurs as a means of accomplishing their prediction. In + the minds of Macbeth and his wife the suggestion of murder is originally + an auto-suggestion, coming to them independently of each other as soon as + they learn from the witches that Macbeth is one day to be a king. To + Banquo a somewhat similar intimation is given, but no foul thought of + crime suggests itself for an instant to his loyal nature. What Macbeth and + his wife lack at first as thorough-going murderers is that complete + insensibility to taking human life that marks the really ruthless + assassin. Lady Macbeth has the stronger will of the two for the commission + of the deed. It is doubtful whether without her help Macbeth would ever + have undertaken it. But even she, when her husband hesitates to strike, + cannot bring herself to murder the aged Duncan with her own hands because + of his resemblance as he sleeps to her father. It is only after a deal of + boggling and at serious risk of untimely interruption that the two + contrive to do the murder, and plaster with blood the "surfeited grooms." + In thus putting suspicion on the servants of Duncan the assassins + cunningly avert suspicion from themselves, and Macbeth's killing of the + unfortunate men in seeming indignation at the discovery of their crime is + a master-stroke of ingenuity. "Who," he asks in a splendid burst of + feigned horror, "can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, loyal and + natural in a moment?" At the same time Lady Macbeth affects to swoon away + in the presence of so awful a crime. For the time all suspicion of guilt, + except in the mind of Banquo, is averted from the real murderers. But, + like so many criminals, Macbeth finds it impossible to rest on his first + success in crime. His sensibility grows dulled; he "forgets the taste of + fear"; the murder of Banquo and his son is diabolically planned, and that + is soon followed by the outrageous slaughter of the wife and children of + Macduff. Ferri, the Italian writer on crime, describes the psychical + condition favourable to the commission of murder as an absence of both + moral repugnance to the crime itself and the fear of the consequences + following it. In the murder of Duncan, it is the first of these two states + of mind to which Macbeth and his wife have only partially attained. The + moral repugnance stronger in the man has not been wholly lost by the + woman. But as soon as the crime is successfully accomplished, this + repugnance begins to wear off until the King and Queen are able calmly and + deliberately to contemplate those further crimes necessary to their peace + of mind. But now Macbeth, at first the more compunctious of the two, has + become the more ruthless; the germ of crime, developed by suggestion, has + spread through his whole being; he has begun to acquire that indifference + to human suffering with which Richard III. and Iago were gifted from the + first. In both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth the germ of crime was latent; they + wanted only favourable circumstances to convert them into one of those + criminal couples who are the more dangerous for the fact that the + temptation to crime has come to each spontaneously and grown and been + fostered by mutual understanding, an elective affinity for evil. Such + couples are frequent in the history of crime. Eyraud and Bompard, Mr. and + Mrs. Manning, Burke and Hare, the Peltzer brothers, Barre and Lebiez, are + instances of those collaborations in crime which find their counterpart in + history, literature, drama and business. Antoninus and Aurelius, Ferdinand + and Isabella, the De Goncourt brothers, Besant and Rice, Gilbert and + Sullivan, Swan and Edgar leap to the memory. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (3) "Le Crime a Deux," by Scipio Sighele (translated from the Italian), +Lyons, 1893. +</pre> + <p> + In the cases of Eyraud and Bompard, both man and woman are idle, vicious + criminals by instinct. They come together, lead an abandoned life, sinking + lower and lower in moral degradation. In the hour of need, crime presents + itself as a simple expedient for which neither of them has any natural + aversion. The repugnance to evil, if they ever felt it, has long since + disappeared from their natures. The man is serious, the woman frivolous, + but the criminal tendency in both cases is the same; each performs his or + her part in the crime with characteristic aptitude. Mrs. Manning was a + creature of much firmer character than her husband, a woman of strong + passions, a redoubtable murderess. Without her dominating force Manning + might never have committed murder. But he was a criminal before the crime, + more than suspected as a railway official of complicity in a considerable + train robbery; in his case the suggestion of murder involved only the + taking of a step farther in a criminal career. Manning suffered from + nerves almost as badly as Macbeth; after the deed he sought to drown the + prickings of terror and remorse by heavy drinking Mrs. Manning was never + troubled with any feelings of this kind; after the murder of O'Connor the + gratification of her sexual passion seemed uppermost in her mind; and she + met the consequences of her crime fearlessly. Burke and Hare were a couple + of ruffians, tempted by what must have seemed almost fabulous wealth to + men of their wretched poverty to commit a series of cruel murders. Hare, + with his queer, Mephistophelian countenance, was the wickeder of the two. + Burke became haunted as time went on and flew to drink to banish horror, + but Hare would seem to have been free from such "compunctious visitings of + Nature." He kept his head and turned King's evidence. + </p> + <p> + In the case of the Peltzer brothers we have a man who is of good social + position, falling desperately in love with the wife of a successful + barrister. The wife, though unhappy in her domestic life, refuses to + become her lover's mistress; marriage is the only way to secure her. So + Armand Peltzer plots to murder the husband. For this purpose he calls in + the help of a brother, a ne'er-do-well, who has left his native country + under a cloud. He sends for this dubious person to Europe, and there + between them they plan the murder of the inconvenient husband. Though the + idea of the crime comes from the one brother, the other receives the idea + without repugnance and enters wholeheartedly into the commission of the + murder. The ascendency of the one is evident, but he knows his man, is + sure that he will have no difficulty in securing the other's co-operation + in his felonious purpose. Armand Peltzer should have lived in the Italy of + the Renaissance. + </p> + <p> + The crime was cunningly devised, and methodically and successfully + accomplished. Only an over-anxiety to secure the fruits of it led to its + detection. Barre and Lebiez are a perfect criminal couple, both young men + of good education, trained to better things, but the one idle, greedy and + vicious, the other cynical, indifferent, inclined at best to a lazy + sentimentalism. Barre is a needy stockbroker at the end of his tether, + desperate to find an expedient for raising the wind, Lebiez a medical + student who writes morbid verses to a skull and lectures on Darwinism. To + Barre belongs the original suggestion to murder an old woman who sells + milk and is reputed to have savings. But his friend and former + schoolfellow, Lebiez, accepts the suggestion placidly, and reconciles + himself to the murder of an unnecessary old woman by the same argument as + that used by Raskolnikoff in "Crime and Punishment" to justify the killing + of his victim. + </p> + <p> + In all the cases here quoted the couples are essentially criminal couples. + From whichever of the two comes the first suggestion of crime, it falls on + soil already prepared to receive it; the response to the suggestion is + immediate. In degree of guilt there is little or nothing to choose between + them. But the more interesting instances of dual crime are those in which + one innocent hitherto of crime, to whom it is morally repugnant, is + persuaded by another to the commission of a criminal act, as Cassius + persuades Brutus; Iago, Othello. Cassius is a criminal by instinct. Placed + in a social position which removes him from the temptation to ordinary + crime, circumstances combine in his case to bring out the criminal + tendency and give it free play in the projected murder of Caesar. Sour, + envious, unscrupulous, the suggestion to kill Caesar under the guise of + the public weal is in reality a gratification to Cassius of his own + ignoble instincts, and the deliberate unscrupulousness with which he seeks + to corrupt the honourable metal, seduce the noble mind of his friend, is + typical of the man's innate dishonesty. Cassius belongs to that particular + type of the envious nature which Shakespeare is fond of exemplifying with + more or less degree of villainy in such characters as Iago, Edmund, and + Don John, of which Robert Butler, whose career is given in this book, is a + living instance. Cassius on public grounds tempts Brutus to crime as + subtly as on private grounds Iago tempts Othello, and with something of + the same malicious satisfaction; the soliloquy of Cassius at the end of + the second scene of the first act is that of a bad man and a false friend. + Indeed, the quarrel between Brutus and Cassius after the murder of Caesar + loses much of its sincerity and pathos unless we can forget for the moment + the real character of Cassius. But the interest in the cases of Cassius + and Brutus, Iago and Othello, lies not so much in the nature of the + prompter of the crime. The instances in which an honest, honourable man is + by force of another's suggestion converted into a criminal are + psychologically remarkable. It is to be expected that we should look in + the annals of real crime for confirmation of the truth to life of stories + such as these, told in fiction or drama. + </p> + <p> + The strongest influence, under which the naturally non-criminal person may + be tempted in violation of instinct and better nature to the commission of + a crime, is that of love or passion. Examples of this kind are frequent in + the annals of crime. There is none more striking than that of the Widow + Gras and Natalis Gaudry. Here a man, brave, honest, of hitherto + irreproachable character, is tempted by a woman to commit the most cruel + and infamous of crimes. At first he repels the suggestion; at last, when + his senses have been excited, his passion inflamed by the cunning of the + woman, as the jealous passion of Othello is played on and excited by Iago, + the patriotism of Brutus artfully exploited by Cassius, he yields to the + repeated solicitation and does a deed in every way repugnant to his normal + character. Nothing seems so blinding in its effect on the moral sense as + passion. It obscures all sense of humour, proportion, congruity; the + murder of the man or woman who stands in the way of its full enjoyment + becomes an act of inverted justice to the perpetrators; they reconcile + themselves to it by the most perverse reasoning until they come to regard + it as an act, in which they may justifiably invoke the help of God; + eroticism and religion are often jumbled up together in this strange + medley of conflicting emotions. + </p> + <p> + A woman, urging her lover to the murder of her husband, writes of the + roses that are to deck the path of the lovers as soon as the crime is + accomplished; she sends him flowers and in the same letter asks if he has + got the necessary cartridges. Her husband has been ill; she hopes that it + is God helping them to the desired end; she burns a candle on the altar of + a saint for the success of their murderous plan.(4) A jealous husband + setting out to kill his wife carries in his pockets, beside a knife and a + service revolver, a rosary, a medal of the Virgin and a holy image.(5) + Marie Boyer in the blindness of her passion and jealousy believes God to + be helping her to get rid of her mother. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (4) Case of Garnier and the woman Aveline, 1884. + + (5) Case of the Comte +de Cornulier: "Un An de Justice," Henri Varennes, 1901. +</pre> + <p> + A lover persuades the wife to get rid of her husband. For a whole year he + instils the poison into her soul until she can struggle no longer against + the obsession; he offers to do the deed, but she writes that she would + rather suffer all the risks and consequences herself. "How many times," + she writes, "have I wished to go away, leave home, but it meant leaving my + children, losing them for ever.. that made my lover jealous, he believed + that I could not bring myself to leave my husband. But if my husband were + out of the way then I would keep my children, and my lover would see in my + crime a striking proof of my devotion." A curious farrago of slavish + passion, motherly love and murder.(6) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (6) Case of Madame Weiss and the engineer Roques. If I may be permitted +the reference, there is an account of this case and that of Barre and +Lebiez in my book "French Criminals of the Nineteenth Century." +</pre> + <p> + There are some women such as Marie Boyer and Gabrielle Fenayrou, who may + be described as passively criminal, chameleon-like, taking colour from + their surroundings. By the force of a man's influence they commit a + dreadful crime, in the one instance it is matricide, in the other the + murder of a former lover, but neither of the women is profoundly vicious + or criminal in her instincts. In prison they become exemplary, their crime + a thing of the past. + </p> + <p> + Gabrielle Fenayrou during her imprisonment, having won the confidence of + the religious sisters in charge of the convicts, is appointed head of one + of the workshops. Marie Boyer is so contrite, exemplary in her behaviour + that she is released after fifteen years' imprisonment. In some ways, + perhaps, these malleable types of women, "soft paste" as one authority has + described them, "effacees" in the words of another, are the most dangerous + material of all for the commission of crime, their obedience is so + complete, so cold and relentless. + </p> + <p> + There are cases into which no element of passion enters, in which one will + stronger than the other can so influence, so dominate the weaker as to + persuade the individual against his or her better inclination to an act of + crime, just as in the relations of ordinary life we see a man or woman led + and controlled for good or ill by one stronger than themselves. There is + no more extraordinary instance of this than the case of Catherine Hayes, + immortalised by Thackeray, which occurred as long ago as the year 1726. + This singular woman by her artful insinuations, by representing her + husband as an atheist and a murderer, persuaded a young man of the name of + Wood, of hitherto exemplary character, to assist her in murdering him. It + was unquestionably the sinister influence of Captain Cranstoun that later + in the same century persuaded the respectable Miss Mary Blandy to the + murder of her father. The assassin of an old woman in Paris recounts thus + the arguments used by his mistress to induce him to commit the crime: "She + began by telling me about the money and jewellery in the old woman's + possession which could no longer be of any use to her"—the argument + of Raskolnikoff—"I resisted, but next day she began again, pointing + out that one killed people in war, which was not considered a crime, and + therefore one should not be afraid to kill a miserable old woman. I urged + that the old woman had done us no harm, and that I did not see why one + should kill her; she reproached me for my weakness and said that, had she + been strong enough, she would soon have done this abominable deed herself. + 'God,' she added, 'will forgive us because He knows how poor we are.'" + When he came to do the murder, this determined woman plied her lover with + brandy and put rouge on his cheeks lest his pallor should betray him.(7) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (7) Case of Albert and the woman Lavoitte, Paris, 1877. +</pre> + <p> + There are occasions when those feelings of compunction which troubled + Macbeth and his wife are wellnigh proof against the utmost powers of + suggestion, or, as in the case of Hubert and Prince Arthur, compel the + criminal to desist from his enterprise. + </p> + <p> + A man desires to get rid of his father and mother-in-law. By means of + threats, reproaches and inducements he persuades another man to commit the + crime. Taking a gun, the latter sets out to do the deed; but he realises + the heinousness of it and turns back. "The next day," he says, "at four + o'clock in the morning I started again. I passed the village church. At + the sight of the place where I had celebrated my first communion I was + filled with remorse. I knelt down and prayed to God to make me good. But + some unknown force urged me to the crime. I started again—ten times + I turned back, but the more I hesitated the stronger was the desire to go + on." At length the faltering assassin arrived at the house, and in his + painful anxiety of mind shot a servant instead of the intended victims.(8) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (8) Case of Porcher and Hardouin cited in Despine. "Psychologie +Naturelle." +</pre> + <p> + In a town in Austria there dwelt a happy and contented married couple, + poor and hard-working. A charming young lady, a rich relation and an + orphan, comes to live with them. She brings to their modest home wealth + and comfort. But as time goes on, it is likely that the young lady will + fall in love and marry. What then? Her hosts will have to return to their + original poverty. The idea of how to secure to himself the advantages of + his young kinswoman's fortune takes possession of the husband's mind. He + revolves all manner of means, and gradually murder presents itself as the + only way. The horrid suggestion fixes itself in his mind, and at last he + communicates it to his wife. At first she resists, then yields to the + temptation. The plan is ingenious. The wife is to disappear to America and + be given out as dead. The husband will then marry his attractive + kinswoman, persuade her to make a will in his favour, poison her and, the + fortune secured, rejoin his wife. As if to help this cruel plan, the young + lady has developed a sentimental affection for her relative. The wife goes + to America, the husband marries the young lady. He commences to poison + her, but, in the presence of her youth, beauty and affection for him, + relents, hesitates to commit a possibly unnecessary crime. He decides to + forget and ignore utterly his wife who is waiting patiently in America. A + year passes. The expectant wife gets no sign of her husband's existence. + She comes back to Europe, visits under a false name the town in which her + faithless husband and his bride are living, discovers the truth and + divulges the intended crime to the authorities. A sentence of penal + servitude for life rewards this perfidious criminal.(9) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (9) Case of the Scheffer couple at Linz, cited by Sighele. +</pre> + <p> + Derues said to a man who was looking at a picture in the Palais de + Justice: "Why study copies of Nature when you can look at such a + remarkable original as I?" A judge once told the present writer that he + did not go often to the theatre because none of the dramas which he saw on + the stage, seemed to him equal in intensity to those of real life which + came before him in the course of his duties. The saying that truth is + stranger than fiction applies more forcibly to crime than to anything + else. But the ordinary man and woman prefer to take their crime + romanticised, as it is administered to them in novel or play. The true + stories told in this book represent the raw material from which works of + art have been and may be yet created. The murder of Mr. Arden of Faversham + inspired an Elizabethan tragedy attributed by some critics to Shakespeare. + The Peltzer trial helped to inspire Paul Bourget's remarkable novel, + "Andre Cornelis." To Italian crime we owe Shelley's "Cenci" and Browning's + "The Ring and the Book." Mrs. Manning was the original of the maid + Hortense in "Bleak House." Jonathan Wild, Eugene Aram, Deacon Brodie, + Thomas Griffiths Wainewright have all been made the heroes of books or + plays of varying merit. But it is not only in its stories that crime has + served to inspire romance. In the investigation of crime, especially on + the broader lines of Continental procedure, we can track to the source the + springs of conduct and character, and come near to solving as far as is + humanly possible the mystery of human motive. There is always and must be + in every crime a terra incognita which, unless we could enter into the + very soul of a man, we cannot hope to reach. Thus far may we go, no + farther. It is rarely indeed that a man lays bare his whole soul, and even + when he does we can never be quite sure that he is telling us all the + truth, that he is not keeping back some vital secret. It is no doubt + better so, and that it should be left to the writer of imagination to + picture for us a man's inmost soul. The study of crime will help him to + that end. It will help us also in the ethical appreciation of good and + evil in individual conduct, about which our notions have been somewhat + obscured by too narrow a definition of what constitutes crime. These + themes, touched on but lightly and imperfectly in these pages, are rich in + human interest. + </p> + <p> + And so it is hardly a matter for surprise that the poet and the + philosopher sat up late one night talking about murders. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Life of Charles Peace + </h2> + <p> + "Charles Peace, or the Adventures of a Notorious Burglar," a large volume + published at the time of his death, gives a full and accurate account of + the career of Peace side by side with a story of the Family Herald type, + of which he is made the hero. "The Life and Trial of Charles Peace" + (Sheffield, 1879), "The Romantic Career of a Great Criminal" (by N. + Kynaston Gaskell, London 1906), and "The Master Criminal," published + recently in London give useful information. I have also consulted some of + the newspapers of the time. There is a delightful sketch of Peace in Mr. + Charles Whibley's "Book of Scoundrels." + </p> + <p> + I HIS EARLY YEARS + </p> + <p> + Charles Peace told a clergyman who had an interview with him in prison + shortly before his execution that he hoped that, after he was gone, he + would be entirely forgotten by everybody and his name never mentioned + again. + </p> + <p> + Posterity, in calling over its muster-roll of famous men, has refused to + fulfil this pious hope, and Charley Peace stands out as the one great + personality among English criminals of the nineteenth century. In Charley + Peace alone is revived that good-humoured popularity which in the + seventeenth and eighteenth centuries fell to the lot of Claude Duval, Dick + Turpin and Jack Sheppard. But Peace has one grievance against posterity; + he has endured one humiliation which these heroes have been spared. His + name has been omitted from the pages of the "Dictionary of National + Biography." From Duval, in the seventeenth, down to the Mannings, Palmer, + Arthur Orton, Morgan and Kelly, the bushrangers, in the nineteenth + century, many a criminal, far less notable or individual than Charley + Peace, finds his or her place in that great record of the past + achievements of our countrymen. Room has been denied to perhaps the + greatest and most naturally gifted criminal England has produced, one + whose character is all the more remarkable for its modesty, its entire + freedom from that vanity and vaingloriousness so common among his class. + </p> + <p> + The only possible reason that can be suggested for so singular an omission + is the fact that in the strict order of alphabetical succession the + biography of Charles Peace would have followed immediately on that of + George Peabody. It may have been thought that the contrast was too + glaring, that even the exigencies of national biography had no right to + make the philanthropist Peabody rub shoulders with man's constant enemy, + Peace. To the memory of Peace these few pages can make but poor amends for + the supreme injustice, but, by giving a particular and authentic account + of his career, they may serve as material for the correction of this grave + omission should remorse overtake those responsible for so undeserved a + slur on one of the most unruly of England's famous sons. + </p> + <p> + From the literary point of view Peace was unfortunate even in the hour of + his notoriety. In the very year of his trial and execution, the Annual + Register, seized with a fit of respectability from which it has never + recovered, announced that "the appetite for the strange and marvellous" + having considerably abated since the year 1757 when the Register was first + published, its "Chronicle," hitherto a rich mine of extraordinary and + sensational occurrences, would become henceforth a mere diary of important + events. Simultaneously with the curtailment of its "Chronicle," it ceased + to give those excellent summaries of celebrated trials which for many + years had been a feature of its volumes. The question whether "the + appetite for the strange and marvellous" has abated in an appreciable + degree with the passing of time and is not perhaps keener than it ever + was, is a debatable one. But it is undeniable that the present volumes of + the Annual Register have fallen away dismally from the variety and human + interest of their predecessors. Of the trial and execution of Peace the + volume for 1879 gives but the barest record. + </p> + <p> + Charles Peace was not born of criminal parents. His father, John Peace, + began work as a collier at Burton-on-Trent. Losing his leg in an accident, + he joined Wombwell's wild beast show and soon acquired some reputation for + his remarkable powers as a tamer of wild animals. About this time Peace + married at Rotherham the daughter of a surgeon in the Navy. On the death + of a favourite son to whom he had imparted successfully the secrets of his + wonderful control over wild beasts of every kind, Mr. Peace gave up + lion-taming and settled in Sheffield as a shoemaker. + </p> + <p> + It was at Sheffield, in the county of Yorkshire, already famous in the + annals of crime as the county of John Nevison and Eugene Aram, that Peace + first saw the light. On May 14, 1832, there was born to John Peace in + Sheffield a son, Charles, the youngest of his family of four. When he grew + to boyhood Charles was sent to two schools near Sheffield, where he soon + made himself remarkable, not as a scholar, but for his singular aptitude + in a variety of other employments such as making paper models, taming + cats, constructing a peep-show, and throwing up a heavy ball of shot which + he would catch in a leather socket fixed on to his forehead. + </p> + <p> + The course of many famous men's lives has been changed by what appeared at + the time to be an unhappy accident. Who knows what may have been the + effect on Charles Peace's subsequent career of an accident he met with in + 1846 at some rolling mills, in which he was employed? A piece of red hot + steel entered his leg just below the knee, and after eighteen months spent + in the Sheffield Infirmary he left it a cripple for life. About this time + Peace's father died. Peace and his family were fond of commemorating + events of this kind in suitable verse; the death of John Peace was + celebrated in the following lines: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "In peace he lived; + In peace he died; + Life was our desire, + But God denied." +</pre> + <p> + Of the circumstances that first led Peace to the commission of crime we + know nothing. How far enforced idleness, bad companionship, according to + some accounts the influence of a criminally disposed mother, how far his + own daring and adventurous temper provoked him to robbery, cannot be + determined accurately. His first exploit was the stealing of an old + gentleman's gold watch, but he soon passed to greater things. On October + 26, 1851, the house of a lady living in Sheffield was broken into and a + quantity of her property stolen. Some of it was found in the possession of + Peace, and he was arrested. Owing no doubt to a good character for honesty + given him by his late employer Peace was let off lightly with a month's + imprisonment. + </p> + <p> + After his release Peace would seem to have devoted himself for a time to + music, for which he had always a genuine passion. He taught himself to + play tunes on a violin with one string, and at entertainments which he + attended was described as "the modern Paganini." In later life when he had + attained to wealth and prosperity the violin and the harmonium were a + constant source of solace during long winter evenings in Greenwich and + Peckham. But playing a one-stringed violin at fairs and public-houses + could not be more than a relaxation to a man of Peace's active temper, who + had once tasted what many of those who have practised it, describe as the + fascination of that particular form of nocturnal adventure known by the + unsympathetic name of burglary. Among the exponents of the art Peace was + at this time known as a "portico-thief," that is to say one who contrived + to get himself on to the portico of a house and from that point of vantage + make his entrance into the premises. During the year 1854 the houses of a + number of well-to-do residents in and about Sheffield were entered after + this fashion, and much valuable property stolen. Peace was arrested, and + with him a girl with whom he was keeping company, and his sister, Mary + Ann, at that time Mrs. Neil. On October 20, 1854, Peace was sentenced at + Doncaster Sessions to four years' penal servitude, and the ladies who had + been found in possession of the stolen property to six months apiece. Mrs. + Neil did not long survive her misfortune. She would seem to have been + married to a brutal and drunken husband, whom Peace thrashed on more than + one occasion for ill-treating his sister. After one of these punishments + Neil set a bulldog on to Peace; but Peace caught the dog by the lower jaw + and punched it into a state of coma. The death in 1859 of the unhappy Mrs. + Neil was lamented in appropriate verse, probably the work of her brother: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "I was so long with pain opprest + That wore my strength away; + It made me long for endless rest + Which never can decay." +</pre> + <p> + On coming out of prison in 1858, Peace resumed his fiddling, but it was + now no more than a musical accompaniment to burglary. This had become the + serious business of Peace's life, to be pursued, should necessity arise, + even to the peril of men's lives. His operations extended beyond the + bounds of his native town. The house of a lady living in Manchester was + broken into on the night of August 11, 1859, and a substantial booty + carried away. This was found the following day concealed in a hole in a + field. The police left it undisturbed and awaited the return of the + robber. When Peace and another man arrived to carry it away, the officers + sprang out on them. Peace, after nearly killing the officer who was trying + to arrest him, would have made his escape, had not other policemen come to + the rescue. For this crime Peace was sentenced to six years' penal + servitude, in spite of a loyal act of perjury on the part of his aged + mother, who came all the way from Sheffield to swear that he had been with + her there on the night of the crime. + </p> + <p> + He was released from prison again in 1864, and returned to Sheffield. + Things did not prosper with him there, and he went back to Manchester. In + 1866 he was caught in the act of burglary at a house in Lower Broughton. + He admitted that at the time he was fuddled with whisky; otherwise his + capture would have been more difficult and dangerous. Usually a temperate + man, Peace realised on this occasion the value of sobriety even in + burglary, and never after allowed intemperance to interfere with his + success. A sentence of eight years' penal servitude at Manchester Assizes + on December 3, 1866, emphasised this wholesome lesson. + </p> + <p> + Whilst serving this sentence Peace emulated Jack Sheppard in a daring + attempt to escape from Wakefield prison. Being engaged on some repairs, he + smuggled a small ladder into his cell. With the help of a saw made out of + some tin, he cut a hole through the ceiling of the cell, and was about to + get out on to the roof when a warder came in. As the latter attempted to + seize the ladder Peace knocked him down, ran along the wall of the prison, + fell off on the inside owing to the looseness of the bricks, slipped into + the governor's house where he changed his clothes, and there, for an hour + and a half, waited for an opportunity to escape. This was denied him, and + he was recaptured in the governor's bedroom. The prisons at Millbank, + Chatham and Gibraltar were all visited by Peace before his final release + in 1872. At Chatham he is said to have taken part in a mutiny and been + flogged for his pains. + </p> + <p> + On his liberation from prison Peace rejoined his family in Sheffield. He + was now a husband and father. In 1859 he had taken to wife a widow of the + name of Hannah Ward. Mrs. Ward was already the mother of a son, Willie. + Shortly after her marriage with Peace she gave birth to a daughter, and + during his fourth term of imprisonment presented him with a son. Peace + never saw this child, who died before his release. But, true to the family + custom, on his return from prison the untimely death of little "John + Charles" was commemorated by the printing of a funeral card in his honour, + bearing the following sanguine verses: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Farewell, my dear son, by us all beloved, + Thou art gone to dwell in the mansions above. + In the bosom of Jesus Who sits on the throne + Thou art anxiously waiting to welcome us home." +</pre> + <p> + Whether from a desire not to disappoint little John Charles, for some + reason or other the next two or three years of Peace's career would seem + to have been spent in an endeavour to earn an honest living by picture + framing, a trade in which Peace, with that skill he displayed in whatever + he turned his hand to, was remarkably proficient. In Sheffield his + children attended the Sunday School. Though he never went to church + himself, he was an avowed believer in both God and the devil. As he said, + however, that he feared neither, no great reliance could be placed on the + restraining force of such a belief to a man of Peace's daring spirit. + There was only too good reason to fear that little John Charles' period of + waiting would be a prolonged one. + </p> + <p> + In 1875 Peace moved from Sheffield itself to the suburb of Darnall. Here + Peace made the acquaintance—a fatal acquaintance, as it turned out—of + a Mr. and Mrs. Dyson. Dyson was a civil engineer. He had spent some years + in America, where, in 1866, he married. + </p> + <p> + Toward the end of 1873 or the beginning of 1874, he came to England with + his wife, and obtained a post on the North Eastern Railway. He was a tall + man, over six feet in height, extremely thin, and gentlemanly in his + bearing. His engagement with the North Eastern Railway terminated abruptly + owing to Dyson's failing to appear at a station to which he had been sent + on duty. + </p> + <p> + It was believed at the time by those associated with Dyson that this + unlooked-for dereliction of duty had its cause in domestic trouble. Since + the year 1875, the year in which Peace came to Darnall, the domestic peace + of Mr. Dyson had been rudely disturbed by this same ugly little + picture-framer who lived a few doors away from the Dysons' house. Peace + had got to know the Dysons, first as a tradesman, then as a friend. To + what degree of intimacy he attained with Mrs. Dyson it is difficult to + determine. In that lies the mystery of the case Mrs. Dyson is described as + an attractive woman, "buxom and blooming"; she was dark-haired, and about + twenty-five years of age. In an interview with the Vicar of Darnall a few + days before his execution, Peace asserted positively that Mrs. Dyson had + been his mistress. Mrs. Dyson as strenuously denied the fact. There was no + question that on one occasion Peace and Mrs. Dyson had been photographed + together, that he had given her a ring, and that he had been in the habit + of going to music halls and public-houses with Mrs. Dyson, who was a woman + of intemperate habits. + </p> + <p> + Peace had introduced Mrs. Dyson to his wife and daughter, and on one + occasion was said to have taken her to his mother's house, much to the old + lady's indignation. If there were not many instances of ugly men who have + been notably successful with women, one might doubt the likelihood of Mrs. + Dyson falling a victim to the charms of Charles Peace. But Peace, for all + his ugliness, could be wonderfully ingratiating when he chose. According + to Mrs. Dyson, Peace was a demon, "beyond the power of even a Shakespeare + to paint," who persecuted her with his attentions, and, when he found them + rejected, devoted all his malignant energies to making the lives of her + husband and herself unbearable. According to Peace's story he was a + slighted lover who had been treated by Mrs. Dyson with contumely and + ingratitude. + </p> + <p> + Whether to put a stop to his wife's intimacy with Peace, or to protect + himself against the latter's wanton persecution, sometime about the end of + June, 1876, Dyson threw over into the garden of Peace's house a card, on + which was written: "Charles Peace is requested not to interfere with my + family." On July 1 Peace met Mr. Dyson in the street, and tried to trip + him up. The same night he came up to Mrs. Dyson, who was talking with some + friends, and threatened in coarse and violent language to blow out her + brains and those of her husband. In consequence of these incidents Mr. + Dyson took out a summons against Peace, for whose apprehension a warrant + was issued. To avoid the consequences of this last step Peace left Darnall + for Hull, where he opened an eating-shop, presided over by Mrs. Peace. + </p> + <p> + But he himself was not idle. From Hull he went to Manchester on business, + and in Manchester he committed his first murder. Entering the grounds of a + gentleman's home at Whalley Range, about midnight on August 1, he was seen + by two policemen. One of them, Constable Cock, intercepted him as he was + trying to escape. + </p> + <p> + Peace took out his revolver and warned Cock to stand back. The policeman + came on. Peace fired, but deliberately wide of him. Cock, undismayed, drew + out his truncheon, and made for the burglar. Peace, desperate, determined + not to be caught, fired again, this time fatally. Cock's comrade heard the + shots, but before he could reach the side of the dying man, Peace had made + off. He returned to Hull, and there learned shortly after, to his intense + relief, that two brothers, John and William Habron, living near the scene + of the murder, had been arrested and charged with the killing of Constable + Cock. + </p> + <p> + If the Dysons thought that they had seen the last of Peace, they were soon + to be convinced to the contrary. Peace had not forgotten his friends at + Darnall. By some means or other he was kept informed of all their doings, + and on one occasion was seen by Mrs. Dyson lurking near her home. To get + away from him the Dysons determined to leave Darnall. They took a house at + Banner Cross, another suburb of Sheffield, and on October 29 moved into + their new home. One of the first persons Mrs. Dyson saw on arriving at + Banner Cross was Peace himself. "You see," he said, "I am here to annoy + you, and I'll annoy you wherever you go." Later, Peace and a friend passed + Mr. Dyson in the street. Peace took out his revolver. "If he offers to + come near me," said he, "I will make him stand back." But Mr. Dyson took + no notice of Peace and passed on. He had another month to live. + </p> + <p> + Whatever the other motives of Peace may have been—unreasoning + passion, spite, jealousy, or revenge it must not be forgotten that Dyson, + by procuring a warrant against Peace, had driven him from his home in + Sheffield. This Peace resented bitterly. According to the statements of + many witnesses, he was at this time in a state of constant irritation and + excitement on the Dyson's account. He struck his daughter because she + alluded in a way he did not like to his relations with Mrs. Dyson. Peace + always believed in corporal chastisement as a means of keeping order at + home. Pleasant and entertaining as he could be, he was feared. It was very + dangerous to incur his resentment. "Be sure," said his wife, "you do + nothing to offend our Charley, or you will suffer for it." Dyson beyond a + doubt had offended "our Charley." But for the moment Peace was interested + more immediately in the fate of John and William Habron, who were about to + stand their trial for the murder of Constable Cock at Whalley Range. + </p> + <p> + The trial commenced at the Manchester Assizes before Mr. Justice (now + Lord) Lindley on Monday, November 27. John Habron was acquitted. + </p> + <p> + The case against William Habron depended to a great extent on the fact + that he, as well as his brother, had been heard to threaten to "do for" + the murdered man, to shoot the "little bobby." Cock was a zealous young + officer of twenty-three years of age, rather too eager perhaps in the + discharge of his duty. In July of 1876 he had taken out summonses against + John and William Habron, young fellows who had been several years in the + employment of a nurseryman in Whalley Range, for being drunk and + disorderly. On July 27 William was fined five shillings, and on August 1, + the day of Cock's murder, John had been fined half a sovereign. Between + these two dates the Habrons had been heard to threaten to "do for" Cock if + he were not more careful. Other facts relied upon by the prosecution were + that William Habron had inquired from a gunsmith the price of some + cartridges a day or two before the murder; that two cartridge percussion + caps had been found in the pocket of a waistcoat given to William Habron + by his employer, who swore that they could not have been there while it + was in his possession; that the other constable on duty with Cock stated + that a man he had seen lurking near the house about twelve o'clock on the + night of the murder appeared to be William Habron's age, height and + complexion, and resembled him in general appearance; and that the boot on + Habron's left foot, which was "wet and sludgy" at the time of his arrest, + corresponded in certain respects with the footprints of the murderer. The + prisoner did not help himself by an ineffective attempt to prove an alibi. + The Judge was clearly not impressed by the strength of the case for the + prosecution. He pointed out to the jury that neither the evidence of + identification nor that of the footprint went very far. As to the latter, + what evidence was there to show that it had been made on the night of the + murder? If it had been made the day before, then the defence had proved + that it could not have been Habron's. He called their attention to the + facts that Habron bore a good character, that, when arrested on the night + of the murder, he was in bed, and that no firearms had been traced to him. + In spite, however, of the summing-up the jury convicted William Habron, + but recommended him to mercy. The Judge without comment sentenced him to + death. The Manchester Guardian expressed its entire concurrence with the + verdict of the jury. "Few persons," it wrote, "will be found to dispute + the justice of the conclusions reached." However, a few days later it + opened its columns to a number of letters protesting against the + unsatisfactory nature of the conviction. On December 6 a meeting of some + forty gentlemen was held, at which it was resolved to petition Mr. Cross, + the Home Secretary, to reconsider the sentence. Two days before the day of + execution Habron was granted a respite, and later his sentence commuted to + one of penal servitude for life. And so a tragic and irrevocable + miscarriage of justice was happily averted. + </p> + <p> + Peace liked attending trials. The fact that in Habron's case he was the + real murderer would seem to have made him the more eager not to miss so + unique an experience. Accordingly he went from Hull to Manchester, and was + present in court during the two days that the trial lasted. No sooner had + he heard the innocent man condemned to death than he left Manchester for + Sheffield—now for all he knew a double murderer. + </p> + <p> + It is a question whether, on the night of November 28, Peace met Mrs. + Dyson at an inn in one of the suburbs of Sheffield. In any case, the next + morning, Wednesday, the 29th, to his mother's surprise Peace walked into + her house. He said that he had come to Sheffield for the fair. The + afternoon of that day Peace spent in a public-house at Ecclesall, + entertaining the customers by playing tunes on a poker suspended from a + piece of strong string, from which he made music by beating it with a + short stick. The musician was rewarded by drinks. It took very little + drink to excite Peace. There was dancing, the fun grew fast and furious, + as the strange musician beat out tune after tune on his fantastic + instrument. + </p> + <p> + At six o'clock the same evening a thin, grey-haired, insignificant-looking + man in an evident state of unusual excitement called to see the Rev. Mr. + Newman, Vicar of Ecclesall, near Banner Cross. Some five weeks before, + this insignificant-looking man had visited Mr. Newman, and made certain + statements in regard to the character of a Mr. and Mrs. Dyson who had come + to live in the parish. The vicar had asked for proof of these statements. + These proofs his visitor now produced. They consisted of a number of + calling cards and photographs, some of them alleged to be in the + handwriting of Mrs. Dyson, and showing her intimacy with Peace. The man + made what purported to be a confession to Mr. Newman. Dyson, he said, had + become jealous of him, whereupon Peace had suggested to Mrs. Dyson that + they should give her husband something to be jealous about. Out of this + proposal their intimacy had sprung. Peace spoke of Mrs. Dyson in terms of + forgiveness, but his wrath against Dyson was extreme. He complained + bitterly that by taking proceedings against him, Dyson had driven him to + break up his home and become a fugitive in the land. He should follow the + Dysons, he said, wherever they might go; he believed that they were at + that moment intending to take further proceedings against him. As he left, + Peace said that he should not go and see the Dysons that night, but would + call on a friend of his, Gregory, who lived next door to them in Banner + Cross Terrace. It was now about a quarter to seven. + </p> + <p> + Peace went to Gregory's house, but his friend was not at home. The lure of + the Dysons was irresistible. A little after eight o'clock Peace was + watching the house from a passageway that led up to the backs of the + houses on the terrace. He saw Mrs. Dyson come out of the back door, and go + to an outhouse some few yards distant. He waited. As soon as she opened + the door to come out, Mrs. Dyson found herself confronted by Peace, + holding his revolver in his hand. "Speak," he said, "or I'll fire." Mrs. + Dyson in terror went back. In the meantime Dyson, hearing the disturbance, + came quickly into the yard. Peace made for the passage. Dyson followed + him. Peace fired once, the shot striking the lintel of the passage + doorway. Dyson undaunted, still pursued. Then Peace, according to his + custom, fired a second time, and Dyson fell, shot through the temple. Mrs. + Dyson, who had come into the yard again on hearing the first shot, rushed + to her husband's side, calling out: "Murder! You villain! You have shot my + husband." Two hours later Dyson was dead. + </p> + <p> + After firing the second shot Peace had hurried down; the passage into the + roadway. He stood there hesitating a moment, until the cries of Mrs. Dyson + warned him of his danger. He crossed the road, climbed a wall, and made + his way back to Sheffield. There he saw his mother and brother, told them + that he had shot Mr. Dyson, and bade them a hasty good-bye. He then walked + to Attercliffe Railway Station, and took a ticket for Beverley. Something + suspicious in the manner of the booking-clerk made him change his place of + destination. Instead of going to Beverley that night he got out of the + train at Normanton and went on to York. He spent the remainder of the + night in the station yard. He took the first train in the morning for + Beverley, and from there travelled via Collingham to Hull. He went + straight to the eating-house kept by his wife, and demanded some dinner. + He had hardly commenced to eat it when he heard two detectives come into + the front shop and ask his wife if a man called Charles Peace was lodging + with her. Mrs. Peace said that that was her husband's name, but that she + had not seen him for two months. The detectives proposed to search the + house. Some customers in the shop told them that if they had any business + with Mrs. Peace, they ought to go round to the side door. The polite + susceptibility of these customers gave Peace time to slip up to a back + room, get out on to an adjoining roof, and hide behind a chimney stack, + where he remained until the detectives had finished an exhaustive search. + So importunate were the officers in Hull that once again during the day + Peace had to repeat this experience. For some three weeks, however, he + contrived to remain in Hull. He shaved the grey beard he was wearing at + the time of Dyson's murder, dyed his hair, put on a pair of spectacles, + and for the first time made use of his singular power of contorting his + features in such a way as to change altogether the character of his face. + But the hue and cry after him was unremitting. There was a price of L100 + on his head, and the following description of him was circulated by the + police: + </p> + <p> + "Charles Peace wanted for murder on the night of the 29th inst. He is thin + and slightly built, from fifty-five to sixty years of age. Five feet four + inches or five feet high; grey (nearly white) hair, beard and whiskers. He + lacks use of three fingers of left hand, walks with his legs rather wide + apart, speaks somewhat peculiarly as though his tongue were too large for + his mouth, and is a great boaster. He is a picture-frame maker. He + occasionally cleans and repairs clocks and watches and sometimes deals in + oleographs, engravings and pictures. He has been in penal servitude for + burglary in Manchester. He has lived in Manchester, Salford, and Liverpool + and Hull." + </p> + <p> + This description was altered later and Peace's age given as forty-six. As + a matter of fact he was only forty-four at this time, but he looked very + much older. Peace had lost one of his fingers. He said that it had been + shot off by a man with whom he had quarrelled, but it was believed to be + more likely that he had himself shot it off accidentally in handling one + of his revolvers. It was to conceal this obvious means of identification + that Peace made himself the false arm which he was in the habit of + wearing. This was of gutta percha, with a hole down the middle of it into + which he passed his arm; at the end was a steel plate to which was fixed a + hook; by means of this hook Peace could wield a fork and do other + dexterous feats. + </p> + <p> + Marked man as he was, Peace felt it dangerous to stay longer in Hull than + he could help. During the closing days of the year 1876 and the beginning + of 1877, Peace was perpetually on the move. He left Hull for Doncaster, + and from there travelled to London. On arriving at King's Cross he took + the underground railway to Paddington, and from there a train to Bristol. + At the beginning of January he left Bristol for Bath, and from Bath, in + the company of a sergeant of police, travelled by way of Didcot to Oxford. + The officer had in his custody a young woman charged with stealing L40. + Peace and the sergeant discussed the case during the journey. "He seemed a + smart chap," said Peace in relating the circumstances, "but not smart + enough to know me." From Oxford he went to Birmingham, where he stayed + four or five days, then a week in Derby, and on January 9th he arrived in + Nottingham. + </p> + <p> + Here Peace found a convenient lodging at the house of one, Mrs. Adamson, a + lady who received stolen goods and on occasion indicated or organised + suitable opportunities for acquiring them. + </p> + <p> + She lived in a low part of the town known as the Marsh. It was at her + house that Peace met the woman who was to become his mistress and + subsequently betray his identity to the police. Her maiden name was Susan + Gray. + </p> + <p> + She was at this time about thirty-five years of age, described as "taking" + in appearance, of a fair complexion, and rather well educated. She had led + a somewhat chequered married life with a gentleman named Bailey, from whom + she continued in receipt of a weekly allowance until she passed under the + protection of Peace. Her first meeting with her future lover took place on + the occasion of Peace inviting Mrs. Adamson to dispose of a box of cigars + for him, which that good woman did at a charge of something like thirty + per cent. At first Peace gave himself out to Mrs. Bailey as a hawker, but + before long he openly acknowledged his real character as an accomplished + burglar. With characteristic insistence Peace declared his passion for + Mrs. Bailey by threatening to shoot her if she did not become his. Anxious + friends sent for her to soothe the distracted man. Peace had been drowning + care with the help of Irish whiskey. He asked "his pet" if she were not + glad to see him, to which the lady replied with possible sarcasm: "Oh, + particularly, very, I like you so much." Next day Peace apologised for his + rude behaviour of the previous evening, and so melted the heart of Mrs. + Bailey that she consented to become his mistress, and from that moment + discarding the name of Bailey is known to history as Mrs. Thompson. + </p> + <p> + Life in Nottingham was varied pleasantly by burglaries carried out with + the help of information supplied by Mrs. Adamson. In the June of 1877 + Peace was nearly detected in stealing, at the request of that worthy, some + blankets, but by flourishing his revolver he contrived to get away, and, + soon after, returned for a season to Hull. Here this hunted murderer, with + L100 reward on his head, took rooms for Mrs. Thompson and himself at the + house of a sergeant of police. One day Mrs. Peace, who was still keeping + her shop in Hull, received a pencilled note saying, "I am waiting to see + you just up Anlaby Road." She and her stepson, Willie Ward, went to the + appointed spot, and there to their astonishment stood her husband, a + distinguished figure in black coat and trousers, top hat, velvet + waistcoat, with stick, kid gloves, and a pretty little fox terrier by his + side. Peace told them of his whereabouts in the town, but did not disclose + to them the fact that his mistress was there also. To the police sergeant + with whom he lodged, Peace described himself as an agent. But a number of + sensational and successful burglaries at the houses of Town Councillors + and other well-to-do citizens of Hull revealed the presence in their midst + of no ordinary robber. Peace had some narrow escapes, but with the help of + his revolver, and on one occasion the pusillanimity of a policeman, he + succeeded in getting away in safety. The bills offering a reward for his + capture were still to be seen in the shop windows of Hull, so after a + brief but brilliant adventure Peace and Mrs. Thompson returned to + Nottingham. + </p> + <p> + Here, as the result of further successful exploits, Peace found a reward + of L50 offered for his capture. On one occasion the detectives came into + the room where Peace and his mistress were in bed. After politely + expressing his surprise at seeing "Mrs. Bailey" in such a situation, one + of the officers asked Peace his name. He gave it as John Ward, and + described himself as a hawker of spectacles. He refused to get up and + dress in the presence of the detectives who were obliging enough to go + downstairs and wait his convenience. Peace seized the opportunity to slip + out of the house and get away to another part of the town. From there he + sent a note to Mrs. Thompson insisting on her joining him. He soon after + left Nottingham, paid another brief visit to Hull, but finding that his + wife's shop was still frequented by the police, whom he designated freely + as "a lot of fools," determined to quit the North for good and begin life + afresh in the ampler and safer field of London. + </p> + <p> + II PEACE IN LONDON + </p> + <p> + Peace's career in London extended over nearly two years, but they were + years of copious achievement. In that comparatively short space of time, + by the exercise of that art, to his natural gifts for which he had now + added the wholesome tonic of experience, Peace passed from a poor and + obscure lodging in a slum in Lambeth to the state and opulence of a + comfortable suburban residence in Peckham. These were the halcyon days of + Peace's enterprise in life. From No. 25 Stangate Street, Lambeth, the + dealer in musical instruments, as Peace now described himself, sallied + forth night after night, and in Camberwell and other parts of South London + reaped the reward of skill and vigilance in entering other people's houses + and carrying off their property. Though in the beginning there appeared to + be but few musical instruments in Stangate Street to justify his reputed + business, "Mr. Thompson," as he now called himself, explained that he was + not wholly dependent on his business, as Mrs. Thompson "had money." + </p> + <p> + So successful did the business prove that at the Christmas of 1877 Peace + invited his daughter and her betrothed to come from Hull and spend the + festive season with him. This, in spite of the presence of Mrs. Thompson, + they consented to do. Peace, in a top hat and grey ulster, showed them the + sights of London, always inquiring politely of a policeman if he found + himself in any difficulty. At the end of the visit Peace gave his consent + to his daughter's marriage with Mr. Bolsover, and before parting gave the + young couple some excellent advice. For more reasons than one Peace was + anxious to unite under the same roof Mrs. Peace and Mrs. Thompson. Things + still prospering, Peace found himself able to remove from Lambeth to Crane + Court, Greenwich, and before long to take a couple of adjoining houses in + Billingsgate Street in the same district. These he furnished in style. In + one he lived with Mrs. Thompson, while Mrs. Peace and her son, Willie, + were persuaded after some difficulty to leave Hull and come to London to + dwell in the other. + </p> + <p> + But Greenwich was not to the taste of Mrs. Thompson. To gratify her wish, + Peace, some time in May, 1877, removed the whole party to a house, No. 5, + East Terrace, Evelina Road, Peckham. He paid thirty pounds a year for it, + and obtained permission to build a stable for his pony and trap. When + asked for his references, Peace replied by inviting the agent to dine with + him at his house in Greenwich, a proceeding that seems to have removed all + doubt from the agent's mind as to the desirability of the tenant. + </p> + <p> + This now famous house in Peckham was of the ordinary type of suburban + villa, with basement, ground floor, and one above; there were steps up to + the front door, and a bow window to the front sitting-room. A garden at + the back of the house ran down to the Chatham and Dover railway line. It + was by an entrance at the back that Peace drove his horse and trap into + the stable which he had erected in the garden. Though all living in the + same house, Mrs. Peace, who passed as Mrs. Ward, and her son, Willie, + inhabited the basement, while Peace and Mrs. Thompson occupied the best + rooms on the ground floor. The house was fitted with Venetian blinds. In + the drawing-room stood a good walnut suite of furniture; a Turkey carpet, + gilded mirrors, a piano, an inlaid Spanish guitar, and, by the side of an + elegant table, the beaded slippers of the good master of the house + completed the elegance of the apartment. Everything confirmed Mr. + Thompson's description of himself as a gentleman of independent means with + a taste for scientific inventions. In association with a person of the + name of Brion, Peace did, as a fact, patent an invention for raising + sunken vessels, and it is said that in pursuing their project, the two men + had obtained an interview with Mr. Plimsoll at the House of Commons. In + any case, the Patent Gazette records the following grant: + </p> + <p> + "2635 Henry Fersey Brion, 22 Philip Road, Peckham Rye, London, S.E., and + John Thompson, 5 East Terrace, Evelina Road, Peckham Rye, London, S.E., + for an invention for raising sunken vessels by the displacement of water + within the vessels by air and gases." + </p> + <p> + At the time of his final capture Peace was engaged on other inventions, + among them a smoke helmet for firemen, an improved brush for washing + railway carriages, and a form of hydraulic tank. To the anxious policeman + who, seeing a light in Mr. Thompson's house in the small hours of the + morning, rang the bell to warn the old gentleman of the possible presence + of burglars, this business of scientific inventions was sufficient + explanation. + </p> + <p> + Socially Mr. Thompson became quite a figure in the neighbourhood. He + attended regularly the Sunday evening services at the parish church, and + it must have been a matter of anxious concern to dear Mr. Thompson that + during his stay in Peckham the vicarage was broken into by a burglar and + an unsuccessful attempt made to steal the communion plate which was kept + there. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Thompson was generous in giving and punctual in paying. He had his + eccentricities. His love of birds and animals was remarkable. Cats, dogs, + rabbits, guinea-pigs, canaries, parrots and cockatoos all found + hospitality under his roof. It was certainly eccentricity in Mr. Thompson + that he should wear different coloured wigs; and that his dark complexion + should suggest the use of walnut juice. His love of music was evinced by + the number of violins, banjoes, guitars, and other musical instruments + that adorned his drawing-room. Tea and music formed the staple of the + evening entertainments which Mr. and Mrs. Thompson would give occasionally + to friendly neighbours. Not that the pleasures of conversation were + neglected wholly in favour of art. The host was a voluble and animated + talker, his face and body illustrating by appropriate twists and turns the + force of his comments. The Russo-Turkish war, then raging, was a favourite + theme of Mr. Thompson's. He asked, as we are still asking, what + Christianity and civilisation mean by countenancing the horrors of war. He + considered the British Government in the highest degree guilty in + supporting the cruel Turks, a people whose sobriety seemed to him to be + their only virtue, against the Christian Russians. He was confident that + our Ministers would be punished for opposing the only Power which had + shown any sympathy with suffering races. About ten o'clock Mr. Thompson, + whose health, he said, could not stand late hours, would bid his guests + good night, and by half-past ten the front door of No. 5, East Terrace, + Evelina Road, would be locked and bolted, and the house plunged in + darkness. + </p> + <p> + Not that it must be supposed that family life at No. 5, East Terrace, was + without its jars. These were due chiefly to the drunken habits of Mrs. + Thompson. Peace was willing to overlook his mistress' failing as long as + it was confined to the house. But Mrs. Thompson had an unfortunate habit + of slipping out in an intoxicated condition, and chattering with the + neighbours. As she was the repository of many a dangerous secret the + inconvenience of her habit was serious. Peace was not the man to hesitate + in the face of danger. On these occasions Mrs. Thompson was followed by + Peace or his wife, brought back home and soundly beaten. To Hannah Peace + there must have been some satisfaction in spying on her successful rival, + for, in her own words, Peace never refused his mistress anything; he did + not care what she cost him in dress; "she could swim in gold if she + liked." Mrs. Thompson herself admitted that with the exception of such + punishment as she brought on herself by her inebriety, Peace was always + fond of her, and treated her with great kindness. It was she to whom he + would show with pride the proceeds of his nightly labours, to whom he + would look for a smile when he returned home from his expeditions, haggard + and exhausted + </p> + <p> + Through all dangers and difficulties the master was busy in the practice + of his art. Night after night, with few intervals of repose, he would + sally forth on a plundering adventure. If the job was a distant one, he + would take his pony and trap. Peace was devoted to his pony, Tommy, and + great was his grief when at the end of six months' devotion to duty Tommy + died after a few days' sickness, during which his master attended him with + unremitting care. Tommy had been bought in Greenwich for fourteen guineas, + part of a sum of two hundred and fifty pounds which Peace netted from a + rich haul of silver and bank-notes taken from a house in Denmark Hill. + Besides the pony and trap, Peace would take with him on these expeditions + a violin case containing his tools; at other times they would be stuffed + into odd pockets made for the purpose in his trousers. These tools + consisted of ten in all—a skeleton key, two pick-locks, a + centre-bit, gimlet, gouge, chisel, vice jemmy and knife; a portable + ladder, a revolver and life preserver completed his equipment. + </p> + <p> + The range of Peace's activities extended as far as Southampton, Portsmouth + and Southsea; but the bulk of his work was done in Blackheath, Streatham, + Denmark Hill, and other suburbs of South London. Many dramatic stories are + told of his exploits, but they rest for the most part on slender + foundation. On one occasion, in getting on to a portico, he fell, and was + impaled on some railings, fortunately in no vital part. His career as a + burglar in London lasted from the beginning of the year 1877 until + October, 1878. During that time this wanted man, under the very noses of + the police, exercised with complete success his art as a burglar, working + alone, depending wholly on his own mental and physical gifts, disposing in + absolute secrecy of the proceeds of his work, and living openly the life + of a respectable and industrious old gentleman. + </p> + <p> + All the while the police were busily seeking Charles Peace, the murderer + of Mr. Dyson. Once or twice they came near to capturing him. On one + occasion a detective who had known Peace in Yorkshire met him in + Farringdon Road, and pursued him up the steps of Holborn Viaduct, but just + as the officer, at the top of the steps, reached out and was on the point + of grabbing his man, Peace with lightning agility slipped through his + fingers and disappeared. The police never had a shadow of suspicion that + Mr. Thompson of Peckham was Charles Peace of Sheffield. They knew the + former only as a polite and chatty old gentleman of a scientific turn of + mind, who drove his own pony and trap, and had a fondness for music and + keeping pet animals. + </p> + <p> + Peace made the mistake of outstaying his welcome in the neighbourhood of + South-East London. Perhaps he hardly realised the extent to which his fame + was spreading. During the last three months of Peace's career, Blackheath + was agog at the number of successful burglaries committed in the very + midst of its peaceful residents. The vigilance of the local police was + aroused, the officers on night duty were only too anxious to effect the + capture of the mysterious criminal. + </p> + <p> + About two o'clock in the morning of October 10, 1878, a police constable, + Robinson by name, saw a light appear suddenly in a window at the back of a + house in St. John's Park, Blackheath, the residence of a Mr. Burness. Had + the looked-for opportunity arrived? Was the mysterious visitor, the + disturber of the peace of Blackheath, at his burglarious employment? + Without delay Robinson summoned to his aid two of his colleagues. One of + them went round to the front of the house and rang the bell, the other + waited in the road outside, while Robinson stayed in the garden at the + back. No sooner had the bell rung than Robinson saw a man come from the + dining-room window which opened on to the garden, and make quickly down + the path. Robinson followed him. The man turned; "Keep back!" he said, "or + by God I'll shoot you!" Robinson came on. The man fired three shots from a + revolver, all of which passed close to the officer's head. Robinson made + another rush for him, the man fired another shot. It missed its mark. The + constable closed with his would-be assassin, and struck him in the face. + "I'll settle you this time," cried the man, and fired a fifth shot, which + went through Robinson's arm just above the elbow. But, in spite of his + wound, the valiant officer held his prisoner, succeeded in flinging him to + the ground, and catching hold of the revolver that hung round the + burglar's wrist, hit him on the head with it. Immediately after the other + two constables came to the help of their colleague, and the struggling + desperado was secured. + </p> + <p> + Little did the police as they searched their battered and moaning prisoner + realise the importance of their capture. When next morning Peace appeared + before the magistrate at Greenwich Police Court he was not described by + name—he had refused to give any—but as a half-caste about + sixty years of age, of repellant aspect. He was remanded for a week. The + first clue to the identity of their prisoner was afforded by a letter + which Peace, unable apparently to endure the loneliness and suspense of + prison any longer, wrote to his co-inventor Mr. Brion. It is dated + November 2, and is signed "John Ward." Peace was disturbed at the absence + of all news from his family. Immediately after his arrest, the home in + Peckham had been broken up. Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Peace, taking with them + some large boxes, had gone first to the house of a sister of Mrs. + Thompson's in Nottingham, and a day or two later Mrs. Peace had left + Nottingham for Sheffield. There she went to a house in Hazel Road, + occupied by her son-in-law Bolsover, a working collier.(10) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (10) Later, Mrs. Peace was arrested and charged with being in possession +of stolen property. She was taken to London and tried at the Old Bailey +before Mr. Commissioner Kerr, but acquitted on the ground of her having +acted under the compulsion of her husband. +</pre> + <p> + It was no doubt to get news of his family that Peace wrote to Brion. But + the letters are sufficiently ingenious. Peace represents himself as a + truly penitent sinner who has got himself into a most unfortunate and + unexpected "mess" by giving way to drink. The spelling of the letters is + exaggeratedly illiterate. He asks Mr. Brion to take pity on him and not + despise him as "his own famery has don," to write him a letter to "hease + his trobel hart," if possible to come and see him. Mr. Brion complied with + the request of the mysterious "John Ward," and on arriving at Newgate + where Peace was awaiting trial, found himself in the presence of his + friend and colleague, Mr. Thompson. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime the police were getting hot on the scent of the identity + of "John Ward" with the great criminal who in spite of all their efforts + had eluded them for two years. The honour and profit of putting the police + on the right scent were claimed by Mrs. Thompson. To her Peace had + contrived to get a letter conveyed about the same time that he wrote to + Mr. Brion. It is addressed to his "dearly beloved wife." He asks pardon + for the "drunken madness" that has involved him in his present trouble, + and gives her the names of certain witnesses whom he would wish to be + called to prove his independent means and his dealings in musical + instruments. It is, he writes, his first offence, and as he has "never + been in prison before," begs her not to feel it a disgrace to come and see + him there. But Peace was leaning on a broken reed. Loyalty does not appear + to have been Susan Thompson's strong point. In her own words she "was not + of the sentimental sort." The "traitress Sue," as she is called by + chroniclers of the time, had fallen a victim to the wiles of the police. + Since, after Peace's arrest, she had been in possession of a certain + amount of stolen property, it was easier no doubt to persuade her to be + frank. + </p> + <p> + In any case, we find that on February 5, 1879, the day after Peace had + been sentenced to death for the murder of Dyson, Mrs. Thompson appealed to + the Treasury for the reward of L100 offered for Peace's conviction. She + based her application on information which she said she had supplied to + the police officers in charge of the case on November 5 in the previous + year, the very day on which Peace had first written to her from Newgate. + In reply to her letter the Treasury referred "Mrs. S. Bailey, alias + Thompson," to the Home Office, but whether she received from that office + the price of blood history does not relate. + </p> + <p> + The police scouted the idea that any revelation of hers had assisted them + to identify "John Ward" with Charles Peace. They said that it was + information given them in Peckham, no doubt by Mr. Brion, who, on learning + the deplorable character of his coadjutor, had placed himself unreservedly + in their hands, which first set them on the track. From Peckham they went + to Nottingham, where they no doubt came across Sue Thompson, and thence to + Sheffield, where on November 6 they visited the house in Hazel Road, + occupied by Mrs. Peace and her daughter, Mrs. Bolsover. There they found + two of the boxes which Mrs. Peace had brought with her from Peckham. + Besides stolen property, these boxes contained evidence of the identity of + Ward with Peace. A constable who had known Peace well in Sheffield was + sent to Newgate, and taken into the yard where the prisoners awaiting + trial were exercising. As they passed round, the constable pointed to the + fifth man: "That's Peace," he said, "I'd know him anywhere." The man left + the ranks and, coming up to the constable, asked earnestly, "What do you + want me for?" but the Governor ordered him to go on with his walk. + </p> + <p> + It was as John Ward, alias Charles Peace, that Peace, on November 19, + 1878, was put on his trial for burglary and the attempted murder of Police + Constable Robinson, at the Old Bailey before Mr. Justice Hawkins. His age + was given in the calendar as sixty, though Peace was actually forty-six. + The evidence against the prisoner was clear enough. All Mr. Montagu + Williams could urge in his defence was that Peace had never intended to + kill the officer, merely to frighten him. The jury found Peace guilty of + attempted murder. Asked if he had anything to say why judgment should not + be passed upon him, he addressed the Judge. He protested that he had not + been fairly dealt with, that he never intended to kill the prosecutor, + that the pistol was one that went off very easily, and that the last shot + had been fired by accident. "I really did not know," he said, "that the + pistol was loaded, and I hope, my lord, that you will have mercy on me. I + feel that I have disgraced myself, I am not fit either to live or die. I + am not prepared to meet my God, but still I feel that my career has been + made to appear much worse than it really is. Oh, my lord, do have mercy on + me; do give me one chance of repenting and of preparing to meet my God. + Do, my lord, have mercy on me; and I assure you that you shall never + repent it. As you hope for mercy yourself at the hands of the great God, + do have mercy on me, and give me a chance of redeeming my character and + preparing myself to meet my God. I pray, and beseech you to have mercy + upon me." + </p> + <p> + Peace's assumption of pitiable senility, sustained throughout the trial, + though it imposed on Sir Henry Hawkins, failed to melt his heart. He told + Peace that he did not believe his statement that he had fired the pistol + merely to frighten the constable; had not Robinson guarded his head with + his arm he would have been wounded fatally, and Peace condemned to death. + He did not consider it necessary, he said, to make an inquiry into Peace's + antecedents; he was a desperate burglar, and there was an end of the + matter. Notwithstanding his age, Mr. Justice Hawkins felt it his duty to + sentence him to penal servitude for life. The severity of the sentence was + undoubtedly a painful surprise to Peace; to a man of sixty years of age it + would be no doubt less terrible, but to a man of forty-six it was + crushing. + </p> + <p> + Not that Peace was fated to serve any great part of his sentence. + </p> + <p> + With as little delay as possible he was to be called on to answer to the + murder of Arthur Dyson. The buxom widow of the murdered man had been found + in America, whither she had returned after her husband's death. She was + quite ready to come to England to give evidence against her husband's + murderer. On January 17, 1879, Peace was taken from Pentonville prison, + where he was serving his sentence, and conveyed by an early morning train + to Sheffield. There at the Town Hall he appeared before the stipendiary + magistrate, and was charged with the murder of Arthur Dyson. When he saw + Mrs. Dyson enter the witness box and tell her story of the crime, he must + have realised that his case was desperate. Her cross-examination was + adjourned to the next hearing, and Peace was taken back to London. On the + 22nd, the day of the second hearing in Sheffield, an enormous crowd had + assembled outside the Town Hall. Inside the court an anxious and expectant + audiience{sic}, among them Mrs. Dyson, in the words of a contemporary + reporter, "stylish and cheerful," awaited the appearance of the + protagonist. Great was the disappointment and eager the excitement when + the stipendiary came into the court about a quarter past ten and stated + that Peace had attempted to escape that morning on the journey from London + to Sheffield, and that in consequence of his injuries the case would be + adjourned for eight days. + </p> + <p> + What had happened was this. Peace had left King's Cross by the 5.15 train + that morning, due to arrive at Sheffield at 8.45. From the very + commencement of the journey he had been wilful and troublesome. He kept + making excuses for leaving the carriage whenever the train stopped. To + obviate this nuisance the two warders, in whose charge he was, had + provided themselves with little bags which Peace could use when he wished + and then throw out of the window. Just after the train passed Worksop, + Peace asked for one of the bags. When the window was lowered to allow the + bag to be thrown away, Peace with lightning agility took a flying leap + through it. One of the warders caught him by the left foot. Peace, hanging + from the carriage, grasped the footboard with his hands and kept kicking + the warder as hard as he could with his right foot. The other warder, + unable to get to the window to help his colleague, was making vain efforts + to stop the train by pulling the communication cord. For two miles the + train ran on, Peace struggling desperately to escape. At last he succeeded + in kicking off his left shoe, and dropped on to the line. The train ran on + another mile until, with the assistance of some gentlemen in other + carriages, the warders were able to get it pulled up. They immediately + hurried back along the line, and there, near a place called Kineton Park, + they found their prisoner lying in the footway, apparently unconscious and + bleeding from a severe wound in the scalp. A slow train from Sheffield + stopped to pick up the injured man. As he was lifted into the guard's van, + he asked them to cover him up as he was cold. On arriving at Sheffield, + Peace was taken to the Police Station and there made as comfortable as + possible in one of the cells. Even then he had energy enough to be + troublesome over taking the brandy ordered for him by the surgeon, until + one of the officers told "Charley" they would have none of his + hanky-panky, and he had got to take it. "All right," said Peace, "give me + a minute," after which he swallowed contentedly a couple of gills of the + genial spirit. + </p> + <p> + Peace's daring feat was not, according to his own account, a mere attempt + to escape from the clutches of the law; it was noble and Roman in its + purpose. This is what he told his stepson, Willie Ward: "I saw from the + way I was guarded all the way down from London and all the way back, when + I came for my first trial, that I could not get away from the warders, and + I knew I could not jump from an express train without being killed. I took + a look at Darnall as I went down and as I went back, and after I was put + in my cell, I thought it all over. I felt that I could not get away, and + then I made up my mind to kill myself. I got two bits of paper and pricked + on them the words, 'Bury me at Darnall. God bless you all!' With a bit of + black dirt that I found on the floor of my cell I wrote the same words on + another piece of paper, and then I hid them in my clothes. My hope was + that, when I jumped from the train I should be cut to pieces under the + wheels. Then I should have been taken to the Duke of York (a public-house + at Darnall) and there would have been an inquest over me. As soon as the + inquest was over you would have claimed my body, found the pieces of + paper, and then you would have buried me at Darnall." + </p> + <p> + This statement of Peace is no doubt in the main correct. But it is + difficult to believe that there was not present to his mind the sporting + chance that he might not be killed in leaping from the train, in which + event he would no doubt have done his best to get away, trusting to his + considerable powers of ingenious disguise to elude pursuit. But such a + chance was remote. Peace had faced boldly the possibility of a dreadful + death. + </p> + <p> + With that strain of domestic sentiment, which would appear to have been a + marked characteristic of his family, Peace was the more ready to cheat the + gallows in the hope of being by that means buried decently at Darnall. It + was at Darnall that he had spent some months of comparative calm in his + tempestuous career, and it was at Darnall that he had first met Mrs. + Dyson. Another and more practical motive that may have urged Peace to + attempt to injure seriously, if not kill himself, was the hope of thereby + delaying his trial. If the magisterial investigation in Sheffield were + completed before the end of January, Peace could be committed for trial to + the ensuing Leeds Assizes which commenced in the first week in February. + If he were injured too seriously, this would not be possible. Here again + he was doomed to disappointment. + </p> + <p> + Peace recovered so well from the results of his adventure on the railway + that the doctor pronounced him fit to appear for his second examination + before the magistrate on January 30. To avoid excitement, both on the part + of the prisoner and the public, the court sat in one of the corridors of + the Town Hall. The scene is described as dismal, dark and cheerless. The + proceedings took place by candlelight, and Peace, who was seated in an + armchair, complained frequently of the cold. At other times he moaned and + groaned and protested against the injustice with which he was being + treated. But the absence of any audience rather dashed the effect of his + laments. + </p> + <p> + The most interesting part of the proceedings was the cross-examination of + Mrs. Dyson by Mr. Clegg, the prisoner's solicitor. + </p> + <p> + Its purpose was to show that Mrs. Dyson had been on more intimate terms + with Peace than she was ready to admit, and that Dyson had been shot by + Peace in the course of a struggle, in which the former had been the + aggressor. + </p> + <p> + In the first part of his task Mr. Clegg met with some success. Mrs. Dyson, + whose memory was certainly eccentric—she could not, she said, + remember the year in which she had been married—was obliged to admit + that she had been in the habit of going to Peace's house, that she had + been alone with him to public-houses and places of entertainment, and that + she and Peace had been photographed together during the summer fair at + Sheffield. She could not "to her knowledge" recollect having told the + landlord of a public-house to charge her drink to Peace. + </p> + <p> + A great deal of Mrs. Dyson's cross-examination turned on a bundle of + letters that had been found near the scene of Dyson's murder on the + morning following the crime. These letters consisted for the most part of + notes, written in pencil on scraps of paper, purporting to have been sent + from Mrs. Dyson to Peace. In many of them she asks for money to get drink, + others refer to opportunities for their meetings in the absence of Dyson; + there are kind messages to members of Peace's family, his wife and + daughter, and urgent directions to Peace to hold his tongue and not give + ground for suspicion as to their relations. This bundle of letters + contained also the card which Dyson had thrown into Peace's garden + requesting him not to interfere with his family. According to the theory + of the defence, these letters had been written by Mrs. Dyson to Peace, and + went to prove the intimacy of their relations. At the inquest after her + husband's murder, Mrs. Dyson had been questioned by the coroner about + these letters. She denied that she had ever written to Peace; in fact, she + said, she "never did write." It was stated that Dyson himself had seen the + letters, and declared them to be forgeries written by Peace or members of + his family for the purpose of annoyance. Nevertheless, before the + Sheffield magistrate Mr. Clegg thought it his duty to cross-examine Mrs. + Dyson closely as to their authorship. He asked her to write out a passage + from one of them: "You can give me something as a keepsake if you like, + but I don't like to be covetous, and to take them from your wife and + daughter. Love to all!" Mrs. Dyson refused to admit any likeness between + what she had written and the handwriting of the letter in question. + Another passage ran: "Will see you as soon as I possibly can. I think it + would be easier after you move; he won't watch so. The r—g fits the + little finger. Many thanks and love to—Jennie (Peace's daughter + Jane). I will tell you what I thought of when I see you about arranging + matters. Excuse this scribbling." In answer to Mr. Clegg, Mrs. Dyson + admitted that Peace had given her a ring, which she had worn for a short + time on her little finger. + </p> + <p> + Another letter ran: "If you have a note for me, send now whilst he is out; + but you must not venture, for he is watching, and you cannot be too + careful. Hope your foot is better. I went to Sheffield yesterday, but I + could not see you anywhere. Were you out? Love to Jane." Mrs. Dyson denied + that she had known of an accident which Peace had had to his foot at this + time. In spite of the ruling of the magistrate that Mr. Clegg had put + forward quite enough, if true, to damage Mrs. Dyson's credibility, he + continued to press her as to her authorship of these notes and letters, + but Mrs. Dyson was firm in her repudiation of them. She was equally firm + in denying that anything in the nature of a struggle had taken place + between Peace and her husband previous to his murder. + </p> + <p> + At the conclusion of Mrs. Dyson's evidence the prisoner was committed to + take his trial at the Leeds Assizes, which commenced the week following. + Peace, who had groaned and moaned and constantly interrupted the + proceedings, protested his innocence, and complained that his witnesses + had not been called. The apprehension with which this daring malefactor + was regarded by the authorities is shown by this clandestine hearing of + his case in a cold corridor of the Town Hall, and the rapidity with which + his trial followed on his committal. There is an appearance almost of + precipitation in the haste with which Peace was bustled to his doom. After + his committal he was taken to Wakefield Prison, and a few days later to + Armley Jail, there to await his trial. + </p> + <p> + This began on February 4, and lasted one day. Mr. Justice Lopes, who had + tried vainly to persuade the Manchester Grand Jury to throw out the bill + in the case of the brothers Habron, was the presiding judge. Mr. Campbell + Foster, Q.C., led for the prosecution. Peace was defended by Mr. Frank + Lockwood, then rising into that popular success at the bar which some + fifteen years later made him Solicitor-General, and but for his premature + death would have raised him to even higher honours in his profession. + </p> + <p> + In addressing the jury, both Mr. Campbell Foster and Mr. Lockwood took + occasion to protest against the recklessness with which the press of the + day, both high and low, had circulated stories and rumours about the + interesting convict. As early as November in 1878 one leading London daily + newspaper had said that "it was now established beyond doubt that the + burglar captured by Police Constable Robinson was one and the same as the + Banner Cross murderer." Since then, as the public excitement grew and the + facts of Peace's extraordinary career came to light, the press had + responded loyally to the demands of the greedy lovers of sensation, and + piled fiction on fact with generous profusion. "Never," said Mr. Lockwood, + "in the whole course of his experience—and he defied any of his + learned friends to quote an experience—had there been such an + attempt made on the part of those who should be most careful of all others + to preserve the liberties of their fellowmen and to preserve the dignity + of the tribunals of justice to determine the guilt of a man." Peace + exclaimed "Hear, hear!" as Mr. Lockwood went on to say that "for the sake + of snatching paltry pence from the public, these persons had wickedly + sought to prejudice the prisoner's life." Allowing for Mr. Lockwood's zeal + as an advocate, there can be no question that, had Peace chosen or been in + a position to take proceedings, more than one newspaper had at this time + laid itself open to prosecution for contempt of Court. The Times was not + far wrong in saying that, since Muller murdered Mr. Briggs on the North + London Railway and the poisonings of William Palmer, no criminal case had + created such excitement as that of Charles Peace. The fact that property + seemed to be no more sacred to him than life aggravated in a singular + degree the resentment of a commercial people. + </p> + <p> + The first witness called by the prosecution was Mrs. Dyson. She described + how on the night of November 29, 1876, she had come out of the outhouse in + the yard at the back of her house, and found herself confronted by Peace + holding a revolver; how he said: "Speak, or I'll fire!" and the sequence + of events already related up to the moment when Dyson fell, shot in the + temple. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lockwood commenced his cross-examination of Mrs. Dyson by endeavouring + to get from her an admission; the most important to the defence, that + Dyson had caught hold of Peace after the first shot had been fired, and + that in the struggle which ensued, the revolver had gone off by accident. + But he was not very successful. He put it to Mrs. Dyson that before the + magistrate at Sheffield she had said: "I can't say my husband did not get + hold of the prisoner." "Put in the little word 'try,' please," answered + Mrs. Dyson. In spite of Mr. Lockwood's questions, she maintained that, + though her husband may have attempted to get hold of Peace, he did not + succeed in doing so. As she was the only witness to the shooting there was + no one to contradict her statement. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lockwood fared better when he came to deal with the relations of Mrs. + Dyson with Peace previous to the crime. Mrs. Dyson admitted that in the + spring of 1876 her husband had objected to her friendship with Peace, and + that nevertheless, in the following summer, she and Peace had been + photographed together at the Sheffield fair. She made a vain attempt to + escape from such an admission by trying to shift the occasion of the + summer fair to the previous year, 1875, but Mr. Lockwood put it to her + that she had not come to Darnall, where she first met Peace, until the end + of that year. Finally he drove her to say that she could not remember when + she came to Darnall, whether in 1873, 1874, 1875, or 1876. She admitted + that she had accepted a ring from Peace, but could not remember whether + she had shown it to her husband. She had been perhaps twice with Peace to + the Marquis of Waterford public-house, and once to the Star Music Hall. + She could not swear one way or the other whether she had charged to + Peace's account drink consumed by her at an inn in Darnall called the + Half-way House. Confronted with a little girl and a man, whom Mr. Lockwood + suggested she had employed to carry notes to Peace, Mrs. Dyson said that + these were merely receipts for pictures which he had framed for her. On + the day before her husband's murder, Mrs. Dyson was at the Stag Hotel at + Sharrow with a little boy belonging to a neighbour. A man followed her in + and sat beside her, and afterwards followed her out. In answer to Mr. + Lockwood, Mrs. Dyson would "almost swear" the man was not Peace; he had + spoken to her, but she could not remember whether she had spoken to him or + not. She denied that this man had said to her that he would come and see + her the next night. As the result of a parting shot Mr. Lockwood obtained + from Mrs. Dyson a reluctant admission that she had been "slightly + inebriated" at the Half-way House in Darnall, but had not to her knowledge + been turned out of the house on that account. "You may not have known you + were inebriated?" suggested Mr. Lockwood. "I always know what I am doing," + was Mrs. Dyson's reply, to which an unfriendly critic might have replied + that she did not apparently know with anything like certainty what she had + been doing during the last three or four years. In commenting on the trial + the following day, the Times stigmatised as "feeble" the prevarications by + which Mrs. Dyson tried to explain away her intimacy with Peace. In this + part of his cross-examination Mr. Lockwood had made it appear at least + highly probable that there had been a much closer relationship between + Mrs. Dyson and Peace than the former was willing to acknowledge. + </p> + <p> + The evidence of Mrs. Dyson was followed by that of five persons who had + either seen Peace in the neighbourhood of Banner Cross Terrace on the + night of the murder, or heard the screams and shots that accompanied it. A + woman, Mrs. Gregory, whose house was between that of the Dysons and the + passage in which Dyson was shot, said that she had heard the noise of the + clogs Mrs. Dyson was wearing as she went across the yard. A minute later + she heard a scream. She opened her back door and saw Dyson standing by his + own. She told him to go to his wife. She then went back into her house, + and almost directly after heard two shots, followed by another scream, but + no sound as of any scuffling. + </p> + <p> + Another witness was a labourer named Brassington. He was a stranger to + Peace, but stated that about eight o'clock on the night of the murder a + man came up to him outside the Banner Cross Hotel, a few yards from + Dyson's house. He was standing under a gas lamp, and it was a bright + moonlight night. The man asked him if he knew of any strange people who + had come to live in the neighbourhood. Brassington answered that he did + not. The man then produced a bundle of letters which he asked Brassington + to read. But Brassington declined, as reading was not one of his + accomplishments. The man then said that "he would make it a warm 'un for + those strange folks before morning—he would shoot both of them," and + went off in the direction of Dyson's house. Brassington swore positively + that Peace was the stranger who had accosted him that night, and Mr. + Lockwood failed to shake him in his evidence. Nor could Mr. Lockwood + persuade the surgeon who was called to Dyson at the time of his death to + admit that the marks on the nose and chin of the dead man could have been + caused by a blow; they were merely abrasions of the skin caused by the + wounded man falling to the ground. + </p> + <p> + Evidence was then given as to threats uttered by Peace against the Dysons + in the July of 1876, and as to his arrest at Blackheath in the October of + 1878. The revolver taken from Peace that night was produced, and it was + shown that the rifling of the bullet extracted from Dyson's head was the + same as that of the bullet fired from the revolver carried by Peace at the + time of his capture. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Campbell Foster wanted to put in as evidence the card that Dyson had + flung into Peace's garden at Darnall requesting him not to interfere with + his family. This card had been found among the bundle of letters dropped + by Peace near the scene of the murder. Mr. Lockwood objected to the + admission of the card unless all the letters were admitted at the same + time. The Judge ruled that both the card and the letters were + inadmissible, as irrelevant to the issue; Mr. Lockwood had, he said, very + properly cross-examined Mrs. Dyson on these letters to test her + credibility, but he was bound by her answers and could not contradict her + by introducing them as evidence in the case. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Lockwood in his address to the jury did his best to persuade them that + the death of Dyson was the accidental result of a struggle between Peace + and himself. He suggested that Mrs. Dyson had left her house that night + for the purpose of meeting Peace, and that Dyson, who was jealous of his + wife's intimacy with him, had gone out to find her; that Dyson, seeing + Peace, had caught hold of him; and that the revolver had gone off + accidentally as Dyson tried to wrest it from his adversary. He repudiated + the suggestion of Mr. Foster that the persons he had confronted with Mrs. + Dyson in the course of his cross-examination had been hired for a paltry + sum to come into court and lie. + </p> + <p> + Twice, both at the beginning and the end of his speech, Mr. Lockwood urged + as a reason for the jury being tender in taking Peace's life that he was + in such a state of wickedness as to be quite unprepared to meet death. + Both times that his counsel put forward this curious plea, Peace raised + his eyes to heaven and exclaimed "I am not fit to die." + </p> + <p> + Mr. Justice Lopes in summing up described as an "absolute surmise" the + theory of the accidental discharge of the pistol. He asked the jury to + take Peace's revolver in their hands and try the trigger, so as to see for + themselves whether it was likely to go off accidentally or not. He pointed + out that the pistol produced might not have been the pistol used at Banner + Cross; at the same time the bullet fired in November, 1876, bore marks + such as would have been produced had it been fired from the pistol taken + from Peace at Blackheath in October, 1878. He said that Mr. Lockwood had + been perfectly justified in his attempt to discredit the evidence of Mrs. + Dyson, but the case did not rest on her evidence alone. In her evidence as + to the threats uttered by Peace in July, 1876, Mrs. Dyson was corroborated + by three other witnesses. In the Judge's opinion it was clearly proved + that no struggle or scuffle had taken place before the murder. If the + defence, he concluded, rested on no solid foundation, then the jury must + do their duty to the community at large and by the oath they had sworn. + </p> + <p> + It was a quarter past seven when the jury retired. Ten minutes later they + came back into court with a verdict of guilty. Asked if he had anything to + say, Peace in a faint voice replied, "It is no use my saying anything." + The Judge, declining very properly to aggravate the prisoner's feelings by + "a recapitulation of any portion of the details of what I fear, I can only + call your criminal career," passed on him sentence of death. Peace + accepted his fate with composure. + </p> + <p> + Before we proceed to describe the last days of Peace on earth, let us + finish with the two women who had succeeded Mrs. Peace in his ardent + affections. + </p> + <p> + A few days after Peace's execution Mrs. Dyson left England for America, + but before going she left behind her a narrative intended to contradict + the imputations which she felt had been made against her moral character. + An Irishwoman by birth, she said that she had gone to America when she was + fifteen years old. + </p> + <p> + There she met and married Dyson, a civil engineer on the Atlantic and + Great Western Railway. Theirs was a rough and arduous life. But Mrs. Dyson + was thoroughly happy in driving her husband about in a buggy among bears + and creeks. She did not know fear and loved danger: "My husband loved me + and I loved him, and in his company and in driving him about in this wild + kind of fashion I derived much pleasure." However, Mr. Dyson's health + broke down, and he was obliged to return to England. It was at Darnall + that the fatal acquaintance with Peace began. Living next door but one to + the Dysons, Peace took the opportunity of introducing himself, and Mr. + Dyson "being a gentleman," took polite notice of his advances. He became a + constant visitor at the house. But after a time Peace began to show that + he was not the gentleman Mr. Dyson was. He disgusted the latter by + offering to show him improper pictures and "the sights of the town" of + Sheffield. + </p> + <p> + The Dysons tried to shake off the unwelcome acquaintance, but that was + easier said than done. By this time Peace had set his heart on making Mrs. + Dyson leave her husband. He kept trying to persuade her to go to + Manchester with him, where he would take a cigar or picture shop, to which + Mrs. Dyson, in fine clothes and jewelry, should lend the charm of her + comely presence. He offered her a sealskin jacket, yards of silk, a gold + watch. She should, he said, live in Manchester like a lady, to which Mrs. + Dyson replied coldly that she had always lived like one and should + continue to do so quite independently of him. But Peace would listen to no + refusal, however decided its tone. Dyson threw over the card into Peace's + garden. This only served to aggravate his determination to possess himself + of the wife. He would listen at keyholes, leer in at the window, and + follow Mrs. Dyson wherever she went. When she was photographed at the + fair, she found that Peace had stood behind her chair and by that means + got himself included in the picture. At times he had threatened her with a + revolver. On one occasion when he was more insulting than usual, Mrs. + Dyson forgot her fear of him and gave him a thrashing. Peace threatened + "to make her so that neither man nor woman should look at her, and then he + would have her all to himself." It was with some purpose of this kind, + Mrs. Dyson suggested, that Peace stole a photograph of herself out of a + locket, intending to make some improper use of it. At last, in + desperation, the Dysons moved to Banner Cross. From the day of their + arrival there until the murder, Mrs. Dyson never saw Peace. She denied + altogether having been in his company the night before the murder. The + letters were "bare forgeries," written by Peace or members of his family + to get her into their power. + </p> + <p> + Against the advice of all her friends Mrs. Dyson had come back from + America to give evidence against Peace. To the detective who saw her at + Cleveland she said, "I will go back if I have to walk on my head all the + way"; and though she little knew what she would have to go through in + giving her evidence, she would do it again under the circumstances. "My + opinion is," she said, "that Peace is a perfect demon—not a man. I + am told that since he has been sentenced to death he has become a changed + character. That I don't believe. The place to which the wicked go is not + bad enough for him. I think its occupants, bad as they might be, are too + good to be where he is. No matter where he goes, I am satisfied that there + will be hell. Not even a Shakespeare could adequately paint such a man as + he has been. My lifelong regret will be that I ever knew him." + </p> + <p> + With these few earnest words Mrs. Dyson quitted the shores of England, + hardly clearing up the mystery of her actual relations with Peace. + </p> + <p> + A woman with whom Mrs. Dyson very much resented finding herself classed—inebriety + would appear to have been their only common weakness—was Mrs. + Thompson, the "traitress Sue." In spite of the fact that on February 5 + Mrs. Thompson had applied to the Treasury for L100, blood money due her + for assisting the police in the identification of Peace, she was at the + same time carrying on a friendly correspondence with her lover and making + attempts to see him. Peace had written to her before his trial hoping she + would not forsake him; "you have been my bosom friend, and you have + ofttimes said you loved me, that you would die for me." He asked her to + sell some goods which he had left with her in order to raise money for his + defence. The traitress replied on January 27 that she had already sold + everything and shared the proceeds with Mrs. Peace. "You are doing me + great injustice," she wrote, "by saying that I have been out to 'work' + with you. Do not die with such a base falsehood on your conscience, for + you know I am young and have my living and character to redeem. I pity you + and myself to think we should have met." After his condemnation Mrs. + Thompson made repeated efforts to see Peace, coming to Leeds for the + purpose. Peace wrote a letter on February 9 to his "poor Sue," asking her + to come to the prison. But, partly at the wish of Peace's relatives and + for reasons of their own, a permission given Mrs. Thompson by the + authorities to visit the convict was suddenly withdrawn, and she never saw + him again. + </p> + <p> + III HIS TRIAL AND EXECUTION + </p> + <p> + In the lives of those famous men who have perished on the scaffold their + behaviour during the interval between their condemnation and their + execution has always been the subject of curiosity and interest. + </p> + <p> + It may be said at once that nothing could have been more deeply religious, + more sincerely repentant, more Christian to all appearances than Peace's + conduct and demeanour in the last weeks of his life. He threw himself into + the work of atonement with the same uncompromising zeal and energy that he + had displayed as a burglar. By his death a truly welcome and effective + recruit was lost to the ranks of the contrite and converted sinners. + However powerless as a controlling force—and he admitted it—his + belief in God and the devil may have been in the past, that belief was + assured and confident, and in the presence of death proclaimed itself with + vigour, not in words merely, but in deeds. + </p> + <p> + In obedience to the wishes of his family, Peace had refrained from seeing + Sue Thompson. This was at some sacrifice, for he wished very much to see + her and to the last, though he knew that she had betrayed him, sent her + affectionate and forgiving messages. These were transmitted to Sue by Mr. + Brion. This disingenuous gentleman was a fellow-applicant with Sue to the + Treasury for pecuniary recognition of his efforts in bringing about the + identification of Peace, and furnishing the police with information as to + the convict's disposal of his stolen property. In his zeal he had even + gone so far as to play the role of an accomplice of Peace, and by this + means discovered a place in Petticoat Lane where the burglar got rid of + some of his booty. + </p> + <p> + After Peace's condemnation Mr. Brion visited him in Armley Jail. His + purpose in doing so was to wring from his co-inventor an admission that + the inventions which they had patented together were his work alone. Peace + denied this, but offered to sell his share for L50. Brion refused the + offer, and persisted in his assertion that Peace had got his name attached + to the patents by undue influence, whatever that might mean. Peace, after + wrestling with the spirit, gave way. "Very well, my friend," he said, "let + it be as you say. I have not cheated you, Heaven knows. But I also know + that this infamy of mine has been the cause of bringing harm to you, which + is the last thing I should have wished to have caused to my friend." A + deed of gift was drawn up, making over to Brion Peace's share in their + inventions; this Peace handed to Brion as the price of the latter's + precious forgiveness and a token of the sincerity of his colleague's + repentance. Thus, as has often happened in this sad world, was + disreputable genius exploited once again by smug mediocrity. Mr. Brion, + having got all he wanted, left the prison, assuring the Governor that + Peace's repentance was "all bunkum," and advising, with commendable + anxiety for the public good, that the warders in the condemned cell should + be doubled. + </p> + <p> + Peace had one act of atonement to discharge more urgent than displaying + Christian forbearance towards ignoble associates. That was the righting of + William Habron, who was now serving the third year of his life sentence + for the murder of Constable Cock at Whalley Range. Peace sent for the + Governor of the jail a few days before his execution and obtained from him + the materials necessary for drawing up a plan. Peace was quite an adept at + making plans; he had already made an excellent one of the scene of Dyson's + murder. He now drew a plan of the place where Cock had been shot, gave a + detailed account of how he came by his death, and made a full confession + of his own guilt. + </p> + <p> + In the confession he described how, some days before the burglary, he had, + according to his custom, "spotted" the house at Whalley Range. In order to + do this he always dressed himself respectably, because he had found that + the police never suspected anyone who wore good clothes. On the night of + the crime he passed two policemen on the road to the house. He had gone + into the grounds and was about to begin operations when he heard a rustle + behind him and saw a policeman, whom he recognised as one of those he had + met in the road, enter the garden. With his well-known agility Peace + climbed on to the wall, and dropped on to the other side, only to find + himself almost in the arms of the second policeman. Peace warned the + officer to stand back and fired his revolver wide of him. But, as Peace + said, "these Manchester policemen are a very obstinate lot." The constable + took out his truncheon. Peace fired again and killed him. + </p> + <p> + Soon after the murderer saw in the newspapers that two men had been + arrested for the crime. "This greatly interested me," said Peace. "I + always had a liking to be present at trials, as the public no doubt know + by this time." So he went to Manchester Assizes and saw William Habron + sentenced to death. "People will say," he said, "that I was a hardened + wretch for allowing an innocent man to suffer for the crime of which I was + guilty but what man would have given himself up under such circumstances, + knowing as I did that I should certainly be hanged?" Peace's view of the + question was a purely practical one: "Now that I am going to forfeit my + own life and feel that I have nothing to gain by further secrecy, I think + it is right in the sight of God and man to clear this innocent young man." + It would have been more right in the sight of God and man to have done it + before, but then Peace admitted that during all his career he had allowed + neither God nor man to influence his actions. + </p> + <p> + How many men in the situation of Peace at the time, with the certainty of + death before him if he confessed, would have sacrificed themselves to save + an innocent man? Cold-blooded heroism of this kind is rare in the annals + of crime. Nor did Peace claim to have anything of the hero about him. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "Lion-hearted I've lived, + And when my time comes + Lion-hearted I'll die." +</pre> + <p> + Though fond of repeating this piece of doggerel, Peace would have been the + last man to have attributed to himself all those qualities associated + symbolically with the lion. + </p> + <p> + A few days before his execution Peace was visited in his prison by Mr. + Littlewood, the Vicar of Darnall. Mr. Littlewood had known Peace a few + years before, when he had been chaplain at Wakefield Prison. "Well, my old + friend Peace," he said as he entered the cell, "how are you to-day?" "'I + am very poorly, sir," replied the convict, "but I am exceedingly pleased + to see you." Mr. Littlewood assured Peace that there was at any rate one + person in the world who had deep sympathy with him, and that was himself. + Peace burst into tears. He expressed a wish to unburden himself to the + vicar, but before doing so, asked for his assurance that he believed in + the truth and sincerity of what he was about to say to him. He said that + he preferred to be hanged to lingering out his life in penal servitude, + that he was grieved and repentant for his past life. "If I could undo, or + make amends for anything I have done, I would suffer my body as I now + stand to be cut in pieces inch by inch. I feel, sir, that I am too bad to + live or die, and having this feeling I cannot think that either you or + anyone else would believe me, and that is the reason why I ask you so much + to try to be assured that you do not think I am telling lies. I call my + God to witness that all I am saying and wish to say shall be the truth—the + whole truth—nothing but the truth." Mr. Littlewood said that, after + carefully watching Peace and having regard to his experience of some of + the most hardened of criminals during his service in Wakefield Prison, he + felt convinced that Peace was in earnest and as sincere as any man could + be; he spoke rationally, coherently, and without excitement. + </p> + <p> + Peace was determined to test the extent of the reverend gentleman's faith + in his asseverations. "Now, sir," he said, "I understand that you still + have the impression that I stole the clock from your day-schools." Mr. + Littlewood admitted that such was his impression. "I thought so," replied + Peace, "and this has caused me much grief and pain, for I can assure you I + have so much respect for you personally that I would rather have given you + a clock and much more besides than have taken it. At the time your clock + was stolen I had reason for suspecting that it was taken by some colliers + whom I knew." There was a pause. Mr. Littlewood thought that Peace was + going to give him the name of the colliers. But that was not Peace's way. + He said sharply: "Do you now believe that I have spoken the truth in + denying that I took your clock, and will you leave me to-day fully + believing that I am innocent of doing that?" Mr. Littlewood looked at him + closely and appeared to be deliberating on his reply. Peace watched him + intently. At last Mr. Littlewood said, "Peace, I am convinced that you did + not take the clock. I cannot believe that you dare deny it now in your + position, if you really did." Once more Peace burst into tears, and was + unable for some time to speak. + </p> + <p> + Having recovered his self-possession, Peace turned to the serious business + of confession. He dealt first with the murder of Dyson. + </p> + <p> + He maintained that his relations with Mrs. Dyson had been of an intimate + character. He wanted to see her on the night of the crime in order to get + her to induce her husband to withdraw the warrant which he had procured + against him; he was tired, he said, of being hunted about from place to + place. He intercepted Mrs. Dyson as she crossed the yard. Instead of + listening to him quietly Mrs. Dyson became violent and threatening in her + language. Peace took out his revolver, and, holding it close to her head, + warned her that he was not to be trifled with. She refused to be warned. + Dyson, hearing the loud voices, came out of his house. Peace tried to get + away down the passage into Banner Cross Road, but Dyson followed and + caught hold of him. In the struggle Peace fired one barrel of his revolver + wide. Dyson seized the hand in which Peace was holding the weapon. "Then I + knew," said Peace, "I had not a moment to spare. I made a desperate + effort, wrenched the arm from him and fired again. All that was in my head + at the time was to get away. I never did intend, either there or anywhere + else, to take a man's life; but I was determined that I should not be + caught at that time, as the result, knowing what I had done before, would + have been worse even than had I stayed under the warrant." If he had + intended to murder Dyson, Peace pointed out that he would have set about + it in quite a different and more secret way; it was as unintentional a + thing as ever was done; Mrs. Dyson had committed the grossest perjury in + saying that no struggle had taken place between her husband and himself. + </p> + <p> + It is to be remembered that Peace and Mrs. Dyson were the sole witnesses + of what took place that night between the two men. In point of credibility + there may be little to choose between them, but Peace can claim for his + account that it was the statement of a dying, and, to all appearances, + sincerely repentant sinner. + </p> + <p> + Peace then repeated to Mr. Littlewood his confession of the killing of + Constable Cock, and his desire that Habron should be set free.(11) As to + this part of his career Peace indulged in some general reflections. "My + great mistake, sir," he said, "and I can see it now as my end approaches, + has been this—in all my career I have used ball cartridge. I can see + now that in using ball cartridge I did wrong I ought to have used blank + cartridge; then I would not have taken life." Peace said that he hoped he + would meet his death like a hero. "I do not say this in any kind of + bravado. I do not mean such a hero as some persons will understand when + they read this. I mean such a hero as my God might wish me to be. I am + deeply grieved for all I have done, and would atone for it to the utmost + of my power." To Mr. Littlewood the moment seemed convenient to suggest + that as a practical means of atonement Peace should reveal to him the + names of the persons with whom he had disposed of the greater part of his + stolen property. But in spite of much attempted persuasion by the reverend + gentleman Peace explained that he was a man and meant to be a man to the + end. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (11) William Habron was subsequently given a free pardon and L800 by way +of compensation. +</pre> + <p> + Earlier in their interview Peace had expressed to Mr. Littlewood a hope + that after his execution his name would never be mentioned again, but + before they parted he asked Mr. Littlewood, as a favour, to preach a + sermon on him after his death to the good people of Darnall. He wished his + career held up to them as a beacon, in order that all who saw might avoid + his example, and so his death be of some service to society. + </p> + <p> + Before Mr. Littlewood left, Peace asked him to hear him pray. Having + requested the warders to kneel down, Peace began a prayer that lasted + twenty minutes. He prayed for himself, his family, his victims, Mr. + Littlewood, society generally, and all classes of the community. Mr. + Littlewood described the prayer as earnest, fervent and fluent. At the end + Peace asked Mr. Littlewood if he ought to see Mrs. Dyson and beg her + forgiveness for having killed her husband. Mr. Littlewood, believing + erroneously that Mrs. Dyson had already left the country, told Peace that + he should direct all his attention to asking forgiveness of his Maker. At + the close of their interview Peace was lifted into bed and, turning his + face to the wall, wept. + </p> + <p> + Tuesday, February 25, was the day fixed for the execution of Peace. As the + time drew near, the convict's confidence in ultimate salvation increased. + A Dr. Potter of Sheffield had declared in a sermon that "all hope of + Peace's salvation was gone for ever." Peace replied curtly, "Well, Dr. + Potter may think so, but I don't." Though his health had improved, Peace + was still very feeble in body. But his soul was hopeful and undismayed. On + the Saturday before his death his brother and sister-in-law, a nephew and + niece visited him for the last time. He spoke with some emotion of his + approaching end. He said he should die about eight o'clock, and that at + four o'clock an inquest would be held on his body; he would then be thrown + into his grave without service or sermon of any kind. He asked his + relatives to plant a flower on a certain grave in a cemetery in Sheffield + on the day of his execution. He was very weak, he said, but hoped he + should have strength enough to walk to the scaffold. He sent messages to + friends and warnings to avoid gambling and drinking. He begged his brother + to change his manner of life and "become religious." His good counsel was + not apparently very well received. Peace's visitors took a depressing view + of their relative's condition. They found him "a poor, wretched, haggard + man," and, meeting Mrs. Thompson who was waiting outside the gaol for news + of "dear Jack," wondered how she could have taken up with such a man. + </p> + <p> + When, the day before his execution, Peace was visited for the last time by + his wife, his stepson, his daughter, Mrs. Bolsover, and her husband, he + was in much better spirits. He asked his visitors to restrain themselves + from displays of emotion, as he felt very happy and did not wish to be + disturbed. He advised them to sell or exhibit for money certain works of + art of his own devising. Among them was a design in paper for a monument + to be placed over his grave. The design is elaborate but well and + ingeniously executed; in the opinion of Frith, the painter, it showed "the + true feeling of an artist." It is somewhat in the style of the Albert + Memorial, and figures of angels are prominent in the scheme. The whole + conception is typical of the artist's sanguine and confident assurance of + his ultimate destiny. A model boat and a fiddle made out of a hollow + bamboo cane he wished also to be made the means of raising money. He was + describing with some detail the ceremony of his approaching death and + burial when he was interrupted by a sound of hammering. Peace listened for + a moment and then said, "That's a noise that would make some men fall on + the floor. They are working at my own scaffold." A warder said that he was + mistaken. "No, I am not," answered Peace, "I have not worked so long with + wood without knowing the sound of deals; and they don't have deals inside + a prison for anything else than scaffolds." But the noise, he said, did + not disturb him in the least, as he was quite prepared to meet his fate. + He would like to have seen his grave and coffin; he knew that his body + would be treated with scant ceremony after his death. But what of that? By + that time his soul would be in Heaven. He was pleased that one sinner who + had seen him on his way from Pentonville to Sheffield, had written to tell + him that the sight of the convict had brought home to him the sins of his + own past life, and by this means he had found salvation. + </p> + <p> + The time had come to say good-bye for the last time. Peace asked his + weeping relatives whether they had anything more that they wished to ask + him. Mrs. Peace reminded him that he had promised to pray with them at the + last. Peace, ever ready, knelt with them and prayed for half an hour. He + then shook hands with them, prayed for and blessed each one singly, and + himself gave way to tears as they left his presence. To his wife as she + departed Peace gave a funeral card of his own designing. It ran: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + In + Memory + of + Charles Peace + Who was executed in + Armley Prison + Tuesday February 25th, + 1879 Aged 47 + + For that I don but never + Intended. +</pre> + <p> + The same day there arrived in the prison one who in his own trade had + something of the personality and assurance of the culprit he was to + execute. William Marwood—unlike his celebrated victim, he has his + place in the Dictionary of National Biography—is perhaps the most + remarkable of these persons who have held at different times the office of + public executioner. As the inventor of the "long drop," he has done a + lasting service to humanity by enabling the death-sentence passed by the + judge to be carried out with the minimum of possible suffering. Marwood + took a lofty view of the office he held, and refused his assent to the + somewhat hypocritical loathing, with which those who sanction and profit + by his exertions are pleased to regard this servant of the law. "I am + doing God's work," said Marwood, "according to the divine command and the + law of the British Crown. I do it simply as a matter of duty and as a + Christian. I sleep as soundly as a child and am never disturbed by + phantoms. Where there is guilt there is bad sleeping, but I am conscious + that I try to live a blameless life. Detesting idleness, I pass my vacant + time in business (he was a shoemaker at Horncastle, in Lincolnshire) and + work in my shoeshop near the church day after day until such time as I am + required elsewhere. It would have been better for those I executed if they + had preferred industry to idleness." + </p> + <p> + Marwood had not the almost patriarchal air of benevolent respectability + which his predecessor Calcraft had acquired during a short experience as a + family butler; but as an executioner that kindly old gentleman had been a + sad bungler in his time compared with the scientific and expeditious + Marwood. The Horncastle shoemaker was saving, businesslike, pious and + thoughtful. Like Peace, he had interests outside his ordinary profession. + He had at one time propounded a scheme for the abolition of the National + Debt, a man clearly determined to benefit his fellowmen in some way or + other. A predilection for gin would seem to have been his only concession + to the ordinary weakness of humanity. And now he had arrived in Armley + Jail to exercise his happy dispatch on the greatest of the many criminals + who passed through his hands, one who, in his own words, "met death with + greater firmness" than any man on whom he had officiated during seven + years of Crown employment. + </p> + <p> + The day of February the 25th broke bitterly cold. Like Charles I. before + him, Peace feared lest the extreme cold should make him appear to tremble + on the scaffold. He had slept calmly till six o'clock in the morning. A + great part of the two hours before the coming of the hangman Peace spent + in letter-writing. He wrote two letters to his wife, in one of which he + copied out some verses he had written in Woking Prison on the death of + their little boy John. In the second he expressed his satisfaction that he + was to die now and not linger twenty years in prison. To his daughter, + step-son and son-in-law he wrote letters of fervent, religious exhortation + and sent them tracts and pictures which he had secured from + well-intentioned persons anxious about his salvation. To an old friend, + George Goodlad, a pianist, who had apparently lived up to his name, he + wrote: "You chose an honest industrious way through life, but I chose the + one of dishonesty, villainy and sin"; let his fate, he said, be a warning. + </p> + <p> + Peace ate a hearty breakfast and awaited the coming of the executioner + with calm. He had been troubled with an inconvenient cough the night + before. "I wonder," he said to one of his warders, "if Marwood could cure + this cough of mine." He had got an idea into his head that Marwood would + "punish" him when he came to deal with him on the scaffold, and asked to + see the hangman a few minutes before the appointed hour. "I hope you will + not punish me. I hope you will do your work quickly," he said to Marwood. + "You shall not suffer pain from my hand," replied that worthy. "God bless + you," exclaimed Peace, "I hope to meet you all in heaven. I am thankful to + say my sins are all forgiven." And so these two pious men—on the + morning of an execution Marwood always knelt down and asked God's blessing + on the work he had to do—shook hands together and set about their + business. Firmly and fearlessly Peace submitted himself to the necessary + preparations. For one moment he faltered as the gallows came in sight, but + recovered himself quickly. + </p> + <p> + As Marwood was about to cover his face, Peace stopped him with some + irritation of manner and said that he wished to speak to the gentlemen of + the press who had been admitted to the ceremony. No one gainsaid him, and + he thus addressed the reporters: "You gentlemen reporters, I wish you to + notice the few words I am going to say. You know what my life has been. It + has been base; but I wish you to notice, for the sake of others, how a man + can die, as I am about to die, in fear of the Lord. Gentlemen, my heart + says that I feel assured that my sins are forgiven me, that I am going to + the Kingdom of Heaven, or else to the place prepared for those who rest + until the great Judgment day. I do not think I have any enemies, but if + there are any who would be so, I wish them well. Gentlemen, all and all, I + wish them to come to the Kingdom of Heaven when they die, as I am going to + die." He asked a blessing on the officials of the prison and, in + conclusion, sent his last wishes and respects to his dear children and + their mother. "I hope," he said, "no one will disgrace them by taunting + them or jeering them on my account, but to have mercy upon them. God bless + you, my dear children. Good-bye, and Heaven bless you. Amen: Oh, my Lord + God, have mercy upon me!" + </p> + <p> + After the cap had been placed over his head Peace asked twice very + sharply, as a man who expected to be obeyed, for a drink of water. But + this time his request was not compiled with. He died instantaneously and + was buried in Armley Jail. + </p> + <p> + Had Peace flourished in 1914 instead of 1874, his end might have been + honourable instead of dishonourable. The war of to-day has no doubt saved + many a man from a criminal career by turning to worthy account qualities + which, dangerous in crime, are useful in war. Absolute fearlessness, + agility, resource, cunning and determination; all these are admirable + qualities in the soldier; and all these Charles Peace possessed in a + signal degree. But fate denied him opportunity, he became a burglar and + died on the scaffold. Years of prison life failed, as they did in those + days, to make any impression for good on one resolute in whatever way he + chose to go. Peace was a born fighter. A detective who knew him and had on + one occasion come near capturing him in London, said that he was a fair + fighter, that he always gave fair warning to those on whom he fired, and + that, being a dead shot, the many wide shots which he fired are to be + reckoned proofs of this. Peace maintained to the last that he had never + intended to kill Dyson. This statement ex-detective Parrock believed, and + that the fatal shot was fired over Peace's shoulder as he was making off. + Though habitually sober, Peace was made intoxicated now and then by the + drink, stood him by those whom he used to amuse with his musical tricks + and antics in public-houses. At such times he would get fuddled and + quarrelsome. He was in such a frame of mind on the evening of Dyson's + murder. His visit to the Vicar of Ecclesall brought him little comfort or + consolation. It was in this unsatisfactory frame of mind that he went to + Dyson's house. This much the ex-detective would urge in his favour. To his + neighbours he was an awe-inspiring but kind and sympathetic man. "If you + want my true opinion of him," says Detective Parrock, "he was a burglar to + the backbone but not a murderer at heart. He deserved the fate that came + to him as little as any who in modern times have met with a like one." + Those who are in the fighting line are always the most generous about + their adversaries. Parrock as a potential target for Peace's revolver, may + have erred on the side of generosity, but there is some truth in what he + says. + </p> + <p> + As Peace himself admitted, his life had been base. He was well aware that + he had misused such gifts as nature had bestowed on him. One must go back + to mediaeval times to find the counterpart of this daring ruffian who, + believing in personal God and devil, refuses until the end to allow either + to interfere with his business in life. In this respect Charles Peace + reminds us irresistibly of our Angevin kings. + </p> + <p> + There is only one criminal who vies with Charley Peace in that genial + popular regard which makes Charles "Charley" and John "Jack," and that is + Jack Sheppard. What Jack was to the eighteenth century, that Charley was + to the nineteenth. And each one is in a sense typical of his period. Lecky + has said that the eighteenth century is richer than any other in the + romance of crime. I think it may fairly be said that in the nineteenth + century the romance of crime ceased to be. In the eighteenth century the + scenery and dresses, all the stage setting of crime make for romance; its + literature is quaint and picturesque; there is something gay and debonair + about the whole business. + </p> + <p> + Sheppard is typical of all this. There is a certain charm about the + rascal; his humour is undeniable; he is a philosopher, taking all that + comes with easy grace, even his betrayal by his brother and others who + should have been loyal to him. Jack Sheppard has the good-humoured + carelessness of that most engaging of all eighteenth century malefactors, + Deacon Brodie. It is quite otherwise with Charley Peace. There is little + enough gay or debonair about him. Compared with Sheppard, Peace is as drab + as the surroundings of mid-Victorian crime are drab compared with the + picturesqueness of eighteenth century England. + </p> + <p> + Crime in the nineteenth century becomes more scientific in its methods and + in its detection also. The revolver places a more hasty, less decorous + weapon than the old-fashioned pistol in the hands of the determined + burglar. The literature of crime, such as it is, becomes vulgar and + prosaic. Peace has no charm about him, no gaiety, but he has the virtues + of his defects. He, unlike Sheppard, shuns company; he works alone, never + depending on accomplices; a "tight cock," as Sheppard would have phrased + it, and not relying on a like quality of tightness in his fellows. + Sheppard is a slave to his women, Edgeworth Bess and Mrs. Maggot; Mrs. + Peace and Sue Thompson are the slaves of Peace. Sheppard loves to stroll + openly about the London streets in his fine suit of black, his ruffled + shirt and his silver-hilted sword. Peace lies concealed at Peckham beneath + the homely disguise of old Mr. Thompson. Sheppard is an imp, Peace a + goblin. But both have that gift of personality which, in their own + peculiar line, lifts them out from the ruck, and makes them Jack and + Charley to those who like to know famous people by cheery nicknames. + </p> + <p> + And so we must accept Charles Peace as a remarkable character, whose + unquestioned gifts as a man of action were squandered on a criminal + career; neither better nor worse than a great number of other persons, + whose good fortune it has been to develop similar qualities under happier + surroundings. There are many more complete villains than the ordinary + criminal, who contrive to go through life without offending against the + law. Close and scientific investigation has shown that the average + convicted criminal differs intellectually from the normal person only in a + slightly lower level of intelligence, a condition that may well be + explained by the fact that the convicted criminal has been found out. + Crime has been happily defined by a recent and most able investigator into + the character of the criminal(12) as "an unusual act committed by a + perfectly normal person." At the same time, according to the same + authority, there is a type of normal person who tends to be convicted of + crime, and he is differentiated from his fellows by defective physique and + mental capacity and an increased possession of antisocial qualities.(13) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (12) "The English Convict," a statistical study, by Charles Goring, M.D. +His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1913. + + (13) Murderers—at least those executed for their crimes—have not for +obvious reasons been made the subject of close scientific observation. +Their mental capacity would in all probability be found to be rather +higher than that of less ambitious criminals. +</pre> + <p> + How does Peace answer to the definition? Though short in stature, his + physical development left little to be desired: he was active, agile, and + enjoyed excellent health at all times. For a man of forty-seven he had + aged remarkably in appearance. That is probably to be accounted for by + mental worry. With two murders on his conscience we know from Sue Thompson + that all she learnt of his secrets was what escaped from him in his + troubled dreams—Peace may well have shown traces of mental anxiety. + But in all other respects Charles Peace would seem to have been physically + fit. In intellectual capacity he was undoubtedly above the average of the + ordinary criminal. The facts of his career, his natural gifts, speak for + themselves. Of anti-social proclivities he no doubt possessed his share at + the beginning, and these were aggravated, as in most cases they were in + his day, by prison life and discipline. + </p> + <p> + Judged as scientifically as is possible where the human being is + concerned, Peace stands out physically and intellectually well above the + average of his class, perhaps the most naturally gifted of all those who, + without advantages of rank or education, have tried their hands at crime. + Ordinary crime for the most part would appear to be little better than the + last resort of the intellectually defective, and a poor game at that. The + only interesting criminals are those worthy of something better. Peace was + one of these. If his life may be said to point a moral, it is the very + simple one that crime is no career for a man of brains. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Career of Robert Butler + </h2> + <p> + There is a report of Butler's trial published in Dunedin. It gives in full + the speeches and the cross-examination of the witnesses, but not in all + cases the evidence-in-chief. By the kindness of a friend in New Zealand I + obtained a copy of the depositions taken before the magistrate; with this + I have been able to supplement the report of the trial. A collection of + newspaper cuttings furnished me with the details of the rest of Butler's + career. + </p> + <p> + I THE DUNEDIN MURDERS + </p> + <p> + On the evening of March 23, 1905, Mr. William Munday, a highly respected + citizen of the town of Tooringa, in Queensland, was walking to the + neighbouring town of Toowong to attend a masonic gathering. It was about + eight o'clock, the moon shining brightly. Nearing Toowong, Mr. Munday saw + a middle-aged man, bearded and wearing a white overcoat, step out into the + moonlight from under the shadow of a tree. As Mr. Munday advanced, the man + in the white coat stood directly in his way. "Out with all you have, and + quick about it," he said. Instead of complying with this peremptory + summons, Mr. Munday attempted to close with him. The man drew back + quickly, whipped out a revolver, fired, and made off as fast as he could. + The bullet, after passing through Mr. Munday's left arm, had lodged in the + stomach. The unfortunate gentleman was taken to a neighbouring hospital + where, within a few hours, he was dead. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime a vigorous search was made for his assailant. Late the + same night Constable Hennessy, riding a bicycle, saw a man in a white coat + who seemed to answer to the description of the assassin. He dismounted, + walked up to him and asked him for a match. The man put his hand inside + his coat. "What have you got there?" asked the constable. "I'll—soon + show you," replied the man in the white coat, producing suddenly a large + revolver. But Hennessy was too quick for him. Landing him one under the + jaw, he sent him to the ground and, after a sharp struggle, secured him. + Constable Hennessy little knew at the time that his capture in Queensland + of the man in the white coat was almost as notable in the annals of crime + as the affray at Blackheath on an autumn night in 1878, when Constable + Robinson grappled successfully, wounded as he was, with Charles Peace. + </p> + <p> + The man taken by Hennessy gave the name of James Wharton, and as James + Wharton he was hanged at Brisbane. But before his death it was ascertained + beyond doubt, though he never admitted it himself, that Wharton was none + other than one Robert Butler, whose career as a criminal and natural + wickedness may well rank him with Charles Peace in the hierarchy of + scoundrels. Like Peace, Butler was, in the jargon of crime, a "hatter," a + "lone hand," a solitary who conceived and executed his nefarious designs + alone; like Peace, he supplemented an insignificant physique by a liberal + employment of the revolver; like Peace, he was something of a musician, + the day before his execution he played hymns for half an hour on the + prison organ; like Peace, he knew when to whine when it suited his + purpose; and like Peace, though not with the same intensity, he could be + an uncomfortably persistent lover, when the fit was on him. Both men were + cynics in their way and viewed their fellow-men with a measure of + contempt. But here parallel ends. Butler was an intellectual, inferior as + a craftsman to Peace, the essentially practical, unread, naturally gifted + artist. Butler was a man of books. He had been schoolmaster, journalist. + He had studied the lives of great men, and as a criminal, had devoted + especial attention to those of Frederick the Great and Napoleon. Butler's + defence in the Dunedin murder trial was a feat of skill quite beyond the + power of Peace. Peace was a religious man after the fashion of the + mediaeval tyrant, Butler an infidel. Peace, dragged into the light of a + court of justice, cut a sorry figure; here Butler shone. Peace escaped a + conviction for murder by letting another suffer in his place; Butler + escaped a similar experience by the sheer ingenuity of his defence. Peace + had the modesty and reticence of the sincere artist; Butler the loquacious + vanity of the literary or forensic coxcomb. Lastly, and it is the supreme + difference, Butler was a murderer by instinct and conviction, as Lacenaire + or Ruloff; "a man's life," he said, "was of no more importance than a + dog's; nature respects the one no more than the other, a volcanic eruption + kills mice and men with the one hand. The divine command, 'kill, kill and + spare not,' was intended not only for Joshua, but for men of all time; it + is the example of our rulers, our Fredericks and Napoleons." + </p> + <p> + Butler was of the true Prussian mould. "In crime," he would say, "as in + war, no half measures. Let us follow the example of our rulers whose + orders in war run, 'Kill, burn and sink,' and what you cannot carry away, + destroy.'" Here is the gospel of frightfulness applied almost + prophetically to crime. To Butler murder is a principle of warfare; to + Peace it was never more than a desperate resort or an act the outcome of + ungovernable passion. + </p> + <p> + Ireland can claim the honour of Butler's birth. It took place at Kilkenny + about 1845. At an early age he left his native land for Australia, and + commenced his professional career by being sentenced under the name of + James Wilson—the same initials as those of James Wharton of + Queensland—to twelve months' imprisonment for vagrancy. Of the + sixteen years he passed in Victoria he spent thirteen in prison, first for + stealing, then in steady progression for highway robbery and burglary. + Side by side with the practical and efficient education in crime furnished + by the Victorian prisons of that day, Butler availed himself of the + opportunity to educate his mind. It was during this period that he found + inspiration and encouragement in the study of the lives of Frederick and + Napoleon, besides acquiring a knowledge of music and shorthand. + </p> + <p> + When in 1876 Butler quitted Australia for New Zealand, he was sufficiently + accomplished to obtain employment as a schoolmaster. + </p> + <p> + At Cromwell, Otago, under the name of "C. J. Donelly, Esq.," Butler opened + a "Commercial and Preparatory Academy," and in a prospectus that recalls + Mr. Squeers' famous advertisement of Dotheboys Hall, announced that the + programme of the Academy would include "reading, taught as an art and upon + the most approved principles of elocution, writing, arithmetic, euclid, + algebra, mensuration, trigonometry, book-keeping, geography, grammar, + spelling and dictation, composition, logic and debate, French, Latin, + shorthand, history, music, and general lectures on astronomy, natural + philosophy, geology, and other subjects." The simpler principles of these + branches of learning were to be "rendered intelligible, and a firm + foundation laid for the acquirement of future knowledge." Unfortunately a + suspicion of theft on Butler's part cut short the fulfilment of this + really splendid programme, and Butler left Cromwell hurriedly for the + ampler field of Dunedin. There, less than a fortnight after his + arrivel{sic}, he was sentenced to four years' hard labour for several + burglaries committed in and about that city. + </p> + <p> + On the 18th of February, 1880, Butler was released from prison. With that + consummate hypocrisy which was part of the man, he had contrived to enlist + the sympathies of the Governor of the Dunedin Jail, who gave him, on his + departure, a suit of clothes and a small sum of money. A detective of the + name of Bain tried to find him employment. Butler wished to adopt a + literary career. He acted as a reporter on the Dunedin Evening Star, and + gave satisfaction to the editor of that newspaper. An attempt to do some + original work, in the shape of "Prison Sketches," for another newspaper, + was less successful. Bain had arranged for the publication of the articles + in the Sunday Advertiser, but when the time came to deliver his + manuscript, Butler failed to appear. Bain, whose duty it was to keep an + eye on Butler, found him in the street looking wild and haggard. He said + that he had found the work "too much for his head," that he had torn up + what he had written, that he had nowhere to go, and had been to the end of + the jetty with the intention of drowning himself. Bain replied somewhat + caustically that he thought it a pity he had not done so, as nothing would + have given him greater joy than going to the end of the jetty and + identifying his body. "You speak very plainly," said Butler. "Yes, and + what is more, I mean what I say," replied Bain. Butler justified Bain's + candour by saying that if he broke out again, he would be worse than the + most savage tiger ever let loose on the community. As a means of obviating + such an outbreak, Butler suggested that, intellectual employment having + failed, some form of manual labour should be found him. Bain complied with + Butler's request, and got him a job at levelling reclaimed ground in the + neighbourhood of Dunedin. On Wednesday, March 10, Butler started work, but + after three hours of it relinquished the effort. Bain saw Butler again in + Dunedin on the evening of Saturday, March 13, and made an appointment to + meet him at half-past eight that night. Butler did not keep the + appointment. Bain searched the town for him, but he was nowhere to be + found. + </p> + <p> + About the same time Butler had some talk with another member of the + Dunedin police force, Inspector Mallard. They discussed the crimes of + Charles Peace and other notable artists of that kind. Butler remarked to + Mallard how easy it would be to destroy all traces of a murder by fire, + and asked the inspector whether if he woke up one morning to find some + brutal murder had been committed, he would not put it down to him. "No, + Butler," replied the inspector, "the first thing I should do would be to + look for suspicious circumstances, and most undoubtedly, if they pointed + to you, you would be looked after." + </p> + <p> + In the early morning of this Saturday, March 13, the house of a Mr. + Stamper, a solicitor of Dunedin, had been broken into, and some articles + of value, among them a pair of opera glasses, stolen. The house had been + set on fire, and burned to the ground. On the morning of the following + day, Sunday, the 14th, Dunedin was horrified by the discovery of a far + more terrible crime, tigerish certainly in its apparent ferocity. In a + house in Cumberland Street, a young married couple and their little baby + were cruelly murdered and un{sic}{an??} unsuccessful attempt made to fire + the scene of the crime. + </p> + <p> + About half-past six on Sunday morning a man of the name of Robb, a + carpenter, on getting out of bed, noticed smoke coming from the house of a + neighbor of his, Mr. J. M. Dewar, who occupied a small one-floored cottage + standing by itself in Cumberland Street, a large and broad thoroughfare on + the outskirts of the town. Dewar was a butcher by trade, a young man, some + eighteen months married, and father of a baby girl. Robb, on seeing smoke + coming from Dewar's house, woke his son, who was a member of the fire + brigade. The latter got up, crossed the street, and going round to the + back door, which he found wide open, entered the house. As he went along + the passage that separated the two front rooms, a bedroom and + sitting-room, he called to the inmates to get up. He received no answer, + but as he neared the bedroom he heard a "gurgling" sound. Crawling on his + hands and knees he reached the bedroom door, and two feet inside it his + right hand touched something. It was the body of a woman; she was still + alive, but in a dying condition. Robb dragged her across the passage into + the sitting-room. He got some water, and extinguished the fire in the + bedroom. On the bed lay the body of Dewar. To all appearances he had been + killed in his sleep. By his side was the body of the baby, suffocated by + the smoke. Near the bed was an axe belonging to Dewar, stained with blood. + It was with this weapon, apparently, that Mr. and Mrs. Dewar had been + attacked. Under the bed was a candlestick belonging also to the Dewars, + which had been used by the murderer in setting fire to the bed. The front + window of the sitting-room was open, there were marks of boot nails on the + sill, and on the grass in front of the window a knife was found. An + attempt had been made to ransack a chest of drawers in the bedroom, but + some articles of jewellery lying in one of the drawers, and a ring on the + dressing-table had been left untouched. As far as was known, Mr. and Mrs. + Dewar were a perfectly happy and united couple. Dewar had been last seen + alive about ten o'clock on the Saturday night getting off a car near his + home. At eleven a neighbour had noticed a light in the Dewars' house. + About five o'clock on the Sunday morning another neighbour had been + aroused from his sleep by the sound as of something falling heavily. It + was a wild and boisterous night. Thinking the noise might be the slamming + of his stable door, he got up and went out to see that it was secure. He + then noticed that a light was burning in the bedroom window of the Dewars' + cottage. + </p> + <p> + Nothing more was known of what had occurred that morning until at + half-past six Robb saw the smoke coming from Dewars' house. Mrs. Dewar, + who alone could have told something, never recovered consciousness and + died on the day following the crime. Three considerable wounds sufficient + to cause death had been inflicted on the unfortunate woman's head, and + five of a similar character on that of her husband. At the head of the + bed, which stood in the corner of the room, there was a large smear of + blood on the wall just above the door; there were spots of blood all over + the top of the bed, and some smaller ones that had to all appearances + spurted on to the panel of the door nearest to the bed. + </p> + <p> + The investigation of this shocking crime was placed in the hands of + Detective Bain, whose duty it had been to keep an eye on Robert Butler, + but he did not at first associate his interesting charge with the + commission of the murder. About half-past six on Sunday evening Bain + happened to go to a place called the Scotia Hotel, where the landlord + informed him that one of his servants, a girl named Sarah Gillespie, was + very anxious to see him. Her story was this: On the morning of Thursday, + March 11, Robert Butler had come to the hotel; he was wearing a dark + lavender check suit and carried a top coat and parcel. Butler had stayed + in the hotel all Thursday and slept there that night. He had not slept in + the hotel on the Friday night, and Sarah Gillespie had not seen him again + until he came into the house about five and twenty minutes to seven on + Sunday morning. The girl noticed that he was pale and excited, seemed + afraid and worried, as if someone were coming after him. After giving her + some money for the landlord, he went upstairs, fetched his top coat, a + muffler, and his parcel. Before leaving he said he would have a pint of + beer, as he had not breakfasted. He then left, presumably to catch an + early train. + </p> + <p> + Butler was next seen a few minutes later at a shop near the hotel, where + he bought five tins of salmon, and about the same time a milk-boy saw him + standing on the kerb in Cumberland Street in a stooping position, his head + turned in the direction of Dewars' house. A little after ten the same + night Butler entered a hotel at a place called Blueskin, some twelve miles + distant from Dunedin. He was wearing an overcoat and a light muffler. He + sat down at a table in the dining-room and seemed weary and sleepy. + Someone standing at the bar said "What a shocking murder that was in + Cumberland Street!" Butler started up, looked steadily from one to the + other of the two men who happened to be in the room, then sat down again + and, taking up a book, appeared to be reading. More than once he put down + the book and kept shifting uneasily in his chair. After having some supper + he got up, paid his reckoning, and left the hotel. + </p> + <p> + At half-past three the following morning, about fifteen miles from + Dunedin, on the road to Waikouaiti, two constables met a man whom they + recognised as Butler from a description that had been circulated by the + police. The constables arrested and searched him. They found on him a pair + of opera glasses, the property of Mr. Stamper, whose house had been + burgled and burned down on the morning of the 13th. Of this crime Butler + acknowledged himself to be the perpetrator. Besides the opera glasses the + constables took from Butler two tins of salmon, a purse containing four + shillings and sixpence, a pocket knife, a box of matches, a piece of + candle, and a revolver and cartridges. The prisoner was carrying a top + coat, and was dressed in a dark coat and grey trousers, underneath which + he was wearing a white shirt, an under flannel and a Rob Roy Crimean + shirt. One of the constables noticed that there were marks of blood on his + shirt. Another singular feature in Butler's attire was the fact that the + outer soles of his boots had been recently removed. When last seen in + Dunedin Butler had been wearing a moustache; he was now clean shaven. + </p> + <p> + The same evening a remarkable interview took place in the lock-up at + Waikouaiti between Butler and Inspector Mallard. Mallard, who had some + reason for suspecting Butler, bearing in mind their recent conversation, + told the prisoner that he would be charged with the murder in Cumberland + Street. For a few seconds, according to Mallard, the prisoner seemed + terribly agitated and appeared to be choking. Recovering himself somewhat, + he said, "If for that, you can get no evidence against me; and if I am + hanged for it, I shall be an innocent man, whatever other crimes I may + have committed." Mallard replied, "There is evidence to convict you—the + fire was put out." Butler than{sic} said that he would ask Mallard a + question, but, after a pause, decided not to do so. Mallard, after + examining Butler's clothes, told him that those were not the clothes in + which he had left the Scotia Hotel. Butler admitted it, and said he had + thrown those away in the North East Valley. Mallard alluded to the + disappearance of the prisoner's moustache. Butler replied that he had cut + it off on the road. Mallard noticed then the backs of Butler's hands were + scratched, as if by contact with bushes. Butler seemed often on the point + of asking questions, but would then stop and say "No, I won't ask you + anything." To the constables who had arrested him Butler remarked, "You + ought to remember me, because I could have shot you if I had wished." When + Mallard later in the evening visited Butler again, the prisoner who was + then lying down said, "I want to speak to you. I want to ask the press not + to publish my career. Give me fair play. I suppose I shall be convicted + and you will see I can die like a man." + </p> + <p> + A few days after Butler's arrest a ranger on the Town Belt, a hill + overlooking Dunedin, found a coat, a hat and silk striped cravat, and a + few days later a pair of trousers folded up and placed under a bush. These + articles of clothing were identified as those which Butler had been seen + wearing on the Saturday and Sunday morning. They were examined. There were + a number of bloodstains on them, not one of them larger in size than a + pea, some almost invisible. On the front of the trousers about the level + of the groin there were blood spots on both sides. There was blood on the + fold of the left breast of the coat and on the lining of the cuff of the + right arm. The shirt Butler was wearing at the time of his arrest was + examined also. There were small spots of blood, about fourteen altogether, + on the neck and shoulder bands, the right armpit, the left sleeve, and on + both wristbands. Besides the clothes, a salmon tin was found on the Town + Belt, and behind a seat in the Botanical Gardens, from which a partial + view of the Dewars' house in Cumberland Street could be obtained, two more + salmon tins were found, all three similar to the five purchased by Butler + on the Sunday morning, two of which had been in his possession at the time + of his arrest. + </p> + <p> + Such were the main facts of the case which Butler had to answer when, a + few weeks later, he was put on his trial before the Supreme Court at + Dunedin. The presiding judge was Mr. Justice Williams, afterwards Sir + Joshua Williams and a member of the Privy Council. The Crown Prosecutor, + Mr. Haggitt, conducted the case for the Crown, and Butler defended + himself. + </p> + <p> + II THE TRIAL OF BUTLER + </p> + <p> + To a man of Butler's egregious vanity his trial was a glorious opportunity + for displaying his intellectual gifts, such as they were. One who had + known him in prison about this time describes him as a strange compound of + vanity and envy, blind to his own faults and envious of the material + advantages enjoyed by others. Self-willed and arrogant, he could bully or + whine with equal effect. Despising men, he believed that if a man did not + possess some requisite quality, he had only to ape it, as few would + distinguish between the real and the sham. + </p> + <p> + But with all these advantages in the struggle for life, it is certain that + Butler's defence would have been far less effective had be{sic} been + denied all professional aid. As a matter of fact, throughout his trial + Butler was being advised by three distinguished members of the New Zealand + bar, now judges of the Supreme Court, who though not appearing for him in + court, gave him the full benefit of their assistance outside it. At the + same time Butler carried off the thing well. Where imagination was + required, Butler broke down; he could not write sketches of life in + prison; that was too much for his pedestrian intellect. But given the + facts of a case, dealing with a transaction of which he alone knew the + real truth, and aided by the advice and guidance of trained intellects, + Butler was unquestionably clever and shrewd enough to make the best use of + such advantages in meeting the case against him. + </p> + <p> + Thus equipped for the coming struggle, this high-browed ruffian, with his + semi-intellectual cast of countenance, his jerky restless posturing, his + splay-footed waddle, "like a lame Muscovy duck," in the graphic words of + his gaol companion, stood up to plead for his life before the Supreme + Court at Dunedin. + </p> + <p> + It may be said at the outset that Butler profited greatly by the + scrupulous fairness shown by the Crown Prosecutor. Mr. Haggitt extended to + the prisoner a degree of consideration and forbearance, justified + undoubtedly towards an undefended prisoner. But, as we have seen, Butler + was not in reality undefended. At every moment of the trial he was in + communication with his legal advisers, and being instructed by them how to + meet the evidence given against him. Under these circumstances the + unfailing consideration shown him by the Crown Prosecutor seems almost + excessive. From the first moment of the trial Butler was fully alive to + the necessities of his situation. He refrained from including in his + challenges of the jury the gentleman who was afterwards foreman; he knew + he was all right, he said, because he parted his hair in the middle, a + "softy," in fact. He did not know in all probability that one gentleman on + the jury had a rooted conviction that the murder of the Dewars was the + work of a criminal lunatic. There was certainly nothing in Butler's + demeanour or behaviour to suggest homicidal mania. + </p> + <p> + The case against Butler rested on purely circumstantial evidence. + </p> + <p> + No new facts of importance were adduced at the trial. The stealing of + Dewar's wages, which had been paid to him on the Saturday, was the motive + for the murder suggested by the Crown. The chief facts pointing to + Butler's guilt were: his conversation with Mallard and Bain previous to + the crime; his demeanour after it; his departure from Dunedin; the removal + of his moustache and the soles of his boots; his change of clothes and the + bloodstains found upon them, added to which was his apparent inability to + account for his movements on the night in question. + </p> + <p> + Such as the evidence was, Butler did little to shake it in + cross-examination. His questions were many of them skilful and pointed, + but on more than one occasion the judge intervened to save him from the + danger common to all amateur cross-examiners, of not knowing when to stop. + He was most successful in dealing with the medical witnesses. Butler had + explained the bloodstains on his clothes as smears that had come from + scratches on his hands, caused by contact with bushes. This explanation + the medical gentlemen with good reason rejected. But they went further, + and said that these stains might well have been caused by the spurting and + spraying of blood on to the murderer as he struck his victims. Butler was + able to show by the position of the bloodstains on the clothes that such + an explanation was open to considerable doubt. + </p> + <p> + Butler's speech in his defence lasted six hours, and was a creditable + performance. Its arrangement is somewhat confused and repetitious, some + points are over-elaborated, but on the whole he deals very successfully + with most of the evidence given against him and exposes the unquestionable + weakness of the Crown case. At the outset he declared that he had taken + his innocence for his defence. "I was not willing," he said, "to leave my + life in the hands of a stranger. I was willing to incur all the + disadvantages which the knowledge of the law might bring upon me. I was + willing, also, to enter on this case without any experience whatever of + that peculiarly acquired art of cross-examination. I fear I have done + wrong. If I had had the assistance of able counsel, much more light would + have been thrown on this case than has been." As we have seen, Butler + enjoyed throughout his trial the informal assistance of three of the most + able counsel in New Zealand, so that this heroic attitude of conscious + innocence braving all dangers loses most of its force. Without such + assistance his danger might have been very real. + </p> + <p> + A great deal of the evidence as to his conduct and demeanour at the time + of the murder Butler met by acknowledging that it was he who had broken + into Mr. Stamper's house on the Saturday morning, burgled it and set it on + fire. His consciousness of guilt in this respect was, he said, quite + sufficient to account for anything strange or furtive in his manner at + that time. He was already known to the police; meeting Bain on the + Saturday night, he felt more than ever sure that he was susspected{sic} of + the robbery at Mr. Stamper's; he therefore decided to leave Dunedin as + soon as possible. That night, he said, he spent wandering about the + streets half drunk, taking occasional shelter from the pouring rain, until + six o'clock on the Sunday morning, when he went to the Scotia Hotel. A + more detailed account of his movements on the night of the Dewars' murder + he did not, or would not, give. + </p> + <p> + When he comes to the facts of the murder and his theories as to the nature + and motive of the crime—theories which he developed at rather + unnecessary length for the purpose of his own defence—his speech is + interesting. It will be recollected that on the discovery of the murder, a + knife was found on the grass outside the house. This knife was not the + property of the Dewars. In Butler's speech he emphasised the opinion that + this knife had been brought there by the murderer: "Horrible though it may + be, my conclusion is that he brought it with the intention of cutting the + throats of his victims, and that, finding they lay in rather an untoward + position, he changed his mind, and, having carried out the object with + which he entered the house, left the knife and, going back, brought the + axe with which he effected his purpose. What was the purpose of the + murderer? Was it the robbery of Dewar's paltry wages? Was it the act of a + tiger broken loose on the community? An act of pure wanton devilry? or was + there some more reasonable explanation of this most atrocious crime?" + </p> + <p> + Butler rejected altogether the theory of ordinary theft. No thief of + ambitious views, he said, would pitch upon the house of a poor journeyman + butcher. The killing of the family appeared to him to be the motive: "an + enemy hath done this." The murderer seems to have had a knowledge of the + premises; he enters the house and does his work swiftly and promptly, and + is gone. "We cannot know," Butler continues, "all the passages in the + lives of the murdered man or woman. What can we know of the hundred spites + and jealousies or other causes of malice which might have caused the + crime? If you say some obscure quarrel, some spite or jealousy is not + likely to have been the cause of so dreadful a murder, you cannot revert + to the robbery theory without admitting a motive much weaker in all its + utter needlessness and vagueness. The prominent feature of the murder, + indeed the only feature, is its ruthless, unrelenting, determined + vindictiveness. Every blow seemed to say, 'You shall die you shall not + live.'" + </p> + <p> + Whether Butler were the murderer of the Dewars or not, the theory that + represented them as having been killed for the purpose of robbery has its + weak side all the weaker if Butler, a practical and ambitious criminal, + were the guilty man. + </p> + <p> + In 1882, two years after Butler's trial, there appeared in a New Zealand + newspaper, Society, published in Christchurch, a series of Prison + "Portraits," written evidently by one who had himself undergone a term of + imprisonment. One of the "Portraits" was devoted to an account of Butler. + The writer had known Butler in prison. According to the story told him by + Butler, the latter had arrived in Dunedin with a quantity of jewellery he + had stolen in Australia. This jewellery he entrusted to a young woman for + safe keeping. After serving his first term of two years' imprisonment in + Dunedin, Butler found on his release that the young woman had married a + man of the name of Dewar. Butler went to Mrs. Dewar and asked for the + return of his jewellery; she refused to give it up. On the night of the + murder he called at the house in Cumberland Street and made a last appeal + to her, but in vain. He determined on revenge. During his visit to Mrs. + Dewar he had had an opportunity of seeing the axe and observing the best + way to break into the house. He watched the husband's return, and decided + to kill him as well as his wife on the chance of obtaining his week's + wages. With the help of the knife which he had found in the backyard of a + hotel he opened the window. The husband he killed in his sleep, the woman + waked with the first blow he struck her. He found the jewellery in a + drawer rolled up in a pair of stockings. He afterwards hid it in a + well-marked spot some half-hour before his arrest. + </p> + <p> + A few years after its appearance in Society, this account of Butler was + reproduced in an Auckland newspaper. Bain, the detective, wrote a letter + questioning the truth of the writer's statements. He pointed out that when + Butler first came to Dunedin he had been at liberty only a fortnight + before serving his first term of imprisonment, very little time in which + to make the acquaintance of a woman and dispose of the stolen jewellery. + He asked why, if Butler had hidden the jewellery just before his arrest, + he had not also hidden the opera-glasses which he had stolen from Mr. + Stamper's house. Neither of these comments is very convincing. A fortnight + seems time enough in which a man of Butler's character might get to know a + woman and dispose of some jewellery; while, if Butler were the murderer of + Mr. Dewar as well as the burglar who had broken into Stamper's house, it + was part of his plan to acknowledge himself guilty of the latter crime and + use it to justify his movements before and after the murder. Bain is more + convincing when he states at the conclusion of his letter that he had + known Mrs. Dewar from childhood as a "thoroughly good and true woman," + who, as far as he knew, had never in her life had any acquaintance with + Butler. + </p> + <p> + At the same time, the account given by Butler's fellow-prisoner, in which + the conduct of the murdered woman is represented as constituting the + provocation for the subsequent crime, explains one peculiar circumstance + in connection with the tragedy, the selection of this journeyman butcher + and his wife as the victims of the murderer. It explains the theory, urged + so persistently by Butler in his speech to the jury, that the crime was + the work of an enemy of the Dewars, the outcome of some hidden spite, or + obscure quarrel; it explains the apparent ferocity of the murder, and the + improbability of a practical thief selecting such an unprofitable couple + as his prey. The rummaged chest of drawers and the fact that some trifling + articles of jewellery were left untouched on the top of them, are + consistent with an eager search by the murderer for some particular + object. Against this theory of revenge is the fact that Butler was a + malignant ruffian and liar in any case, that, having realised very little + in cash by the burglary at Stamper's house, he would not be particular as + to where he might get a few shillings more, that he had threatened to do a + tigerish deed, and that it is characteristic of his vanity to try to + impute to his crime a higher motive than mere greed or necessity. + </p> + <p> + Butler showed himself not averse to speaking of the murder in Cumberland + Street to at least one of those, with whom he came in contact in his later + years. After he had left New Zealand and returned to Australia, he was + walking in a street in Melbourne with a friend when they passed a lady + dressed in black, carrying a baby in her arms. The baby looked at the two + men and laughed. Butler frowned and walked rapidly away. His companion + chaffed him, and asked whether it was the widow or the baby that he was + afraid of. Butler was silent, but after a time asked his companion to come + into some gardens and sit down on one of the seats, as he had something + serious to say to him. For a while Butler sat silent. Then he asked the + other if he had ever been in Dunedin. "Yes," was the reply. "Look here," + said Butler, "you are the only man I ever made any kind of confidant of. + You are a good scholar, though I could teach you a lot." After this + gracious compliment he went on: "I was once tried in Dunedin on the charge + of killing a man, woman and child, and although innocent, the crime was + nearly brought home to me. It was my own ability that pulled me through. + Had I employed a professional advocate, I should not have been here to-day + talking to you." After describing the murder, Butler said: "Trying to fire + the house was unnecessary, and killing the baby was unnecessary and cruel. + I respect no man's life, for no man respects mine. A lot of men I have + never injured have tried to put a rope round my neck more than once. I + hate society in general, and one or two individuals in particular. The man + who did that murder in Dunedin has, if anything, my sympathy, but it seems + to me he need not have killed that child." His companion was about to + speak. Butler stopped him. "Now, don't ever ask me such a silly question + as that," he said. "What?" asked his friend. "You were about to ask me if + I did that deed," replied Butler, "and you know perfectly well that, + guilty or innocent, that question would only be answered in one way." "I + was about to ask nothing of the kind," said the other, "for you have + already told me that you were innocent." "Good!" said Butler, "then let + that be the end of the subject, and never refer to it again, except, + perhaps, in your own mind, when you can, if you like, remember that I said + the killing of the child was unnecessary and cruel." + </p> + <p> + Having developed to the jury his theory of why the crime was committed, + Butler told them that, as far as he was concerned, there were four points + against him on which the Crown relied to prove his guilt. Firstly, there + was the fact of his being in the neighbourhood of the crime on the Sunday + morning; that, he said, applied to scores of other people besides himself. + Then there was his alleged disturbed appearance and guilty demeanour. The + evidence of that was, he contended, doubtful in any case, and referable to + another cause; as also his leaving Dunedin in the way and at the time he + did. He scouted the idea that murderers are compelled by some invisible + force to betray their guilt. "The doings of men," he urged, "and their + success are regulated by the amount of judgment that they possess, and, + without impugning or denying the existence of Providence, I say this is a + law that holds good in all cases, whether for evil or good. Murderers, if + they have the sense and ability and discretion to cover up their crime, + will escape, do escape, and have escaped. Many people, when they have + gravely shaken their heads and said 'Murder will out,' consider they have + done a great deal and gone a long way towards settling the question. Well, + this, like many other stock formulas of Old World wisdom, is not true. How + many murders are there that the world has never heard of, and never will? + How many a murdered man, for instance, lies among the gum-trees of + Victoria, or in the old abandoned mining-shafts on the diggings, who is + missed by nobody, perhaps, but a pining wife at home, or helpless + children, or an old mother? But who were their murderers? Where are they? + God knows, perhaps, but nobody else, and nobody ever will." The fact, he + said, that he was alleged to have walked up Cumberland Street on the + Sunday morning and looked in the direction of the Dewars' house was, + unless the causes of superstition and a vague and incomplete reasoning + were to be accepted as proof, evidence rather of his innocence than his + guilt. He had removed the soles of his boots, he said, in order to ease + his feet in walking; the outer soles had become worn and ragged, and in + lumps under his feet. He denied that he had told Bain, the detective, that + he would break out as a desperate tiger let loose on the community; what + he had said was that he was tired of living the life of a prairie dog or a + tiger in the jungle. + </p> + <p> + Butler was more successful when he came to deal with the bloodstains on + his clothes. These, he said, were caused by the blood from the scratches + on his hands, which had been observed at the time of his arrest. The + doctors had rejected this theory, and said that the spots of blood had + been impelled from the axe or from the heads of the victims as the + murderer struck the fatal blow. Butler put on the clothes in court, and + was successful in showing that the position and appearance of certain of + the blood spots was not compatible with such a theory. "I think," he said, + "I am fairly warranted in saying that the evidence of these gentlemen is, + not to put too fine a point on it, worth just nothing at all." + </p> + <p> + Butler's concluding words to the jury were brief but emphatic: "I stand in + a terrible position. So do you. See that in your way of disposing of me + you deliver yourselves of your responsibilities." + </p> + <p> + In the exercise of his forbearance towards an undefended prisoner, Mr. + Haggitt did not address the jury for the Crown. At four o'clock the judge + commenced his summing-up. Mr. Justice Williams impressed on the jury that + they must be satisfied, before they could convict the prisoner, that the + circumstances of the crime and the prisoner's conduct were inconsistent + with any other reasonable hypothesis than his guilt. There was little or + no evidence that robbery was the motive of the crime. The circumstance of + the prisoner being out all Saturday night and in the neighbourhood of the + crime on Sunday morning only amounted to the fact that he had an + opportunity shared by a great number of other persons of committing the + murder. The evidence of his agitation and demeanour at the time of his + arrest must be accepted with caution. The evidence of the blood spots was + of crucial importance; there was nothing save this to connect him directly + with the crime. The jury must be satisfied that the blood on the clothes + corresponded with the blood marks which, in all probability, would be + found on the person who committed the murder. In regard to the medical + testimony some caution must be exercised. Where medical gentlemen had made + observations, seen with their own eyes, the direct inference might be + highly trustworthy, but, when they proceeded to draw further inferences, + they might be in danger of looking at facts through the spectacles of + theory; "we know that people do that in other things besides science—politics, + religion, and so forth." Taking the Crown evidence, at its strongest, + there was a missing link; did the evidence of the bloodstains supply it? + These bloodstains were almost invisible. Could a person be reasonably + asked to explain how they came where they did? Could they be accounted for + in no other reasonable way than that the clothes had been worn by the + murderer of the Dewars? + </p> + <p> + In spite of a summing-up distinctly favourable to the prisoner, the jury + were out three hours. According to one account of their proceedings, told + to the writer, there was at first a majority of the jurymen in favour of + conviction. But it was Saturday night; if they could not come to a + decision they were in danger of being locked up over Sunday. For this + reason the gentleman who held an obstinate and unshaken belief that the + crime was the work of a homicidal maniac found an unexpected ally in a + prominent member of a church choir who was down to sing a solo in his + church on Sunday, and was anxious not to lose such an opportunity for + distinction. Whatever the cause, after three hours' deliberation the jury + returned a verdict of "Not Guilty." Later in the Session Butler pleaded + guilty to the burglary at Mr. Stamper's house, and was sentenced to + eighteen years' imprisonment. The severity of this sentence was not, the + judge said, intended to mark the strong suspicion under which Butler + laboured of being a murderer as well as a burglar. + </p> + <p> + The ends of justice had been served by Butler's acquittal. But in the + light of after events, it is perhaps unfortunate that the jury did not + stretch a point and so save the life of Mr. Munday of Toowong. Butler + underwent his term of imprisonment in Littleton Jail. There his reputation + was most unenviable. He is described by a fellow prisoner as ill-tempered, + malicious, destructive, but cowardly and treacherous. He seems to have + done little or no work; he looked after the choir and the library, but was + not above breaking up the one and smashing the other, if the fit seized + him. + </p> + <p> + III HIS DECLINE AND FALL + </p> + <p> + In 1896 Butler was released from prison. The news of his release was + described as falling like a bombshell among the peaceful inhabitants of + Dunedin. In the colony of Victoria, where Butler had commenced his career, + it was received with an apprehension that was justified by subsequent + events. It was believed that on his release the New Zealand authorities + had shipped Butler off to Rio. But it was not long before he made his way + once more to Australia. From the moment of his arrival in Melbourne he was + shadowed by the police. One or two mysterious occurrences soon led to his + arrest. On June 5 he was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment under + the Criminal Influx Act, which makes it a penal offence for any convict to + enter Victoria for three years after his release from prison. Not content + with this, the authorities determined to put Butler on trial on two + charges of burglary and one of highway robbery, committed since his return + to the colony. To one charge of burglary, that of breaking into a + hairdresser's shop and stealing a wig, some razors and a little money, + Butler pleaded guilty. + </p> + <p> + But the charge of highway robbery, which bore a singular resemblance to + the final catastrophe in Queensland, he resisted to the utmost, and showed + that his experience in the Supreme Court at Dunedin had not been lost on + him. At half-past six one evening in a suburb of Melbourne an elderly + gentleman found himself confronted by a bearded man, wearing a long + overcoat and a boxer hat and flourishing a revolver, who told him abruptly + to "turn out his pockets." The old man did ashe was told. The robber then + asked for his watch and chain, saying "Business must be done." The old + gentleman mildly urged that this was a dangerous business. On being + assured that the watch was a gold one, the robber appeared willing to risk + the danger, and departed thoroughly satisfied. The old gentleman + afterwards identified Butler as the man who had taken his watch. Another + elderly man swore that he had seen Butler at the time of the robbery in + the possession of a fine gold watch, which he said had been sent him from + home. But the watch had not been found in Butler's possession. + </p> + <p> + On June 18 Butler was put on his trial in the Melbourne Criminal Court + before Mr. Justice Holroyd, charged with robbery under arms. His + appearance in the dock aroused very considerable interest. "It was the + general verdict," wrote one newspaper, "that his intellectual head and + forehead compared not unfavourably with those of the judge." He was + decently dressed and wore pince-nez, which he used in the best + professional manner as he referred to the various documents that lay in + front of him. He went into the witness-box and stated that the evening of + the crime he had spent according to his custom in the Public Library. + </p> + <p> + For an hour and a half he addressed the jury. He disputed the possibility + of his identification by his alleged victim. He was "an old gentleman of + sedentary pursuits and not cast in the heroic mould." Such a man would be + naturally alarmed and confused at meeting suddenly an armed robber. Now, + under these circumstances, could his recognition of a man whose face was + hidden by a beard, his head by a boxer hat, and his body by a long + overcoat, be considered trustworthy? And such recognition occurring in the + course of a chance encounter in the darkness, that fruitful mother of + error? The elderly gentleman had described his moustache as a slight one, + but the jury could see that it was full and overhanging. He complained + that he had been put up for identification singly, not with other men, + according to the usual custom; the police had said to the prosecutor: "We + have here a man that we think robbed you, and, if he is not the man, we + shall be disappointed," to which the prosecutor had replied: "Yes, and if + he is not the man, I shall be disappointed too." For the elderly person + who had stated that he had seen a gold watch in Butler's possession the + latter had nothing but scorn. He was a "lean and slippered pantaloon in + Shakespeare's last stage"; and he, Butler, would have been a lunatic to + have confided in such a man. + </p> + <p> + The jury acquitted Butler, adding as a rider to their verdict that there + was not sufficient evidence of identification. The third charge against + Butler was not proceeded with. He was put up to receive sentence for the + burglary at the hairdresser's shop. Butler handed to the judge a written + statement which Mr. Justice Holroyd described as a narrative that might + have been taken from those sensational newspapers written for + nursery-maids, and from which, he said, he could not find that Butler had + ever done one good thing in the whole course of his life. Of that life of + fifty years Butler had spent thirty-five in prison. The judge expressed + his regret that a man of Butler's knowledge, information, vanity, and + utter recklessness of what evil will do, could not be put away somewhere + for the rest of his life, and sentenced him to fifteen years' imprisonment + with hard labour. "An iniquitous and brutal sentence!" exclaimed the + prisoner. After a brief altercation with the judge, who said that he could + hardly express the scorn he felt for such a man, Butler was removed. The + judge subsequently reduced the sentence to one of ten years. Chance or + destiny would seem implacable in their pursuit of Mr. William Munday of + Toowong. + </p> + <p> + Butler after his trial admitted that it was he who had robbed the old + gentleman of his watch, and described to the police the house in which it + was hidden. When the police went there to search they found that the house + had been pulled down, but among the debris they discovered a brown paper + parcel containing the old gentleman's gold watch and chain, a + five-chambered revolver, a keen-edged butcher's knife, and a mask. + </p> + <p> + Butler served his term of imprisonment in Victoria, "an unmitigated + nuisance" to his custodians. On his release in 1904, he made, as in + Dunedin, an attempt to earn a living by his pen. He contributed some + articles to a Melbourne evening paper on the inconveniences of prison + discipline, but he was quite unfitted for any sustained effort as a + journalist. According to his own account, with the little money he had + left he made his way to Sydney, thence to Brisbane. He was half-starved, + bewildered, despairing; in his own words, "if a psychological camera could + have been turned on me it would have shown me like a bird fascinated by a + serpent, fascinated and bewildered by the fate in front, behind, and + around me." Months of suffering and privation passed, months of tramping + hundreds of miles with occasional breakdowns, months of hunger and + sickness; "my actions had become those of a fool; my mind and will had + become a remnant guided or misguided by unreasoning impulse." + </p> + <p> + It was under the influence of such an impulse that on March 23 Butler had + met and shot Mr. Munday at Toowong. On May 24 he was arraigned at Brisbane + before the Supreme Court of Queensland. But the Butler who stood in the + dock of the Brisbane Criminal Court was very different from the Butler who + had successfully defended himself at Dunedin and Melbourne. The spirit had + gone out of him; it was rather as a suppliant, represented by counsel, + that he faced the charge of murder. His attitude was one of humble and + appropriate penitence. In a weak and nervous voice he told the story of + his hardships since his release from his Victorian prison; he would only + urge that the shooting of Mr. Munday was accidental, caused by Munday + picking up a stone and attacking him. When about to be sentenced to death + he expressed great sorrow and contrition for his crime, for the poor wife + and children of his unfortunate victim. His life, he said, was a poor + thing, but he would gladly give it fifty times over. + </p> + <p> + The sentence of death was confirmed by the Executive on June 30. To a + Freethought advocate who visited him shortly before his execution, Butler + wrote a final confession of faith: "I shall have to find my way across the + harbour bar without the aid of any pilot. In these matters I have for many + years carried an exempt flag, and, as it has not been carried through + caprice or ignorance, I am compelled to carry it to the last. There is an + impassable bar of what I honestly believe to be the inexorable logic of + philosophy and facts, history and experience of the nature of the world, + the human race and myself, between me and the views of the communion of + any religious organisation. So instead of the 'depart Christian soul' of + the priest, I only hope for the comfort and satisfaction of the last + friendly good-bye of any who cares to give it." + </p> + <p> + From this positive affirmation of unbelief Butler wilted somewhat at the + approach of death. The day before his execution he spent half an hour + playing hymns on the church organ in the prison; and on the scaffold, + where his agitation rendered him almost speechless, he expressed his + sorrow for what he had done, and the hope that, if there were a heaven, + mercy would be shown him. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + M. Derues + </h2> + <p> + The last word on Derues has been said by M. Georges Claretie in his + excellent monograph, "Derues L'Empoisonneur," Paris. 1907. There is a full + account of the case in Vol. V. of Fouquier, "Causes Celebres." + </p> + <p> + I THE CLIMBING LITTLE GROCER + </p> + <p> + M. Etienne Saint-Faust de Lamotte, a provincial nobleman of ancient + lineage and moderate health, ex-equerry to the King, desired in the year + 1774 to dispose of a property in the country, the estate of Buisson-Souef + near Villeneuve-le-Roi, which he had purchased some ten years before out + of money acquired by a prudent marriage. + </p> + <p> + With an eye to the main chance M. de Lamotte had in 1760 ran away with the + daughter of a wealthy citizen of Rheims, who was then staying with her + sister in Paris. They lived together in the country for some time, and a + son was born to them, whom the father legitimised by subsequently marrying + the mother. For a few years M. and Mme. de Lamotte dwelt happily together + at Buisson-Souef. But as their boy grew up they became anxious to leave + the country and return to Paris, where M. de Lamotte hoped to be able to + obtain for his son some position about the Court of Louis XVI. And so it + was that in May, 1775, M. de Lamotte gave a power of attorney to his wife + in order that she might go to Paris and negotiate for the sale of + Buisson-Souef. The legal side of the transaction was placed in the hands + of one Jolly, a proctor at the Chatelet in Paris. + </p> + <p> + Now the proctor Jolly had a client with a great desire to acquire a place + in the country, M. Derues de Cyrano de Bury, lord of Candeville, Herchies, + and other places. Here was the very man to comply with the requirements of + the de Lamottes, and such a pleasing, ready, accommodating gentleman into + the bargain! Very delicate to all appearances, strangely pale, slight, + fragile in build, with his beardless chin and feminine cast of feature, + there was something cat-like in the soft insinuating smile of this + seemingly most amiable, candid and pious of men. Always cheerful and + optimistic, it was quite a pleasure to do business with M. Derues de + Cyrano de Bury. The de Lamottes after one or two interviews were delighted + with their prospective purchaser. Everything was speedily settled. M. + Derues and his wife, a lady belonging to the distinguished family of + Nicolai, visited Buisson-Souef. They were enchanted with what they saw, + and their hosts were hardly less enchanted with their visitors. By the end + of December, 1775, the purchase was concluded. M. Derues was to give + 130,000 livres (about L20,000) for the estate, the payments to be made by + instalments, the first of 12,000 livres to be paid on the actual signing + of the contract of sale, which, it was agreed, was to be concluded not + later than the first of June, 1776. In the meantime, as an earnest of good + faith, M. Derues gave Mme. de Lamotte a bill for 4,200 livres to fall due + on April 1, 1776. + </p> + <p> + What could be more satisfactory? That M. Derues was a substantial person + there could be no doubt. Through his wife he was entitled to a sum of + 250,000 livres as her share of the property of a wealthy kinsman, one + Despeignes-Duplessis, a country gentleman, who some four years before had + been found murdered in his house under mysterious circumstances. The + liquidation of the Duplessis inheritance, as soon as the law's delay could + be overcome, would place the Derues in a position of affluence fitting a + Cyrano de Bury and a Nicolai. + </p> + <p> + At this time M. Derues was in reality far from affluent. In point of fact + he was insolvent. Nor was his lineage, nor that of his wife, in any way + distinguished. He had no right to call himself de Cyrano de Bury or Lord + of Candeville. His wife's name was Nicolais, not Nicolai—a very + important difference from the genealogical point of view. The Duplessis + inheritance, though certainly existent, would seem to have had little more + chance of realisation than the mythical Crawford millions of Madame + Humbert. And yet, crippled with debt, without a penny in the world, this + daring grocer of the Rue Beaubourg, for such was M. Derues' present + condition in life, could cheerfully and confidently engage in a + transaction as considerable as the purchase of a large estate for 130,000 + livres! The origin of so enterprising a gentleman is worthy of attention. + </p> + <p> + Antoine Francois Derues was born at Chartres in 1744; his father was a + corn merchant. His parents died when he was three years old. For some time + after his birth he was assumed to be a girl; it was not until he was + twelve years old that an operation determined his sex to be masculine. + Apprenticed by his relatives to a grocer, Derues succeeded so well in the + business that he was able in 1770 to set up on his own account in Paris, + and in 1772 he married. Among the grocer's many friends and acquaintances + this marriage created something of a sensation, for Derues let it be known + that the lady of his choice was of noble birth and an heiress. The first + statement was untrue. The lady was one Marie Louise Nicolais, daughter of + a non-commissioned artillery officer, turned coachbuilder. But by + suppressing the S at the end of her name, which Derues was careful also to + erase in his marriage contract, the ambitious grocer was able to describe + his wife as connected with the noble house of Nicolai, one of the most + distinguished of the great French families. + </p> + <p> + There was more truth in the statement that Mme. Derues was an heiress. A + kinsman of her mother, Beraud by name, had become the heir to a certain + Marquis Desprez. Beraud was the son of a small merchant. His mother had + married a second time, the husband being the Marquis Desprez, and through + her Beraud had inherited the Marquis' property. According to the custom of + the time, Beraud, on coming into his inheritance, took a title from one of + his estates and called himself thenceforth the lord of + Despeignes-Duplessis. A rude, solitary, brutal man, devoted to sport, he + lived alone in his castle of Candeville, hated by his neighbours, a terror + to poachers. One day he was found lying dead in his bedroom; he had been + shot in the chest; the assassin had escaped through an open window. + </p> + <p> + The mystery of Beraud's murder was never solved. His estate of 200,000 + livres was divided among three cousins, of whom the mother of Mme. Derues + was one. Mme. Derues herself was entitled to a third of his mother's share + of the estate, that is, one-ninth of the whole. But in 1775 Derues + acquired the rest of the mother's share on condition that he paid her an + annual income of 1,200 livres. Thus on the liquidation of the Duplessis + inheritance Mme. Derues would be entitled nominally to some 66,500 livres, + about L11,000 in English money. But five years had passed since the death + of Despeignes-Duplessis, and the estate was still in the slow process of + legal settlement. If Derues were to receive the full third of the + Duplessis inheritance—a very unlikely supposition after four years + of liquidation—66,000 livres would not suffice to pay his ordinary + debts quite apart from the purchase money of Buisson-Souef. His financial + condition was in the last degree critical. Not content with the modest + calling of a grocer, Derues had turned money-lender, a money-lender to + spendthrift and embarrassed noblemen. Derues dearly loved a lord; he + wanted to become one himself; it delighted him to receive dukes and + marquises at the Rue Beaubourg, even if they came there with the avowed + object of raising the wind. The smiling grocer, in his everlasting bonnet + and flowered dressing-gown a la J. J. Rousseau, was ever ready to oblige + the needy scion of a noble house. What he borrowed at moderate interest + from his creditors he lent at enhanced interest to the quality. Duns and + bailiffs jostled the dukes and marquises whose presence at the Rue + Beaubourg so impressed the wondering neighbours of the facile grocer. + </p> + <p> + This aristocratic money-lending proved a hopeless trade; it only plunged + Derues deeper and deeper into the mire of financial disaster. The noblemen + either forgot to pay while they were alive, or on their death were found + to be insolvent. Derues was driven to ordering goods and merchandise on + credit, and selling them at a lower price for ready money. Victims of this + treatment began to press him seriously for their money or their goods. + Desperately he continued to fence them off with the long expected windfall + of the Duplessis inheritance. + </p> + <p> + Paris was getting too hot for him. Gay and irrepressible as he was, the + strain was severe. If he could only find some retreat in the country where + he might enjoy at once refuge from his creditors and the rank and + consequence of a country gentleman! Nothing—no fear, no + disappointment, no disaster—could check the little grocer's ardent + and overmastering desire to be a gentleman indeed, a landed proprietor, a + lord or something or other. At the beginning of 1775 he had purchased a + place near Rueil from a retired coffeehouse-keeper, paying 1,000 livres on + account, but the non-payment of the rest of the purchase-money had + resulted in the annulment of the contract. Undefeated, Derues only + determined to fly the higher. Having failed to pay 9,000 livres for a + modest estate near Rueil, he had no hesitation in pledging himself to pay + 130,000 livres for the lordly domain of Buisson-Souef. So great were his + pride and joy on the conclusion of the latter bargain that he amused + himself by rehearsing on paper his future style and title: "Antoine + Francois de Cyrano Derues de Bury, Seigneur de Buisson-Souef et Valle + Profonde." He is worthy of Thackeray's pen, this little grocer-snob, with + his grand and ruinous acquaintance with the noble and the great, his + spurious titles, his unwearied climbing of the social ladder. + </p> + <p> + The confiding, if willing, dupe of aristocratic impecuniosity, Derues was + a past master of the art of duping others. From the moment of the purchase + of Buisson-Souef all his art was employed in cajoling the trusting and + simple de Lamottes. Legally Buisson-Souef was his from the signing of the + agreement in December, 1775. His first payment was due in April, 1776. + Instead of making it, Derues went down to Buisson-Souef with his little + girl, and stayed there as the guests of the de Lamottes for six months. + His good humour and piety won all hearts. The village priest especially + derived great satisfaction from the society of so devout a companion. He + entertained his good friends, the merry little man, by dressing up as a + woman, a role his smooth face and effeminate features well fitted him to + play. If business were alluded to, the merry gentleman railed at the delay + and chicanery of lawyers; it was that alone that postponed the liquidation + of the Duplessis inheritance; as soon as the lawyers could be got rid of, + the purchase-money of his new estate would be promptly paid up. But as + time went on and no payment was forthcoming the de Lamottes began to feel + a little uneasy. As soon as Derues had departed in November M. de Lamotte + decided to send his wife to Paris to make further inquiries and, if + possible, bring their purchaser up to the scratch. Mme. de Lamotte had + developed into a stout, indolent woman, of the Mrs. Bloss type, fond of + staying in bed and taking heavy meals. Her son, a fat, lethargic youth of + fourteen, accompanied his mother. + </p> + <p> + On hearing of Mme. de Lamotte's contemplated visit to Paris, Derues was + filled with alarm. If she were living free and independent in Paris she + might find out the truth about the real state of his affairs, and then + good-bye to Buisson-Souef and landed gentility! No, if Mme. de Lamotte + were to come to Paris, she must come as the guest of the Derues, a + pleasant return for the hospitality accorded to the grocer at + Buisson-Souef. The invitation was given and readily accepted; M. de + Lamotte still had enough confidence in and liking for the Derues to be + glad of the opportunity of placing his wife under their roof. And so it + was that on December 16, 1776, Mme. de Lamotte arrived at Paris and took + up her abode at the house of the Derues in the Rue Beaubourg Her son she + placed at a private school in a neighbouring street. + </p> + <p> + To Derues there was now one pressing and immediate problem to be solved—how + to keep Buisson-Souef as his own without paying for it? To one less + sanguine, less daring, less impudent and desperate in his need, the + problem would have appeared insoluble. + </p> + <p> + But that was by no means the view of the cheery and resourceful grocer. He + had a solution ready, well thought out and bearing to his mind the stamp + of probability. He would make a fictitious payment of the purchase-money + to Mme. de Lamotte. She would then disappear, taking her son with her. Her + indiscretion in having been the mistress of de Lamotte before she became + his wife, would lend colour to his story that she had gone off with a + former lover, taking with her the money which Derues had paid her for + Buisson-Souef. He would then produce the necessary documents proving the + payment of the purchase-money, and Buisson-Souef would be his for good and + all. + </p> + <p> + The prime necessity to the success of this plan was the disappearance, + willing or unwilling, of Mme. de Lamotte and her son. The former had + settled down quite comfortably beneath the hospitable roof of the Derues, + and under the soothing influence of her host showed little vigour in + pressing him for the money due to herself and her husband. She had already + spent a month in quietly enjoying Paris and the society of her friends + when, towards the end of January, 1770, her health and that of her son + began to fail. Mme. de Lamotte was seized with sickness and internal + trouble. Though Derues wrote to her husband that his wife was well and + their business was on the point of conclusion, by the 30th of January Mme. + de Lamotte had taken to her bed, nursed and physicked by the ready Derues. + On the 31st the servant at the Rue Beaubourg was told that she could go to + her home at Montrouge, whither Derues had previously sent his two + children. Mme. Derues, who was in an interesting condition, was sent out + for an hour by her husband to do some shopping. Derues was alone with his + patient. + </p> + <p> + In the evening a friend, one Bertin, came to dine with Derues. Bertin was + a short, hustling, credulous, breathless gentleman, always in a hurry, + with a great belief in the abilities of M. Derues. He found the little man + in excellent spirits. Bertin asked if he could see Mme. de Lamotte. Mme. + Derues said that that was impossible, but that her husband had given her + some medicine which was working splendidly. The young de Lamotte called to + see his mother. Derues took him into her room; in the dim light the boy + saw her sleeping, and crept out quietly for fear of disturbing her. The + Derues and their friends sat down to dinner. Derues kept jumping up and + running into the sick room, from which a horrible smell began to pervade + the house. But Derues was radiant at the success of his medicine. "Was + there ever such a nurse as I am?" he exclaimed. Bertin remarked that he + thought it was a woman's and not a man's place to nurse a lady under such + distressing circumstances. Derues protested that it was an occupation he + had always liked. Next day, February 1, the servant was still at + Montrouge; Mme. Derues was again sent out shopping; again Derues was alone + with his patient. But she was a patient no longer; she had become a + corpse. The highly successful medicine administered to the poor lady by + her jolly and assiduous nurse had indeed worked wonders. + </p> + <p> + Derues had bought a large leather trunk. It is possible that to Derues + belongs the distinction of being the first murderer to put that harmless + and necessary article of travel to a criminal use. He was engaged in his + preparations for coffining Mme. de Lamotte, when a female creditor knocked + insistently at the door. She would take no denial. Clad in his bonnet and + gown, Derues was compelled to admit her. She saw the large trunk, and + suspected a bolt on the part of her creditor. Derues reassured her; a + lady, he said, who had been stopping with them was returning to the + country. The creditor departed. Later in the day Derues came out of the + house and summoned some porters. With their help the heavy trunk was taken + to the house of a sculptor, a friend of Derues, who agreed to keep it in + his studio until Derues could take it down to his place in the country. + Bertin came in to dinner again that evening, and also the young de + Lamotte. Derues was gayer than ever, laughing and joking with his guests. + He told the boy that his mother had quite recovered and gone to Versailles + to see about finding him some post at the Court. "We'll go and see her + there in a day or two," he said, "I'll let you know when." + </p> + <p> + On the following day a smartly dressed, dapper, but very pale little + gentleman, giving the name of Ducoudray, hired a vacant cellar in a house + in the Rue de la Mortellerie. He had, he said, some Spanish wine he wanted + to store there, and three or four days later M. Ducoudray deposited in + this cellar a large grey trunk. A few days after he employed a man to dig + a large hole in the floor of the cellar, giving as his reason for such a + proceeding that "there was no way of keeping wine like burying it." While + the man worked at the job, his genial employer beguiled his labours with + merry quips and tales, which he illustrated with delightful mimicry. The + hole dug, the man was sent about his business. "I will bury the wine + myself," said his employer, and on one or two occasions M. Ducoudray was + seen by persons living in the house going in and out of his cellar, a + lighted candle in his hand. One day the pale little gentleman was observed + leaving the cellar, accompanied by a porter carrying a large trunk, and + after that the dwellers in the Rue de la Mortellerie saw the pale little + gentleman no more. + </p> + <p> + A few days later M. Derues sent down to his place at Buisson-Souef a large + trunk filled with china. It was received there by M. de Lamotte. Little + did the trusting gentleman guess that it was in this very trunk that the + body of his dear wife had been conveyed to its last resting place in the + cellar of M. Ducoudray in the Rue de la Mortellerie. Nor had M. + Mesvrel-Desvergers, importunate creditor of M. Derues, guessed the + contents of the large trunk that he had met his debtor one day early in + February conveying through the streets of Paris. Creditors were always + interrupting Derues at inconvenient moments. M. Mesvrel-Desvergers had + tapped Derues on the shoulder, reminded him forcibly of his liability + towards him, and spoken darkly of possible imprisonment. Derues pointed to + the trunk. It contained, he said, a sample of wine; he was going to order + some more of it, and he would then be in a position to pay his debt. But + the creditor, still doubting, had M. Derues followed, and ascertained that + he had deposited his sample of wine at a house in the Rue de la + Mortellerie. + </p> + <p> + On Wednesday, February 12, a M. Beaupre of Commercy arrived at Versailles + with his nephew, a fat boy, in reality some fourteen years of age, but + given out as older. They hired a room at the house of a cooper named + Pecquet. M. Beaupre was a very pale little gentleman, who seemed in + excellent spirits, in spite of the fact that his nephew was clearly + anything but well. Indeed, so sick and ailing did he appear to be that + Mme. Pecquet suggested that his uncle should call in a doctor. But M. + Beaupre said that that was quite unnecessary; he had no faith in doctors; + he would give the boy a good purge. His illness was due, he said, to a + venereal disorder and the drugs which he had been taking in order to cure + it; it was a priest the boy needed rather than a doctor. On the Thursday + and Friday the boy's condition showed little improvement; the vomiting + continued. But on Saturday M. Beaupre declared himself as highly delighted + with the success of his medicine. The same night the boy was dead. The + priest, urgently sent for by his devout uncle, arrived to find a corpse. + On the following day "Louis Anotine Beaupre, aged twenty-two and a half," + was buried at Versailles, his pious uncle leaving with the priest six + livres to pay for masses for the repose of his erring nephew's soul. + </p> + <p> + The same evening M. Derues who, according to his own account, had left + Paris with the young de Lamotte in order to take the boy to his mother in + Versailles, returned home to the Rue Beaubourg. As usual, Bertin dropped + in to dinner. He found his host full of merriment, singing in the + lightness of his heart. Indeed, he had reason to be pleased, for at last, + he told his wife and his friend, Buisson-Souef was his. He had seen Mme. + de Lamotte at Versailles and paid her the full purchase-money in good, + sounding gold. And, best joke of all, Mme. de Lamotte had no sooner + settled the business than she had gone off with a former lover, her son + and her money, and would in all probability never be heard of again. The + gay gentleman laughingly reminded his hearers that such an escapade on the + part of Mme. de Lamotte was hardly to be wondered at, when they + recollected that her son had been born out of wedlock. + </p> + <p> + To all appearances Mme. de Lamotte had undoubtedly concluded the sale of + Buisson-Souef to Derues and received the price of it before disappearing + with her lover. Derues had in his possession a deed of sale signed by Mme. + de Lamotte and acknowledging the payment to her by Derues of 100,000 + livres, which he had borrowed for that purpose from an advocate of the + name of Duclos. As a fact the loan from Duclos to Derues was fictitious. A + legal document proving the loan had been drawn up, but the cash which the + notary had demanded to see before executing the document had been borrowed + for a few hours. Duclos, a provincial advocate, had acted in good faith, + in having been represented to him that such fictitious transactions were + frequently used in Paris for the purpose of getting over some temporary + financial difficulty. On the 15th of February the deed of the sale of + Buisson-Souef had been brought by a woman to the office of a scrivener + employed by Derues; it was already signed, but the woman asked that + certain blanks should be filled in and that the document should be dated. + She was told that the date should be that of the day on which the parties + had signed it. She gave it as February 12. A few days later Derues called + at the office and was told of the lady's visit. "Ah!" he said, "it was + Mme. de Lamotte herself, the lady who sold me the estate." + </p> + <p> + In the meantime Derues, through his bustling and ubiquitous friend Bertin, + took good care that the story of Mme. de Lamotte's sale of Buisson-Souef + and subsequent elopement should be spread sedulously abroad. By Bertin it + was told to M. Jolly, the proctor in whose hands the de Lamottes had + placed the sale of Buisson-Souef. It was M. Jolly who had in the first + instance recommended to them his client Derues as a possible purchaser. + The proctor, who knew Mme. de Lamotte to be a woman devoted to her husband + and her home, was astonished to hear of her infidelity, more especially as + the story told by Derues represented her as saying in very coarse terms + how little she cared for her husband's honour. He was surprised, too, that + she should not have consulted him about the conclusion of the business + with Derues, and that Derues himself should have been able to find so + considerable a sum of money as 100,000 livres. But, said M. Jolly, if he + were satisfied that Mme. de Lamotte had taken away the money with her, + then he would deliver up to Derues the power of attorney which M. de + Lamotte had left with him in 1775, giving his wife authority to carry out + the sale of Buisson-Souef. Mme. de Lamotte, being a married woman, the + sale of the property to Derues would be legally invalid if the husband's + power of attorney were not in the hands of the purchaser. + </p> + <p> + II THE GAME OF BLUFF + </p> + <p> + To Derues, on the eve of victory, the statement of Jolly in regard to the + power of attorney was a serious reverse. He had never thought of such an + instrument, or he would have persuaded Mme. de Lamotte to have gotten + permission of it before her disappearance. Now he must try to get it from + Jolly himself. On the 26th of February he once again raised from a + friendly notary a few thousand livres on the Duplessis inheritance, and + deposited the deed of sale of Buisson-Souef as further security. His + pocket full of gold, he went straight to the office of Jolly. To the + surprise of the proctor Derues announced that he had come to pay him 200 + livres which he owed him, and apologised for the delay. Taking the gold + coins from his pockets he filled his three-cornered hat with considerably + more than the sum due, and held it out invitingly to M. Jolly. Then he + proceeded to tell him of his dealings with Mme. de Lamotte. She had + offered, he said, to get the power of attorney for him, but he, trusting + in her good faith, had said that there was no occasion for hurry; and + then, faithless, ungrateful woman that she was, she had gone off with his + money and left him in the lurch. "But," he added, "I trust you absolutely, + M. Jolly, you have all my business in your hands, and I shall be a good + client in the future. You have the power of attorney—you will give + it to me?" and he rattled the coins in his hat. "I must have it," he went + on, "I must have it at any price at any price," and again the coins danced + in his hat, while his eyes looked knowingly at the proctor. M. Jolly saw + his meaning, and his surprise turned to indignation. He told Derues + bluntly that he did not believe his story, that until he was convinced of + its truth he would not part with the power of attorney, and showed the + confounded grocer the door. + </p> + <p> + Derues hastened home filled with wrath, and took counsel with his friend + Bertin. Bertin knew something of legal process; they would try whether the + law could not be invoked to compel Jolly to surrender the power of + attorney. Bertin went off to the Civil Lieutenant and applied for an order + to oblige M. Jolly to give up the document in question. An order was made + that Jolly must either surrender it into the hands of Derues or appear + before a referee and show cause why he should not comply with the order. + Jolly refused still to give it up or allow a copy of it to be made, and + agreed to appear before the referee to justify his action. In the meantime + Derues, greatly daring, had started for Buisson-Souef to try what "bluff" + could do in this serious crisis in his adventure. + </p> + <p> + At Buisson-Souef poor M. de Lamotte waited, puzzled and distressed, for + news from his wife. On Saturday, 17th, the day after the return of Derues + from Versailles, he heard from Mme. Derues that his wife had left Paris + and gone with her son to Versailles. A second letter told him that she had + completed the sale of Buisson-Souef to Derues, and was still at Versailles + trying to obtain some post for the boy. On February 19 Mme. Derues wrote + again expressing surprise that M. de Lamotte had not had any letter from + his wife and asking if he had received some oysters which the Derues had + sent him. The distracted husband was in no mood for oysters. "Do not send + me oysters," he writes, "I am too ill with worry. I thank you for all your + kindness to my son. I love him better than myself, and God grant he will + be good and grateful." The only reply he received from the Derues was an + assurance that he would see his wife again in a few days. + </p> + <p> + The days passed, but Mme. de Lamotte made no sign. About four o'clock on + the afternoon of February 28, Derues, accompanied by the parish priest of + Villeneuvele-Roi, presented himself before M. de Lamotte at Buisson-Souef. + For the moment M. de Lamotte was rejoiced to see the little man; at last + he would get news of his wife. But he was disappointed. Derues could tell + him only what he had been told already, that his wife had sold their + estate and gone away with the money. + </p> + <p> + M. de Lamotte was hardly convinced. How, he asked Derues, had he found the + 100,000 livres to buy Buisson-Souef, he who had not a halfpenny a short + time ago? Derues replied that he had borrowed it from a friend; that there + was no use in talking about it; the place was his now, his alone, and M. + de Lamotte had no longer a right to be there; he was very sorry, poor dear + gentleman, that his wife had gone off and left him without a shilling, but + personally he would always be a friend to him and would allow him 3,000 + livres a year for the rest of his life. In the meantime, he said, he had + already sold forty casks of the last year's vintage, and would be obliged + if M. de Lamotte would see to their being sent off at once. + </p> + <p> + By this time the anger and indignation of M. de Lamotte blazed forth. He + told Derues that his story was a pack of lies, that he was still master at + Buisson-Souef, and not a bottle of wine should leave it. "You are + torturing me," he exclaimed, "I know something has happened to my wife and + child. I am coming to Paris myself, and if it is as I fear, you shall + answer for it with your head!" Derues, undismayed by this outburst, + re-asserted his ownership and departed in defiant mood, leaving on the + premises a butcher of the neighbourhood to look after his property. + </p> + <p> + But things were going ill with Derues. M. de Lamotte meant to show fight; + he would have powerful friends to back him; class against class, the + little grocer would be no match for him. It was immediate possession of + Buisson-Souef that Derues wanted, not lawsuits; they were expensive and + the results uncertain. He spoke freely to his friends of the difficulties + of the situation. + </p> + <p> + What could he do? The general opinion seemed to be that some fresh news of + Mme. de Lamotte—her reappearance, perhaps—would be the only + effective settlement of the dispute. He had made Mme. de Lamotte + disappear, why should he not make her reappear? He was not the man to + stick at trifles. His powers of female impersonation, with which he had + amused his good friends at Buisson-Souef, could now be turned to practical + account. On March 5 he left Paris again. + </p> + <p> + On the evening of March 7 a gentleman, M. Desportes of Paris, hired a room + at the Hotel Blanc in Lyons. On the following day he went out early in the + morning, leaving word that, should a lady whom he was expecting, call to + see him, she was to be shown up to his room. The same morning a gentleman, + resembling M. Desportes of Paris, bought two lady's dresses at a shop in + Lyons. + </p> + <p> + The same afternoon a lady dressed in black silk, with a hood well drawn + over her eyes, called at the office of M. Pourra, a notary. + </p> + <p> + The latter was not greatly attracted by his visitor, whose nose struck him + as large for a woman. She said that she had spent her youth in Lyons, but + her accent was distinctly Parisian. The lady gave her name as Madame de + Lamotte, and asked for a power of attorney by which she could give her + husband the interest due to her on a sum of 30,000 livres, part of the + purchase-money of the estate of Buisson-Souef, which she had recently + sold. As Mme. de Lamotte represented herself as having been sent to M. + Pourra by a respectable merchant for whom he was in the habit of doing + business, he agreed to draw up the necessary document, accepting her + statement that she and her husband had separate estates. Mme. de Lamotte + said that she would not have time to wait until the power of attorney was + ready, and therefore asked M. Pourra to send it to the parish priest at + Villeneuvele-Roi; this he promised to do. Mme. de-Lamotte had called twice + during the day at the Hotel Blanc and asked for M. Desportes of Paris, but + he was not at home. While Derues, alias Desportes, alias Mme. de Lamotte, + was masquerading in Lyons, events had been moving swiftly and unfavourably + in Paris. Sick with misgiving and anxiety, M. de Lamotte had come there to + find, if possible, his wife and child. By a strange coincidence he + alighted at an inn in the Rue de la Mortellerie, only a few yards from the + wine-cellar in which the corpse of his ill-fated wife lay buried. He lost + no time in putting his case before the Lieutenant of Police, who placed + the affair in the hands of one of the magistrates of the Chatelet, then + the criminal court of Paris. At first the magistrate believed that the + case was one of fraud and that Mme. de Lamotte and her son were being kept + somewhere in concealment by Derues. But as he investigated the + circumstances further, the evidence of the illness of the mother and son, + the date of the disappearance of Mme. de Lamotte, and her reputed + signature to the deed of sale on February 12, led him to suspect that he + was dealing with a case of murder. + </p> + <p> + When Derues returned to Paris from Lyons, on March 11, he found that the + police had already visited the house and questioned his wife, and that he + himself was under close surveillance. A day or two later the advocate, + Duclos, revealed to the magistrate the fictitious character of the loan of + 100,000 livres, which Derues alleged that he had paid to Mme. de Lamotte + as the price of Buisson-Souef. When the new power of attorney purporting + to be signed by Mme. de Lamotte arrived from Lyons, and the signature was + compared with that on the deed of sale of Buisson-Souef to Derues, both + were pronounced to be forgeries. Derues was arrested and lodged in the + Prison of For l'Eveque. + </p> + <p> + The approach of danger had not dashed the spirits of the little man, nor + was he without partisans in Paris. Opinion in the city was divided as to + the truth of his account of Mme. de Lamotte's elopement. The nobility were + on the side of the injured de Lamotte, but the bourgeoisie accepted the + grocer's story and made merry over the deceived husband. Interrogated, + however, by the magistrate of the Chatelet, Derues' position became more + difficult. Under the stress of close questioning the flimsy fabric of his + financial statements fell to pieces like a house of cards. He had to admit + that he had never paid Mme. de Lamotte 100,000 livres; he had paid her + only 25,000 livres in gold; further pressed he said that the 25,000 livres + had been made up partly in gold, partly in bills; but where the gold had + come from, or on whom he had drawn the bills, he could not explain. Still + his position was not desperate; and he knew it. In the absence of Mme. de + Lamotte he could not be charged with fraud or forgery; and until her body + was discovered, it would be impossible to charge him with murder. + </p> + <p> + A month passed; Mme. Derues, who had made a belated attempt to follow her + husband's example by impersonating Mme. de Lamotte in Paris, had been + arrested and imprisoned in the Grand Chatelet; when, on April 18, + information was received by the authorities which determined them to + explore the wine-cellar in the Rue de la Mortellerie. Whether the woman + who had let the cellar to Derues, or the creditor who had met him taking + his cask of wine there, had informed the investigating magistrate, seems + uncertain. In any case, the corpse of the unhappy lady was soon brought to + light and Derues confronted with it. At first he said that he failed to + recognise it as the remains of Mme. de Lamotte, but he soon abandoned that + rather impossible attitude. He admitted that he had given some harmless + medicine to Mme. de Lamotte during her illness, and then, to his horror, + one morning had awakened to find her dead. A fear lest her husband would + accuse him of having caused her death had led him to conceal the body, and + also that of her son who, he now confessed, had died and been buried by + him at Versailles. On April 23 the body of the young de Lamotte was + exhumed. Both bodies were examined by doctors, and they declared + themselves satisfied that mother and son had died "from a bitter and + corrosive poison administered in some kind of drink." What the poison was + they did not venture to state, but one of their number, in the light of + subsequent investigation, arrived at the conclusion that Derues had used + in both cases corrosive sublimate. How or where he had obtained the poison + was never discovered. + </p> + <p> + Justice moved swiftly in Paris in those days. The preliminary + investigation in Derues' case was ended on April 28. Two days later his + trial commenced before the tribunal of the Chatelet. + </p> + <p> + It lasted one day. The judges had before them the depositions taken by the + examining magistrate. Both Derues and his wife were interrogated. He + maintained that he had not poisoned either Mme. de Lamotte or her son; his + only crime, he said, lay in having concealed their deaths. Mme; Derues + said: "It is Buisson-Souef that has ruined us! I always told my husband + that he was mad to buy these properties—I am sure my husband is not + a poisoner—I trusted my husband and believed every word he said." + The court condemned Derues to death, but deferred judgment in his wife's + case on the ground of her pregnancy. + </p> + <p> + And now the frail, cat-like little man had to brace himself to meet a + cruel and protracted execution. But sanguine to the last, he still hoped. + An appeal lay from the Chatelet to the Parliament of Paris. It was heard + on March 5. Derues was brought to the Palais de Justice. The room in which + he waited was filled with curious spectators, who marvelled at his + coolness and impudence. He recognised among them a Benedictine monk of his + acquaintance. "My case," he called out to him, "will soon be over; we'll + meet again yet and have a good time together." One visitor, wishing not to + appear too curious, pretended to be looking at a picture. "Come, sir," + said Derues, "you haven't come here to see the pictures, but to see me. + Have a good look at me. Why study copies of nature when you can look at + such a remarkable original as I?" But there were to be no more days of + mirth and gaiety for the jesting grocer. His appeal was rejected, and he + was ordered for execution on the morrow. + </p> + <p> + At six o'clock on the morning of May 6 Derues returned to the Palais de + Justice, there to submit to the superfluous torments of the question + ordinary and extraordinary. Though condemned to death, torture was to be + applied in the hope of wringing from the prisoner some sort of confession. + The doctors declared him too delicate to undergo the torture of pouring + cold water into him, which his illustrious predecessor, Mme. de + Brinvilliers, had suffered; he was to endure the less severe torture of + the "boot." + </p> + <p> + His legs were tightly encased in wood, and wedges were then hammered in + until the flesh was crushed and the bones broken. But never a word of + confession was wrung from the suffering creature. Four wedges constituting + the ordinary torture he endured; at the third of the extraordinary he + fainted away. Put in the front of a fire the warmth restored him. Again he + was questioned, again he asserted his wife's innocence and his own. + </p> + <p> + At two o'clock in the afternoon Derues was recovered sufficiently to be + taken to Notre Dame. There, in front of the Cathedral, candle in hand and + rope round his neck, he made the amende honorable. But as the sentence was + read aloud to the people Derues reiterated the assertion of his innocence. + From Notre Dame he was taken to the Hotel de Ville. A condemned man had + the right to stop there on his way to execution, to make his will and last + dying declarations. Derues availed himself of this opportunity to protest + solemnly and emphatically his wife's absolute innocence of any complicity + in whatever he had done. "I want above all," he said, "to state that my + wife is entirely innocent. She knew nothing. I used fifty cunning devices + to hide everything from her. I am speaking nothing but the truth, she is + wholly innocent—as for me, I am about to die." His wife was allowed + to see him; he enjoined her to bring up their children in the fear of God + and love of duty, and to let them know how he had died. Once again, as he + took up the pen to sign the record of his last words, he re-asserted her + innocence. + </p> + <p> + Of the last dreadful punishment the offending grocer was to be spared + nothing. For an aristocrat like Mme. de Brinvilliers beheading was + considered indignity enough. But Derues must go through with it all; he + must be broken on the wheel and burnt alive and his ashes scattered to the + four winds of heaven; there was to be no retentum for him, a clause + sometimes inserted in the sentence permitting the executioner to strangle + the broken victim before casting him on to the fire. He must endure all to + the utmost agony the law could inflict. It was six o'clock when Derues + arrived at the Place de Greve, crowded to its capacity, the square itself, + the windows of the houses; places had been bought at high prices, stools, + ladders, anything that would give a good view of the end of the now famous + poisoner. + </p> + <p> + Pale but calm, Derues faced his audience. He was stripped of all but his + shirt; lying flat on the scaffold, his face looking up to the sky, his + head resting on a stone, his limbs were fastened to the wheel. Then with a + heavy bar of iron the executioner broke them one after another, and each + time he struck a fearful cry came from the culprit. The customary three + final blows on the stomach were inflicted, but still the little man lived. + Alive and broken, he was thrown on to the fire. His burnt ashes, scattered + to the winds, were picked up eagerly by the mob, reputed, as in England + the pieces of the hangman's rope, talismans. + </p> + <p> + Some two months after the execution of her husband Mme. Derues was + delivered in the Conciergerie of a male child; it is hardly surprising, in + face of her experiences during her pregnancy, that it was born an idiot. + In January, 1778, the judges of the Parliament, by a majority of one, + decided that she should remain a prisoner in the Conciergerie for another + year, while judgment in her case was reserved. In the following August she + was charged with having forged the signature of Mme. de Lamotte on the + deeds of sale. In February, 1779, the two experts in handwriting to whom + the question had been submitted decided in her favour, and the charge was + abandoned. + </p> + <p> + But Mme. Derues had a far sterner, more implacable and, be it added, more + unscrupulous adversary than the law in M. de Lamotte. + </p> + <p> + Not content with her husband's death, M. de Lamotte believed the wife to + have been his partner in guilt, and thirsted for revenge. + </p> + <p> + To accomplish it he even stooped to suborn witnesses, but the conspiracy + was exposed, and so strong became the sympathy with the accused woman that + a young proctor of the Parliament published a pamphlet in her defence, + asking for an immediate inquiry into the charges made against her, charges + that had in no instance been proved. + </p> + <p> + At last, in March, 1779, the Parliament decided to finish with the affair. + In secret session the judges met, examined once more all the documents in + the case, listened to a report on it from one of their number, + interrogated the now weary, hopeless prisoner, and, by a large majority, + condemned her to a punishment that fell only just short of the supreme + penalty. On the grounds that she had wilfully and knowingly participated + with her husband in the fraudulent attempt to become possessed of the + estate of Buisson-Souef, and was strongly suspected of having participated + with him in his greater crime, she was sentenced to be publicly flogged, + branded on both shoulders with the letter V (Voleuse) and imprisoned for + life in the Salpetriere Prison. On March 13, in front of the Conciergerie + Mme. Derues underwent the first part of her punishment. The same day her + hair was cut short, and she was dressed in the uniform of the prison in + which she was to pass the remainder of her days. + </p> + <p> + Paris had just begun to forget Mme. Derues when a temporary interest + was-excited in her fortunes by the astonishing intelligence that, two + months after her condemnation, she had been delivered of a child in her + new prison. Its fatherhood was never determined, and, taken from her + mother, the child died in fifteen days. Was its birth the result of some + passing love affair, or some act of drunken violence on the part of her + jailors, or had the wretched woman, fearing a sentence of death, made an + effort to avert once again the supreme penalty? History does not relate. + </p> + <p> + Ten years passed. A fellow prisoner in the Salpetriere described Mme. + Derues as "scheming, malicious, capable of anything." She was accused of + being violent, and of wishing to revenge herself by setting fire to Paris. + At length the Revolution broke on France, the Bastille fell, and in that + same year an old uncle of Mme. Derues, an ex-soldier of Louis XV., living + in Brittany, petitioned for his niece's release. He protested her + innocence, and begged that he might take her to his home and restore her + to her children. For three years he persisted vainly in his efforts. At + last, in the year 1792, it seemed as if they might be crowned with + success. He was told that the case would be re-examined; that it was + possible that the Parliament had judged unjustly. This good news came to + him in March. But in September of that year there took place those + shocking massacres in the Paris prisons, which rank high among the + atrocities of the Revolution. At four o'clock on the afternoon of + September 4, the slaughterers visited the Salpetriere Prison, and fifth + among their victims fell the widow of Derues. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Dr. Castaing + </h2> + <p> + There are two reports of the trial of Castaing: "Proces Complet d'Edme + Samuel Castaing," Paris, 1823; "Affaire Castaing," Paris, 1823. + </p> + <p> + I AN UNHAPPY COINCIDENCE + </p> + <p> + Edme Castaing, born at Alencon in 1796, was the youngest of the three sons + of an Inspector-General in the department of Woods and Forests. His elder + brother had entered the same service as his father, the other brother was + a staff-captain of engineers. Without being wealthy, the family, + consisting of M. and Mme. Castaing and four children, was in comfortable + circumstances. The young Edme was educated at the College of Angers—the + Alma Mater of Barre and Lebiez—where, intelligent and hard working, + he carried off many prizes. He decided to enter the medical profession, + and at the age of nineteen commenced his studies at the School of Medicine + in Paris. For two years he worked hard and well, living within the modest + allowance made him by his father. At the end of that time this young man + of two or three-and-twenty formed a passionate attachment for a lady, the + widow of a judge, and the mother of three children. Of the genuine depth + and sincerity of this passion for a woman who must have been considerably + older than himself, there can be no doubt. Henceforth the one object in + life to Castaing was to make money enough to relieve the comparative + poverty of his adored mistress, and place her and her children beyond the + reach of want. In 1821 Castaing became a duly qualified doctor, and by + that time had added to the responsibilities of his mistress and himself by + becoming the father of two children, whom she had brought into the world. + The lady was exigent, and Castaing found it difficult to combine his work + with a due regard to her claims on his society. Nor was work plentiful or + lucrative. To add to his embarrassments Castaing, in 1818, had backed a + bill for a friend for 600 francs. To meet it when it fell due two years + later was impossible, and desperate were the efforts made by Castaing and + his mother to put off the day of reckoning. His father, displeased with + his son's conduct, would do nothing to help him. But his mother spared no + effort to extricate him from his difficulties. She begged a highly placed + official to plead with the insistent creditor, but all in vain. There + seemed no hope of a further delay when suddenly, in the October of 1822, + Castaing became the possessor of 100,000 francs. How he became possessed + of this considerable sum of money forms part of a strange and mysterious + story. + </p> + <p> + Among the friends of Castaing were two young men of about his own age, + Auguste and Hippolyte Ballet. Auguste, the elder, had the misfortune a few + days after his birth to incur his mother's lasting dislike. The nurse had + let the child fall from her arms in the mother's presence, and the shock + had endangered Mme. Ballet's life. From that moment the mother took a + strong aversion to her son; he was left to the charge of servants; his + meals were taken in the kitchen. As soon as he was five years old he was + put out to board elsewhere, while his brother Hippolyte and his sister + were well cared for at home. The effect of this unjust neglect on the + character of Auguste Ballet was, as may be imagined, had; he became + indolent and dissipated. His brother Hippolyte, on the other hand, had + justified the affectionate care bestowed on his upbringing; he had grown + into a studious, intelligent youth of a refined and attractive + temperament. Unhappily, early in his life he had developed consumption, a + disease he inherited from his mother. As he grew older his health grew + steadily worse until, in 1822, his friends were seriously alarmed at his + condition. It became so much graver that, in the August of that year, the + doctors recommended him to take the waters at Enghien. In September he + returned to Paris apparently much better, but on October 2 he was seized + with sudden illness, and three days later he was dead. + </p> + <p> + A few years before the death of Hippolyte his father and mother had died + almost at the same time. M. Ballet had left to each of his sons a fortune + of some 260,000 francs. Though called to the bar, both Auguste and + Hippolyte Ballet were now men of independent means. After the death of + their parents, whatever jealousy Auguste may have felt at the unfair + preference which his mother had shown for her younger son, had died down. + At the time of Hippolyte's death the brothers were on good terms, though + the more prudent Hippolyte disapproved of his elder brother's + extravagance. + </p> + <p> + Of Hippolyte Ballet Dr. Castaing had become the fast friend. Apart from + his personal liking for Castaing, it was a source of comfort to Hippolyte, + in his critical state of health, to have as his friend one whose medical + knowledge was always at his service. + </p> + <p> + About the middle of August, 1822, Hippolyte, on the advice of his doctors, + went to Enghien to take the waters. There Castaing paid him frequent + visits. He returned to Paris on September 22, and seemed to have benefited + greatly by the cure. On Tuesday, October 1, he saw his sister, Mme. + Martignon, and her husband; he seemed well, but said that he was having + leeches applied to him by his friend Castaing. On the Wednesday evening + his sister saw him again, and found him well and with a good appetite. On + the Thursday, after a night disturbed by severe attacks of vomiting, his + condition seemed serious. His brother-in-law, who visited him, found that + he had taken to his bed, his face was swollen, his eyes were red. His + sister called in the evening, but could not see him. The servants told her + that her brother was a little better but resting, and that he did not wish + to be disturbed; they said that Dr. Castaing had been with him all day. + </p> + <p> + On Friday Castaing himself called on the Martignons, and told them that + Hippolyte had passed a shockingly bad night. Madame Martignon insisted on + going to nurse her brother herself, but Castaing refused positively to let + her see him; the sight of her, he said, would be too agitating to the + patient. Later in the day Mme. Martignon went to her brother's house. In + order to obey Dr. Castaing's injunctions, she dressed herself in some of + the clothes of the servant Victoire, in the hope that if she went into his + bedroom thus disguised, Hippolyte would not recognise her. But even this + subterfuge was forbidden by Castaing, and Mme. Martignon had to content + herself with listening in an adjoining room for the sound of her brother's + voice. At eight o'clock that evening the Martignons learnt that Hippolyte + was better, but at ten o'clock they received a message that he was dying, + and that his brother Auguste had been sent for. Mme. Martignon was + prostrated with grief, but her husband hastened to his brother-in-law's + house. There he found Castaing, who said that the death agony of his + friend was so dreadful that he had not the strength to remain in the room + with the dying man. Another doctor was sent for, but at ten o'clock the + following morning, after protracted suffering, Hippolyte Ballet passed + away. + </p> + <p> + A post-mortem was held on his body. It was made by Drs. Segalas and + Castaing. They stated that death was due to pleurisy aggravated by the + consumptive condition of the deceased, which, however serious, was not of + itself likely to have been so rapidly fatal in its consequences. + </p> + <p> + Hippolyte had died, leaving a fortune of some 240,000 francs. In the + previous September he had spoken to the notary Lebret, a former clerk of + his father's, of his intention of making a will. He had seen that his + brother Auguste was squandering his share of their inheritance; he told + Lebret that whatever he might leave to Auguste should not be placed at his + absolute disposal. To his servant Victoire, during his last illness, + Hippolyte had spoken of a will he had made which he wished to destroy. If + Hippolyte had made such a will, did he destroy it before his death? In any + case, no trace of it was ever found after his death. He was presumed to + have died intestate, and his fortune was divided, three-quarters of it + going to his brother Auguste, the remaining quarter to his sister, Mme. + Martignon. + </p> + <p> + On the day of Hippolyte's death Auguste Ballet wrote from his brother's + house to one Prignon: "With great grief I have to tell you that I have + just lost my brother; I write at the same time to say that I must have + 100,000 francs to-day if possible. I have the greatest need of it. Destroy + my letter, and reply at once. M. Sandrie will, I am sure, accommodate me. + I am at my poor brother's house, from which I am writing." Prignon did as + he was asked, but it was two days before the stockbroker, Sandrie, could + raise the necessary sum. On October 7 he sold out sufficient of Auguste's + stock to realise 100,000 francs, and the following day gave Prignon an + order on the Bank of France for that amount. The same day Prignon took the + order to Auguste. Accompanied by Castaing and Jean, Auguste's black + servant, Auguste and Prignon drove to the bank. There the order was + cashed. Prignon's part of the business was at an end. He said good-bye to + Auguste outside the bank. As the latter got into his cabriolet, carrying + the bundle of notes, Prignon heard him say to Castaing: "There are the + 100,000 francs." + </p> + <p> + Why had Auguste Ballet, after his brother's death, such urgent need of + 100,000 francs? If the statements of Auguste made to other persons are to + be believed, he had paid the 100,000 francs which he had raised through + Prignon to Lebret, his father's former clerk, who would seem to have acted + as legal and financial adviser to his old master's children. According to + Auguste's story, his sister, Mme. Martignon, had offered Lebret 80,000 + francs to preserve a copy of a will made by Hippolyte, leaving her the + bulk of his fortune. Castaing, however, had ascertained that Lebret would + be willing, if Auguste would outbid his sister and pay 100,000 francs, to + destroy the will so that, Hippolyte dying intestate, Auguste would take + the greater part of his brother's fortune. Auguste agreed to accept + Lebret's terms, raised the necessary sum, and handed over the money to + Castaing, who, in turn, gave it to Lebret, who had thereupon destroyed the + copy of the will. Castaing, according to the evidence of Auguste's + mistress, an actress of the name of Percillie, had spoken in her presence + of having himself destroyed one copy of Hippolyte's will before his death, + and admitted having arranged with Lebret after Hippolyte's death for the + destruction of the other copy. + </p> + <p> + How far was the story told by Auguste, and repeated in somewhat different + shape by Castaing to other persons, true? There is no doubt that after the + visit to the Bank of France with Prignon on October 8, Auguste and + Castaing drove together to Lebret's office. The negro servant said that on + arriving there one of them got out of the cab and went up to Lebret's + house, but which of the two he would not at first say positively. Later he + swore that it was Auguste Ballet. Whatever happened on that visit to + Lebret's—and it was the theory of the prosecution that Castaing and + not Auguste had gone up to the office—the same afternoon Auguste + Ballet showed his mistress the seals of the copy of his brother's will + which Lebret had destroyed, and told her that Lebret, all through the + business, had refused to deal directly with him, and would only act + through the intermediary of Castaing. + </p> + <p> + Did Lebret, as a fact, receive the 100,000 francs? A close examination of + his finances showed no trace of such a sum. Castaing, on the other hand, + on October 10, 1822, had given a stockbroker a sum of 66,000 francs to + invest in securities; on the 11th of the same month he had lent his mother + 30,000 francs; and on the 14th had given his mistress 4,000 francs. Of how + this large sum of money had come to Castaing at a time when he was + practically insolvent he gave various accounts. His final version was that + in the will destroyed by Auguste, Hippolyte Ballet had left him an income + for life equivalent to a capital of 100,000 francs, and that Auguste had + given him that sum out of respect for his brother's wishes. If that + explanation were true, it was certainly strange that shortly after his + brother's death Auguste Ballet should have expressed surprise and + suspicion to a friend on hearing that Castaing had been buying stock to + the value of 8,000 francs. If he had given Castaing 100,000 francs for + himself, there was no occasion for surprise or suspicion at his investing + 8,000. That Auguste had paid out 100,000 francs to some one in October the + state of his finances at his death clearly proved. According to the theory + of the prosecution, Auguste believed that he had paid that money to Lebret + through the intermediary of Castaing, and not to Castaing himself. Hence + his surprise at hearing that Castaing, whom he knew to be impecunious, was + investing such a sum as 8,000 francs. + </p> + <p> + No money had ever reached Lebret. His honesty and good faith were + demonstrated beyond any shadow of a doubt; no copy of any will of + Hippolyte Ballet had ever been in his possession. But Castaing had shown + Auguste Ballet a copy of his brother's will, the seals of which Auguste + had shown to his mistress. In all probability, and possibly at the + instigation of Castaing, Hippolyte Ballet had made a will, leaving the + greater part of his property to his sister. Somehow or other Castaing had + got possession of this will. On his death Castaing had invented the story + of Mme. Martignon's bribe to Lebret, and so persuaded Auguste to outbid + her. He had ingeniously kept Auguste and Lebret apart by representing + Lebret as refusing to deal direct with Auguste, and by these means had + secured to his own use the sum of 100,000 francs, which Auguste believed + was being paid to Lebret as the price of his alleged destruction of his + brother's will. The plot was ingenious and successful. To Lebret and the + Martignons Castaing said that Hippolyte had made a will in Mme. + Martignon's favour, but had destroyed it himself some days before his + death. The Martignons expressed themselves as glad that Hippolyte had done + so, for they feared lest such a will should have provoked resentment + against them on the part of Auguste. By keeping Auguste and Lebret apart, + Castaing prevented awkward explanations. The only possible danger of + discovery lay in Auguste's incautious admissions to his mistress and + friends; but even had the fact of the destruction of the will come to the + ears of the Martignons, it is unlikely that they would have taken any + steps involving the disgrace of Auguste. + </p> + <p> + Castaing had enriched himself considerably by the opportune death of his + friend Hippolyte. It might be made a matter of unfriendly comment that, on + the first day of May preceding that sad event, Castaing had purchased ten + grains of acetate of morphia from a chemist in Paris, and on September 18, + less than a month before Hippolyte's death, he had purchased another ten + grains of acetate of morphia from the same chemist. The subject of poisons + had always been a favourite branch of Castaing's medical studies, + especially vegetable poisons; morphia is a vegetable poison. + </p> + <p> + Castaing's position relative to Auguste Ballet was now a strong one. They + were accomplices in the unlawful destruction of Hippolyte's will. Auguste + believed it to be in his friend's power to ruin him at any time by + revealing his dealings with Lebret. But, more than that, to Auguste, who + believed that his 100,000 francs had gone into Lebret's pocket, Castaing + could represent himself as so far unrewarded for his share in the + business; Lebret had taken all the money, while he had received no + recompense of any kind for the trouble he had taken and the risk he was + encountering on his friend's behalf. Whatever the motive, from fear or + gratitude, Auguste Ballet was persuaded to make a will leaving Dr. Edme + Samuel Castaing the whole of his fortune, subject to a few trifling + legacies. But Auguste's feelings towards his sole legatee were no longer + cordial. To one or two of his friends he expressed his growing distaste + for Castaing's society. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Castaing can hardly have failed to observe this change. He knew + Auguste to be reckless and extravagant with his money; he learnt that he + had realised another 100,000 francs out of his securities, and that he + kept the money locked up in a drawer in his desk. If Auguste's fortune + were dissipated by extravagance, or he revoked his will, Castaing stood to + lose heavily. As time went on Castaing felt less and less sure that he + could place much reliance on the favourable disposition or thrift of + Auguste. The latter had fallen in love with a new mistress; he began to + entertain expensively; even if he should not change his mind and leave his + money away from Castaing, there might very soon be no money to leave. At + the end of May, 1823, Castaing consulted a cousin of his, Malassis, a + notary's clerk, as to the validity of a will made by a sick man in favour + of his medical attendant. He said that he had a patient gravely ill who, + not wishing to leave his money to his sister, whom he disliked, intended + to leave it to him. Malassis reassured him as to the validity of such a + will, and gave him the necessary instructions for preparing it. On May 29 + Castaing sent Malassis the will of Auguste Ballet with the following note, + "I send you the will of M. Ballets examine it and keep it as his + representative." The will was dated December 1, 1822, and made Castaing + sole legatee. On the same day that the will was deposited with Malassis, + Castaing and Auguste Ballet started to-gether on a little two days' trip + into the country. To his friends Auguste seemed in the best of health and + spirits; so much so that his housekeeper remarked as he left how well he + was looking, and Castaing echoed her remark, saying that he looked like a + prince! + </p> + <p> + During the afternoon the two friends visited Saint Germain, then returned + to Paris, and at seven o'clock in the evening arrived at the Tete Noire + Hotel at Saint Cloud, where they took a double-bedded room, Castaing + paying five francs in advance. They spent the following day, Friday, May + 30, in walking about the neighbourhood, dined at the hotel at seven, went + out again and returned about nine o'clock. Soon after their return + Castaing ordered some warmed wine to be sent up to the bedroom. It was + taken up by one of the maid-servants. Two glasses were mixed with lemon + and sugar which Castaing had brought with him. Both the young men drank of + the beverage. Auguste complained that it was sour, and thought that he had + put too much lemon in it. He gave his glass to the servant to taste, who + also found the drink sour. Shortly after she left the room and went + upstairs to the bedside of one of her fellow-servants who was ill. + Castaing, for no apparent reason, followed her up and stayed in the room + for about five minutes. Auguste spent a bad night, suffering from internal + pains, and in the morning his legs were so swollen that he could not put + on his boots. + </p> + <p> + Castaing got up at four o'clock that morning and asked one of the servants + to let him out. Two hours later he drove up in a cabriolet to the door of + a chemist in Paris, and asked for twelve grains of tartar emetic, which he + wanted to mix in a wash according to a prescription of Dr. Castaing. But + he did not tell the chemist that he was Dr. Castaing himself. An hour + later Castaing arrived at the shop of another chemist, Chevalier, with + whom he had already some acquaintance; he had bought acetate of morphia + from him some months before, and had discussed with him then the effects + of vegetable poisons. On this particular morning he bought of his + assistant thirty-six grains of acetate of morphia, paying, as a medical + man, three francs fifty centimes for it instead of the usual price of four + francs. Later in the morning Castaing returned to Saint Cloud, a distance + of ten miles from Paris, and said that he had been out for a long walk. He + found Auguste ill in bed. Castaing asked for some cold milk, which was + taken up to the bedroom by one of the servants. Shortly after this + Castaing went out again. During his absence Auguste was seized with + violent pains and sickness. When Castaing returned he found his friend in + the care of the people of the hotel. He told them to throw away the matter + that had been vomited, as the smell was offensive, and Auguste told them + to do as his friend directed. Castaing proposed to send for a doctor from + Paris, but Auguste insisted that a local doctor should be called in at + once. + </p> + <p> + Accordingly Dr. Pigache of Saint Cloud was summoned. He arrived at the + hotel about eleven o'clock. Before seeing the patient Castaing told the + doctor that he believed him to be suffering from cholera. Pigache asked to + see the matter vomited but was told that it had been thrown away. He + prescribed a careful diet, lemonade and a soothing draught. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Pigache returned at three o'clock, when he found that the patient had + taken some lemonade, but, according to Castaing, had refused to take the + draught. He called again that afternoon. Ballet was much better; he said + that he would be quite well if he could get some sleep, and expressed a + wish to return to Paris. Dr. Pigache dissuaded him from this and left, + saying that he would come again in the evening. Castaing said that that + would be unnecessary, and it was agreed that Pigache should see the + patient again at eight o'clock the next morning. During the afternoon + Castaing sent a letter to Paris to Jean, Auguste's negro servant, telling + him to take the two keys of his master's desk to his cousin Malassis. But + the negro distrusted Castaing. He knew of the will which his master had + made in the doctor's favour. Rather than compromise himself by any + injudicious act, he brought the keys to Saint Cloud and there handed them + over to Castaing. + </p> + <p> + When Jean arrived his master complained to him of feeling very ill. Jean + said that he hoped he would be well enough to go back to Paris the + following day, to which Auguste replied, "I don't think so. But if I am + lucky enough to get away to-morrow, I shall leave fifty francs for the + poor here." About eleven o'clock that night Castaing, in Jean's presence, + gave the sick man a spoonful of the draught prescribed by Dr. Pigache. + Four or five minutes later Auguste was seized with terrible convulsions, + followed by unconsciousness. Dr. Pigache was sent for. He found Ballet + lying on his back unconscious, his throat strained, his mouth shut and his + eyes fixed; the pulse was weak, his body covered with cold sweat; and + every now and then he was seized with strong convulsions. The doctor asked + Castaing the cause of the sudden change in Ballet's condition. Castaing + replied that it had commenced shortly after he had taken a spoonful of the + draught which the doctor had prescribed for him. Dr. Pigache bled the + patient and applied twenty leeches. He returned about six; Ballet was + sinking, and Castaing appeared to be greatly upset. He told the doctor + what an unhappy coincidence it was that he should have been present at the + deathbeds of both Hippolyte and his brother Auguste; and that the position + was the more distressing for him as he was the sole heir to Auguste's + fortune. To M. Pelletan, a professor of medicine, who had been sent for to + St. Cloud in the early hours of Sunday morning, Castaing appeared to be in + a state of great grief and agitation; he was shedding tears. Pelletan was + from the first impressed by the suspicious nature of the case, and pointed + out to Castaing the awkwardness of his situation as heir to the dying man. + "You're right," replied Castaing, "my position is dreadful, horrible. In + my great grief I had never thought of it till now, but now you make me see + it clearly. Do you think there will be an investigation?" Pelletan + answered that he should be compelled to ask for a post-mortem. "Ah! You + will be doing me the greatest service," said Castaing, "I beg you to + insist on a post-mortem. You will be acting as a second father to me in + doing so." The parish priest was sent for to administer extreme unction to + the dying man. To the parish clerk who accompanied the priest Castaing + said, "I am losing a friend of my childhood," and both priest and clerk + went away greatly edified by the sincere sorrow and pious demeanour of the + young doctor. About mid-day on Sunday, June 1, Auguste Ballet died. + </p> + <p> + During the afternoon Castaing left the hotel for some hours, and that same + afternoon a young man about twenty-five years of age, short and fair, left + a letter at the house of Malassis. The letter was from Castaing and said, + "My dear friend, Ballet has just died, but do nothing before to-morrow, + Monday. I will see you and tell you, yes or no, whether it is time to act. + I expect that his brother-in-law, M. Martignon, whose face is pock-marked + and who carries a decoration, will call and see you. I have said that I + did not know what dispositions Ballet may have made, but that before his + death he had told me to give you two little keys which I am going to + deliver to you myself to-morrow, Monday. I have not said that we are + cousins, but only that I had seen you once or twice at Ballet's, with whom + you were friendly. So say nothing till I have seen you, but whatever you + do, don't say you are a relative of mine." When he returned to the hotel + Castaing found Martignon, Lebret, and one or two friends of Auguste + already assembled. It was only that morning that Martignon had received + from Castaing any intimation of his brother-in-law's critical condition. + From the first Castaing was regarded with suspicion; the nature of the + illness, the secrecy maintained about it by Castaing, the coincidence of + some of the circumstances with those of the death of Hippolyte, all + combined to excite suspicion. Asked if Auguste had left a will Castaing + said no; but the next day he admitted its existence, and said that it was + in the hands of Malassis. + </p> + <p> + Monday, June 2, was the day fixed for the post-mortem; it was performed in + the hotel at Saint Cloud. Castaing was still in the hotel under + provisional arrest. While the post-mortem was going on his agitation was + extreme; he kept opening the door of the room in which he was confined, to + hear if possible some news of the result. At last M. Pelletan obtained + permission to inform him of the verdict of the doctors. It was favourable + to Castaing; no trace of death by violence or poison had been discovered. + </p> + <p> + The medical men declared death to be due to an inflammation of the + stomach, which could be attributed to natural causes; that the + inflammation had subsided; that it had been succeeded by cerebral + inflammation, which frequently follows inflammation of the stomach, and + may have been aggravated in this case by exposure to the sun or by + over-indulgence of any kind. + </p> + <p> + II THE TRIAL OF DR. CASTAING + </p> + <p> + Castaing expected, as a result of the doctors' report, immediate release. + In this he was disappointed; he was placed under stricter arrest and taken + to Paris, where a preliminary investigation commenced, lasting five + months. During the early part of his imprisonment Castaing feigned + insanity, going to disgusting lengths in the hope of convincing those + about him of the reality of his madness. But after three days of futile + effort he gave up the attempt, and turned his attention to more practical + means of defence. In the prison at Versailles, whither he had been removed + from Paris, he got on friendly terms with a prisoner, one Goupil, who was + awaiting trial for some unimportant offence. To Goupil Castaing described + the cruelty of his position and the causes that had led to his wrongful + arrest. He admitted his unfortunate possession of the poison, and said + that the 100,000 francs which he had invested he had inherited from an + uncle. Through Goupil he succeeded in communicating with his mother in the + hope that she would use her influence to stifle some of the more serious + evidence against him. Through other prisoners he tried to get at the + chemists from whom he had bought acetate of morphia, and persuade them to + say that the preparation of morphia which he had purchased was harmless. + </p> + <p> + The trial of Castaing commenced before the Paris Assize Court on November + 10, 1823. He was charged with the murder of Hippolyte Ballet, the + destruction of a document containing the final dispositions of Hippolyte's + property, and with the murder of Auguste Ballet. The three charges were to + be tried simultaneously. The Act of Accusation in Castaing's case is a + remarkable document, covering a hundred closely-printed pages. It is a + well-reasoned, graphic and unfair statement of the case for the + prosecution. It tells the whole story of the crime, and inserts everything + that can possibly prejudice the prisoner in the eyes of the jury. As an + example, it quotes against Castaing a letter of his mistress in which, in + the course of some quarrel, she had written to him saying that his mother + had said some "horrible things" (des horreurs) of him; but what those + "horrible things" were was not revealed, nor were they ever alluded to + again in the course of the trial, nor was his mistress called as a + witness, though payments of money by Castaing to her formed an important + part of the evidence against him. Again, the evidence of Goupil, his + fellow prisoner, as to the incriminating statements made to him by + Castaing is given in the Act of Accusation, but Goupil himself was not + called at the trial. + </p> + <p> + During the reading of the Act of Accusation by the Clerk of the Court + Castaing listened calmly. Only when some allusion was made to his mistress + and their children did he betray any sign of emotion. As soon as the + actual facts of the case were set out he was all attention, making notes + busily. He is described as rather attractive in appearance, his face long, + his features regular, his forehead high, his hair, fair in colour, brushed + back from the brows; he wore rather large side-whiskers. One of the + witnesses at Saint Cloud said that Castaing looked more like a priest than + a doctor; his downcast eyes, gentle voice, quiet and unassuming demeanour, + lent him an air of patience and humility. + </p> + <p> + The interrogatory of Castaing by the presiding judge lasted all the + afternoon of the first day of the trial and the morning of the second. The + opening part of it dealt with the murder of Hippolyte Ballet, and elicited + little or nothing that was fresh. Beyond the purchase of acetate of + morphia previous to Hippolyte's death, which Castaing reluctantly + admitted, there was no serious evidence against him, and before the end of + the trial the prosecution abandoned that part of the charge. + </p> + <p> + Questioned by the President as to the destruction of Hippolyte Ballet's + will, Castaing admitted that he had seen a draft of a will executed by + Hippolyte in favour of his sister, but he denied having told Auguste that + Lebret had in his possession a copy which he was prepared to destroy for + 100,000 francs. Asked to explain the assertion of Mlle. Percillie, + Auguste's mistress, that statements to this effect had been made in her + presence by both Auguste Ballet and himself, he said that it was not true; + that he had never been to her house. "What motive," he was asked, "could + Mlle. Percillie have for accusing you?" "She hated me," was the reply, + "because I had tried to separate Auguste from her." Castaing denied that + he had driven with Auguste to Lebret's office on October 8. Asked to + explain his sudden possession of 100,000 francs at a moment when he was + apparently without a penny, he repeated his statement that Auguste had + given him the capital sum as an equivalent for an income of 4,000 francs + which his brother had intended to leave him. "Why, when first asked if you + had received anything from Auguste, did you say you had received nothing?" + was the question. + </p> + <p> + "It was a thoughtless statement," was the answer. "Why," pursued the + President, "should you not have admitted at once a fact that went to prove + your own good faith? If, however, this fact be true, it does not explain + the mysterious way in which Auguste asked Prignon to raise for him 100,000 + francs; and unless those 100,000 francs were given to you, it is + impossible to account for them. It is important to your case that you + should give the jury a satisfactory explanation on this point." Castaing + could only repeat his previous explanations. + </p> + <p> + The interrogatory was then directed to the death of Auguste Ballet. + Castaing said that Auguste Ballet had left him all his fortune on account + of a disagreement with his sister. Asked why, after Auguste's death, he + had at first denied all knowledge of the will made in his favour and + deposited by him with Malassis, he could give no satisfactory reason. + Coming to the facts of the alleged poisoning of Auguste Ballet, the + President asked Castaing why, shortly after the warm wine was brought up + on the night of May 30, he went up to the room where one of the servants + of the hotel was lying sick. Castaing replied that he was sent for by the + wife of the hotel-keeper. This the woman denied; she said that she did not + even know that he was a doctor. "According to the prosecution," said the + judge, "you left the room in order to avoid drinking your share of the + wine." Castaing said that he had drunk half a cupful of it. The judge + reminded him that to one of the witnesses Castaing had said that he had + drunk only a little. + </p> + <p> + A ridiculous statement made by Castaing to explain the purchase of morphia + and antimony in Paris on May 31 was brought up against him. Shortly after + his arrest Castaing had said that the cats and dogs about the hotel had + made such a noise on the night of May 30 that they had disturbed the rest + of Auguste, who, in the early morning, had asked Castaing to get some + poison to kill them. He had accordingly gone all the way, about ten miles, + to Paris at four in the morning to purchase antimony and morphia to kill + cats and dogs. All the people of the hotel denied that there had been any + such disturbance on the night in question. Castaing now said that he had + bought the poisons at Auguste's request, partly to kill the noisy cats and + dogs, and partly for the purpose of their making experiments on animals. + Asked why he had not given this second reason before, he said that as + Auguste was not a medical man it would have been damaging to his + reputation to divulge the fact of his wishing to make unauthorised experiments + on animals. "Why go to Paris for the poison?" asked the judge, "there was + a chemist a few yards from the hotel. And when in Paris, why go to two + chemists?" To all these questions Castaing's answers were such as to lead + the President to express a doubt as to whether they were likely to + convince the jury. Castaing was obliged to admit that he had allowed, if + not ordered, the evacuations of the sick man to be thrown away. He stated + that he had thrown away the morphia and antimony, which he had bought in + Paris, in the closets of the hotel, because, owing to the concatenation of + circumstances, he thought that he would be suspected of murder. In reply + to a question from one of the jury, Castaing said that he had mixed the + acetate of morphia and tartar emetic together before reaching Saint Cloud, + but why he had done so he could not explain. + </p> + <p> + The medical evidence at the trial was favourable to the accused. Orfila, + the famous chemist of that day, said that, though the symptoms in Auguste + Ballet's case might be attributed to poisoning by acetate of morphia or + some other vegetable poison, at the same time they could be equally well + attributed to sudden illness of a natural kind. The liquids, taken from + the stomach of Ballet, had yielded on analysis no trace of poison of any + sort. The convulsive symptoms present in Ballet's case were undoubtedly a + characteristic result of a severe dose of acetate of morphia.(14) Castaing + said that he had mixed the acetate of morphia and tartar emetic together, + but in any case no trace of either poison was found in Auguste's body, and + his illness might, from all appearances, have been occasioned by natural + causes. Some attempt was made by the prosecution to prove that the + apoplexy to which Hippolyte Ballet had finally succumbed, might be + attributed to a vegetable poison; one of the doctors expressed an opinion + favourable to that conclusion "as a man but not as a physician." But the + evidence did not go further. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (14) It was asserted some years later by one medical authority in +Palmer's case that it might have been morphia and not strychnine that +had caused the tetanic symptoms which preceded Cook's death. +</pre> + <p> + To the young priest-like doctor the ordeal of his trial was a severe one. + It lasted eight days. It was only at midday on the sixth day that the + evidence was concluded. Not only was Castaing compelled to submit to a + long interrogatory by the President, but, after each witness had given his + or her evidence, the prisoner was called on to refute or explain any + points unfavourable to him. This he did briefly, with varying success; as + the trial went on, with increasing embarrassment. A great deal of the + evidence given against Castaing was hearsay, and would have been + inadmissible in an English court of justice. Statements made by Auguste to + other persons about Castaing were freely admitted. But more serious was + the evidence of Mlle. Percillie, Auguste's mistress. She swore that on one + occasion in her presence Castaing had reproached Auguste with ingratitude; + he had complained that he had destroyed one copy of Hippolyte Ballet's + will, and for Auguste's sake had procured the destruction of the other, + and that yet, in spite of all this, Auguste hesitated to entrust him with + 100,000 francs. Asked what he had to say to this statement Castaing denied + its truth. He had, he said, only been in Mlle. Percillie's house once, and + then not with Auguste Ballet. Mlle. Percillie adhered to the truth of her + evidence, and the President left it to the jury to decide between them. + </p> + <p> + A Mme. Durand, a patient of Castaing, gave some curious evidence as to a + story told her by the young doctor. He said that a friend of his, + suffering from lung disease, had been persuaded into making a will in his + sister's favour. The sister had offered a bribe of 80,000 francs to her + brother's lawyer to persuade him to make such a will, and paid one of his + clerks 3,000 francs for drawing it up. Castaing, in his friend's interest, + and in order to expose the fraud, invited the clerk to come and see him. + His friend, hidden in an alcove in the room, overheard the conversation + between Castaing and the clerk, and so learnt the details of his sister's + intrigue. He at once destroyed the will and became reconciled with his + brother, whom he had been about to disinherit. After his death the + brother, out of gratitude, had given Castaing 100,000 francs. + </p> + <p> + President: Castaing, did you tell this story to Mme. Durand? + </p> + <p> + Castaing: I don't recollect. + </p> + <p> + Avocat-General: But Mme. Durand says that you did. + </p> + <p> + Castaing: I don't recollect. + </p> + <p> + President: You always say that you don't recollect; that is no answer. + Have you, yes or no, made such a statement to Mme. Durand? + </p> + <p> + Castaing: I don't recollect; if I had said it, I should recollect it. + </p> + <p> + Another lady whom Castaing had attended free of charge swore, with a good + deal of reluctance, that Castaing had told her a somewhat similar story as + accounting for his possession of 100,000 francs. + </p> + <p> + Witnesses were called for the defence who spoke to the diligence and good + conduct of Castaing as a medical student; and eighteen, whom he had + treated free of expense, testified to his kindness and generosity. "All + these witnesses," said the President, "speak to your generosity; but, for + that very reason, you must have made little profit out of your profession, + and had little opportunity for saving anything," to which Castaing + replied: "These are not the only patients I attended; I have not called + those who paid me for my services." At the same time Castaing found it + impossible to prove that he had ever made a substantial living by the + exercise of his profession. + </p> + <p> + One of the medical witnesses called for the defence, M. Chaussier, had + volunteered the remark that the absence of any trace of poison in the + portions of Auguste Ballet's body submitted to analysis, constituted an + absence of the corpus delicti. To this the President replied that that was + a question of criminal law, and no concern of his. But in his speech for + the prosecution the Avocat-General dealt with the point raised at some + length—a point which, if it had held good as a principle of English + law, would have secured the acquittal of so wicked a poisoner as Palmer. + He quoted from the famous French lawyer d'Aguesseau: "The corpus delicti + is no other thing than the delictum itself; but the proofs of the delictum + are infinitely variable according to the nature of things; they may be + general or special, principal or accessory, direct or indirect; in a word, + they form that general effect (ensemble) which goes to determine the + conviction of an honest man." If such a contention as M. Chaussier's were + correct, said the Avocat-General, then it would be impossible in a case of + poisoning to convict a prisoner after his victim's death, or, if his + victim survived, to convict him of the attempt to poison. He reminded the + jury of that paragraph in the Code of Criminal Procedure which instructed + them as to their duties: "The Law does not ask you to give the reasons + that have convinced you; it lays down no rules by which you are to decide + as to the fullness or sufficiency of proof... it only asks you one + question: 'Have you an inward conviction?'" "If," he said, "the actual + traces of poison are a material proof of murder by poison, then a new + paragraph must be added to the Criminal Code—'Since, however, + vegetable poisons leave no trace, poisoning by such means may be committed + with impunity.'" To poisoners he would say in future: "Bunglers that you + are, don't use arsenic or any mineral poison; they leave traces; you will + be found out. Use vegetable poisons; poison your fathers, poison your + mothers, poison all your families, and their inheritance will be yours—fear + nothing; you will go unpunished! You have committed murder by poisoning, + it is true; but the corpus delicti will not be there because it can't be + there!" This was a case, he urged, of circumstantial evidence. "We have," + he said, "gone through a large number of facts. Of these there is not one + that does not go directly to the proof of poisoning, and that can only be + explained on the supposition of poisoning; whereas, if the theory of the + defence be admitted, all these facts, from the first to the last, become + meaningless and absurd. They can only be refuted by arguments or + explanations that are childish and ridiculous." + </p> + <p> + Castaing was defended by two advocates—Roussel, a schoolfellow of + his, and the famous Berryer, reckoned by some the greatest French orator + since Mirabeau. Both advocates were allowed to address the jury. Roussel + insisted on the importance of the corpus delicti. "The delictum," he said, + "is the effect, the guilty man merely the cause; it is useless to deal + with the cause if the effect is uncertain," and he cited a case in which a + woman had been sent for trial, charged with murdering her husband; the + moral proof of her guilt seemed conclusive, when suddenly her husband + appeared in court alive and well. The advocate made a good deal of the + fact that the remains of the draught prescribed by Dr. Pigache, a spoonful + of which Castaing had given to Auguste Ballet, had been analysed and + showed no trace of poison. Against this the prosecution set the evidence + of the chemist at Saint Cloud, who had made up the prescription. He said + that the same day he had made up a second prescription similar to that of + Dr. Pigache, but not made out for Auguste Ballet, which contained, in + addition to the other ingredients, acetate of morphia. The original of + this prescription he had given to a friend of Castaing, who had come to + his shop and asked him for it a few days after Ballet's death. It would + seem therefore that there had been two bottles of medicine, one of which + containing morphia had disappeared. + </p> + <p> + M. Roussel combatted the suggestion that the family of Castaing were in a + state of indigence. He showed that his father had an income of 10,000 + francs, while his two brothers were holding good positions, one as an + officer in the army, the other as a government official. The mistress of + Castaing he represented as enjoying an income of 5,000 francs. He + protested against the quantity of hearsay evidence that had been admitted + into the case. "In England," he said, "when a witness is called, he is + asked 'What have you seen?' If he can only testify to mere talk, and + hearsay, he is not heard." He quoted the concluding paragraph of the will + of Auguste Ballet as showing his friendly feeling towards Castaing: "It is + only after careful reflection that I have made this final disposition of + my property, in order to mark the sincere friendship which I have never + for one moment ceased to feel for MM. Castaing, Briant and Leuchere, in + order to recognise the faithful loyalty of my servants, and deprive M. and + Mme. Martignon, my brother-in-law and sister, of all rights to which they + might be legally entitled on my death, fully persuaded in soul and + conscience that, in doing so, I am giving to each their just and proper + due." "Is this," asked M. Roussel, "a document wrested by surprise from a + weak man, extorted by trickery? Is he not acting in the full exercise of + his faculties? He forgets no one, and justifies his conduct." + </p> + <p> + When M. Roussel came to the incident of the noisy cats and dogs at Saint + Cloud, he was as ingenious as the circumstances permitted: "A serious + charge engrosses public attention; men's minds are concentrated on the + large, broad aspects of the case; they are in a state of unnatural + excitement. They see only the greatness, the solemnity of the accusation, + and then, suddenly, in the midst of all that is of such tragic and + surpassing interest, comes this trivial fact about cats and dogs. It makes + an unfavourable impression, because it is dramatically out of keeping with + the tragedy of the story. But we are not here to construct a drama. No, + gentlemen, look at it merely as a trivial incident of ordinary, everyday + life, and you will see it in its proper light." M. Roussel concluded by + saying that Castaing's most eloquent advocate, if he could have been + present, would have been Auguste Ballet. "If Providence had permitted him + to enter this court, he would cry out to you, 'Save my friend's life! His + heart is undefiled! He is innocent!'" + </p> + <p> + M. Roussel concluded his speech at ten o'clock on Sunday night, November + 16. The next morning Berryer addressed the jury. His speech in defence of + Castaing is not considered one of his most successful efforts. He gave + personal testimony as to the taste of acetate of morphia. He said that + with the help of his own chemist he had put a quarter of a grain of the + acetate into a large spoonful of milk, and had found it so insupportably + bitter to the taste that he could not keep it in his mouth. If, he + contended, Ballet had been poisoned by tartar emetic, then twelve grains + given in milk would have given it an insipid taste, and vomiting + immediately after would have got rid of the poison. Later investigations + have shown that, in cases of antimonial poisoning, vomiting does not + necessarily get rid of all the poison, and the convulsions in which + Auguste Ballet died are symptomatic of poisoning either by morphia or + antimony. In conclusion, Berryer quoted the words addressed by one of the + Kings of France to his judges: "When God has not vouchsafed clear proof of + a crime, it is a sign that He does not wish that man should determine it, + but leaves its judgment to a higher tribunal." + </p> + <p> + The Avocat-General, in reply, made a telling answer to M. Roussel's + attempt to minimise the importance of the cats and dogs: "He has spoken of + the drama of life, and of its ordinary everyday incidents. If there is + drama in this case, it is of Castaing's making. As to the ordinary + incidents of everyday life, a man buys poison, brings it to the bedside of + his sick friend, saying it is for experiments on cats and dogs, the friend + dies, the other, his sole heir, after foretelling his death, takes + possession of his keys, and proceeds to gather up the spoils—are + these ordinary incidents of every-day life?" + </p> + <p> + It was nine o'clock at night when the jury retired to consider their + verdict. They returned into court after two hours' deliberation. They + found the prisoner "Not Guilty" of the murder of Hippolyte Ballet, + "Guilty" of destroying his will, and "Guilty" by seven votes to five of + the murder of Auguste Ballet. Asked if he had anything to say before + judgment was given, Castaing, in a very loud voice, said "No; but I shall + know how to die, though I am the victim of ill-fortune, of fatal + circumstance. I shall go to meet my two friends. I am accused of having + treacherously murdered them. There is a Providence above us! If there is + such a thing as an immortal soul, I shall see Hippolyte and Auguste Ballet + again. This is no empty declamation; I don't ask for human pity" (raising + his hands to heaven), "I look to God's mercy, and shall go joyfully to the + scaffold. My conscience is clear. It will not reproach me even when I + feel" (putting his hands to his neck). "Alas! It is easier to feel what I + am feeling than to express what I dare not express." (In a feeble voice): + "You have desired my death; you have it!" The judges retired to consider + the sentence. The candles were guttering, the light of the lamps was + beginning to fade; the aspect of the court grim and terrible. M. Roussel + broke down and burst into tears. Castaing leant over to his old + schoolfellow: "Courage, Roussel," he said; "you have always believed me + innocent, and I am innocent. Embrace for me my father, my mother, my + brothers, my child." He turned to a group of young advocates standing + near: "And you, young people, who have listened to my trial, attend also + my execution; I shall be as firm then as I am now. All I ask is to die + soon. I should be ashamed to plead for mercy." The judges returned. + Castaing was condemned to death, and ordered to pay 100,000 francs damages + to the family of Auguste Ballet. + </p> + <p> + Castaing was not ashamed to appeal to the Court of Cassation for a + revision of his trial, but on December 4 his appeal was rejected. Two days + later he was executed. He had attempted suicide by means of poison, which + one of his friends had brought to him in prison, concealed inside a watch. + His courage failed him at the last, and he met his death in a state of + collapse. + </p> + <p> + It is not often, happily, that a young man of gentle birth and good + education is a double murderer at twenty-six. And such a soft, humble, + insinuating young man too!—good to his mother, good to his mistress, + fond of his children, kind to his patients. + </p> + <p> + Yet this gentle creature can deliberately poison his two friends. + </p> + <p> + Was ever such a contradictory fellow? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Professor Webster + </h2> + <p> + The best report of Webster's trial is that edited by Bemis. The following + tracts in the British Museum have been consulted by the writer: "Appendix + to the Webster Trial," Boston, 1850: "Thoughts on the Conviction of + Webster"; "The Boston Tragedy," by W. E. Bigelow. + </p> + <p> + It is not often that the gaunt spectre of murder invades the cloistered + calm of academic life. Yet such a strange and unwonted tragedy befell + Harvard University in the year 1849, when John W. Webster, Professor of + Chemistry, took the life of Dr. George Parkman, a distinguished citizen of + Boston. The scene of the crime, the old Medical School, now a Dental + Hospital, is still standing, or was when the present writer visited Boston + in 1907. It is a large and rather dreary red-brick, three-storied + building, situated in the lower part of the city, flanked on its west side + by the mud flats leading down to the Charles River. The first floor + consists of two large rooms, separated from each other by the main + entrance hall, which is approached by a flight of steps leading up from + the street level. Of these two rooms, the left, as you face the building, + is fitted up as a lecture-room. In the year 1849 it was the lecture-room + of Professor Webster. Behind the lecture-room is a laboratory, known as + the upper laboratory, communicating by a private staircase with the lower + laboratory, which occupies the left wing of the ground floor. A small + passage, entered by a door on the left-hand side of the front of the + building, separated this lower laboratory from the dissecting-room, an + out-house built on to the west wall of the college, but now demolished. + From this description it will be seen that any person, provided with the + necessary keys, could enter the college by the side-door near the + dissecting room on the ground floor, and pass up through the lower and + upper laboratory into Professor Webster's lecture-room without entering + any other part of the building. The Professor of Chemistry, by locking the + doors of his lecture-rooms and the lower laboratory, could, if he wished, + make himself perfectly secure against intrusion, and come and go by the + side-door without attracting much attention. These rooms are little + altered at the present time from their arrangement in 1849. The + lecture-room and laboratory are used for the same purposes to-day; the + lower laboratory, a dismal chamber, now disused and somewhat rearranged, + is still recognisable as the scene of the Professor's chemical + experiments. + </p> + <p> + On the second floor of the hospital is a museum, once anatomical, now + dental. One of the principal objects of interest in this museum is a + plaster cast of the jaws of Dr. George Parkman, made by a well-known + dentist of Boston, Dr. Keep, in the year 1846. In that year the new + medical college was formally opened. Dr. Parkman, a wealthy and + public-spirited citizen of Boston, had given the piece of land, on which + the college had been erected. He had been invited to be present at the + opening ceremony. In anticipation of being asked to make a speech on this + occasion Dr. Parkman, whose teeth were few and far between, had himself + fitted by Dr. Keep with a complete set of false teeth. Oliver Wendell + Holmes, then Professor of Anatomy at Harvard, who was present at the + opening of the college, noticed how very nice and white the doctor's teeth + appeared to be. It was the discovery of the remains of these same + admirable teeth three years later in the furnace in Professor Webster's + lower laboratory that led to the conviction of Dr. Parkman's murderer. By + a strange coincidence the doctor met his death in the very college which + his generosity had helped to build. Though to-day the state of the college + has declined from the medical to the dental, his memory still lives within + its walls by the cast of his jaws preserved in the dental museum as a + relic of a case, in which the art of dentistry did signal service to the + cause of justice. + </p> + <p> + In his lifetime Dr. Parkman was a well-known figure in the streets of + Boston. His peculiar personal appearance and eccentric habits combined to + make him something of a character. As he walked through the streets he + presented a remarkable appearance. He was exceptionally tall, longer in + the body than the legs; his lower jaw protruded some half an inch beyond + the upper; he carried his body bent forward from the small of his back. He + seemed to be always in a hurry; so impetuous was he that, if his horse did + not travel fast enough to please him, he would get off its back, and, + leaving the steed in the middle of the street, hasten on his way on foot. + A just and generous man, he was extremely punctilious in matters of + business, and uncompromising in his resentment of any form of falsehood or + deceit. It was the force of his resentment in such a case that cost him + his life. + </p> + <p> + The doctor was unfailingly punctual in taking his meals. Dr. Kingsley, + during the fourteen years he had acted as his agent, had always been able + to make sure of finding him at home at his dinner hour, half-past two + o'clock. But on Friday, November 23, 1849, to his surprise and that of his + family, Dr. Parkman did not come home to dinner; and their anxiety was + increased when the day passed, and there was still no sign of the doctor's + return. Inquiries were made. From these it appeared that Dr. Parkman had + been last seen alive between one and two o'clock on the Friday afternoon. + About half-past one he had visited a grocer's shop in Bridge Street, made + some purchases, and left behind him a paper bag containing a lettuce, + which, he said, he would call for on his way home. Shortly before two + o'clock he was seen by a workman, at a distance of forty or fifty feet + from the Medical College, going in that direction. From that moment all + certain trace of him was lost. His family knew that he had made an + appointment for half-past one that day, but where and with whom they did + not know. As a matter of fact, Professor John W. Webster had appointed + that hour to receive Dr. Parkman in his lecture-room in the Medical + College. + </p> + <p> + John W. Webster was at this time Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in + Harvard University, a Doctor of Medicine and a Member of the American + Academy of Arts and Sciences, the London Geological Society and the St. + Petersburg Mineralogical Society. He was the author of several works on + geology and chemistry, a man now close on sixty years of age. His + countenance was genial, his manner mild and unassuming; he was clean + shaven, wore spectacles, and looked younger than his years. + </p> + <p> + Professor Webster was popular with a large circle of friends. To those who + liked him he was a man of pleasing and attractive manners, artistic in his + tastes—he was especially fond of music—not a very profound or + remarkable chemist, but a pleasant social companion. His temper was hasty + and irritable. Spoilt in his boyhood as an only child, he was self-willed + and self-indulgent. His wife and daughters were better liked than he. By + unfriendly criticics{sic} the Professor was thought to be selfish, fonder + of the good things of the table and a good cigar than was consistent with + his duty to his family or the smallness of his income. His father, a + successful apothecary at Boston, had died in 1833, leaving John, his only + son, a fortune of some L10,000. In rather less than ten years Webster had + run through the whole of his inheritance. He had built himself a costly + mansion in Cambridge, spent a large sum of money in collecting minerals, + and delighted to exercise lavish hospitality. By living consistently + beyond his means he found himself at length entirely dependent on his + professional earnings. These were small. His salary as Professor was fixed + at L240 a year;(15) the rest of his income he derived from the sale of + tickets for his lectures at the Medical College. That income was + insufficient to meet his wants. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (15) I have given these sums of money in their English equivalents +in order to give the reader an idea of the smallness of the sum which +brought about the tragedy. +</pre> + <p> + As early as 1842 he had borrowed L80 from his friend Dr. Parkman. It was + to Parkman's good offices that he owed his appointment as a Professor at + Harvard; they had entered the University as under-graduates in the same + year. Up to 1847 Webster had repaid Parkman twenty pounds of his debt; + but, in that year he found it necessary to raise a further loan of L490, + which was subscribed by a few friends, among them Parkman himself. As a + security for the repayment of this loan, the professor executed a mortgage + on his valuable collection of minerals in favour of Parkman. In the April + of 1848 the Professor's financial difficulties became so serious that he + was threatened with an execution in his house. In this predicament he went + to a Mr. Shaw, Dr. Parkman's brother-in-law, and begged a loan of L240, + offering him as security a bill of sale on the collection of minerals, + which he had already mortgaged to Parkman. Shaw accepted the security, and + lent the money. Shaw would seem to have had a good deal of sympathy with + Webster's embarrassments; he considered the Professor's income very + inadequate to his position, and showed himself quite ready at a later + period to waive his debt altogether. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Parkman was a less easy-going creditor. Forbearing and patient as long + as he was dealt with fairly, he was merciless where he thought he detected + trickery or evasion. His forbearance and his patience were utterly + exhausted, his anger and indignation strongly aroused, when he learnt from + Shaw that Webster had given him as security for his debt a bill of sale on + the collection of minerals, already mortgaged to himself. From the moment + of the discovery of this act of dishonesty on the part of Webster, Parkman + pursued his debtor with unrelenting severity. + </p> + <p> + He threatened him with an action at law; he said openly that he was + neither an honourable, honest, nor upright man; he tried to appropriate to + the payment of his debt the fees for lectures which Mr. Pettee, Webster's + agent, collected on the Professor's behalf. He even visited Webster in his + lecture-room and sat glaring at him in the front row of seats, while the + Professor was striving under these somewhat unfavourable conditions to + impart instruction to his pupils—a proceeding which the Doctor's odd + cast of features must have aggravated in no small degree. + </p> + <p> + It was early in November that Parkman adopted these aggressive tactics. On + the 19th of that month Webster and the janitor of the College, Ephraim + Littlefield, were working in the upper laboratory. It was dark; they had + lit candles. Webster was reading a chemical book. As he looked up from the + book he saw Parkman standing in the doorway leading from the lecture-room. + "Dr. Webster, are you ready for me to-night?" asked Parkman. "No," replied + the other, "I am not ready to-night." After a little further conversation + in regard to the mortgage, Parkman departed with the ominous remark, + "Doctor, something must be done to-morrow." + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately the Professor was not in a position to do anything. He had + no means sufficient to meet his creditor's demands; and that creditor was + unrelenting. On the 22nd Parkman rode into Cambridge, where Webster lived, + to press him further, but failed to find him. Webster's patience, none too + great at any time, was being sorely tried. To whom could he turn? What + further resource was open to him? There was none. He determined to see his + creditor once more. At 8 o'clock on the morning of Friday the 23rd, + Webster called at Dr. Parkman's house and made the appointment for their + meeting at the Medical College at half-past one, to which the Doctor had + been seen hastening just before his disappearance. At nine o'clock the + same morning Pettee, the agent, had called on the Professor at the College + and paid him by cheque a balance of L28 due on his lecture tickets, + informing him at the same time that, owing to the trouble with Dr. + Parkman, he must decline to receive any further sums of money on his + behalf. Webster replied that Parkman was a nervous, excitable man, subject + to mental aberrations, but he added, "You will have no further trouble + with Dr. Parkman, for I have settled with him." It is difficult to see how + the Professor could have settled, or proposed to settle, with his creditor + on that day. A balance of L28 at his bank, and the L18 which Mr. Pettee + had paid to him that morning, represented the sum of Professor Webster's + fortune on Friday, November 23, 1849. + </p> + <p> + Since the afternoon of that day the search for the missing Parkman had + been unremitting. On the Saturday his friends communicated with the + police. On Sunday hand-bills were issued stating the fact of the Doctor's + disappearance, and on Monday, the 26th, a description and the offer of a + considerable reward for the discovery of his body were circulated both in + and out of the city. Two days later a further reward was offered. But + these efforts were fruitless. The only person who gave any information + beyond that afforded by those who had seen the Doctor in the streets on + the morning of his disappearance, was Professor Webster. About four + o'clock on the Sunday afternoon the Professor called at the house of the + Revd. Francis Parkman, the Doctor's brother. They were intimate friends. + Webster had for a time attended Parkman's chapel; and Mr. Parkman had + baptised the Professor's grand-daughter. On this Sunday afternoon Mr. + Parkman could not help remarking Webster's peculiar manner. With a bare + greeting and no expression of condolence with the family's distress, his + visitor entered abruptly and nervously on the object of his errand. He had + called, he said, to tell Mr. Parkman that he had seen his brother at the + Medical College on Friday afternoon, that he had paid him L90 which he + owed him, and that the Doctor had in the course of their interview taken + out a paper and dashed his pen through it, presumably as an acknowledgment + of the liquidation of the Professor's debt. Having communicated this + intelligence to the somewhat astonished gentleman, Webster left him as + abruptly as he had come. + </p> + <p> + Another relative of Dr. Parkman, his nephew, Mr. Parkman Blake, in the + course of inquiries as to his uncle's fate, thought it right to see + Webster. Accordingly he went to the college on Monday, the 26th, about + eleven o'clock in the morning. Though not one of his lecture days, the + janitor Littlefield informed him that the Professor was in his room. The + door of the lecture-room, however, was found to be locked, and it was only + after considerable delay that Mr. Blake gained admittance. As he descended + the steps to the floor of the lecture-room Webster, dressed in a working + suit of blue overalls and wearing on his head a smoking cap, came in from + the back door. Instead of advancing to greet his visitor, he stood fixed + to the spot, and waited, as if defensively, for Mr. Blake to speak. In + answer to Mr. Blake's questions Webster described his interview with Dr. + Parkman on the Friday afternoon. He gave a very similar account of it to + that he had already given to Mr. Francis Parkman. He added that at the end + of their interview he had asked the Doctor for the return of the mortgage, + to which the latter had replied, "I haven't it with me, but I will see it + is properly cancelled." Mr. Blake asked Webster if he could recollect in + what form of money it was that he had paid Dr. Parkman. Webster answered + that he could only recollect a bill of L20 on the New Zealand Bank: + pressed on this point, he seemed to rather avoid any further inquiries. + Mr. Blake left him, dissatisfied with the result of his visit. + </p> + <p> + One particular in Webster's statement was unquestionably strange, if not + incredible. He had, he said, paid Parkman a sum of L90, which he had given + him personally, and represented the Doctor as having at their interview + promised to cancel the mortgage on the collection of minerals which + Webster had given as security for the loan of L490 that had been + subscribed by Parkman and four of his friends. Now L120 of this loan was + still owing. If Webster's statement were true, Parkman had a perfect right + to cancel Webster's personal debt to himself; but he had no right to + cancel entirely the mortgage on the minerals, so long as money due to + others on that mortgage was yet unpaid. Was it conceivable that one so + strict and scrupulous in all monetary transactions as Parkman would have + settled his own personal claim, and then sacrificed in so discreditable a + manner the claims of others, for the satisfaction of which he had made + himself responsible? + </p> + <p> + There was yet another singular circumstance. On Saturday, the 24th, the + day after his settlement with Parkman, Webster paid into his own account + at the Charles River Bank the cheque for L18, lecture fees, handed over to + him by the agent Pettee just before Dr. Parkman's visit on the Friday. + This sum had not apparently gone towards the making up of the L90, which + Webster said that he had paid to Parkman that day. The means by which + Webster had been enabled to settle this debt became more mysterious than + ever. + </p> + <p> + On Tuesday, November 27, the Professor received three other visitors in + his lecture-room. These were police officers who, in the course of their + search for the missing man, felt it their duty to examine, however + perfunctorily, the Medical College. With apologies to the Professor, they + passed through his lecture room to the laboratory at the back, and from + thence, down the private stairs, past a privy, into the lower laboratory. + As they passed the privy one of the officers asked what place it was. "Dr. + Webster's private lavatory," replied the janitor, who was conducting them. + At that moment Webster's voice called them away to examine the store-room + in the lower laboratory, and after a cursory examination the officers + departed. + </p> + <p> + The janitor, Ephraim Littlefield, did not take the opportunity afforded + him by the visit of the police officers to impart to them the feelings of + uneasiness; which the conduct of Professor Webster during the last three + days had excited in his breast. There were circumstances in the + Professor's behaviour which could not fail to attract the attention of a + man, whose business throughout the day was to dust and sweep the College, + light the fires and overlook generally the order and cleanliness of the + building. + </p> + <p> + Littlefield, it will be remembered, had seen Dr. Parkman on the Monday + before his disappearance, when he visited Webster at the College, and been + present at the interview, in the course of which the Doctor told Webster + that "something must be done." That Monday morning Webster asked + Littlefield a number of questions about the dissecting-room vault, which + was situated just outside the door of the lower laboratory. He asked how + it was built, whether a light could be put into it, and how it was reached + for the purpose of repair. On the following Thursday, the day before + Parkman's disappearance, the Professor told Littlefield to get him a pint + of blood from the Massachusetts Hospital; he said that he wanted it for an + experiment. On the morning of Friday, the day of Parkman's disappearance, + Littlefield informed the Professor that he had been unsuccessful in his + efforts to get the blood, as they had not been bleeding anyone lately at + the hospital. The same morning Littlefield found to his surprise a + sledge-hammer behind the door of the Professor's back room; he presumed + that it had been left there by masons, and took it down to the lower + laboratory. This sledge-hammer Littlefield never saw again. About a + quarter to two that afternoon Littlefield, standing at the front door, + after his dinner, saw Dr. Parkman coming towards the College. At two + o'clock Littlefield went up to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes' room, + immediately above Professor Webster's, to help the Doctor to clear his + table after his lecture, which was the last delivered that day. About a + quarter of an hour later he let Dr. Holmes out, locked the front door and + began to clear out the stoves in the other lecture-rooms. When he reached + Webster's he was surprised to find that both doors, that of the lecture + room and that of the lower laboratory, were either locked or bolted. He + could hear nothing but the running of water in one of the sinks. About + half-past five Littlefield saw the Professor coming down the back stairs + with a lighted candle in his hand. Webster blew out the candle and left + the building. Late that night Littlefield again tried the Professor's + doors; they were still fastened. The janitor was surprised at this, as he + had never known such a thing to happen before. + </p> + <p> + On Saturday, the 24th, though not lecturing that day, the Professor came + to the College in the morning. He told Littlefield to light the stove in + the lower laboratory. When Littlefield made to pass from the lecture-room + into the Professor's private room at the back, and so down by the private + stairs to the lower laboratory, the Professor stopped him and told him to + go round by the door in front of the building. The whole of that day and + Sunday, the Professor's doors remained fast. On Sunday evening at sunset + Littlefield, who was talking with a friend in North Grove Street, the + street that faces the College, was accosted by Webster. The Professor + asked him if he recollected Parkman's visit to the College on Friday, the + 23rd, and, on his replying in the affirmative, the Professor described to + him their interview and the repayment of his debt. Littlefield was struck + during their conversation by the uneasiness of the Professor's bearing; + contrary to his habit he seemed unable to look him in the face, his manner + was confused, his face pale. + </p> + <p> + During the whole of Monday, except for a visit from Mr. Parkman Blake, + Professor Webster was again locked alone in his laboratory. Neither that + night, nor early Tuesday morning, could Littlefield get into the + Professor's rooms to perform his customary duties. On Tuesday the + Professor lectured at twelve o'clock, and later received the visit of the + police officers that has been described already. At four o'clock that + afternoon, the Professor's bell rang. Littlefield answered it. The + Professor asked the janitor whether he had bought his turkey for + Thanksgiving Day, which was on the following Thursday. Littlefield said + that he had not done so yet. Webster then handed him an order on his + provision dealer. "Take that," he said, "and get a nice turkey; perhaps I + shall want you to do some odd jobs for me." Littlefield thanked him, and + said that he would be glad to do anything for him that he could. The + janitor was the more surprised at Webster's generosity on this occasion, + as this turkey was the first present he had received at the Professor's + hands during the seven years he had worked in the College. Littlefield saw + the Professor again about half-past six that evening as the latter was + leaving the College. The janitor asked him if he wanted any more fires + lighted in his rooms, because owing to the holidays there were to be no + further lectures that week. Webster said that he did not, and asked + Littlefield whether he were a freemason. The janitor said "Yes," and with + that they parted. + </p> + <p> + Littlefield was curious. The mysterious activity of the Professor of + Chemistry seemed to him more than unusual. His perplexity was increased on + the following day. Though on account of the holidays all work had been + suspended at the College for the remainder of the week, Webster was again + busy in his room early Wednesday morning. Littlefield could hear him + moving about. In vain did the janitor look through the keyhole, bore a + hole in the door, peep under it; all he could get was a sight of the + Professor's feet moving about the laboratory. Perplexity gave way to + apprehension when in the course of the afternoon Littlefield discovered + that the outer wall of the lower laboratory was so hot that he could + hardly bear to place his hand on it. On the outer side of this wall was a + furnace sometimes used by the Professor in his chemical experiments. How + came it to be so heated? The Professor had told Littlefield on Tuesday + that he should not be requiring any fires during the remainder of the + week. + </p> + <p> + The janitor determined to resolve his suspicions. He climbed up to the + back windows of the lower laboratory, found one of them unfastened, and + let himself in. But, beyond evidences of the considerable fires that had + been kept burning during the last few days, Littlefield saw nothing to + excite peculiar attention. Still he was uneasy. Those he met in the street + kept on telling him that Dr. Parkman would be found in the Medical + College. He felt that he himself was beginning to be suspected of having + some share in the mystery, whilst in his own mind he became more certain + every day that the real solution lay within the walls of Professor + Webster's laboratory. His attention had fixed itself particularly on the + lavatory at the foot of the stairs connecting the upper and lower + laboratories. This room he found to be locked and the key, a large one, + had disappeared. He recollected that when the police officers had paid + their visit to the college, the Professor had diverted their attention as + they were about to inspect this room. The only method by which, unknown to + the Professor and without breaking open the door, Littlefield could + examine the vault of this retiring room was by going down to the basement + floor of the college and digging a hole through the wall into the vault + itself. This he determined to do. + </p> + <p> + On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, Littlefield commenced operations with a + hatchet and a chisel. Progress was slow, as that evening he had been + invited to attend a festal gathering. On Friday the janitor, before + resuming work, acquainted two of the Professors of the college with his + proposed investigation, and received their sanction. As Webster, however, + was going constantly in and out of his rooms, he could make little further + progress that day. The Professor had come into town early in the morning. + </p> + <p> + Before going to the college he purchased some fish-hooks and gave orders + for the making of a strong tin box with firm handles, a foot and a half + square and a little more than a foot in depth; during the rest of the day + he had been busy in his rooms until he left the college about four + o'clock. Not till then was the watchful janitor able to resume his + labours. Armed with a crowbar, he worked vigorously until he succeeded in + penetrating the wall sufficiently to admit a light into the vault of the + lavatory. The first objects which the light revealed to his eyes, were the + pelvis of a man and two parts of a human leg. + </p> + <p> + Leaving his wife in charge of the remains, Littlefield went immediately to + the house of Professor Bigelow, and informed him of the result of his + search. They returned to the college some twenty minutes later, + accompanied by the City Marshal. The human remains—a pelvis, a thigh + and a leg—were taken out of the vault, and on a further search some + pieces of bone were removed from one of the furnaces in the lower + laboratory. The City Marshal at once dispatched three of his officers to + Cambridge, to the house of Professor Webster. + </p> + <p> + To his immediate circle of friends and relations the conduct of the + Professor during this eventful week had betrayed no unwonted discomposure + or disturbance of mind. His evenings had been spent either at the house of + friends, or at his own, playing whist, or reading Milton's "Allegro" and + "Penseroso" to his wife and daughters. On Friday evening, about eight + o'clock, as the Professor was saying good-bye to a friend on the steps of + his house at Cambridge, the three police officers drove up to the door and + asked him to accompany them to the Medical College. It was proposed, they + said, to make a further search there that evening, and his presence was + considered advisable. Webster assented immediately, put on his boots, his + hat and coat, and got into the hired coach. As they drove towards the + city, Webster spoke to the officers of Parkman's disappearance, and + suggested that they should stop at the house of a lady who, he said, could + give them some peculiar information on that subject. As they entered + Boston, he remarked that they were taking the wrong direction for reaching + the college. One of the officers replied that the driver might be "green," + but that he would find his way to the college in time. At length the coach + stopped. One of the officers alighted, and invited his companions to + follow him into the office of the Leverett Street Jail. They obeyed. The + Professor asked what it all meant; he was informed that he must consider + himself in custody, charged with the murder of Dr. George Parkman. + Webster, somewhat taken aback, desired that word should be sent to his + family, but was dissuaded from his purpose for the time being. He was + searched, and among other articles taken from him was a key some four or + five inches long; it was the missing lavatory key. Whilst one of the + officers withdrew to make out a mittimus, the Professor asked one of the + others if they had found Dr. Parkman. The officer begged him not to + question him. "You might tell me something about it," pleaded Webster. + "Where did they find him? Did they find the whole body? Oh, my children! + What will they do? What will they think of me? Where did you get the + information?" The officers asked him if anybody had access to his + apartments but himself. "Nobody," he replied, "but the porter who makes + the fire." Then, after a pause, he exclaimed: "That villain! I am a ruined + man." He was walking up and down wringing his hands, when one of the + officers saw him put one hand into his waistcoat pocket, and raise it to + his lips. A few moments later the unhappy man was seized with violent + spasms. He was unable to stand, and was laid down in one of the cells. + From this distressing state he was roused shortly before eleven, to be + taken to the college. He was quite incapable of walking, and had to be + supported by two of the officers. He was present there while his rooms + were searched; but his state was painful in the extreme. He asked for + water, but trembled so convulsively that he could only snap at the tumbler + like a dog; his limbs were rigid; tears and sweat poured down his cheeks. + On the way back to the jail, one of the officers, moved by his condition, + expressed his pity for him. "Do you pity me? Are you sorry for me? What + for?" asked Webster. "To see you so excited," replied the officer. "Oh! + that's it," said the Professor. + </p> + <p> + The whole night through the prisoner lay without moving, and not until the + following afternoon were his limbs relaxed sufficiently to allow of his + sitting up. As his condition improved, he grew more confident. "That is no + more Dr. Parkman's body," he said, "than mine. How in the world it came + there I don't know," and he added: "I never liked the looks of Littlefield + the janitor; I opposed his coming there all I could." + </p> + <p> + In the meantime a further examination of the Professor's rooms on Saturday + had resulted in the discovery, in a tea-chest in the lower laboratory, of + a thorax, the left thigh of a leg, and a hunting knife embedded in tan and + covered over with minerals; some portions of bone and teeth were found + mixed with the slag and cinders of one of the furnaces; also some + fish-hooks and a quantity of twine, the latter identical with a piece of + twine that had been tied round the thigh found in the chest. + </p> + <p> + Two days later the Professor furnished unwittingly some additional + evidence against himself. On the Monday evening after his arrest he wrote + from prison to one of his daughters the following letter: + </p> + <p> + "MY DEAREST MARIANNE,—I wrote Mama yesterday; I had a good sleep + last night, and dreamt of you all. I got my clothes off, for the first + time, and awoke in the morning quite hungry. It was a long time before my + first breakfast from Parker's came; and it was relished, I can assure you. + At one o'clock I was notified that I must appear at the court room. All + was arranged with great regard to my comfort, and went off better than I + had anticipated. + </p> + <p> + "On my return I had a bit of turkey and rice from Parker's. They send much + more than I can eat, and I have directed the steward to distribute the + surplus to any poor ones here. + </p> + <p> + "If you will send me a small canister of tea, I can make my own. A little + pepper I may want some day. I would send the dirty clothes, but they were + taken to dry. Tell Mama NOT TO OPEN the little bundle I gave her the other + day, but to keep it just as she received it. With many kisses to you all. + Good night!—From your affectionate + </p> + <p> + "FATHER." + </p> + <p> + "P.S.—My tongue troubles me yet very much, and I must have bitten it + in my distress the other night; it is painful and swollen, affecting my + speech. Had Mama better send for Nancy? I think so; or Aunt Amelia." + </p> + <p> + "Couple of coloured neck handkerchiefs, one Madras." + </p> + <p> + This letter, which shows an anxiety about his personal comfort singular in + one so tragically situated, passed through the hands of the keeper of the + jail. He was struck by the words underlined, "NOT TO OPEN," in regard to + the small bundle confided to Mrs. Webster. He called the attention of the + police to this phrase. They sent immediately an officer armed with a + search warrant to the Professor's house. He received from Mrs. Webster + among other papers a package which, on being opened, was found to contain + the two notes given by Webster to Parkman as acknowledgments of his + indebtedness to him in 1842 and 1847, and a paper showing the amount of + his debts to Parkman in 1847. There were daubs and erasures made across + these documents, and across one was written twice over the word "paid." + All these evidences of payments and cancellations appeared on examination + to be in the handwriting of the Professor. + </p> + <p> + After an inquest lasting nine days the coroner's jury declared the remains + found in the college to be those of Dr. George Parkman, and that the + deceased had met his death at the hands of Professor J. W. Webster. The + prisoner waived his right to a magisterial investigation, and on January + 26, 1850, the Grand Jury returned a true bill. But it was not until March + 17 that the Professor's trial opened before the Supreme Court of + Massachusetts. The proceedings were conducted with that dignity and + propriety which we look for in the courts of that State. The principal + features in the defence were an attempt to impugn the testimony of the + janitor Littlefield, and to question the possibility of the identification + of the remains of Parkman's teeth. There was a further attempt to prove + that the deceased had been seen by a number of persons in the streets of + Boston on the Friday afternoon, after his visit to the Medical College. + The witness Littlefield was unshaken by a severe cross-examination. The + very reluctance with which Dr. Keep gave his fatal evidence, and the + support given to his conclusions by distinguished testimony told strongly + in favour of the absolute trustworthiness of his statements. The evidence + called to prove that the murdered man had been seen alive late on Friday + afternoon was highly inconclusive. + </p> + <p> + Contrary to the advice of his counsel, Webster addressed the jury himself. + He complained of the conduct of his case, and enumerated various points + that his counsel had omitted to make, which he conceived to be in his + favour. The value of his statements may be judged by the fact that he + called God to witness that he had not written any one of the anonymous + letters, purporting to give a true account of the doctor's fate, which had + been received by the police at the time of Parkman's disappearance. After + his condemnation Webster confessed to the authorship of at least one of + them. + </p> + <p> + The jury retired at eight o'clock on the eleventh day of the trial. They + would seem to have approached their duty in a most solemn and devout + spirit, and it was with the greatest reluctance and after some searching + of heart that they brought themselves to find the prisoner guilty of + wilful murder. On hearing their verdict, the Professor sank into a seat, + and, dropping his head, rubbed his eyes behind his spectacles as if wiping + away tears. On the following morning the Chief Justice sentenced him to + death after a well-meaning speech of quite unnecessary length and + elaboration, at the conclusion of which the condemned man wept freely. + </p> + <p> + A petition for a writ of error having been dismissed, the Professor in + July addressed a petition for clemency to the Council of the State. Dr. + Putnam, who had been attending Webster in the jail, read to the Council a + confession which he had persuaded the prisoner to make. According to this + statement Webster had, on the Friday afternoon, struck Parkman on the head + with a heavy wooden stick in a wild moment of rage, induced by the violent + taunts and threats of his creditor. Appalled by his deed, he had in panic + locked himself in his room, and proceeded with desperate haste to + dismember the body; he had placed it for that purpose in the sink in his + back room, through which was running a constant stream of water that + carried away the blood. Some portions of the body he had burnt in the + furnace; those in the lavatory and the tea-chest he had concealed there, + until he should have had an opportunity of getting rid of them. + </p> + <p> + In this statement Professor Webster denied all premeditation. Dr. Putnam + asked him solemnly whether he had not, immediately before the crime, + meditated at any time on the advantages that would accrue to him from + Parkman's death. Webster replied "Never, before God!" He had, he + protested, no idea of doing Parkman an injury until the bitter tongue of + the latter provoked him. "I am irritable and violent," he said, "a + quickness and brief violence of temper has been the besetting sin of my + life. I was an only child, much indulged, and I have never secured the + control over my passions that I ought to have acquired early; and the + consequence is—all this!" He denied having told Parkman that he was + going to settle with him that afternoon, and said that he had asked him to + come to the college with the sole object of pleading with him for further + indulgence. He explained his convulsive seizure at the time of his arrest + by his having taken a dose of strychnine, which he had carried in his + pocket since the crime. In spite of these statements and the prayers of + the unfortunate man's wife and daughters, who, until his confession to Dr. + Putnam, had believed implicity in his innocence, the Council decided that + the law must take its course, and fixed August 30 as the day of execution. + </p> + <p> + The Professor resigned himself to his fate. He sent for Littlefield and + his wife, and expressed his regret for any injustice he had done them: + "All you said was true. You have misrepresented nothing." Asked by the + sheriff whether he was to understand from some of his expressions that he + contemplated an attempt at suicide, "Why should I?" he replied, "all the + proceedings in my case have been just... and it is just that I should die + upon the scaffold in accordance with that sentence." "Everybody is right," + he said to the keeper of the jail, "and I am wrong. And I feel that, if + the yielding up of my life to the injured law will atone, even in part, + for the crime I have committed, that is a consolation." + </p> + <p> + In a letter to the Reverend Francis Parkman he expressed deep contrition + for his guilt. He added one sentence which may perhaps fairly express the + measure of premeditation that accompanied his crime. "I had never," he + wrote, "until the two or three last interviews with your brother, felt + towards him anything but gratitude for his many acts of kindness and + friendship." + </p> + <p> + Professor Webster met his death with fortitude and resignation. That he + deserved his fate few will be inclined to deny. The attempt to procure + blood, the questions about the dissecting-room vault, the appointment made + with Parkman at the college, the statement to Pettee, all point to some + degree of premeditation, or at least would make it appear that the murder + of Parkman had been considered by him as a possible eventuality. His + accusation of Littlefield deprives him of a good deal of sympathy. On the + other hand, the age and position of Webster, the aggravating persistency + of Parkman, his threats and denunciations, coupled with his own shortness + of temper, make it conceivable that he may have killed his victim on a + sudden and overmastering provocation, in which case he had better at once + have acknowledged his crime instead of making a repulsive attempt to + conceal it. But for the evidence of Dr. Keep he would possibly have + escaped punishment altogether. Save for the portions of his false teeth, + there was not sufficient evidence to identify the remains found in the + college as those of Parkman. Without these teeth the proof of the corpus + delicti would have been incomplete, and so afforded Webster a fair chance + of acquittal. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Mysterious Mr. Holmes + </h2> + <p> + "The Holmes-Pitezel Case," by F. B. Geyer, 1896; "Holmes' Own Story," + Philadelphia, 1895; and "Celebrated Criminal Cases of America," by T. S. + Duke, San Francisco, are the authorities for this account of the case. + </p> + <p> + I HONOUR AMONGST THIEVES + </p> + <p> + In the year 1894 Mr. Smith, a carpenter, of Philadelphia, had patented a + new saw-set. Wishing to make some money out of his invention, Mr. Smith + was attracted by the sign: + </p> + <p> + B. F. PERRY PATENTS BOUGHT AND SOLD + </p> + <p> + which he saw stretched across the window of a two-storied house, 1,316 + Callowhill Street. He entered the house and made the acquaintance of Mr. + Perry, a tall, dark, bony man, to whom he explained the merits of his + invention. Perry listened with interest, and asked for a model. In the + meantime he suggested that Smith should do some carpenter's work for him + in the house. Smith agreed, and on August 22, while at work there saw a + man enter the house and go up with Perry to a room on the second story. + </p> + <p> + A few days later Smith called at Callowhill Street to ask Perry about the + sale of the patent. He waited half an hour in the shop below, called out + to Perry who, he thought, might be in the rooms above, received no answer + and went away. Next day, September 4, Smith returned, found the place just + as he had left it the day before; called Perry again, but again got no + answer. Surprised, he went upstairs, and in the back room of the second + story the morning sunshine, streaming through the window, showed him the + dead body of a man, his face charred beyond recognition, lying with his + feet to the window and his head to the door. There was evidence of some + sort of explosion: a broken bottle that had contained an inflammable + substance, a broken pipe filled with tobacco, and a burnt match lay by the + side of the body. + </p> + <p> + The general appearance of the dead man answered to that of B. F. Perry. A + medical examination of the body showed that death had been sudden, that + there had been paralysis of the involuntary muscles, and that the stomach, + besides showing symptoms of alcoholic irritation, emitted a strong odour + of chloroform. An inquest was held, and a verdict returned that B. F. + Perry had died of congestion of the lungs caused by the inhalation of + flame or chloroform. After lying in the mortuary for eleven days the body + was buried. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime the Philadelphia branch of the Fidelity Mutual Life + Association had received a letter from one Jephtha D. Howe, an attorney at + St. Louis, stating that the deceased B. F. Perry was Benjamin F. Pitezel + of that city, who had been insured in their office for a sum of ten + thousand dollars. The insurance had been effected in Chicago in the + November of 1893. Mr. Howe proposed to come to Philadelphia with some + members of the Pitezel family to identify the remains. Referring to their + Chicago branch, the insurance company found that the only person who would + seem to have known Pitezel when in that city, was a certain H. H. Holmes, + living at Wilmette, Illinois. They got into communication with Mr. Holmes, + and forwarded to him a cutting from a newspaper, which stated erroneously + that the death of B. F. Perry had taken place in Chicago. + </p> + <p> + On September 18 they received a letter from Mr. Holmes, in which he + offered what assistance he could toward the identification of B. F. Perry + as B. F. Pitezel. He gave the name of a dentist in Chicago who would be + able to recognise teeth which he had made for Pitezel, and himself + furnished a description of the man, especially of a malformation of the + knee and a warty growth on the back of the neck by which he could be + further identified. Mr. Holmes offered, if his expenses were paid, to come + to Chicago to view the body. Two days later he wrote again saying that he + had seen by other papers that Perry's death had taken place in + Philadelphia and not in Chicago, and that as he had to be in Baltimore in + a day or two, he would run over to Philadelphia and visit the office of + the Fidelity Life Association. + </p> + <p> + On September 20 the assiduous Mr. Holmes called at the office of the + Association in Philadelphia, inquired anxiously about the nature and cause + of Perry's death, gave again a description of him and, on learning that + Mr. Howe, the attorney from St. Louis, was about to come to Philadelphia + to represent the widow, Mrs. Pitezel, and complete the identification, + said that he would return to give the company any further help he could in + the matter. The following day Mr. Jephtha D. Howe, attorney of St. Louis, + arrived in Philadelphia, accompanied by Alice Pitezel, a daughter of the + deceased. Howe explained that Pitezel had taken the name of Perry owing to + financial difficulties. The company said that they accepted the fact that + Perry and Pitezel were one and the same man, but were not convinced that + the body was Pitezel's body. The visit of Holmes was mentioned. Howe said + that he did not know Mr. Holmes, but would be willing to meet him. At this + moment Holmes arrived at the office. He was introduced to Howe as a + stranger, and recognised as a friend by Alice Pitezel, a shy, awkward girl + of fourteen or fifteen years of age. It was then arranged that all the + parties should meet again next day to identify, if possible, the body, + which had been disinterred for that purpose. + </p> + <p> + The unpleasant duty of identifying the rapidly decomposing remains was + greatly curtailed by the readiness of Mr. Holmes. When the party met on + the 22nd at the Potter's Field, where the body had been disinterred and + laid out, the doctor present was unable to find the distinctive marks + which would show Perry and Pitezel to have been the same man. Holmes at + once stepped into the breach, took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, + put on the rubber gloves, and taking a surgeon's knife from his pocket, + cut off the wart at the back of the neck, showed the injury to the leg, + and revealed also a bruised thumbnail which had been another distinctive + mark of Pitezel. The body was then covered up all but the teeth; the girl + Alice was brought in, and she said that the teeth appeared to be like + those of her father. The insurance company declared themselves satisfied, + and handed to Mr. Howe a cheque for 9,175 dollars, and to Mr. Holmes ten + dollars for his expenses. Smith, the carpenter, had been present at the + proceedings at the Potter's Field. For a moment he thought he detected a + likeness in Mr. Holmes to the man who had visited Perry at Callowhill + Street on August 22 and gone upstairs with him, but he did not feel sure + enough of the fact to make any mention of it. + </p> + <p> + In the prison at St. Louis there languished in the year 1894 one Marion + Hedgspeth, serving a sentence of twenty years' imprisonment for an + audacious train robbery. On the night of November 30, 1891, the 'Friscow + express from St. Louis had been boarded by four ruffians, the express car + blown open with dynamite, and 10,000 dollars carried off. Hedgspeth and + another man were tried for the robbery, and sentenced to twenty years' + imprisonment. On October 9, 1894, Hegspeth{sic} made a statement to the + Governor of the St. Louis prison, which he said he wished to be + communicated to the Fidelity Mutual Life Association. In the previous July + Hedgspeth said that he had met in the prison a man of the name of H. M. + Howard, who was charged with fraud, but had been released on bail later in + the month. While in prison Howard told Hedgspeth that he had devised a + scheme for swindling an insurance company of 10,000 dollars, and promised + Hedgspeth that, if he would recommend him a lawyer suitable for such an + enterprise, he should have 500 dollars as his share of the proceeds. + Hedgspeth recommended Jephtha D. Howe. The latter entered with enthusiasm + into the scheme, and told Hedgspeth that he thought Mr. Howard "one of the + smoothest and slickest" men he had ever known. A corpse was to be found + answering to Pitezel's description, and to be so treated as to appear to + have been the victim of an accidental explosion, while Pitezel himself + would disappear to Germany. From Howe Hedgspeth learnt that the swindle + had been carried out successfully, but he had never received from Howard + the 500 dollars promised him. Consequently, he had but little compunction + in divulging the plot to the authorities. + </p> + <p> + It was realised at once that H. M. Howard and H. H. Holmes were the same + person, and that Jephtha D. Howe and Mr. Holmes were not the strangers to + each other that they had affected to be when they met in Philadelphia. + Though somewhat doubtful of the truth of Hedgspeth's statement, the + insurance company decided to set Pinkerton's detectives on the track of + Mr. H. H. Holmes. After more than a month's search he was traced to his + father's house at Gilmanton, N. H., and arrested in Boston on November 17. + </p> + <p> + Inquiry showed that, early in 1894, Holmes and Pitezel had acquired some + real property at Fort Worth in Texas and commenced building operations, + but had soon after left Texas under a cloud, arising from the theft of a + horse and other dubious transactions. + </p> + <p> + Holmes had obtained the property at Fort Worth from a Miss Minnie + Williams, and transferred it to Pitezel. Pitezel was a drunken "crook," of + mean intelligence, a mesmeric subject entirely under the influence of + Holmes, who claimed to have considerable hypnotic powers. Pitezel had a + wife living at St. Louis and five children, three girls—Dessie, + Alice, and Nellie—a boy, Howard, and a baby in arms. At the time of + Holmes' arrest Mrs. Pitezel, with her eldest daughter, Dessie, and her + little baby, was living at a house rented by Holmes at Burlington, + Vermont. She also was arrested on a charge of complicity in the insurance + fraud and brought to Boston. + </p> + <p> + Two days after his arrest Holmes, who dreaded being sent back to Texas on + a charge of horse-stealing, for which in that State the punishment is apt + to be rough and ready, made a statement to the police, in which he + acknowledged the fraud practised by him and Pitezel on the insurance + company. The body substituted for Pitezel had been obtained, said Holmes, + from a doctor in New York, packed in a trunk and sent to Philadelphia, but + he declined for the present to give the doctor's name. Pitezel, he said, + had gone with three of his children—Alice, Nellie and Howard—to + South America. This fact, however, Holmes had not communicated to Mrs. + Pitezel. When she arrived at Boston, the poor woman was in great distress + of mind. Questioned by the officers, she attempted to deny any complicity + in the fraud, but her real anxiety was to get news of her husband and her + three children. Alice she had not seen since the girl had gone to + Philadelphia to identify the supposed remains of her father. Shortly after + this Holmes had come to Mrs. Pitezel at St. Louis, and taken away Nellie + and Howard to join Alice, who, he said, was in the care of a widow lady at + Ovington, Kentucky. Since then Mrs. Pitezel had seen nothing of the + children or her husband. At Holmes' direction she had gone to Detroit, + Toronto, Ogdensberg and, lastly, to Burlington in the hope of meeting + either Pitezel or the children, but in vain. She believed that her husband + had deserted her; her only desire was to recover her children. + </p> + <p> + On November 20 Holmes and Mrs. Pitezel were transferred from Boston to + Philadelphia, and there, along with Benjamin Pitezel and Jephtha D. Howe, + were charged with defrauding the Fidelity Life Association of 10,000 + dollars. Soon after his arrival in Philadelphia Holmes, who was never + averse to talking, was asked by an inspector of the insurance company who + it was that had helped him to double up the body sent from New York and + pack it into the trunk. He replied that he had done it alone, having + learned the trick when studying medicine in Michigan. The inspector + recollected that the body when removed from Callowhill Street had been + straight and rigid. He asked Holmes what trick he had learnt in the course + of his medical studies by which it was possible to re-stiffen a body once + the rigor mortis had been broken. To this Holmes made no reply. But he + realised his mistake, and a few weeks later volunteered a second + statement. He now said that Pitezel, in a fit of depression, aggravated by + his drinking habits, had committed suicide on the third story of the house + in Callowhill Street. There Holmes had found his body, carried it down on + to the floor below, and arranged it in the manner agreed upon for + deceiving the insurance company. Pitezel, he said, had taken his life by + lying on the floor and allowing chloroform to run slowly into his mouth + through a rubber tube placed on a chair. The three children, Holmes now + stated, had gone to England with a friend of his, Miss Minnie Williams. + </p> + <p> + Miss Minnie Williams was the lady, from whom Holmes was said to have + acquired the property in Texas which he and Pitezel had set about + developing. There was quite a tragedy, according to Holmes, connected with + the life of Miss Williams. She had come to Holmes in 1893, as secretary, + at a drug store which he was then keeping in Chicago. Their relations had + become more intimate, and later in the year Miss Williams wrote to her + sister, Nannie, saying that she was going to be married, and inviting her + to the wedding. Nannie arrived, but unfortunately a violent quarrel broke + out between the two sisters, and Holmes came home to find that Minnie in + her rage had killed her sister. He had helped her out of the trouble by + dropping Nannie's body into the Chicago lake. After such a distressing + occurrence Miss Williams was only too glad of the opportunity of leaving + America with the Pitezel children. In the meantime Holmes, under the name + of Bond, and Pitezel, under that of Lyman, had proceeded to deal with Miss + Williams' property in Texas. + </p> + <p> + For women Holmes would always appear to have possessed some power of + attraction, a power of which he availed himself generously. Holmes, whose + real name was Herman W. Mudgett, was thirty-four years of age at the time + of his arrest. As a boy he had spent his life farming in Vermont, after + which he had taken up medicine and acquired some kind of medical degree. + In the course of his training Holmes and a fellow student, finding a body + that bore a striking resemblance to the latter; obtained 1,000 dollars + from an insurance company by a fraud similar to that in which Holmes had + engaged subsequently with Pitezel. After spending some time on the staff + of a lunatic asylum in Pennsylvania, Holmes set up as a druggist in + Chicago. His affairs in this city prospered, and he was enabled to erect, + at the corner of Wallace and Sixty-Third Streets, the four-storied + building known later as "Holmes Castle." It was a singular structure. The + lower part consisted of a shop and offices. Holmes occupied the second + floor, and had a laboratory on the third. In his office was a vault, air + proof and sound proof. In the bathroom a trap-door, covered by a rug, + opened on to a secret staircase leading down to the cellar, and a similar + staircase connected the cellar with the laboratory. In the cellar was a + large grate. To this building Miss Minnie Williams had invited her sister + to come for her wedding with Holmes, and it was in this building, + according to Holmes, that the tragedy of Nannie's untimely death occurred. + </p> + <p> + In hoping to become Holmes' wife, Miss Minnie Williams was not to enjoy an + exclusive privilege. At the time of his arrest Holmes had three wives, + each ignorant of the others' existence. He had married the first in 1878, + under the name of Mudgett, and was visiting her at Burlington, Vermont, + when the Pinkerton detectives first got on his track. The second he had + married at Chicago, under the name of Howard, and the third at Denver as + recently as January, 1894, under the name of Holmes. The third Mrs. Holmes + had been with him when he came to Philadelphia to identify Pitezel's body. + The appearance of Holmes was commonplace, but he was a man of plausible + and ingratiating address, apparent candour, and able in case of necessity + to "let loose," as he phrased it, "the fount of emotion." + </p> + <p> + The year 1895 opened to find the much enduring Holmes still a prisoner in + Philadelphia. The authorities seemed in no haste to indict him for fraud; + their interest was concentrated rather in endeavouring to find the + whereabouts of Miss Williams and her children, and of one Edward Hatch, + whom Holmes had described as helping him in arranging for their departure. + The "great humiliation" of being a prisoner was very distressing to + Holmes. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "I only know the sky has lost its blue, + The days are weary and the night is drear." +</pre> + <p> + These struck him as two beautiful lines very appropriate to his situation. + He made a New Year's resolve to give up meat during his close confinement. + The visits of his third wife brought him some comfort. He was "agreeably + surprised" to find that, as an unconvicted prisoner, he could order in his + own meals and receive newspapers and periodicals. But he was hurt at an + unfriendly suggestion on the part of the authorities that Pitezel had not + died by his own hand, and that Edward Hatch was but a figment of his rich + imagination. He would like to have been released on bail, but in the same + unfriendly spirit was informed that, if he were, he would be detained on a + charge of murder. And so the months dragged on. Holmes, studious, patient, + injured, the authorities puzzled, suspicions, baffled—still no news + of Miss Williams or the three children. It was not until June 3 that + Holmes was put on his trial for fraud, and the following day pleaded + guilty. Sentence was postponed. + </p> + <p> + The same day Holmes was sent for to the office of the District Attorney, + who thus addressed him: "It is strongly suspected, Holmes, that you have + not only murdered Pitezel, but that you have killed the children. The best + way to remove this suspicion is to produce the children at once. Now, + where are they?" Unfriendly as was this approach, Holmes met it calmly, + reiterated his previous statement that the children had gone with Miss + Williams to England, and gave her address in London, 80 Veder or Vadar + Street, where, he said, Miss Williams had opened a massage establishment. + He offered to draw up and insert a cipher advertisement in the New York + Herald, by means of which, he said, Miss Williams and he had agreed to + communicate, and almost tearfully he added, "Why should I kill innocent + children?" + </p> + <p> + Asked to give the name of any person who had seen Miss Williams and the + children in the course of their journeyings in America, he resented the + disbelief implied in such a question, and strong was his manly indignation + when one of the gentlemen present expressed his opinion that the story was + a lie from beginning to end. This rude estimate of Holmes' veracity was, + however, in some degree confirmed when a cipher advertisement published in + the New York Herald according to Holmes' directions, produced no reply + from Miss Williams, and inquiry showed that no such street as Veder or + Vadar Street was to be found in London. + </p> + <p> + In spite of these disappointments, Holmes' quiet confidence in his own + good faith continued unshaken. When the hapless Mrs. Pitezel was released, + he wrote her a long letter. "Knowing me as you do," he said, "can you + imagine me killing little and innocent children, especially without any + motive?" But even Mrs. Pitezel was not wholly reassured. She recollected + how Holmes had taken her just before his arrest to a house he had rented + at Burlington, Vermont, how he had written asking her to carry a package + of nitro-glycerine from the bottom to the top of the house, and how one + day she had found him busily removing the boards in the cellar. + </p> + <p> + II THE WANDERING ASSASSIN + </p> + <p> + The District Attorney and the Insurance Company were not in agreement as + to the fate of the Pitezel children. The former still inclined to the hope + and belief that they were in England with Miss Williams, but the insurance + company took a more sinister view. No trace of them existed except a tin + box found among Holmes' effects, containing letters they had written to + their mother and grandparents from Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Detroit, + which had been given to Holmes to dispatch but had never reached their + destination. The box contained letters from Mrs. Pitezel to her children, + which Holmes had presumably intercepted. + </p> + <p> + It was decided to make a final attempt to resolve all doubts by sending an + experienced detective over the route taken by the children in America. He + was to make exhaustive inquiries in each city with a view to tracing the + visits of Holmes or the three children. For this purpose a detective of + the name of Geyer was chosen. The record of his search is a remarkable + story of patient and persistent investigation. + </p> + <p> + Alice Pitezel had not seen her mother since she had gone with Holmes to + identify her father's remains in Philadelphia. From there Holmes had taken + her to Indianapolis. In the meantime he had visited Mrs. Pitezel at St. + Louis, and taken away with him the girl, Nellie, and the boy, Howard, + alleging as his reason for doing so that they and Alice were to join their + father, whose temporary effacement was necessary to carry out successfully + the fraud on the insurance company, to which Mrs. Pitezel had been from + the first an unwilling party. Holmes, Nellie and Howard had joined Alice + at Indianapolis, and from there all four were believed to have gone to + Cincinnati. It was here, accordingly, on June 27, 1895, that Geyer + commenced his search. + </p> + <p> + After calling at a number of hotels, Geyer found that on Friday, September + 28, 1894, a man, giving the name of Alexander E. Cook, and three children + had stayed at a hotel called the Atlantic House. Geyer recollected that + Holmes, when later on he had sent Mrs. Pitezel to the house in Burlington, + had described her as Mrs. A. E. Cook and, though not positive, the hotel + clerk thought that he recognised in the photographs of Holmes and he three + children, which Geyer showed him, the four visitors to the hotel. + </p> + <p> + They had left the Atlantic House the next day, and on that same day, the + 29th, Geyer found that Mr. A. E. Cook and three children had registered at + the Bristol Hotel, where they had stayed until Sunday the 30th. + </p> + <p> + Knowing Holmes' habit of renting houses, Geyer did not confine his + enquiries to the hotels. He visited a number of estate agents and learnt + that a man and a boy, identified as Holmes and Howard Pitezel, had + occupied a house No. 305 Poplar Street. The man had given the name of A. + C. Hayes. He had taken the house on Friday the 28th, and on the 29th had + driven up to it with the boy in a furniture wagon. A curious neighbour, + interested in the advent of a newcomer, saw the wagon arrive, and was + somewhat astonished to observe that the only furniture taken into the + house was a large iron cylinder stove. She was still further surprised + when, on the following day, Mr. Hayes told her that he was not going after + all to occupy the house, and made her a present of the cylinder stove. + </p> + <p> + From Cincinnati Geyer went to Indianapolis. Here inquiry showed that on + September 30 three children had been brought by a man identified as Holmes + to the Hotel English, and registered in the name of Canning. This was the + maiden name of Mrs. Pitezel. The children had stayed at the hotel one + night. After that Geyer seemed to lose track of them until he was reminded + of a hotel then closed, called the Circle House. With some difficulty he + got a sight of the books of the hotel, and found that the three Canning + children had arrived there on October 1 and stayed until the 10th. From + the former proprietor of the hotel he learnt that Holmes had described + himself as the children's uncle, and had said that Howard was a bad boy, + whom he was trying to place in some institution. The children seldom went + out; they would sit in their room drawing or writing, often they were + found crying; they seemed homesick and unhappy. + </p> + <p> + There are letters of the children written from Indianapolis to their + mothers, letters found in Holmes' possession, which had never reached her. + In these letters they ask their mother why she does not write to them. She + had written, but her letters were in Holmes' possession. Alice writes that + she is reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin." She has read so much that her eyes + hurt; they have bought a crystal pen for five cents which gives them some + amusement; they had been to the Zoo in Cincinnati the Sunday before: "I + expect this Sunday will pass away slower than I don't know—Howard is + two (sic) dirty to be seen out on the street to-day." Sometimes they go + and watch a man who paints "genuine oil paintings" in a shoe store, which + are given away with every dollar purchase of shoes—"he can paint a + picture in one and a half minutes, ain't that quick!" Howard was getting a + little troublesome. "I don't like to tell you," writes Alice, "but you ask + me, so I will have to. Howard won't mind me at all. He wanted a book and I + got 'Life of General Sheridan,' and it is awful nice, but now he don't + read it at all hardly." Poor Howard! One morning, says Alice, Mr. Holmes + told him to stay in and wait for him, as he was coming to take him out, + but Howard was disobedient, and when Mr. Holmes arrived he had gone out. + Better for Howard had he never returned! "We have written two or three + letters to you," Alice tells her mother, "and I guess you will begin to + get them now." She will not get them. Mr. Holmes is so very particular + that the insurance company shall get no clue to the whereabouts of any + member of the Pitezel family. + </p> + <p> + Geyer knew that from Indianapolis Holmes had gone to Detroit. He + ascertained that two girls, "Etta and Nellie Canning," had registered on + October 12 at the New Western Hotel in that city, and from there had moved + on the 15th to a boarding-house in Congress Street. From Detroit Alice had + written to her grandparents. It was cold and wet, she wrote; she and Etta + had colds and chapped hands: "We have to stay in all the time. All that + Nell and I can do is to draw, and I get so tired sitting that I could get + up and fly almost. I wish I could see you all. I am getting so homesick + that I don't know what to do. I suppose Wharton (their baby brother) walks + by this time, don't he? I would like to have him here, he would pass away + the time a good deal." As a fact little Wharton, his mother and sister + Dessie, were at this very moment in Detroit, within ten minutes' walk of + the hotel at which Holmes had registered "Etta and Nellie Canning." + </p> + <p> + On October 14 there had arrived in that city a weary, anxious-looking + woman, with a girl and a little baby. They took a room at Geis's Hotel, + registering as Mrs. Adams and daughter. Mrs. Adams seemed in great + distress of mind, and never left her room. + </p> + <p> + The housekeeper, being shown their photographs, identified the woman and + the girl as Mrs. Pitezel and her eldest daughter Dessie. As the same time + there had been staying at another hotel in Detroit a Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, + whose photographs showed them to be the Mr. Holmes in question and his + third wife. These three parties—the two children, Mrs. Pitezel and + her baby, and the third Mrs. Holmes—were all ignorant of each + other's presence in Detroit; and under the secret guidance of Mr. Holmes + the three parties (still unaware of their proximity to each other), left + Detroit for Canada, arriving in Toronto on or about October 18, and + registering at three separate hotels. The only one who had not to all + appearances reached Toronto was the boy Howard. + </p> + <p> + In Toronto "Alice and Nellie Canning" stayed at the Albion Hotel. + </p> + <p> + They arrived there on October 19, and left on the 25th. During their stay + a man, identified as Holmes, had called every morning for the two + children, and taken them out; but they had come back alone, usually in + time for supper. On the 25th he had called and taken them out, but they + had not returned to supper. After that date Geyer could find no trace of + them. Bearing in mind Holmes' custom of renting houses, he compiled a list + of all the house agents in Toronto, and laboriously applied to each one + for information. The process was a slow one, and the result seemed likely + to be disappointing. + </p> + <p> + To aid his search Geyer decided to call in the assistance of the Press. + The newspapers readily published long accounts of the case and portraits + of Holmes and the children. At last, after eight days of patient and + untiring investigation, after following up more than one false clue, Geyer + received a report that there was a house—No. 16 St. Vincent Street—which + had been rented in the previous October by a man answering to the + description of Holmes. The information came from an old Scottish gentleman + living next door. Geyer hastened to see him. The old gentleman said that + the man who had occupied No. 16 in October had told him that he had taken + the house for his widowed sister, and he recognised the photograph of + Alice Pitezel as one of the two girls accompanying him. The only furniture + the man had taken into the house was a bed, a mattress and a trunk. During + his stay at No. 16 this man had called on his neighbour about four o'clock + one afternoon and borrowed a spade, saying that he wanted to dig a place + in the cellar where his widowed sister could keep potatoes; he had + returned the spade the following morning. The lady to whom the house + belonged recognised Holmes' portrait as that of the man to whom she had + let No. 16. + </p> + <p> + At last Geyer seemed to be on the right track. He hurried back to St. + Vincent Street, borrowed from the old gentleman at No. 18 the very spade + which he had lent to Holmes in the previous October, and got the + permission of the present occupier of No. 16 to make a search. In the + centre of the kitchen Geyer found a trap-door leading down into a small + cellar. In one corner of the cellar he saw that the earth had been + recently dug up. With the help of the spade the loose earth was removed, + and at a depth of some three feet, in a state of advanced decomposition, + lay the remains of what appeared to be two children. A little toy wooden + egg with a snake inside it, belonging to the Pitezel children, had been + found by the tenant who had taken the house after Holmes; a later tenant + had found stuffed into the chimney, but not burnt, some clothing that + answered the description of that worn by Alice and Etta Pitezel; and by + the teeth and hair of the two corpses Mrs. Pitezel was able to identify + them as those of her two daughters. The very day that Alice and Etta had + met their deaths at St. Vincent Street, their mother had been staying near + them at a hotel in the same city, and later on the same day Holmes had + persuaded her to leave Toronto for Ogdensburg. He said that they were + being watched by detectives, and so it would be impossible for her husband + to come to see her there. + </p> + <p> + But the problem was not yet wholly solved. What had become of Howard? So + far Geyer's search had shown that Holmes had rented three houses, one in + Cincinnati, one in Detroit, and one in Toronto. Howard had been with his + sisters at the hotels in Indianapolis, and in Detroit the house agents had + said that, when Holmes had rented a house there, he had been accompanied + by a boy. Yet an exhaustive search of that house had revealed no trace of + him. Geyer returned to Detroit and again questioned the house agents; on + being pressed their recollection of the boy who had accompanied Holmes + seemed very vague and uncertain. This served only to justify a conclusion + at which Geyer had already arrived, that Howard had never reached Detroit, + but had disappeared in Indianapolis. Alice's letters, written from there, + had described how Holmes had wanted to take Howard out one day and how the + boy had refused to stay in and wait for him. In the same way Holmes had + called for the two girls at the Albion Hotel in Toronto on October 25 and + taken them out with him, after which they had never been seen alive except + by the old gentleman at No. 18 St. Vincent Street. + </p> + <p> + If Geyer could discover that Holmes had not departed in Indianapolis from + his usual custom of renting houses, he might be on the high way to solving + the mystery of Howard's fate. Accordingly he returned to Indianapolis. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime, Holmes, in his prison at Philadelphia, learnt of the + discovery at Toronto. "On the morning of the 16th of July," he writes in + his journal, "my newspaper was delivered to me about 8.30 a.m., and I had + hardly opened it before I saw in large headlines the announcement of the + finding of the children in Toronto. For the moment it seemed so impossible + that I was inclined to think it was one of the frequent newspaper + excitements that had attended the earlier part of the case, but, in + attempting to gain some accurate comprehension of what was stated in the + article, I became convinced that at least certain bodies had been found + there, and upon comparing the date when the house was hired I knew it to + be the same as when the children had been in Toronto; and thus being + forced to realise the awfulness of what had probably happened, I gave up + trying to read the article, and saw instead the two little faces as they + had looked when I hurriedly left them—felt the innocent child's kiss + so timidly given, and heard again their earnest words of farewell, and + realised that I had received another burden to carry to my grave with me, + equal, if not worse, than the horrors of Nannie Williams' death." + </p> + <p> + Questioned by the district attorney, Holmes met this fresh evidence by + evoking once again the mythical Edward Hatch and suggesting that Miss + Minnie Williams, in a "hellish wish for vengeance" because of Holmes' + fancied desertion, and in order to make it appear probable that he, and + not she, had murdered her sister, had prompted Hatch to commit the horrid + deed. Holmes asked to be allowed to go to Toronto that he might collect + any evidence which he could find there in his favour. The district + attorney refused his request; he had determined to try Holmes in + Philadelphia. "What more could, be said?" writes Holmes. Indeed, under the + circumstances, and in the unaccountable absence of Edward Hatch and Minnie + Williams, there was little more to be said. + </p> + <p> + Detective Geyer reopened his search in Indianapolis by obtaining a list of + advertisements of houses to let in the city in 1894. Nine hundred of these + were followed up in vain. He then turned his attention to the small towns + lying around Indianapolis with no happier result. Geyer wrote in something + of despair to his superiors: "By Monday we will have searched every + outlying town except Irvington. After Irvington, I scarcely know where we + shall go." Thither he went on August 27, exactly two months from the day + on which his quest had begun. As he entered the town he noticed the + advertisement of an estate agent. He called at the office and found a + "pleasant-faced old gentleman," who greeted him amiably. Once again Geyer + opened his now soiled and ragged packet of photographs, and asked the + gentleman if in October, 1894, he had let a house to a man who said that + he wanted one for a widowed sister. He showed him the portrait of Holmes. + </p> + <p> + The old man put on his glasses and looked at the photograph for some time. + Yes, he said, he did remember that he had given the keys of a cottage in + October, 1894, to a man of Holmes' appearance, and he recollected the man + the more distinctly for the uncivil abruptness with which he had asked for + the keys; "I felt," he said, "he should have had more respect for my grey + hairs." + </p> + <p> + From the old gentleman's office Geyer hastened to the cottage, and made at + once for the cellar. There he could find no sign of recent disturbance. + But beneath the floor of a piazza adjoining the house he found the remains + of a trunk, answering to the description of that which the Pitezel + children had had with them, and in an outhouse he discovered the + inevitable stove, Holmes' one indispensable piece of furniture. It was + stained with blood on the top. A neighbour had seen Holmes in the same + October drive up to the house in the furniture wagon accompanied by a boy, + and later in the day Holmes had asked him to come over to the cottage and + help him to put up a stove. The neighbour asked him why he did not use + gas; Holmes replied that he did not think gas was healthy for children. + While the two men were putting up the stove, the little boy stood by and + watched them. After further search there were discovered in the cellar + chimney some bones, teeth, a pelvis and the baked remains of a stomach, + liver and spleen. + </p> + <p> + Medical examination showed them to be the remains of a child between seven + and ten years of age. A spinning top, a scarf-pin, a pair of shoes and + some articles of clothing that had belonged to the little Pitezels, had + been found in the house at different times, and were handed over to Geyer. + </p> + <p> + His search was ended. On September 1 he returned to Philadelphia. + </p> + <p> + Holmes was put on his trial on October 28, 1895, before the Court of Oyer + and Terminer in Philadelphia, charged with the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. + In the course of the trial the district attorney offered to put in + evidence showing that Holmes had also murdered the three children of + Pitezel, contending that such evidence was admissible on the ground that + the murders of the children and their father were parts of the same + transaction. The judge refused to admit the evidence, though expressing a + doubt as to its inadmissibility. The defence did not dispute the identity + of the body found in Callowhill Street, but contended that Pitezel had + committed suicide. The medical evidence negatived such a theory. The + position of the body, its condition when discovered, were entirely + inconsistent with self-destruction, and the absence of irritation in the + stomach showed that the chloroform found there must have been poured into + it after death. In all probability, Holmes had chloroformed Pitezel when + he was drunk or asleep. He had taken the chloroform to Callowhill Street + as a proposed ingredient in a solution for cleaning clothes, which he and + Pitezel were to patent. It was no doubt with the help of the same drug + that he had done to death the little children, and failing the + nitro-glycerine, with that drug he had intended to put Mrs. Pitezel and + her two remaining children out of the way at the house in Burlington; for + after his trial there was found there, hidden away in the cellar, a bottle + containing eight or ten ounces of chloroform. + </p> + <p> + Though assisted by counsel, Holmes took an active part in his defence. He + betrayed no feeling at the sight of Mrs. Pitezel, the greater part of + whose family he had destroyed, but the appearance of his third wife as a + witness he made an opportunity for "letting loose the fount of emotion," + taking care to inform his counsel beforehand that he intended to perform + this touching feat. He was convicted and sentenced to death on November 2. + </p> + <p> + Previous to the trial of Holmes the police had made an exhaustive + investigation of the mysterious building in Chicago known as "Holmes' + Castle." The result was sufficiently sinister. In the stove in the cellar + charred human bones were found, and in the middle of the room stood a + large dissecting table stained with blood. On digging up the cellar floor + some human ribs, sections of vertebrae and teeth were discovered buried in + quicklime, and in other parts of the "castle" the police found more + charred bones, some metal buttons, a trunk, and a piece of a watch chain. + </p> + <p> + The trunk and piece of watch chain were identified as having belonged to + Miss Minnie Williams. + </p> + <p> + Inquiry showed that Miss Williams had entered Holmes' employment as a + typist in 1893, and had lived with him at the castle. In the latter part + of the year she had invited her sister, Nannie, to be present at her + wedding with Holmes. Nannie had come to Chicago for that purpose, and + since then the two sisters had never been seen alive. In February in the + following year Pitezel, under the name of Lyman, had deposited at Fort + Worth, Texas, a deed according to which a man named Bond had transferred + to him property in that city which had belonged to Miss Williams, and + shortly after, Holmes, under the name of Pratt, joined him at Fort Worth, + whereupon the two commenced building on Miss Williams' land. + </p> + <p> + Other mysterious cases besides those of the Williams sisters revealed the + Bluebeard-like character of this latterday castle of Mr. Holmes. In 1887 a + man of the name of Connor entered Holmes' employment. He brought with him + to the castle a handsome, intelligent wife and a little girl of eight or + nine years of age. + </p> + <p> + After a short time Connor quarrelled with his wife and went away, leaving + Mrs. Connor and the little girl with Holmes. After 1892 Mrs. Connor and + her daughter had disappeared, but in August, 1895, the police found in the + castle some clothes identified as theirs, and the janitor, Quinlan, + admitted having seen the dead body of Mrs. Connor in the castle. Holmes, + questioned in his prison in Philadelphia, said that Mrs. Connor had died + under an operation, but that he did not know what had become of the little + girl. + </p> + <p> + In the year of Mrs. Connor's disappearance, a typist named Emily Cigrand, + who had been employed in a hospital in which Benjamin Pitezel had been a + patient, was recommended by the latter to Holmes. She entered his + employment, and she and Holmes soon became intimate, passing as "Mr. and + Mrs. Gordon." Emily Cigrand had been in the habit of writing regularly to + her parents in Indiana, but after December 6, 1892, they had never heard + from her again, nor could any further trace of her be found. + </p> + <p> + A man who worked for Holmes as a handy man at the castle stated to the + police that in 1892 Holmes had given him a skeleton of a man to mount, and + in January, 1893, showed him in the laboratory another male skeleton with + some flesh still on it, which also he asked him to mount. As there was a + set of surgical instruments in the laboratory and also a tank filled with + a fluid preparation for removing flesh, the handy man thought that Holmes + was engaged in some kind of surgical work. + </p> + <p> + About a month before his execution, when Holmes' appeals from his sentence + had failed and death appeared imminent, he sold to the newspapers for + 7,500 dollars a confession in which he claimed to have committed + twenty-seven murders in the course of his career. The day after it + appeared he declared the whole confession to be a "fake." He was tired, he + said, of being accused by the newspapers of having committed every + mysterious murder that had occurred during the last ten years. When it was + pointed out to him that the account given in his confession of the murder + of the Pitezel children was clearly untrue, he replied, "Of course, it is + not true, but the newspapers wanted a sensation and they have got it." The + confession was certainly sensational enough to satisfy the most exacting + of penny-a-liners, and a lasting tribute to Holmes' undoubted power of + extravagant romancing. + </p> + <p> + According to his story, some of his twenty-seven victims had met their + death by poison, some by more violent methods, some had died a lingering + death in the air-tight and sound-proof vault of the castle. Most of these + he mentioned by name, but some of these were proved afterwards to be + alive. Holmes had actually perpetrated, in all probability, about ten + murders. But, given further time and opportunity, there is no reason why + this peripatetic assassin should not have attained to the considerable + figure with which he credited himself in his bogus confession. + </p> + <p> + Holmes was executed in Philadelphia on May 7, 1896. He seemed to meet his + fate with indifference. + </p> + <p> + The motive of Holmes in murdering Pitezel and three of his children and in + planning to murder his wife and remaining children, originated in all + probability in a quarrel that occurred between Pitezel and himself in the + July of 1894. Pitezel had tired apparently of Holmes and his doings, and + wanted to break off the connection. But he must have known enough of + Holmes' past to make him a dangerous enemy. It was Pitezel who had + introduced to Holmes, Emily Cigrand, the typist, who had disappeared so + mysteriously in the castle; Pitezel had been his partner in the fraudulent + appropriation of Miss Minnie Williams' property in Texas; it is more than + likely, therefore, that Pitezel knew something of the fate of Miss + Williams and her sister. By reviving, with Pitezel's help, his old plan + for defrauding insurance companies, Holmes saw the opportunity of making + 10,000 dollars, which he needed sorely, and at the same time removing his + inconvenient and now lukewarm associate. Having killed Pitezel and + received the insurance money, Holmes appropriated to his own use the + greater part of the 10,000 dollars, giving Mrs. Pitezel in return for her + share of the plunder a bogus bill for 5,000 dollars. Having robbed Mrs. + Pitezel of both her husband and her money, to this thoroughgoing criminal + there seemed only one satisfactory way of escaping detection, and that was + to exterminate her and the whole of her family. + </p> + <p> + Had Holmes not confided his scheme of the insurance fraud to Hedgspeth in + St. Louis prison and then broken faith with him, there is no reason why + the fraud should ever have been discovered. The subsequent murders had + been so cunningly contrived that, had the Insurance Company not put the + Pinkerton detectives on his track, Holmes would in all probability have + ended by successfully disposing of Mrs. Pitezel, Dessie, and the baby at + the house in Burlington, Vermont, and the entire Pitezel family would have + disappeared as completely as his other victims. + </p> + <p> + Holmes admitted afterwards that his one mistake had been his confiding to + Hedgspeth his plans for defrauding an insurance company—a mistake, + the unfortunate results of which might have been avoided, if he had kept + faith with the train robber and given him the 500 dollars which he had + promised. + </p> + <p> + The case of Holmes illustrates the practical as well as the purely ethical + value of "honour among thieves," and shows how a comparatively + insignificant misdeed may ruin a great and comprehensive plan of crime. To + dare to attempt the extermination of a family of seven persons, and to + succeed so nearly in effecting it, could be the work of no tyro, no + beginner like J. B. Troppmann. It was the act of one who having already + succeeded in putting out of the way a number of other persons undetected, + might well and justifiably believe that he was born for greater and more + compendious achievements in robbery and murder than any who had gone + before him. One can almost subscribe to America's claim that Holmes is the + "greatest criminal" of a century boasting no mean record in such persons. + </p> + <p> + In the remarkable character of his achievements as an assassin we are apt + to lose sight of Holmes' singular skill and daring as a liar and a + bigamist. As an instance of the former may be cited his audacious + explanation to his family, when they heard of his having married a second + time. He said that he had met with a serious accident to his head, and + that when he left the hospital, found that he had entirely lost his + memory; that, while in this state of oblivion, he had married again and + then, when his memory returned, realised to his horror his unfortunate + position. Plausibility would seem to have been one of Holmes' most useful + gifts; men and women alike—particularly the latter—he seems to + have deceived with ease. His appearance was commonplace, in no way + suggesting the conventional criminal, his manner courteous, ingratiating + and seemingly candid, and like so many scoundrels, he could play + consummately the man of sentiment. + </p> + <p> + The weak spot in Holmes' armour as an enemy of society was a dangerous + tendency to loquacity, the defect no doubt of his qualities of plausible + and insinuating address and ever ready mendacity. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Widow Gras + </h2> + <p> + Report of the trial of the woman Gras and Gaudry in the Gazette des + Tribunaux. The case is dealt with also by Mace in his "Femmes + Criminelles." + </p> + <p> + I THE CHARMER + </p> + <p> + Jenny Amenaide Brecourt was born in Paris in the year 1837. Her father was + a printer, her mother sold vegetables. The parents neglected the child, + but a lady of title took pity on her, and when she was five years old + adopted her. Even as a little girl she was haughty and imperious. At the + age of eight she refused to play with another child on the ground of her + companion's social inferiority. "The daughter of a Baroness," she said, + "cannot play with the daughter of a wine-merchant." When she was eleven + years old, her parents took her away from her protectress and sent her + into the streets to sell gingerbread—a dangerous experience for a + child of tender years. After six years of street life, Amenaide sought out + her benefactress and begged her to take her back. The Baroness consented, + and found her employment in a silk manufactory. One day the girl, now + eighteen years old, attended the wedding of one of her companions in the + factory. She returned home after the ceremony thoughtful. + </p> + <p> + She said that she wanted to get married. The Baroness did not take her + statement seriously, and on the grocer calling one day, said in jest to + Amenaide, "You want a husband, there's one." + </p> + <p> + But Amenaide was in earnest. She accepted the suggestion and, to the + Baroness' surprise, insisted on taking the grocer as her husband. + Reluctantly the good lady gave her consent, and in 1855 Amenaide Brecourt + became the wife of the grocer Gras. + </p> + <p> + A union, so hasty and ill-considered, was not likely to be of long + duration. With the help of the worthy Baroness the newly married couple + started a grocery business. But Amenaide was too economical for her + husband and mother-in-law. Quarrels ensued, recriminations. In a spirit of + unamiable prophecy husband and wife foretold each other's future. "You + will die in a hospital," said the wife. "You will land your carcase in + prison," retorted the husband. In both instances they were correct in + their anticipations. One day the husband disappeared. For a short time + Amenaide returned to her long-suffering protectress, and then she too + disappeared. + </p> + <p> + When she is heard of again, Amenaide Brecourt has become Jeanne de la + Cour. Jeanne de la Cour is a courtesan. She has tried commerce, acting, + literature, journalism, and failed at them all. Henceforth men are to make + her fortune for her. Such charms as she may possess, such allurements as + she can offer, she is ready to employ without heart or feeling to + accomplish her end. Without real passion, she has an almost abnormal, + erotic sensibility, which serves in its stead. She cares only for one + person, her sister. To her Jeanne de la Cour unfolded her philosophy of + life. While pretending to love men, she is going to make them suffer. They + are to be her playthings, she knows how to snare them: "All is dust and + lies. So much the worse for the men who get in my way. Men are mere + stepping-stones to me. As soon as they begin to fail or are played out, I + put them scornfully aside. Society is a vast chess-board, men the pawns, + some white, some black; I move them as I please, and break them when they + bore me." + </p> + <p> + The early years of Jeanne de la Cour's career as a Phryne were hardly more + successful than her attempts at literature, acting and journalism. True to + her philosophy, she had driven one lover, a German, to suicide, and + brought another to his death by over-doses of cantharides. On learning of + the death of the first, she reflected patriotically, "One German the less + in Paris!" That of the second elicited the matter-of-fact comment, "It was + bound to happen; he had no moderation." A third admirer, who died in a + hospital, was dismissed as "a fool who, in spite of all, still respects + women." But, in ruining her lovers, she had ruined her own health. In 1865 + she was compelled to enter a private asylum. There she is described as + "dark in complexion, with dark expressive eyes, very pale, and of a + nervous temperament, agreeable, and pretty." She was suffering at the time + of her admission from hysterical seizures, accompanied by insane + exaltation, convulsions and loss of speech. In speaking of her humble + parents she said, "I don't know such people"; her manner was bombastic, + and she was fond of posing as a fine lady. + </p> + <p> + After a few months Jeanne de la Cour was discharged from the asylum as + cured, and on the advice of her doctors went to Vittel. + </p> + <p> + There she assumed the rank of Baroness and recommenced her career, but + this time in a more reasonable and businesslike manner. Her comments, + written to her sister, on her fellow guests at the hotel are caustic. She + mocks at some respectable married women who are trying to convert her to + Catholicism. To others who refuse her recognition, she makes herself so + mischievous and objectionable that in self-defence they are frightened + into acknowledging her. Admirers among men she has many, ex-ministers, + prefects. It was at Vittel that occurred the incident of the wounded + pigeon. There had been some pigeon-shooting. One of the wounded birds flew + into the room of the Baroness de la Cour. She took pity on it, tended it, + taught it not to be afraid of her and to stay in her room. So touching was + her conduct considered by some of those who heard it, that she was + nicknamed "the Charmer." But she is well aware, she writes to her sister, + that with the true ingratitude of the male, the pigeon will leave her as + soon as it needs her help no longer. + </p> + <p> + However, for the moment, "disfigured as it is, beautiful or ugly," she + loves it. "Don't forget," she writes, "that a woman who is practical and + foreseeing, she too enjoys her pigeon shooting, but the birds are her + lovers." + </p> + <p> + Shortly after she left Vittel an event occurred which afforded Jeanne de + la Cour the prospect of acquiring that settled position in life which, + "practical and foreseeing," she now regarded as indispensable to her + future welfare. Her husband, Gras, died, as she had foretold, in the + Charity Hospital. The widow was free. If she could bring down her bird, it + was now in her power to make it hers for life. Henceforth all her efforts + were directed to that end. She was reaching her fortieth year, her hair + was turning grey, her charms were waning. Poverty, degradation, a + miserable old age, a return to the wretched surroundings of her childhood, + such she knew to be the fate of many of her kind. There was nothing to be + hoped for from the generosity of men. Her lovers were leaving her. + Blackmail, speculation on the Bourse, even the desperate expedient of a + supposititious child, all these she tried as means of acquiring a + competence. But fortune was shy of the widow. There was need for dispatch. + The time was drawing near when it might be man's unkind privilege to put + her scornfully aside as a thing spent and done with. She must bring down + her bird, and that quickly. It was at this critical point in the widow's + career, in the year 1873, that she met at a public ball for the first time + Georges de Saint Pierre.(16) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (16) For obvious reasons I have suppressed the real name of the widow's +lover. +</pre> + <p> + Georges de Saint Pierre was twenty years of age when he made the + acquaintance of the Widow Gras. He had lost his mother at an early age, + and since then lived with relatives in the country. He was a young man of + independent means, idle, of a simple, confiding and affectionate + disposition. Four months after his first meeting with the widow they met + again. The end of the year 1873 saw the commencement of an intimacy, which + to all appearances was characterised by a more lasting and sincere + affection than is usually associated with unions of this kind. There can + be no doubt that during the three years the Widow Gras was the mistress of + Georges de Saint Pierre, she had succeeded in subjugating entirely the + senses and the affection of her young lover. In spite of the twenty years + between them, Georges de Saint Pierre idolised his middle-aged mistress. + She was astute enough to play not only the lover, but the mother to this + motherless youth. After three years of intimacy he writes to her: "It is + enough for me that you love me, because I don't weary you, and I, I love + you with all my heart. I cannot bear to leave you. We will live happily + together. You will always love me truly, and as for me, my loving care + will ever protect you. I don't know what would become of me if I did not + feel that your love watched over me." The confidence of Georges in the + widow was absolute. When, in 1876, he spent six months in Egypt, he made + her free of his rooms in Paris, she was at liberty to go there when she + liked; he trusted her entirely, idolised her. Whatever her faults, he was + blind to them. "Your form," he writes, "is ever before my eyes; I wish I + could enshrine your pure heart in gold and crystal." + </p> + <p> + The widow's conquest, to all appearances, was complete. But Georges was + very young. He had a family anxious for his future; they knew of his + liaison; they would be hopeful, no doubt, of one day breaking it off and + of marrying him to some desirable young person. From the widow's point of + view the situation lacked finality. How was that to be secured? + </p> + <p> + One day, toward the end of the year 1876, after the return of Georges from + Egypt, the widow happened to be at the house of a friend, a ballet dancer. + She saw her friend lead into the room a young man; he was sightless, and + her friend with tender care guided him to a seat on the sofa. The widow + was touched by the spectacle. When they were alone, she inquired of her + friend the reason of her solicitude for the young man. "I love this victim + of nature," she replied, "and look after him with every care. He is young, + rich, without family, and is going to marry me. Like you, I am just on + forty; my hair is turning grey, my youth vanishing. I shall soon be cast + adrift on the sea, a wreck. This boy is the providential spar to which I + am going to cling that I may reach land in safety." "You mean, then," said + the widow, "that you will soon be beyond the reach of want?" "Yes," + answered the friend, "I needn't worry any more about the future." + </p> + <p> + "I congratulate you," said the widow, "and what is more, your lover will + never see you grow old." + </p> + <p> + To be cast adrift on the sea and to have found a providential spar! The + widow was greatly impressed by her friend's rare good fortune. Indeed, her + experience gave the widow furiously to think, as she revolved in her brain + various expedients by which Georges de Saint Pierre might become the + "providential spar" in her own impending wreck. The picture of the blind + young man tenderly cared for, dependent utterly on the ministrations of + his devoted wife, fixed itself in the widow's mind; there was something + inexpressibly pathetic in the picture, whilst its practical significance + had its sinister appeal to one in her situation. + </p> + <p> + At this point in the story there appears on the scene a character as + remarkable in his way as the widow herself, remarkable at least for his + share in the drama that is to follow. Nathalis Gaudry, of humble + parentage, rude and uncultivated, had been a playmate of the widow when + she was a child in her parents' house. + </p> + <p> + They had grown up together, but, after Gaudry entered the army, had lost + sight of each other. Gaudry served through the Italian war of 1859, + gaining a medal for valour. In 1864 he had married. + </p> + <p> + Eleven years later his wife died, leaving him with two children. He came + to Paris and obtained employment in an oil refinery at Saint Denis. His + character was excellent; he was a good workman, honest, hard-working, his + record unblemished. When he returned to Paris, Gaudry renewed his + friendship with the companion of his youth. But Jeanne Brecourt was now + Jeanne de la Cour, living in refinement and some luxury, moving in a + sphere altogether remote from and unapproachable by the humble workman in + an oil refinery. He could do no more than worship from afar this strange + being, to him wonderfully seductive in her charm and distinction. + </p> + <p> + On her side the widow was quite friendly toward her homely admirer. She + refused to marry him, as he would have wished, but she did her best + without success to marry him to others of her acquaintance. Neither a + sempstress nor an inferior actress could she persuade, for all her zeal, + to unite themselves with a hand in an oil mill, a widower with two + children. It is typical of the widow's nervous energy that she should have + undertaken so hopeless a task. In the meantime she made use of her + admirer. On Sundays he helped her in her apartment, carried coals, bottled + wine, scrubbed the floors, and made himself generally useful. He was + supposed by those about the house to be her brother. Occasionally, in the + absence of a maid, the widow allowed him to attend on her personally, even + to assist her in her toilette and perform for her such offices as one + woman would perform for another. The man soon came to be madly in love + with the woman; his passion, excited but not gratified, enslaved and + consumed him. To some of his fellow-workmen who saw him moody and + preoccupied, he confessed that he ardently desired to marry a friend of + his childhood, not a working woman but a lady. + </p> + <p> + Such was the situation and state of mind of Nathalis Gaudry when, in + November, 1876, he received a letter from the widow, in which she wrote, + "Come at once. I want you on a matter of business. Tell your employer it + is a family affair; I will make up your wages." In obedience to this + message Gaudry was absent from the distillery from the 17th to the 23rd of + November. + </p> + <p> + The "matter of business" about which the widow wished to consult with + Gaudry turned out to be a scheme of revenge. She told him that she had + been basely defrauded by a man to whom she had entrusted money. She + desired to be revenged on him, and could think of no better way than to + strike at his dearest affections by seriously injuring his son. This she + proposed to do with the help of a knuckle-duster, which she produced and + gave to Gaudry. Armed with this formidable weapon, Gaudry was to strike + her enemy's son so forcibly in the pit of the stomach as to disable him + for life. The widow offered to point out to Gaudry the young man whom he + was to attack. She took him outside the young man's club and showed him + his victim. He was Georges de Saint Pierre. + </p> + <p> + The good fortune of her friend, the ballet-dancer, had proved a veritable + toxin in the intellectual system of the Widow Gras. The poison of envy, + disappointment, suspicion, apprehension had entered into her soul. Of what + use to her was a lover, however generous and faithful, who was free to + take her up and lay her aside at will? But such was her situation relative + to Georges de Saint Pierre. She remembered that the wounded pigeon, as + long as it was dependent on her kind offices, had been compelled to stay + by her side; recovered, it had flown away. Only a pigeon, maimed beyond + hope of recovery, could she be sure of compelling to be hers for all time, + tied to her by its helpless infirmity, too suffering and disfigured to be + lured from its captivity. And so, in accordance with her philosophy of + life, the widow, by a blow in the pit of the stomach with a + knuckle-duster, was to bring down her bird which henceforth would be + tended and cared for by "the Charmer" to her own satisfaction and the + admiration of all beholders. + </p> + <p> + For some reason, the natural reluctance of Gaudry, or perhaps a feeling of + compunction in the heart of the widow, this plan was not put into + immediate execution. Possibly she hesitated before adopting a plan more + cruel, more efficacious. Her hesitation did not last long. + </p> + <p> + With the dawn of the year 1877 the vigilant apprehension of the widow was + roused by the tone of M. de Saint Pierre's letters. He wrote from his home + in the country, "I cannot bear leaving you, and I don't mean to. We will + live together." But he adds that he is depressed by difficulties with his + family, "not about money or business but of a kind he can only communicate + to her verbally." To the widow it was clear that these difficulties must + relate to the subject of marriage. The character of Georges was not a + strong one; sooner or later he might yield to the importunities of his + family; her reign would be ended, a modest and insufficient pension the + utmost she could hope for. She had passed the meridian of her life as a + charmer of men, her health was giving way, she was greedy, ambitious, + acquisitive. In January she asked her nephew, who worked as a gilder, to + get her some vitriol for cleaning her copper. He complied with her + request. + </p> + <p> + During Jeanne de la Cour's brief and unsuccessful appearance as an actress + she had taken part in a play with the rather cumbrous title, Who Puts out + the Eyes must Pay for Them. The widow may have forgotten this event; its + occurrence so many years before may have been merely a sinister + coincidence. But the incident of the ballet-dancer and her sightless lover + was fresh in her mind. + </p> + <p> + Early in January the widow wrote to Georges, who was in the country, and + asked him to take her to the masked ball at the Opera on the 13th. Her + lover was rather surprised at her request, nor did he wish to appear with + her at so public a gathering. "I don't understand," he writes, "why you + are so anxious to go to the Opera. I can't see any real reason for your + wanting to tire yourself out at such a disreputable gathering. However, if + you are happy and well, and promise to be careful, I will take you. I + would be the last person, my dear little wife, to deny you anything that + would give you pleasure." But for some reason Georges was unhappy, + depressed. Some undefined presentiment of evil seems to have oppressed + him. His brother noticed his preoccupation. + </p> + <p> + He himself alludes to it in writing to his mistress: "I am depressed this + evening. For a very little I could break down altogether and give way to + tears. You can't imagine what horrid thoughts possess me. If I felt your + love close to me, I should be less sad." Against his better inclination + Georges promised to take the widow to the ball on the 13th. He was to come + to Paris on the night of the 12th. + </p> + <p> + II THE WOUNDED PIGEON + </p> + <p> + On the afternoon of January 11, Gaudry called to see the widow. There had + been an accident at the distillery that morning, and work was suspended + for three days. The widow showed Gaudry the bottle containing the vitriol + which her nephew had procured for her use. She was ill, suffering, she + said; the only thing that could make her well again would be the execution + of her revenge on the son of the man who had defrauded her so wickedly: + "Make him suffer, here are the means, and I swear I will be yours." She + dropped a little of the vitriol on to the floor to show its virulent + effect. At first Gaudry was shocked, horrified. He protested that he was a + soldier, that he could not do such a deed; he suggested that he should + provoke the young man to a duel and kill him. "That is no use," said the + widow, always sensitive to social distinctions; "he is not of your class, + he would refuse to fight with you." Mad with desire for the woman, his + senses irritated and excited, the ultimate gratification of his passion + held alluringly before him, the honest soldier consented to play the + cowardly ruffian. The trick was done. The widow explained to her + accomplice his method of proceeding. The building in the Rue de Boulogne, + in which the widow had her apartment, stood at the end of a drive some + twenty-seven and a half yards long and five and a half yards wide. About + half-way up the drive, on either side, there were two small houses, or + pavilions, standing by themselves and occupied by single gentlemen. The + whole was shut off from the street by a large gate, generally kept closed, + in which a smaller gate served to admit persons going in or out. According + to the widow's plan, the young man, her enemy's son, was to take her to + the ball at the Opera on the night of January 13. Gaudry was to wait in + her apartment until their return. When he heard the bell ring, which + communicated with the outer gate, he was to come down, take his place in + the shadow of one of the pavilions on either side of the drive, and from + the cover of this position fling in the face of the young man the vitriol + which she had given him. The widow herself, under the pretence of closing + the smaller gate, would be well behind the victim, and take care to leave + the gate open so that Gaudry could make his escape. + </p> + <p> + In spite of his reluctance, his sense of foreboding, Georges de Saint + Pierre came to Paris on the night of the 12th, which he spent at the + widow's apartment. He went to his own rooms on the morning of the 13th. + </p> + <p> + This eventful day, which, to quote Iago, was either to "make or fordo + quite" the widow, found her as calm, cool and deliberate in the execution + of her purpose as the Ancient himself. Gaudry came to her apartment about + five o'clock in the afternoon. The widow showed him the vitriol and gave + him final directions. She would, she said, return from the ball about + three o'clock in the morning. Gaudry was then sent away till ten o'clock, + as Georges was dining with her. He returned at half-past ten and found the + widow dressing, arraying herself in a pink domino and a blonde wig. She + was in excellent spirits. When Georges came to fetch her, she put Gaudry + into an alcove in the drawing-room which was curtained off from the rest + of the room. Always thoughtful, she had placed a stool there that he might + rest himself. Gaudry could hear her laughing and joking with her lover. + She reproached him playfully with hindering her in her dressing. To keep + him quiet, she gave him a book to read, Montaigne's "Essays." Georges + opened it and read the thirty-fifth chapter of the second book, the essay + on "Three Good Women," which tells how three brave women of antiquity + endured death or suffering in order to share their husbands' fate. + Curiously enough, the essay concludes with these words, almost prophetic + for the unhappy reader: "I am enforced to live, and sometimes to live is + magnanimity." Whilst Georges went to fetch a cab, the widow released + Gaudry from his place of concealment, exhorted him to have courage, and + promised him, if he succeeded, the accomplishment of his desire. And so + the gay couple departed for the ball. There the widow's high spirits, her + complete enjoyment, were remarked by more than one of her acquaintances; + she danced one dance with her lover, and with another young man made an + engagement for the following week. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, at the Rue de Boulogne, Gaudry sat and waited in the widow's + bedroom. From the window he could see the gate and the lights of the cab + that was to bring the revellers home. The hours passed slowly. He tried to + read the volume of Montaigne where Georges had left it open, but the words + conveyed little to him, and he fell asleep. Between two and three o'clock + in the morning he was waked by the noise of wheels. They had returned. He + hurried downstairs and took up his position in the shadow of one of the + pavilions. As Georges de Saint Pierre walked up the drive alone, for the + widow had stayed behind to fasten the gate, he thought he saw the figure + of a man in the darkness. The next moment he was blinded by the burning + liquid flung in his face. The widow had brought down her pigeon. + </p> + <p> + At first she would seem to have succeeded perfectly in her attempt. + Georges was injured for life, the sight of one eye gone, that of the other + threatened, his face sadly disfigured. Neither he nor anyone else + suspected the real author of the crime. It was believed that the + unfortunate man had been mistaken for some other person, and made by + accident the victim of an act of vengeance directed against another. + Georges was indeed all the widow's now, lodged in her own house to nurse + and care for. She undertook the duty with every appearance of affectionate + devotion. The unhappy patient was consumed with gratitude for her untiring + solicitude; thirty nights she spent by his bedside. His belief in her was + absolute. It was his own wish that she alone should nurse him. His family + were kept away, any attempts his relatives or friends made to see or + communicate with him frustrated by the zealous widow. + </p> + <p> + It was this uncompromising attitude on her part toward the friends of + Georges, and a rumour which reached the ears of one of them that she + intended as soon as possible to take her patient away to Italy, that + sounded the first note of danger to her peace of mind. This friend + happened to be acquainted with the son of one of the Deputy Public + Prosecutors in Paris. To that official he confided his belief that there + were suspicious circumstances in the case of Georges de Saint Pierre. The + judicial authorities were informed and the case placed in the hands of an + examining magistrate. On February 2, nearly a month after the crime, the + magistrate, accompanied by Mace, then a commissary of police, afterwards + head of the Detective Department, paid a visit to the Rue de Boulogne. + Their reception was not cordial. It was only after they had made known + their official character that they got audience of the widow. She entered + the room, carrying in her hand a surgical spray, with which she played + nervously while the men of the law asked to see her charge. She replied + that it was impossible. Mace placed himself in front of the door by which + she had entered, and told her that her attitude was not seemly. "Leave + that spray alone," he said; "it might shoot over us, and then perhaps we + should be sprinkled as M. de Saint Pierre was." From that moment, writes + Mace, issue was joined between the widow and himself. + </p> + <p> + The magistrate insisted on seeing the patient. He sat by his bedside. M. + de Saint Pierre told him that, having no enemies, he was sure he had been + the victim of some mistake, and that, as he claimed no damages for his + injuries, he did not wish his misfortune to be made public. He wanted to + be left alone with his brave and devoted nurse, and to be spared the + nervous excitement of a meeting with his family. He intended, he added, to + leave Paris shortly for change of scene and air. The widow cut short the + interview on the ground that her patient was tired. + </p> + <p> + It was inhuman, she said, to make him suffer so. The magistrate, before + leaving, asked her whither she intended taking her patient. She replied, + "To Italy." That, said the magistrate, would be impossible until his + inquiry was closed. In the meantime she might take him to any place within + the Department of the Seine; but she must be prepared to be under the + surveillance of M. Mace, who would have the right to enter her house + whenever he should think it expedient. With this disconcerting + intelligence the men of the law took leave of the widow. + </p> + <p> + She was no longer to be left in undisturbed possession of her prize. Her + movements were watched by two detectives. She was seen to go to the + bachelor lodgings of Georges and take away a portable desk, which + contained money and correspondence. More mysterious, however, was a visit + she paid to the Charonne Cemetery, where she had an interview with an + unknown, who was dressed in the clothes of a workman. She left the + cemetery alone, and the detectives lost track of her companion. This + meeting took place on February 11. Shortly after the widow left Paris with + Georges de Saint Pierre for the suburb of Courbevoie. + </p> + <p> + Mace had elicited certain facts from the porter at the Rue de Boulogne and + other witnesses, which confirmed his suspicion that the widow had played a + sinister part in her lover's misfortune. Her insistence that he should + take her to the ball on January 13; the fact that, contrary to the + ordinary politeness of a gentleman, he was walking in front of her at the + time of the attack; and that someone must have been holding the gate open + to enable the assailant to escape it was a heavy gate, which, if left to + itself after being opened, would swing too quickly on its hinges and shut + of its own accord—these facts were sufficient to excite suspicion. + The disappearance, too, of the man calling himself her brother, who had + been seen at her apartment on the afternoon of the 13th, coupled with the + mysterious interview in the cemetery, suggested the possibility of a crime + in which the widow had had the help of an accomplice. To facilitate + investigation it was necessary to separate the widow from her lover. The + examining magistrate, having ascertained from a medical report that such a + separation would not be hurtful to the patient, ordered the widow to be + sent back to Paris, and the family of M. de Saint Pierre to take her + place. The change was made on March 6. On leaving Courbevoie the widow was + taken to the office of Mace. There the commissary informed her that she + must consider herself under provisional arrest. "But who," she asked + indignantly, "is to look after my Georges?" "His family," was the curt + reply. The widow, walking up and down the room like a panther, stormed and + threatened. When she had in some degree recovered herself, Mace asked her + certain questions. Why had she insisted on her lover going to the ball? + She had done nothing of the kind. How was it his assailant had got away so + quickly by the open gate? She did not know. What was the name and address + of her reputed brother? She was not going to deliver an honest father of a + family into the clutches of the police. What was the meaning of her visit + to the Charonne Cemetery? She went there to pray, not to keep + assignations. "And if you want to know," she exclaimed, "I have had + typhoid fever, which makes me often forget things. So I shall say nothing + more—nothing—nothing." + </p> + <p> + Taken before the examining magistrate, her attitude continued to be + defiant and arrogant. "Your cleverest policemen," she told the magistrate, + "will never find any evidence against me. Think well before you send me to + prison. I am not the woman to live long among thieves and prostitutes." + Before deciding finally whether the widow should be thrown into such + uncongenial society, the magistrate ordered Mace to search her apartment + in the Rue de Boulogne. + </p> + <p> + On entering the apartment the widow asked that all the windows should be + opened. "Let in the air," she said; "the police are coming in; they make a + nasty smell." She was invited to sit down while the officers made their + search. Her letters and papers were carefully examined; they presented a + strange mixture of order and disorder. Carefully kept account books of her + personal expenses were mixed up with billets dous, paints and pomades, + moneylenders' circulars, belladonna and cantharides. But most astounding + of all were the contents of the widows' prie-Dieu. In this devotional + article of furniture were stored all the inmost secrets of her profligate + career. Affectionate letters from the elderly gentleman on whom she had + imposed a supposititious child lay side by side with a black-edged card, + on which was written the last message of a young lover who had killed + himself on her account. "Jeanne, in the flush of my youth I die because of + you, but I forgive you.—M." With these genuine outpourings of + misplaced affection were mingled the indecent verses of a more vulgar + admirer, and little jars of hashish. The widow, unmoved by this rude + exposure of her way of life, only broke her silence to ask Mace the + current prices on the Stock Exchange. + </p> + <p> + One discovery, however, disturbed her equanimity. In the drawer of a + cupboard, hidden under some linen, Mace found a leather case containing a + sheaf of partially-burnt letters. As he was about to open it the widow + protested that it was the property of M. de Saint Pierre. Regardless of + her protest, Mace opened the case, and, looking through the letters, saw + that they were addressed to M. de Saint Pierre and were plainly of an + intimate character. "I found them on the floor near the stove in the + dining-room," said the widow, "and I kept them. I admit it was a wrong + thing to do, but Georges will forgive me when he knows why I did it." From + his better acquaintance with her character Mace surmised that an action + admitted by the widow to be "wrong" was in all probability something + worse. Without delay he took the prisoner back to his office, and himself + left for Courbevoie, there to enlighten, if possible, her unhappy victim + as to the real character of his enchantress. + </p> + <p> + The interview was a painful one. The lover refused to hear a word against + his mistress. "Jeanne is my Antigone," he said. "She has lavished on me + all her care, her tenderness, her love, and she believes in God." Mace + told him of her past, of the revelations contained in the prie-Dieu of + this true believer, but he could make no impression. "I forgive her past, + I accept her present, and please understand me, no one has the power to + separate me from her." It was only when Mace placed in his hands the + bundle of burnt letters, that he might feel what he could not see, and + read him some passages from them, that the unhappy man realised the full + extent of his mistress' treachery. Feeling himself dangerously ill, dying + perhaps, M. de Saint Pierre had told the widow to bring from his rooms to + the Rue de Boulogne the contents of his private desk. It contained some + letters compromising to a woman's honour. These he was anxious to destroy + before it was too late. As he went through the papers, his eyes bandaged, + he gave them to the widow to throw into the stove. He could hear the fire + burning and feel its warmth. He heard the widow take up the tongs. He + asked her why she did so. She answered that it was to keep the burning + papers inside the stove. Now from Mace he learnt the real truth. She had + used the tongs to take out some of the letters half burnt, letters which + in her possession might be one day useful instruments for levying + blackmail on her lover. "To blind me," exclaimed M. de Saint Pierre, "to + torture me, and then profit by my condition to lie to me, to betray me—it's + infamous—infamous!" His dream was shattered. Mace had succeeded in + his task; the disenchantment of M. de Saint Pierre was complete. That + night the fastidious widow joined the thieves and prostitutes in the St. + Lazare Prison. + </p> + <p> + It was all very well to imprison the widow, but her participation in the + outrage on M. de Saint Pierre was by no means established. + </p> + <p> + The reputed brother, who had been in the habit of attending on her at the + Rue de Boulogne, still eluded the searches of the police. In silence lay + the widow's only hope of baffling her enemies. Unfortunately for the + widow, confinement told on her nerves. She became anxious, excited. Her + very ignorance of what was going on around her, her lover's silence made + her apprehensive; she began to fear the worst. At length—the widow + always had an itch for writing—she determined to communicate at all + costs with Gaudry and invoke his aid. She wrote appealing to him to come + forward and admit that he was the man the police were seeking, for + sheltering whom she had been thrown into prison. She drew a harrowing + picture of her sufferings in jail. She had refused food and been forcibly + fed; she would like to dash her head against the walls. If any misfortune + overtake Gaudry, she promises to adopt his son and leave him a third of + her property. She persuaded a fellow-prisoner; an Italian dancer + undergoing six months' imprisonment for theft, who was on the point of + being released, to take the letter and promise to deliver it to Gaudry at + Saint Denis. On her release the dancer told her lover of her promise. He + refused to allow her to mix herself up in such a case, and destroyed the + letter. Then the dancer blabbed to others, until her story reached the + ears of the police. Mace sent for her. At first she could remember only + that the name Nathalis occurred in the letter, but after visiting + accidentally the Cathedral at Saint Denis, she recollected that this + Nathalis lived there, and worked in an oil factory. It was easy after this + for the police to trace Gaudry. He was arrested. At his house, letters + from the widow were found, warning him not to come to her apartment, and + appointing to meet him in Charonne Cemetery. Gaudry made a full + confession. It was his passion for the widow, and a promise on her part to + marry him, which, he said, had induced him to perpetrate so abominable a + crime. He was sent to the Mazas Prison. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime the Widow Gras was getting more and more desperate. Her + complete ignorance tormented her. At last she gave up all hope, and twice + attempted suicide with powdered glass and verdigris. On May 12 the + examining magistrate confronted her with Gaudry. The man told his story, + the widow feigned surprise that the "friend of her childhood" should + malign her so cruelly. But to her desperate appeals Gaudry would only + reply, "It is too late!" They were sent for trial. + </p> + <p> + The trial of the widow and her accomplice opened before the Paris Assize + Court on July 23, 1877, and lasted three days. The widow was defended by + Lachaud, one of the greatest criminal advocates of France, the defender of + Madame Lafarge, La Pommerais, Troppmann, and Marshal Bazaine. M. Demange + (famous later for his defence of Dreyfus) appeared for Gaudry. The case + had aroused considerable interest. Among those present at the trial were + Halevy, the dramatist, and Mounet-Sully and Coquelin, from the Comedie + Francaise. Fernand Rodays thus described the widow in the Figaro: "She + looks more than her age, of moderate height, well made, neither blatant + nor ill at ease, with nothing of the air of a woman of the town. Her hands + are small. Her bust is flat, and her back round, her hair quite white. + Beneath her brows glitter two jet-black eyes—the eyes of a tigress, + that seem to breathe hatred and revenge." + </p> + <p> + Gaudry was interrogated first. Asked by the President the motive of his + crime, he answered, "I was mad for Madame Gras; I would have done anything + she told me. I had known her as a child, I had been brought up with her. + Then I saw her again. I loved her, I was mad for her, I couldn't resist + it. Her wish was law to me." + </p> + <p> + Asked if Gaudry had spoken the truth, the widow said that he lied. The + President asked what could be his motive for accusing her unjustly. The + widow was silent. Lachaud begged her to answer. "I cannot," she faltered. + The President invited her to sit down. After a pause the widow seemed to + recover her nerve. + </p> + <p> + President: Was Gaudry at your house while you were at the ball? + </p> + <p> + Widow: No, no! He daren't look me in the face and say so. + </p> + <p> + President: But he is looking at you now. + </p> + <p> + Widow: No, he daren't! (She fixes her eyes on Gaudry, who lowers his + head.) + </p> + <p> + President: I, whose duty it is to interrogate you, look you in the face + and repeat my question: Was Gaudry at your house at half-past ten that + night? + </p> + <p> + Widow: No. + </p> + <p> + President: You hear her, Gaudry? + </p> + <p> + Gaudry: Yes, Monsieur, but I was there. + </p> + <p> + Widow: It is absolutely impossible! Can anyone believe me guilty of such a + thing. + </p> + <p> + President: Woman Gras, you prefer to feign indignation and deny + everything. You have the right. I will read your examination before the + examining magistrate. I see M. Lachaud makes a gesture, but I must beg the + counsel for the defence not to impart unnecessary passion into these + proceedings. + </p> + <p> + Lachaud: My gesture was merely meant to express that the woman Gras is on + her trial, and that under the circumstances her indignation is natural. + </p> + <p> + President: Very good. + </p> + <p> + The appearance in the witness box of the widow's unhappy victim evoked + sympathy. He gave his evidence quietly, without resentment or indignation. + As he told his story the widow, whose eyes were fixed on him all the time, + murmured: "Georges! Georges! Defend me! Defend me!" "I state the facts," + he replied. + </p> + <p> + The prisoners could only defend themselves by trying to throw on each + other the guilt of the crime. M. Demange represented Gaudry as acting + under the influence of his passion for the Widow Gras. Lachaud, on the + other hand, attributed the crime solely to Gaudry's jealousy of the + widow's lover, and contended that he was the sole author of the outrage. + </p> + <p> + The jury by their verdict assigned to the widow the greater share of + responsibility. She was found guilty in the full degree, but to Gaudry + were accorded extenuating circumstances. The widow was condemned to + fifteen years' penal servitude, her accomplice to five years' + imprisonment. + </p> + <p> + It is dreadful to think how very near the Widow Gras came to accomplishing + successfully her diabolical crime. A little less percipitancy on her part, + and she might have secured the fruits of her cruelty. Her undoubted powers + of fascination, in spite of the fiendishness of her real character, are + doubly proved by the devotion of her lover and the guilt of her + accomplice. At the same time, with that strange contradiction inherent in + human nature, the Jekyll and Hyde elements which, in varying degree, are + present in all men and women, the Widow Gras had a genuine love for her + young sister. Her hatred of men was reasoned, deliberate, merciless and + implacable. There is something almost sadistic in the combination in her + character of erotic sensibility with extreme cruelty. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Vitalis and Marie Boyer + </h2> + <p> + I found the story of this case in a brochure published in Paris as one of + a series of modern causes celebres. I have compared it with the reports of + the trial in the Gazette des Tribunaux. + </p> + <p> + I In the May of 1874, in the town of Montpellier, M. Boyer, a retired + merchant, some forty-six years of age, lay dying. For some months previous + to his death he had been confined to his bed, crippled by rheumatic gout. + As the hour of his death drew near, M. Boyer was filled with a great + longing to see his daughter, Marie, a girl of fifteen, and embrace her for + the last time. The girl was being educated in a convent at Marseilles. One + of M. Boyer's friends offered to go there to fetch her. On arriving at the + convent, he was told that Marie had become greatly attracted by the + prospect of a religious life. "You are happy," the Mother Superior had + written to her mother, "very happy never to have allowed the impure breath + of the world to have soiled this little flower. She loves you and her + father more than one can say." Her father's friend found the girl dressed + in the costume of a novice, and was told that she had expressed her desire + to take, one day, her final vows. He informed Marie of her father's dying + state, of his earnest wish to see her for the last time, and told her that + he had come to take her to his bedside. "Take me away from here?" she + exclaimed. The Mother Superior, surprised at her apparent reluctance to + go, impressed on her the duty of acceding to her father's wish. To the + astonishment of both, Marie refused to leave the convent. If she could + save her father's life, she said, she would go, but, as that was + impossible and she dreaded going out into the world again, she would stay + and pray for her father in the chapel of the convent, where her prayers + would be quite as effective as by his bedside. In vain the friend and the + Mother Superior tried to bend her resolution. + </p> + <p> + Happily M. Boyer died before he could learn of his daughter's singular + refusal. But it had made an unfavourable impression on the friend's mind. + He looked on Marie as a girl without real feeling, an egoist, her religion + purely superficial, hiding a cold and selfish disposition; he felt some + doubt as to the future development of her character. + </p> + <p> + M. Boyer left a widow, a dark handsome woman, forty years of age. + </p> + <p> + Some twenty years before his death, Marie Salat had come to live with M. + Boyer as a domestic servant. He fell in love with her, she became his + mistress, and a few months before the birth of Marie, M. Boyer made her + his wife. Madame Boyer was at heart a woman of ardent and voluptuous + passions that only wanted opportunity to become careless in their + gratification. Her husband's long illness gave her such an opportunity. At + the time of his death she was carrying on an intrigue with a bookseller's + assistant, Leon Vitalis, a young man of twenty-one. Her bed-ridden + husband, ignorant of her infidelity, accepted gratefully the help of + Vitalis, whom his wife described as a relative, in the regulation of his + affairs. At length the unsuspecting Boyer died. The night of his death + Madame Boyer spent with her lover. + </p> + <p> + The mother had never felt any great affection for her only child. + </p> + <p> + During her husband's lifetime she was glad to have Marie out of the way at + the convent. But the death of M. Boyer changed the situation. He had left + almost the whole of his fortune, about 100,000 francs, to his daughter, + appointing her mother her legal guardian with a right to the enjoyment of + the income on the capital until Marie should come of age. Madame Boyer had + not hitherto taken her daughter's religious devotion very seriously. But + now that the greater part of her husband's fortune was left to Marie, she + realised that, should her daughter persist in her intention of taking the + veil, that fortune would in a very few years pass into the hands of the + sisterhood. Without delay Madame Boyer exercised her authority, and + withdrew Marie from the convent. The girl quitted it with every + demonstration of genuine regret. + </p> + <p> + Marie Boyer when she left the convent was growing into a tall and + attractive woman, her figure slight and elegant, her hair and eyes dark, + dainty and charming in her manner. Removed from the influences of convent + life, her religious devotion became a thing of the past. In her new + surroundings she gave herself up to the enjoyments of music and the + theatre. She realised that she was a pretty girl, whose beauty well repaid + the hours she now spent in the adornment of her person. The charms of + Marie were not lost on Leon Vitalis. Mean and significant in appearance, + Vitalis would seem to have been one of those men who, without any great + physical recommendation, have the knack of making themselves attractive to + women. After her husband's death Madame Boyer had yielded herself + completely to his influence and her own undoubted passion for him. She had + given him the money with which to purchase a business of his own as a + second-hand bookseller. This trade the enterprising and greedy young man + combined with money-lending and he clandestine sale of improper books and + photographs. To such a man the coming of Marie Boyer was a significant + event. She was younger, more attractive than her mother; in a very few + years the whole of her father's fortune would be hers. Slowly Vitalis set + himself to win the girl's affections. The mother's suspicions were + aroused; her jealousy was excited. She sent Marie to complete her + education at a convent school in Lyons. This was in the April of 1875. By + this time Marie and Vitalis had become friendly enough to arrange to + correspond clandestinely during the girl's absence from home. Marie was so + far ignorant of the relations of Vitalis with her mother. + </p> + <p> + Her daughter sent away, Madame Boyer surrendered herself with complete + abandonment to her passion for her lover. At Castelnau, close to + Montpellier, she bought a small country house. There she could give full + rein to her desire. To the scandal of the occasional passerby she and her + lover would bathe in a stream that passed through the property, and sport + together on the grass. Indoors there were always books from Vitalis' + collection to stimulate their lascivious appetites. This life of pastoral + impropriety lasted until the middle of August, when Marie Boyer came home + from Lyons. + </p> + <p> + Vitalis would have concealed from the young girl as long as he could the + nature of his relations with Madame Boyer, but his mistress by her own + deliberate conduct made all concealment impossible. Whether from the utter + recklessness of her passion for Vitalis, or a desire to kill in her + daughter's heart any attachment which she may have felt towards her lover, + the mother paraded openly before her daughter the intimacy of her + relations with Vitalis, and with the help of the literature with which the + young bookseller supplied her, set about corrupting her child's mind to + her own depraved level. The effect of her extraordinary conduct was, + however, the opposite to what she had intended. The mind of the young girl + was corrupted; she was familiarised with vice. But in her heart she did + not blame Vitalis for what she saw and suffered; she pitied, she excused + him. It was her mother whom she grew to hate, with a hate all the more + determined for the cold passionless exterior beneath which it was + concealed. + </p> + <p> + Madame Boyer's deliberate display of her passion for Vitalis served only + to aggravate and intensify in Marie Boyer an unnatural jealousy that was + fast growing up between mother and daughter. + </p> + <p> + Marie did not return to the school at Lyons. In the winter of 1875, Madame + Boyer gave up the country house and, with her daughter, settled in one of + the suburbs of Montpellier. In the January of 1876 a theft occurred in her + household which obliged Madame Boyer to communicate with the police. + Spendthrift and incompetent in the management of her affairs, she was + hoarding and suspicious about money itself. Cash and bonds she would hide + away in unexpected places, such as books, dresses, even a soup tureen. One + of her most ingenious hiding places was a portrait of her late husband, + behind which she concealed some bearer bonds in landed security, amounting + to about 11,000 francs. One day in January these bonds disappeared. She + suspected a theft, and informed the police. Three days later she withdrew + her complaint, and no more was heard of the matter. As Marie and Vitalis + were the only persons who could have known her secret, the inference is + obvious. When, later in the year, Vitalis announced his intention of going + to Paris on business, his mistress expressed to him the hope that he would + "have a good time" with her bonds. Vitalis left for Paris. But there was + now a distinct understanding between Marie and himself. Vitalis had + declared himself her lover and asked her to marry him. The following + letter, written to him by Marie Boyer in the October of 1876, shows her + attitude toward his proposal: + </p> + <p> + "I thank you very sincerely for your letter, which has given me very great + pleasure, because it tells me that you are well. It sets my mind at rest, + for my feelings towards you are the same as ever. I don't say they are + those of love, for I don't know myself; I don't know what such feelings + are. But I feel a real affection for you which may well turn to love. How + should I not hold in affectionate remembrance one who has done everything + for me? But love does not come to order. So I can't and don't wish to give + any positive answer about our marriage—all depends on circumstances. + I don't want any promise from you, I want you to be as free as I am. I am + not fickle, you know me well enough for that. So don't ask me to give you + any promise. You may find my letter a little cold. But I know too much of + life to pledge myself lightly. I assure you I think on it often. Sometimes + I blush when I think what marriage means." + </p> + <p> + Madame Boyer, displeased at the theft, had let her lover go without any + great reluctance. No sooner had he gone than she began to miss him. Life + seemed dull without him. Mother and daughter were united at least in their + common regret at the absence of the young bookseller. To vary the monotony + of existence, to find if possible a husband for her daughter, Madame Boyer + decided to leave Montpellier for Marseilles, and there start some kind of + business. The daughter, who foresaw greater amusement and pleasure in the + life of a large city, assented willingly. On October 6, 1876, they arrived + at Marseilles, and soon after Madame bought at a price considerably higher + than their value, two shops adjoining one another in the Rue de la + Republique. One was a cheese shop, the other a milliner's. + </p> + <p> + The mother arranged that she should look after the cheese shop, while her + daughter presided over the milliner's. The two shops were next door to one + another. Behind the milliner's was a drawing-room, behind the cheese shop + a kitchen; these two rooms communicated with each other by a large dark + room at the back of the building. In the kitchen was a trap-door leading + to a cellar. The two women shared a bedroom in an adjoining house. + </p> + <p> + Vitalis had opposed the scheme of his mistress to start shop-keeping in + Marseilles. He knew how unfitted she was to undertake a business of any + kind. But neither mother nor daughter would relinquish the plan. It + remained therefore to make the best of it. Vitalis saw that he must get + the business into his own hands; and to do that, to obtain full control of + Madame Boyer's affairs, he must continue to play the lover to her. To the + satisfaction of the two women, he announced his intention of coming to + Marseilles in the New Year of 1877. It was arranged that he should pass as + a nephew of Madame Boyer, the cousin of Marie. He arrived at Marseilles on + January 1, and received a cordial welcome. Of the domestic arrangements + that ensued, it is sufficient to say that they were calculated to whet the + jealousy and inflame the hatred that Marie felt towards her mother, who + now persisted as before in parading before her daughter the intimacy of + her relations with Vitalis. + </p> + <p> + In these circumstances Vitalis succeeded in extracting from his mistress a + power of attorney, giving him authority to deal with her affairs and sell + the two businesses, which were turning out unprofitable. This done, he + told Marie, whose growing attachment to him, strange as it may seem, had + turned to love, that now at last they could be free. He would sell the two + shops, and with the money released by the sale they could go away + to-gether. Suddenly Madame Boyer fell ill, and was confined to her bed. + Left to themselves, the growing passion of Marie Boyer for Vitalis + culminated in her surrender. But for the sick mother the happiness of the + lovers was complete. If only her illness were more serious, more likely to + be fatal in its result! "If only God would take her!" said Vitalis. "Yes," + replied her daughter, "she has caused us so much suffering!" + </p> + <p> + To Madame Boyer her illness had brought hours of torment, and at last + remorse. She realised the duplicity of her lover, she knew that he meant + to desert her for her daughter, she saw what wrong she had done that + daughter, she suspected even that Marie and Vitalis were poisoning her. + Irreligious till now, her thoughts turned to religion. As soon as she + could leave her bed she would go to Mass and make atonement for her sin; + she would recover her power of attorney, get rid of Vitalis for good and + all, and send her daughter back to a convent. But it was too late. Nemesis + was swift to overtake the hapless woman. Try as he might, Vitalis had + found it impossible to sell the shops at anything but a worthless figure. + He had no money of his own, with which to take Marie away. He knew that + her mother had resolved on his instant dismissal. + </p> + <p> + As soon as Madame Boyer was recovered sufficiently to leave her bed, she + turned on her former lover, denounced his treachery, accused him of + robbing and swindling her, and bade him go without delay. To Vitalis + dismissal meant ruin, to Marie it meant the loss of her lover. During her + illness the two young people had wished Madame Boyer dead, but she had + recovered. Providence or Nature having refused to assist Vitalis, he + resolved to fall back on art. He gave up a whole night's rest to the + consideration of the question. As a result of his deliberations he + suggested to the girl of seventeen the murder of her mother. "This must + end," said Vitalis. "Yes, it must," replied Marie. Vitalis asked her if + she had any objection to such a crime. Marie hesitated, the victim was her + mother. Vitalis reminded her what sort of a mother she had been to her. + The girl said that she was terrified at the sight of blood; Vitalis + promised that her mother should be strangled. At length Marie consented. + That night on some slight pretext Madame Boyer broke out into violent + reproaches against her daughter. She little knew that every reproach she + uttered served only to harden in her daughter's heart her unnatural + resolve. + </p> + <p> + On the morning of March 19 Madame Boyer rose early to go to Mass. + </p> + <p> + Before she went out, she reminded Vitalis that this was his last day in + her service, that when she returned she would expect to find him gone. It + was after seven when she left the house. The lovers had no time to lose; + the deed must be done immediately on the mother's return. They arranged + that Vitalis should get rid of the shop-boy, and that, as soon as he had + gone, Marie should shut and lock the front doors of the two shops. At one + o'clock Madame Boyer came back. She expressed her astonishment and disgust + that Vitalis still lingered, and threatened to send for the police to turn + him out. Vitalis told the shop-boy that he could go away for a few hours; + they had some family affairs to settle. The boy departed. Madame Boyer, + tired after her long morning in the town, was resting on a sofa in the + sitting-room, at the back of the milliner's shop. Vitalis entered the + room, and after a few heated words, struck her a violent blow in the + chest. She fell back on the sofa, calling to her daughter to come to her + assistance. The daughter sought to drown her mother's cries by banging the + doors, and opening and shutting drawers. Vitalis, who was now trying to + throttle his victim, called to Marie to shut the front doors of the two + shops. + </p> + <p> + To do so Marie had to pass through the sitting-room, and was a witness to + the unsuccessful efforts of Vitalis to strangle her mother. Having closed + the doors, she retired into the milliner's shop to await the issue. After + a few moments her lover called to her for the large cheese knife; he had + caught up a kitchen knife, but in his struggles it had slipped from his + grasp. Quickly Marie fetched the knife and returned to the sitting-room. + There a desperate struggle was taking place between the man and woman. At + one moment it seemed as if Madame Boyer would get the better of Vitalis, + whom nature had not endowed greatly for work of this kind. Marie came to + his aid. She kicked and beat her mother, until at last the wretched + creature released her hold and sank back exhausted. With the cheese knife, + which her daughter had fetched, Vitalis killed Madame Boyer. + </p> + <p> + They were murderers now, the young lovers. What to do with the body? The + boy would be coming back soon. The cellar under the kitchen seemed the + obvious place of concealment. With the help of a cord the body was lowered + into the cellar, and Marie washed the floor of the sitting-room. The boy + came back. He asked where Madame Boyer was. Vitalis told him that she was + getting ready to return to Montpellier the same evening, and that he had + arranged to go with her, but that he had no intention of doing so; he + would accompany her to the station, he said, and then at the last moment, + just as the train was starting, slip away and let her go on her journey + alone. To the boy, who knew enough of the inner history of the household + to enjoy the piquancy of the situation, such a trick seemed quite amusing. + He went away picturing in his mind the scene at the railway station and + its humorous possibilities. + </p> + <p> + At seven o'clock Vitalis and Marie Boyer were alone once more with the + murdered woman. They had the whole night before them. Vitalis had already + considered the matter of the disposal of the body. He had bought a pick + and spade. He intended to bury his former mistress in the soil under the + cellar. After that had been done, he and Marie would sell the business for + what it would fetch, and go to Brussels—an admirable plan, which two + unforeseen circumstances defeated. The Rue de la Republique was built on a + rock, blasted out for the purpose. The shop-boy had gone to the station + that evening to enjoy the joke which, he believed, was to be played on his + mistress. + </p> + <p> + When Vitalis tried to dig a grave into the ground beneath the cellar he + realised the full horror of the disappointment. What was to be done? They + must throw the body into the sea. But how to get it there? The crime of + Billoir, an old soldier, who the year before in Paris had killed his + mistress in a fit of anger and cut up her body, was fresh in the + recollection of Vitalis. The guilty couple decided to dismember the body + of Madame Boyer and so disfigure her face as to render it unrecognisable. + In the presence of Marie, Vitalis did this, and the two lovers set out at + midnight to discover some place convenient for the reception of the + remains. They found the harbour too busy for their purpose, and decided to + wait until the morrow, when they would go farther afield. They returned + home and retired for the night, occupying the bed in which Madame Boyer + had slept the night before. + </p> + <p> + On the morning of the 20th the lovers rose early, and a curious neighbour, + looking through the keyhole, saw them counting joyously money and + valuables, as they took them from Madame Boyer's cashbox. When the + shop-boy arrived, he asked Vitalis for news of Madame Boyer. Vitalis told + him that he had gone with her to the station, that she had taken the train + to Montpellier, and that, in accordance with his plan, he had given her + the slip just as the train was starting. This the boy knew to be false: he + had been to the station himself to enjoy the fun, and had seen neither + Vitalis nor Madame Boyer. He began to suspect some mystery. In the + evening, when the shops had been closed, and he had been sent about his + business, he waited and watched. In a short time he saw Vitalis and Marie + Boyer leave the house, the former dragging a hand-cart containing two + large parcels, while Marie walked by his side. They travelled some + distance with their burden, leaving the city behind them, hoping to find + some deserted spot along the coast where they could conceal the evidence + of their crime. Their nerves were shaken by meeting with a custom-house + officer, who asked them what it was they had in the cart. Vitalis answered + that it was a traveller's luggage, and the officer let them pass on. But + soon after, afraid to risk another such experience, the guilty couple + turned out the parcels into a ditch, covered them with stones and sand, + and hurried home. + </p> + <p> + The next day, the shop-boy and the inquisitive neighbour having consulted + together, went to the Commissary of Police and told him of the mysterious + disappearance of Madame Boyer. The Commissary promised to investigate the + matter, and had just dismissed his informants when word was brought to him + of the discovery, in a ditch outside Marseilles, of two parcels containing + human remains. He called back the boy and took him to view the body at the + Morgue. The boy was able, by the clothes, to identify the body as that of + his late mistress. The Commissary went straight to the shops in the Rue de + la Republique, where he found the young lovers preparing for flight. At + first they denied all knowledge of the crime, and said that Madame Boyer + had gone to Montpellier. They were arrested, and it was not long before + they both confessed their guilt to the examining magistrate. + </p> + <p> + Vitalis and Marie Boyer were tried before the Assize Court at Aix on July + 2, 1877. Vitalis is described as mean and insignificant in appearance, + thin, round-backed, of a bilious complexion; Marie Boyer as a pretty, dark + girl, her features cold in expression, dainty and elegant. At her trial + she seemed to be still so greatly under the influence of Vitalis that + during her interrogatory the President sent him out of court. To the + examining magistrate Marie Boyer, in describing her mother's murder, had + written, "I cannot think how I came to take part in it. I, who wouldn't + have stayed in the presence of a corpse for all the money in the world." + Vitalis was condemned to death, and was executed on August 17. He died + fearful and penitent, acknowledging his miserable career to be a warning + to misguided youth. Extenuating circumstances were accorded to Marie + Boyer, and she was sentenced to penal servitude for life. Her conduct in + prison was so repentant and exemplary that she was released in 1892. + </p> + <p> + M. Proal, a distinguished French judge, and the author of some important + works on crime, acted as the examining magistrate in the case of Vitalis + and Marie Boyer. He thus sums up his impression of the two criminals: + "Here is an instance of how greed and baseness on the one side, lust and + jealousy on the other, bring about by degrees a change in the characters + of criminals, and, after some hesitation, the suggestion and + accomplishment of parricide, Is it necessary to seek an explanation of the + crime in any psychic abnormality which is negatived to all appearances by + the antecedents of the guilty pair? Is it necessary to ask it of anatomy + or physiology? Is not the crime the result of moral degradation gradually + asserting itself in two individuals, whose moral and intellectual + faculties are the same as those of other men, but who fall, step by step, + into vice and crime? It is by a succession of wrongful acts that a man + first reaches the frontier of crime and then at length crosses it." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Fenayrou Case + </h2> + <p> + There is an account of this case in Bataille "Causes Criminelles et + Mondaines" (1882), and in Mace's book, "Femmes Criminelles." It is alluded + to in "Souvenirs d'un President d'Assises," by Berard des Glajeux. The + murder of the chemist Aubert by Marin Fenayrou and his wife Gabrielle was + perpetrated near Paris in the year 1882. In its beginning the story is + commonplace enough. Fenayrou was the son of a small chemist in the South + of France, and had come to Paris from the Aveyron Department to follow his + father's vocation. He obtained a situation as apprentice in the Rue de la + Ferme des Mathurins in the shop of a M. Gibon. On the death of M. Gibon + his widow thought she saw in Fenayrou a man capable of carrying on her + late husband's business. She gave her daughter in marriage to her + apprentice, and installed him in the shop. The ungrateful son-in-law, sure + of his wife and his business and contrary to his express promise, turned + the old lady out of the house. This occurred in the year 1870, Fenayrou + being then thirty years of age, his wife, Gabrielle, seventeen. + </p> + <p> + They were an ill-assorted and unattractive couple. The man, a compound of + coarse brutality and shrewd cunning, was at heart lazy and selfish, the + woman a spoilt child, in whom a real want of feeling was supplied by a + shallow sentimentalism. Vain of the superior refinement conferred on her + by a good middle-class education, she despised and soon came to loathe her + coarse husband, and lapsed into a condition of disappointment and + discontent that was only relieved superficially by an extravagant devotion + to religious exercises. + </p> + <p> + It was in 1875, when the disillusionment of Mme. Fenayrou was complete, + that her husband received into his shop a pupil, a youth of twenty-one, + Louis Aubert. He was the son of a Norman tradesman. The ambitious father + had wished his son to enter the church, but the son preferred to be a + chemist. He was a shrewd, hard-working fellow, with an eye to the main + chance and a taste for pleasures that cost him nothing, jovial, but vulgar + and self-satisfied, the kind of man who, having enjoyed the favours of + woman, treats her with arrogance and contempt, till from loving she comes + to loathe him—a characteristic example, according to M. Bourget, of + le faux homme a femmes. Such was Aubert, Fenayrou's pupil. He was soon to + become something more than pupil. + </p> + <p> + Fenayrou as chemist had not answered to the expectations of his + mother-in-law. His innate laziness and love of coarse pleasures had + asserted themselves. At first his wife had shared in the enjoyments, but + as time went on and after the birth of their two children, things became + less prosperous. She was left at home while Fenayrou spent his time in + drinking bocks of beer, betting and attending race-meetings. It was + necessary, under these circumstances, that someone should attend to the + business of the shop. In Aubert Fenayrou found a ready and willing + assistant. + </p> + <p> + From 1876 to 1880, save for an occasional absence for military service, + Aubert lived with the Fenayrous, managing the business and making love to + the bored and neglected wife, who after a few months became his mistress. + Did Fenayrou know of this intrigue or not? That is a crucial question in + the case. If he did not, it was not for want of warning from certain of + his friends and neighbours, to whom the intrigue was a matter of common + knowledge. Did he refuse to believe in his wife's guilt? or, dependent as + he was for his living on the exertions of his assistant, did he + deliberately ignore it, relying on his wife's attractions to keep the + assiduous Aubert at work in the shop? In any case Aubert's arrogance, + which had increased with the consciousness of his importance to the + husband and his conquest of the wife, led in August of 1880, to a rupture. + Aubert left the Fenayrous and bought a business of his own on the + Boulevard Malesherbes. + </p> + <p> + Before his departure Aubert had tried to persuade Mme. Gibon to sell up + her son-in-law by claiming from him the unpaid purchase-money for her + husband's shop. He represented Fenayrou as an idle gambler, and hinted + that he would find her a new purchaser. Such an underhand proceeding was + likely to provoke resentment if it should come to the ears of Fenayrou. + During the two years that elapsed between his departure from Fenayrou's + house and his murder, Aubert had prospered in his shop on the Boulevard + Malesherbes, whilst the fortunes of the Fenayrous had steadily + deteriorated. + </p> + <p> + At the end of the year 1881 Fenayrou sold his shop and went with his + family to live on one of the outer boulevards, that of Gouvion-Saint-Cyr. + He had obtained a post in a shady mining company, in which he had + persuaded his mother-in-law to invest 20,000 francs. He had attempted also + to make money by selling fradulent imitations of a famous table-water. For + this offence, at the beginning of 1882, he was condemned by the + Correctional Tribunal of Paris to three months' imprisonment and 1,000 + francs costs. + </p> + <p> + In March of 1882 the situation of the Fenayrous was parlous, that of + Aubert still prosperous. + </p> + <p> + Since Aubert's departure Mme. Fenayrou had entertained another lover, a + gentleman on the staff of a sporting newspaper, one of Fenayrou's turf + acquaintances. This gentleman had found her a cold mistress, preferring + the ideal to the real. As a murderess Madame Fenayrou overcame this + weakness. + </p> + <p> + If we are to believe Fenayrou's story, the most critical day in his life + was March 22, 1882, for it was on that day, according to his account, that + he learnt for the first time of his wife's intrigue with Aubert. Horrified + and enraged at the discovery, he took from her her nuptial wreath, her + wedding-ring, her jewellery, removed from its frame her picture in + charcoal which hung in the drawing-room, and told her, paralysed with + terror, that the only means of saving her life was to help him to murder + her lover. + </p> + <p> + Two months later, with her assistance, this outraged husband accomplished + his purpose with diabolical deliberation. He must have been well aware + that, had he acted on the natural impulse of the moment and revenged + himself then and there on Aubert, he would have committed what is regarded + by a French jury as the most venial of crimes, and would have escaped with + little or no punishment. He preferred, for reasons of his own, to set + about the commission of a deliberate and cold-blooded murder that bears + the stamp of a more sinister motive than the vengeance of a wronged + husband. + </p> + <p> + The only step he took after the alleged confession of his wife on March 22 + was to go to a commissary of police and ask him to recover from Aubert + certain letters of his wife's that were in his possession. This the + commissary refused to do. Mme. Gibon, the mother-in-law, was sent to + Aubert to try to recover the letters, but Aubert declined to give them up, + and wrote to Mme. Fenayrou: + </p> + <p> + "Madame, to my displeasure I have had a visit this morning from your + mother, who has come to my home and made a most unnecessary scene and + reproached me with facts so serious that I must beg you to see me without + delay. It concerns your honour and mine.... I have no fear of being + confronted with your husband and yourself. I am ready, when you wish, to + justify myself.... Please do all you can to prevent a repetition of your + mother's visit or I shall have to call in the police." + </p> + <p> + It is clear that the Fenayrous attached the utmost importance to the + recovery of this correspondence, which disappeared with Aubert's death. + Was the prime motive of the murder the recovery and destruction of these + letters? Was Aubert possessed of some knowledge concerning the Fenayrous + that placed them at his mercy? + </p> + <p> + It would seem so. To a friend who had warned him of the danger to which + his intimacy with Gabrielle Fenayrou exposed him, Aubert had replied, + "Bah! I've nothing to fear. I hold them in my power." The nature of the + hold which Aubert boasted that he possessed over these two persons remains + the unsolved mystery of the case, "that limit of investigation," in the + words of a French judge, "one finds in most great cases, beyond which + justice strays into the unknown." + </p> + <p> + That such a hold existed, Aubert's own statement and the desperate + attempts made by the Fenayrous to get back these letters, would seem to + prove beyond question. Had Aubert consented to return them, would he have + saved his life? It seems probable. As it was, he was doomed. Fenayrou + hated him. They had had a row on a race-course, in the course of which + Aubert had humiliated his former master. More than this, Aubert had + boasted openly of his relations with Mme. Fenayrou, and the fact had + reached the ears of the husband. Fenayrou believed also, though + erroneously, that Aubert had informed against him in the matter of the + table-water fraud. Whether his knowledge of Aubert's relations with his + wife was recent or of long standing, he had other grounds of hate against + his former pupil. He himself had failed in life, but he saw his rival + prosperous, arrogant in his prosperity, threatening, dangerous to his + peace of mind; he envied and feared as well as hated him. Cruel, cunning + and sinister, Fenayrou spent the next two months in the meditation of a + revenge that was not only to remove the man he feared, but was to give him + a truly fiendish opportunity of satisfying his ferocious hatred. + </p> + <p> + And the wife what of her share in the business? Had she also come to hate + Aubert? Or did she seek to expiate her guilt by assisting her husband in + the punishment of her seducer? A witness at the trial described Mme. + Fenayrou as "a soft paste" that could be moulded equally well to vice or + virtue, a woman destitute of real feeling or strength of will, who, under + the direction of her husband, carried out implicitly, precisely and + carefully her part in an atrocious murder, whose only effort to prevent + the commission of such a deed was to slip away into a church a few minutes + before she was to meet the man she was decoying to his death, and pray + that his murder might be averted. + </p> + <p> + Her religious sense, like the images in the hat of Louis XI., was a source + of comfort and consolation in the doing of evil, but powerless to restrain + her from the act itself, in the presence of a will stronger than her own. + At the time of his death Aubert contemplated marriage, and had advertised + for a wife. If Mme. Fenayrou was aware of this, it may have served to + stimulate her resentment against her lover, but there seems little reason + to doubt that, left to herself, she would never have had the will or the + energy to give that resentment practical expression. It required the + dictation of the vindictive and malevolent Fenayrou to crystallise her + hatred of Aubert into a deliberate participation in his murder. + </p> + <p> + Eight or nine miles north-west of Paris lies the small town of Chatou, a + pleasant country resort for tired Parisians. Here Madeleine Brohan, the + famous actress, had inhabited a small villa, a two-storied building. At + the beginning of 1882 it was to let. In the April of that year a person of + the name of "Hess" agreed to take it at a quarterly rent of 1,200 francs, + and paid 300 in advance. "Hess" was no other than Fenayrou—the villa + that had belonged to Madeleine Brohan the scene chosen for Aubert's + murder. Fenayrou was determined to spare no expense in the execution of + his design: it was to cost him some 3,000 francs before he had finished + with it. + </p> + <p> + As to the actual manner of his betrayer's death, the outraged husband + found it difficult to make up his mind. It was not to be prompt, nor was + unnecessary suffering to be avoided. At first he favoured a pair of + "infernal" opera-glasses that concealed a couple of steel points which, by + means of a spring, would dart out into the eyes of anyone using them and + destroy their sight. This rather elaborate and uncertain machine was + abandoned later in favour of a trap for catching wolves. This was to be + placed under the table, and seize in its huge iron teeth the legs of the + victim. In the end simplicity, in the shape of a hammer and sword-stick, + won the day. An assistant was taken in the person of Lucien Fenayrou, a + brother of Marin. + </p> + <p> + This humble and obliging individual, a maker of children's toys, regarded + his brother the chemist with something like veneration as the gentleman + and man of education of the family. Fifty francs must have seemed to him + an almost superfluous inducement to assist in the execution of what + appeared to be an act of legitimate vengeance, an affair of family honour + in which the wife and brother of the injured husband were in duty bound to + participate. Mme. Fenayrou, with characteristic superstition, chose the + day of her boy's first communion to broach the subject of the murder to + Lucien. By what was perhaps more than coincidence, Ascension Day, May 18, + was selected as the day for the crime itself. There were practical reasons + also. It was a Thursday and a public holiday. On Thursdays the Fenayrou + children spent the day with their grandmother, and at holiday time there + was a special midnight train from Chatou to Paris that would enable the + murderers to return to town after the commission of their crime. A goat + chaise and twenty-six feet of gas piping had been purchased by Fenayrou + and taken down to the villa. + </p> + <p> + Nothing remained but to secure the presence of the victim. At the + direction of her husband Mme. Fenayrou wrote to Aubert on May 14, a letter + in which she protested her undying love for him, and expressed a desire to + resume their previous relations. Aubert demurred at first, but, as she + became more pressing, yielded at length to her suggestion. If it cost him + nothing, Aubert was the last man to decline an invitation of the kind. A + trip to Chatou was arranged for Ascension Day, May 18, by the train + leaving Paris from the St. Lazare Station, at half-past eight in the + evening. + </p> + <p> + On the afternoon of that day Fenayrou, his wife and his brother sent the + children to their grandmother and left Paris for Chatou at three o'clock. + Arrived there, they went to the villa, Fenayrou carrying the twenty-six + feet of gas-piping wound round him like some huge hunting-horn. He spent + the afternoon in beating out the piping till it was flat, and in making a + gag. He tried to take up the flooring in the kitchen, but this plan for + the concealment of the body was abandoned in favour of the river. As soon + as these preparations, in which he was assisted by his two relatives, had + been completed, Fenayrou placed a candle, some matches and the sword-stick + on the drawing-room table and returned to Paris. + </p> + <p> + The three conspirators dined together heartily in the Avenue de Clichy—soup, + fish, entree, sweet and cheese, washed down by a bottle of claret and a + pint of burgundy, coffee to follow, with a glass of chartreuse for Madame. + To the waiter the party seemed in the best of spirits. Dinner ended, the + two men returned to Chatou by the 7.35 train, leaving Gabrielle to follow + an hour later with Aubert. Fenayrou had taken three second-class return + tickets for his wife, his brother and himself, and a single for their + visitor. It was during the interval between the departure of her husband + and her meeting with Aubert that Mme. Fenayrou went into the church of St. + Louis d'Antin and prayed. + </p> + <p> + At half-past eight she met Aubert at the St. Lazare Station, gave him his + ticket and the two set out for Chatou—a strange journey Mme. + Fenayrou was asked what they talked about in the railway carriage. "Mere + nothings," she replied. Aubert abused her mother; for her own part, she + was very agitated—tres emotionnee. It was about half-past nine when + they reached their destination. The sight of the little villa pleased + Aubert. + </p> + <p> + "Ah!" he said, "this is good. I should like a house like this and twenty + thousand francs a year!" As he entered the hall, surprised at the + darkness, he exclaimed: "The devil! it's precious dark! 'tu sais, + Gabrielle, que je ne suis pas un heros d'aventure.'" The woman pushed him + into the drawing-room. He struck a match on his trousers. Fenayrou, who + had been lurking in the darkness in his shirt sleeves, made a blow at him + with the hammer, but it was ineffectual. A struggle ensued. The room was + plunged in darkness. Gabrielle waited outside. After a little, her husband + called for a light; she came in and lit a candle on the mantelpiece. + Fenayrou was getting the worst of the encounter. She ran to his help, and + dragged off his opponent. Fenayrou was free. He struck again with the + hammer. Aubert fell, and for some ten minutes Fenayrou stood over the + battered and bleeding man abusing and insulting him, exulting in his + vengeance. Then he stabbed him twice with the sword-stick, and so ended + the business. + </p> + <p> + The murderers had to wait till past eleven to get rid of the body, as the + streets were full of holiday-makers. When all was quiet they put it into + the goat chaise, wrapped round with the gas-piping, and wheeled it on to + the Chatou bridge. To prevent noise they let the body down by a rope into + the water. It was heavier than they thought, and fell with a loud splash + into the river. "Hullo!" exclaimed a night-fisherman, who was mending his + tackle not far from the bridge, "there go those butchers again, chucking + their filth into the Seine!" + </p> + <p> + As soon as they had taken the chaise back to the villa, the three + assassins hurried to the station to catch the last train. Arriving there a + little before their time, they went into a neighbouring cafe. Fenayrou had + three bocks, Lucien one, and Madame another glass of chartreuse. So home + to Paris. Lucien reached his house about two in the morning. "Well," asked + his wife, "did you have a good day?" "Splendid," was the reply. + </p> + <p> + Eleven days passed. Fenayrou paid a visit to the villa to clean it and put + it in order. Otherwise he went about his business as usual, attending race + meetings, indulging in a picnic and a visit to the Salon. On May 27 a man + named Bailly, who, by a strange coincidence, was known by the nickname of + "the Chemist," walking by the river, had his attention called by a + bargeman to a corpse that was floating on the water. He fished it out. It + was that of Aubert. In spite of a gag tired over his mouth the water had + got into the body, and, notwithstanding the weight of the lead piping, it + had risen to the surface. + </p> + <p> + As soon as the police had been informed of the disappearance of Aubert, + their suspicions had fallen on the Fenayrous in consequence of the request + which Marin Fenayrou had made to the commissary of police to aid him in + the recovery from Aubert of his wife's letters. But there had been nothing + further in their conduct to provoke suspicion. When, however, the body was + discovered and at the same time an anonymous letter received denouncing + the Fenayrous as the murderers of Aubert, the police decided on their + arrest. On the morning of June 8 M. Mace, then head of the Detective + Department, called at their house. He found Fenayrou in a dressing-gown. + This righteous avenger of his wife's seduction denied his guilt, like any + common criminal, but M. Mace handed him over to one of his men, to be + taken immediately to Versailles. He himself took charge of Madame, and, in + the first-class carriage full of people, in which they travelled together + to Versailles, she whispered to the detective a full confession of the + crime. + </p> + <p> + Mace has left us an account of this singular railway journey. It was two + o'clock in the afternoon. In the carriage were five ladies and a young man + who was reading La Vie Parisienne. Mme. Fenayrou was silent and + thoughtful. "You're thinking of your present position?" asked the + detective. "No, I'm thinking of my mother and my dear children." "They + don't seem to care much about their father," remarked Mace. "Perhaps not." + "Why?" asked M. Mace. "Because of his violent temper," was the reply. + After some further conversation and the departure at Courbevoie of the + young man with La Vie Parisienne, Mme. Fenayrou asked abruptly: "Do you + think my husband guilty?" "I'm sure of it." "So does Aubert's sister." + "Certainly," answered M. Mace; "she looks on the crime as one of revenge." + "But my brother-in-law," urged the woman, "could have had no motive for + vengeance against Aubert." Mace answered coldly that he would have to + explain how he had employed his time on Ascension Day. "You see criminals + everywhere," answered Madame. + </p> + <p> + After the train had left St. Cloud, where the other occupants of the + carriage had alighted, the detective and his prisoner were alone, free of + interruption till Versailles should be reached. Hitherto they had spoken + in whispers; now Mace seized the opportunity to urge the woman to unbosom + herself to him, to reveal her part in the crime. She burst into tears. + There was an interval of silence; then she thanked Mace for the kindness + and consideration he had shown her. "You wish me," she asked, "to betray + my husband?" "Without any design or intention on your part," discreetly + answered the detective; "but by the sole force of circumstances you are + placed in such a position that you cannot help betraying him." + </p> + <p> + Whether convinced or not of this tyranny of circumstance, Mme. Fenayrou + obeyed her mentor, and calmly, coldly, without regret or remorse, told him + the story of the assassination. Towards the end of her narration she + softened a little. "I know I am a criminal," she exclaimed. "Since this + morning I have done nothing but lie. I am sick of it; it makes me suffer + too much. Don't tell my husband until this evening that I have confessed; + there's no need, for, after what I have told you, you can easily expose + his falsehoods and so get at the truth." + </p> + <p> + That evening the three prisoners—Lucien had been arrested at the + same time as the other two—were brought to Chatou. Identified by the + gardener as the lessee of the villa, Fenayrou abandoned his protestations + of innocence and admitted his guilt. The crime was then and there + reconstituted in the presence of the examining magistrate. With the help + of a gendarme, who impersonated Aubert, Fenayrou repeated the incidents of + the murder. The goat-chaise was wheeled to the bridge, and there in the + presence of an indignant crowd, the murderer showed how the body had been + lowered into the river. + </p> + <p> + After a magisterial investigation lasting two months, which failed to shed + any new light on the more mysterious elements in the case, Fenayrou, his + wife and brother were indicted on August 19 before the Assize Court for + the Seine-et-Oise Department, sitting at Versailles. + </p> + <p> + The attitude of the three culprits was hardly such as to provoke the + sympathies of even a French jury. Fenayrou seemed to be giving a clumsy + and unconvincing performance of the role of the wronged husband; his heavy + figure clothed in an ill-fitting suit of "blue dittos," his ill-kempt red + beard and bock-stained moustache did not help him in his impersonation. + Mme. Fenayrou, pale, colourless, insignificant, was cold and impenetrable. + She described the murder of her lover "as if she were giving her cook a + household recipe for making apricot Jam." Lucien was humble and + lachrymose. + </p> + <p> + In his interrogatory of the husband the President, M. Berard des Glajeux, + showed himself frankly sceptical as to the ingenuousness of Fenayrou's + motives in assassinating Aubert. "Now, what was the motive of this + horrible crime?" he asked. "Revenge," answered Fenayrou. + </p> + <p> + President: But consider the care you took to hide the body and destroy all + trace of your guilt; that is not the way in which a husband sets out to + avenge his honour; these are the methods of the assassin! With your wife's + help you could have caught Aubert in flagrante delicto and killed him on + the spot, and the law would have absolved you. Instead of which you decoy + him into a hideous snare. Public opinion suggests that jealousy of your + former assistant's success, and mortification at your own failure, were + the real motives. Or was it not perhaps that you had been in the habit of + rendering somewhat dubious services to some of your promiscuous clients? + </p> + <p> + Fenayrou: Nothing of the kind, I swear it! + </p> + <p> + President: Do not protest too much. Remember that among your acquaintances + you were suspected of cheating at cards. As a chemist you had been + convinced of fraud. Perhaps Aubert knew something against you. Some act of + poisoning, or abortion, in which you had been concerned? Many witnesses + have believed this. + </p> + <p> + Your mother-in-law is said to have remarked, "My son-in-law will end in + jail." + </p> + <p> + Fenayrou (bursting into tears): This is too dreadful. + </p> + <p> + President: And Dr. Durand, an old friend of Aubert, remembers the deceased + saying to him, "One has nothing to fear from people one holds in one's + hands." + </p> + <p> + Fenayrou: I don't know what he meant. + </p> + <p> + President: Or, considering the cruelty, cowardice, the cold calculation + displayed in the commission of the crime, shall we say this was a woman's + not a man's revenge. You have said your wife acted as your slave—was + it not the other way about? + </p> + <p> + Fenayrou: No; it was my revenge, mine alone. + </p> + <p> + The view that regarded Mme. Fenayrou as a soft, malleable paste was not + the view of the President. + </p> + <p> + "Why," he asked the woman, "did you commit this horrible murder, decoy + your lover to his death?" "Because I had repented," was the answer; "I had + wronged my husband, and since he had been condemned for fraud, I loved him + the more for being unfortunate. And then I feared for my children." + </p> + <p> + President: Is that really the case? + </p> + <p> + Mme. Fenayrou: Certainly it is. + </p> + <p> + President: Then your whole existence has been one of lies and hypocrisy. + Whilst you were deceiving your husband and teaching your children to + despise him you were covering him with caresses. + </p> + <p> + You have played false to both husband and lover—to Aubert in + decoying him to his death, to your husband by denouncing him directly you + were arrested. You have betrayed everybody. The only person you have not + betrayed is yourself. What sort of a woman are you? As you and Aubert went + into the drawing-room on the evening of the murder you said loudly, "This + is the way," so that your husband, hearing your voice outside, should not + strike you by mistake in the darkness. If Lucien had not told us that you + attacked Aubert whilst he was struggling with your husband, we should + never have known it, for you would never have admitted it, and your + husband has all along refused to implicate you.... You have said that you + had ceased to care for your lover: he had ceased to care for you. He was + prosperous, happy, about to marry: you hated him, and you showed your hate + when, during the murder, you flung yourself upon him and cried, "Wretch!" + Is that the behaviour of a woman who represents herself to have been the + timid slave of her husband? No. This crime is the revenge of a cowardly + and pitiless woman, who writes down in her account book the expenses of + the trip to Chatou and, after the murder, picnics merrily in the green + fields. It was you who steeled your husband to the task. + </p> + <p> + How far the President was justified in thus inverting the parts played by + the husband and wife in the crime must be a matter of opinion. In his + volume of Souvenirs M. Berard des Glajeux modifies considerably the view + which he perhaps felt it his duty to express in his interrogatory of + Gabrielle Fenayrou. He describes her as soft and flexible by nature, the + repentant slave of her husband, seeking to atone for her wrong to him by + helping him in his revenge. The one feature in the character of Mme. + Fenayrou that seems most clearly demonstrated is its absolute + insensibility under any circumstances whatsoever. + </p> + <p> + The submissive Lucien had little to say for himself, nor could any motive + for joining in the murder beyond a readiness to oblige his brother be + suggested. In his Souvenirs M. Berard des Glajeux states that to-day it + would seem to be clearly established that Lucien acted blindly at the + bidding of his sister-in-law, "qu'il avait beaucoup aimee et qui n'avait + pas ete cruelle a son egard." + </p> + <p> + The evidence recapitulated for the most part the facts already set out. + The description of Mme. Fenayrou by the gentleman on the sporting + newspaper who had succeeded Aubert in her affections is, under the + circumstances, interesting: "She was sad, melancholy; I questioned her, + and she told me she was married to a coarse man who neglected her, failed + to understand her, and had never loved her. I became her lover but, except + on a few occasions, our relations were those of good friends. She was a + woman with few material wants, affectionate, expansive, an idealist, one + who had suffered much and sought from without a happiness her marriage had + never brought her. I believe her to have been the blind tool of her + husband." + </p> + <p> + From motives of delicacy the evidence of this gentleman was read in his + presence; he was not examined orally. His eulogy of his mistress is loyal. + Against it may be set the words of the Procureur de la Republique, M. + Delegorgue: "Never has a more thorough-paced, a more hideous monster been + seated in the dock of an assize court. This woman is the personification + of falsehood, depravity, cowardice and treachery. She is worthy of the + supreme penalty." The jury were not of this opinion. They preferred to + regard Mme. Fenayrou as playing a secondary part to that of her husband. + They accorded in both her case and that of Lucien extenuating + circumstances. The woman was sentenced to penal servitude for life, Lucien + to seven years. Fenayrou, for whose conduct the jury could find no + extenuation, was condemned to death. + </p> + <p> + It is the custom in certain assize towns for the President, after + pronouncing sentence, to visit a prisoner who had been ordered for + execution. M. Berard des Glajeux describes his visit to Fenayrou at + Versailles. He was already in prison dress, sobbing. + </p> + <p> + His iron nature, which during five days had never flinched, had broken + down; but it was not for himself he wept, but for his wife, his children, + his brother; of his own fate he took no account. At the same moment his + wife was in the lodge of the courthouse waiting for the cab that was to + take her to her prison. Freed from the anxieties of the trial, knowing her + life to be spared, without so much as a thought for the husband whom she + had never loved, she had tidied herself up, and now, with all the ease of + a woman, whose misfortunes have not destroyed her self-possession, was + doing the honours of the jail. It was she who received her judge. + </p> + <p> + But Fenayrou was not to die. The Court of Cassation, to which he had made + the usual appeal after condemnation, decided that the proceedings at + Versailles had been vitiated by the fact that the evidence of Gabrielle + Fenayrou's second lover had not been taken ORALLY, within the requirements + of the criminal code; consequently a new trial was ordered before the + Paris Assize Court. This second trial, which commenced on October 12, + saved Fenayrou's head. The Parisian jury showed themselves more lenient + than their colleagues at Versailles. Not only was Fenayrou accorded + extenuating circumstances, but Lucien was acquitted altogether. The only + person to whom these new proceedings brought no benefit was Mme. Fenayrou, + whose sentence remained unaltered. + </p> + <p> + Marin Fenayrou was sent to New Caledonia to serve his punishment. + </p> + <p> + There he was allowed to open a dispensary, but, proving dishonest, he lost + his license and became a ferryman—a very Charon for terrestrial + passengers. He died in New Caledonia of cancer of the liver. + </p> + <p> + Gabrielle Fenayrou made an exemplary prisoner, so exemplary that, owing to + her good conduct and a certain ascendancy she exercised over her + fellow-prisoners, she was made forewoman of one of the workshops. Whilst + holding this position she had the honour of receiving, among those + entrusted to her charge, another Gabrielle, murderess, Gabrielle Bompard, + the history of whose crime is next to be related. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Eyraud and Bompard + </h2> + <p> + There are accounts of this case in Bataille "Causes Criminelles et + Mondaines," 1890, and in Volume X. of Fouquier "Causes Celebres." + "L'Affaire Gouffe" by Dr. Lacassagne, Lyons, 1891, and Goron "L'Amour + Criminel" may be consulted. + </p> + <p> + ON July 27, in the year 1889, the Parisian police were informed of the + disappearance of one Gouffe, a bailiff. He had been last seen by two + friends on the Boulevard Montmartre at about ten minutes past seven on the + evening of the 26th, a Friday. Since then nothing had been heard of him, + either at his office in the Rue Montmartre, or at his private house in the + Rue Rougemont. This was surprising in the case of a man of regular habits + even in his irregularities, robust health, and cheerful spirits. + </p> + <p> + Gouffe was a widower, forty-two years of age. He had three daughters who + lived happily with him in the Rue Rougemont. He did a good trade as + bailiff and process-server, and at times had considerable sums of money in + his possession. These he would never leave behind him at his office, but + carry home at the end of the day's work, except on Fridays. Friday nights + Gouffe always spent away from home. As the society he sought on these + nights was of a promiscuous character, he was in the habit of leaving at + his office any large sum of money that had come into his hands during the + day. + </p> + <p> + About nine o'clock on this particular Friday night, July 26, the + hall-porter at Gouffe's office in the Rue Montmartre heard someone, whom + he had taken at first to be the bailiff himself, enter the hall and go + upstairs to the office, where he remained a few minutes. As he descended + the stairs the porter came out of his lodge and, seeing it was a stranger, + accosted him. But the man hurried away without giving the porter time to + see his face. + </p> + <p> + When the office was examined the next day everything was found in perfect + order, and a sum of 14,000 francs, hidden away behind some papers, + untouched. The safe had not been tampered with; there was, in short, + nothing unusual about the room except ten long matches that were lying + half burnt on the floor. + </p> + <p> + On hearing of the bailiff's disappearance and the mysterious visitor to + his office, the police, who were convinced that Gouffe had been the victim + of some criminal design, inquired closely into his habits, his friends, + his associates, men and women. But the one man who could have breathed the + name that would have set the police on the track of the real culprits was, + for reasons of his own, silent. The police examined many persons, but + without arriving at any useful result. + </p> + <p> + However, on August 15, in a thicket at the foot of a slope running down + from the road that passes through the district of Millery, about ten miles + from Lyons, a roadmender, attracted by a peculiar smell, discovered the + remains of what appeared to be a human body. They were wrapped in a cloth, + but so decomposed as to make identification almost impossible. M. Goron, + at that time head of the Parisian detective police, believed them to be + the remains of Gouffe, but a relative of the missing man, whom he sent to + Lyons, failed to identify them. Two days after the discovery of the + corpse, there were found near Millery the broken fragments of a trunk, the + lock of which fitted a key that had been picked up near the body. A label + on the trunk showed that it had been dispatched from Paris to Lyons on + July 27, 188—, but the final figure of the date was obliterated. + Reference to the books of the railway company showed that on July 27, + 1889, the day following the disappearance of Gouffe, a trunk similar in + size and weight to that found near Millery had been sent from Paris to + Lyons. + </p> + <p> + The judicial authorities at Lyons scouted the idea that either the corpse + or the trunk found at Millery had any connection with the disappearance of + Gouffe. When M. Goron, bent on following up what he believed to be + important clues, went himself to Lyons he found that the remains, after + being photographed, had been interred in the common burying-ground. The + young doctor who had made the autopsy produced triumphantly some hair + taken from the head of the corpse and showed M. Goron that whilst Gouffe's + hair was admittedly auburn and cut short, this was black, and had + evidently been worn long. M. Goron, after looking carefully at the hair, + asked for some distilled water. He put the lock of hair into it and, after + a few minutes' immersion, cleansed of the blood, grease and dust that had + caked them together, the hairs appeared clearly to be short and auburn. + The doctor admitted his error. + </p> + <p> + Fortified by this success, Goron was able to procure the exhumation of the + body. A fresh autopsy was performed by Dr. Lacassagne, the eminent medical + jurist of the Lyons School of Medicine. He was able to pronounce with + certainty that the remains were those of the bailiff, Gouffe. An injury to + the right ankle, a weakness of the right leg, the absence of a particular + tooth and other admitted peculiarities in Gouffe's physical conformation, + were present in the corpse, placing its identity beyond question. This + second post-mortem revealed furthermore an injury to the thyroid cartilage + of the larynx that had been inflicted beyond any doubt whatever, declared + Dr. Lacassagne, before death. + </p> + <p> + There was little reason to doubt that Gouffe had been the victim of murder + by strangulation. + </p> + <p> + But by whom had the crime been committed? It was now the end of November. + Four months had passed since the bailiff's murder, and the police had no + clue to its perpetrators. At one time a friend of Gouffe's had been + suspected and placed under arrest, but he was released for want of + evidence. + </p> + <p> + One day toward the close of November, in the course of a conversation with + M. Goron, a witness who had known Gouffe surprised him by saying abruptly, + "There's another man who disappeared about the same time as Gouffe." M. + Goron pricked up his ears. The witness explained that he had not mentioned + the fact before, as he had not connected it with his friend's + disappearance; the man's name, he said, was Eyraud, Michel Eyraud, M. + Goron made some inquires as to this Michel Eyraud. He learnt that he was a + married man, forty-six years of age, once a distiller at Sevres, recently + commission-agent to a bankrupt firm, that he had left France suddenly, + about the time of the disappearance of Gouffe, and that he had a mistress, + one Gabrielle Bompard, who had disappeared with him. Instinctively M. + Goron connected this fugitive couple with the fate of the murdered + bailiff. + </p> + <p> + Confirmation of his suspicions was to come from London. The remains of the + trunk found at Millery had been skilfully put together and exposed at the + Morgue in Paris, whilst the Gouffe family had offered a reward of 500 + francs to anybody who could in any way identify the trunk. Beyond + producing a large crop of anonymous letters, in one of which the crime was + attributed to General Boulanger, then in Jersey, these measures seemed + likely to prove fruitless. But one day in December, from the keeper of a + boarding-house in Gower Street, M. Goron received a letter informing him + that the writer believed that Eyraud and Gabrielle Bompard had stayed + recently at his house, and that on July 14 the woman, whom he knew only as + "Gabrielle," had left for France, crossing by Newhaven and Dieppe, and + taking with her a large and almost empty trunk, which she had purchased in + London. Inquires made by the French detectives established the correctness + of this correspondent's information. An assistant at a trunk shop in the + Euston Road was able to identify the trunk—brought over from Paris + for the purpose—as one purchased in his shop on July 12 by a + Frenchman answering to the description of Michel Eyraud. The wife of the + boarding-house keeper recollected having expressed to Gabrielle her + surprise that she should buy such an enormous piece of luggage when she + had only one dress to put into it. "Oh that's all right," answered + Gabrielle smilingly, "we shall have plenty to fill it with in Paris!" + Gabrielle had gone to Paris with the trunk on July 14, come back to London + on the 17th, and on the 20th she and Eyraud returned together to Paris + From these facts it seemed more than probable that these two were the + assassins so eagerly sought for by the police, and it seemed clear also + that the murder had been done in Paris. But what had become of this + couple, in what street, in what house in Paris had the crime been + committed? These were questions the police were powerless to answer. + </p> + <p> + The year 1889 came to an end, the murderers were still at large. But on + January 21, 1890, M. Goron found lying on his table a large letter bearing + the New York postmark. He opened it, and to his astonishment read at the + end the signature "Michel Eyraud." It was a curious letter, but + undoubtedly genuine. In it Eyraud protested against the suspicions + directed against himself; they were, he wrote, merely unfortunate + coincidences. Gouffe had been his friend; he had had no share whatever in + his death; his only misfortune had been his association with "that + serpent, Gabrielle Bompard." He had certainly bought a large trunk for + her, but she told him that she had sold it. They had gone to America + together, he to avoid financial difficulties in which he had been involved + by the dishonesty of the Jews. There Gabrielle had deserted him for + another man. He concluded a very long letter by declaring his belief in + Gabrielle's innocence—"the great trouble with her is that she is + such a liar and also has a dozen lovers after her." He promised that, as + soon as he learnt that Gabrielle had returned to Paris, he would, of his + own free will, place himself in the hands of M. Goron. + </p> + <p> + He was to have an early opportunity of redeeming his pledge, for on the + day following the receipt of his letter a short, well-made woman, dressed + neatly in black, with dyed hair, greyish-blue eyes, good teeth, a + disproportionately large head and a lively and intelligent expression of + face, presented herself at the Prefecture of Police and asked for an + interview with the Prefect. + </p> + <p> + Requested to give her name, she replied, with a smile, "Gabrielle + Bompard." She was accompanied by a middle-aged gentleman, who appeared to + be devoted to her. Gabrielle Bompard and her friend were taken to the + private room of M. Loze, the Prefect of Police. There, in a half-amused + way, without the least concern, sitting at times on the edge of the + Prefect's writing-table, Gabrielle Bompard told how she had been the + unwilling accomplice of her lover, Eyraud, in the murder of the bailiff, + Gouffe. The crime, she stated, had been committed in No. 3 in the Rue + Tronson-Ducoudray, but she had not been present; she knew nothing of it + but what had been told her by Eyraud. After the murder she had accompanied + him to America; there they had met the middle-aged gentleman, her + companion. Eyraud had proposed that they should murder and rob him, but + she had divulged the plot to the gentleman and asked him to take her away. + It was acting on his advice that she had returned to France, determined to + give her evidence to the judicial authorities in Paris. The middle-aged + gentleman declared himself ready to vouch for the truth of a great part of + this interesting narrative. There they both imagined apparently that the + affair would be ended. They were extremely surprised when the Prefect, + after listening to their statements, sent for a detective-inspector who + showed Gabrielle Bompard a warrant for her arrest. After an affecting + parting, at least on the part of the middle-aged gentleman, Gabrielle + Bompard was taken to prison. There she soon recovered her spirits, which + had at no time been very gravely depressed by her critical situation. + </p> + <p> + According to Eyraud's letters, if anyone knew anything about Gouffe's + murder, it was Gabrielle Bompard; according to the woman's statement, it + was Eyraud, and Eyraud alone, who had committed it. As they were both + liars—the woman perhaps the greater liar of the two—their + statements are not to be taken as other than forlorn attempts to shift the + blame on to each other's shoulders. + </p> + <p> + Before extracting from their various avowals, which grew more complete as + time went on, the story of the crime, let us follow Eyraud in his flight + from justice, which terminated in the May of 1890 by his arrest in Havana. + </p> + <p> + Immediately after the arrest of Gabrielle, two French detectives set out + for America to trace and run down if possible her deserted lover. For more + than a month they traversed Canada and the United States in search of + their prey. The track of the fugitive was marked from New York to San + Francisco by acts of thieving and swindling. At the former city he had + made the acquaintance of a wealthy Turk, from whom, under the pretence of + wishing to be photographed in it, he had borrowed a magnificent oriental + robe. The photograph was taken, but Eyraud forgot to return the costly + robe. + </p> + <p> + At another time he was lodging in the same house as a young American + actor, called in the French accounts of the incident "Sir Stout." To "Sir + Stout" Eyraud would appear to have given a most convincing performance of + the betrayed husband; his wife, he said, had deserted him for another man; + he raved and stormed audibly in his bedroom, deploring his fate and vowing + vengeance. These noisy representations so impressed "Sir Stout" that, on + the outraged husband declaring himself to be a Mexican for the moment + without funds, the benevolent comedian lent him eighty dollars, which, it + is almost needless to add, he never saw again. In narrating this incident + to the French detectives, "Sir Stout" describes Eyraud's performance as + great, surpassing even those of Coquelin. + </p> + <p> + Similar stories of theft and debauchery met the detectives at every turn, + but, helped in a great measure by the publicity the American newspapers + gave to the movements of his pursuers, Eyraud was able to elude them, and + in March they returned to France to concert further plans for his capture. + </p> + <p> + Eyraud had gone to Mexico. From there he had written a letter to M. + Rochefort's newspaper, L'Intransigeant, in which he declared Gouffe to + have been murdered by Gabrielle and an unknown. But, when official + inquiries were made in Mexico as to his whereabouts, the bird had flown. + </p> + <p> + At Havana, in Cuba, there lived a French dressmaker and clothes-merchant + named Puchen. In the month of February a stranger, ragged and unkempt, but + evidently a fellow-countryman, visited her shop and offered to sell her a + superb Turkish costume. The contrast between the wretchedness of the + vendor and the magnificence of his wares struck Madame Puchen at the time. + But her surprise was converted into suspicion when she read in the + American newspapers a description of the Turkish garment stolen by Michel + Eyraud, the reputed assassin of the bailiff Gouffe. It was one morning in + the middle of May that Mme. Puchen read the description of the robe that + had been offered her in February by her strange visitor. To her + astonishment, about two o'clock the same afternoon, she saw the stranger + standing before her door. She beckoned to him, and asked him if he still + had his Turkish robe with him; he seemed confused, and said that he had + sold it. The conversation drifted on to ordinary topics; the stranger + described some of his recent adventures in Mexico. "Oh!" exclaimed the + dressmaker, "they say Eyraud, the murderer, is in Mexico! Did you come + across him? Were you in Paris at the time of the murder?" The stranger + answered in the negative, but his face betrayed his uneasiness. "Do you + know you're rather like him?" said the woman, in a half-joking way. The + stranger laughed, and shortly after went out, saying he would return. He + did return on May 15, bringing with him a number of the Republique + Illustree that contained an almost unrecognisable portrait of Eyraud. He + said he had picked it up in a cafe. "What a blackguard he looks!" he + exclaimed as he threw the paper on the table. But the dressmaker's + suspicions were not allayed by the stranger's uncomplimentary reference to + the murderer. As soon as he had gone, she went to the French Consul and + told him her story. + </p> + <p> + By one of those singular coincidences that are inadmissable in fiction or + drama, but occur at times in real life, there happened to be in Havana, of + all places, a man who had been employed by Eyraud at the time that he had + owned a distillery at Sevres. The Consul, on hearing the statement of Mme. + Puchen, sent for this man and told him that a person believed to be Eyraud + was in Havana. As the man left the Consulate, whom should he meet in the + street but Eyraud himself! The fugitive had been watching the movements of + Mme. Puchen; he had suspected, after the interview, that the woman would + denounce him to the authorities. He now saw that disguise was useless. He + greeted his ex-employe, took him into a cafe, there admitted his identity + and begged him not to betray him. It was midnight when they left the cafe. + Eyraud, repenting of his confidence, and no doubt anxious to rid himself + of a dangerous witness, took his friend into an ill-lighted and deserted + street; but the friend, conscious of his delicate situation, hailed a + passing cab and made off as quickly as he could. + </p> + <p> + Next day, the 20th, the search for Eyraud was set about in earnest. The + Spanish authorities, informed of his presence in Havana, directed the + police to spare no effort to lay hands on him. The Hotel Roma, at which he + had been staying, was visited; but Eyraud, scenting danger, had gone to an + hotel opposite the railway station. His things were packed ready for + flight on the following morning. How was he to pass the night? True to his + instincts, a house of ill-fame, at which he had been entertained already, + seemed the safest and most pleasant refuge; but, when, seedy and shabby, + he presented himself at the door, he was sent back into the street. It was + past one in the morning. The lonely murderer wandered aimlessly in the + streets, restless, nervous, a prey to apprehension, not knowing where to + go. Again the man from Sevres met him. "It's all up with me!" said Eyraud, + and disappeared in the darkness. At two in the morning a police officer, + who had been patrolling the town in search of the criminal, saw, in the + distance, a man walking to and fro, seemingly uncertain which way to turn. + Hearing footsteps the man turned round and walked resolutely past the + policeman, saying good-night in Spanish. "Who are you? What's your + address?" the officer asked abruptly. "Gorski, Hotel Roma!" was the + answer. This was enough for the officer. Eyraud was know{sic} to have + passed as "Gorski," the Hotel Roma had already been searched as one of his + hiding-places. To seize and handcuff "Gorski" was the work of a moment. An + examination of the luggage left by the so-called Gorski at his last hotel + and a determined attempt at suicide made by their prisoner during the + night proved conclusively that to the Spanish police was the credit of + having laid by the heels, ten months after the commission of the crime, + Michel Eyraud, one of the assassins of the bailiff Gouffe. + </p> + <p> + On June 16 Eyraud was delivered over to the French police. He reached + France on the 20th, and on July 1 made his first appearance before the + examining magistrate. + </p> + <p> + It will be well at this point in the narrative to describe how Eyraud and + Gabrielle Bompard came to be associated together in crime. Gabrielle + Bompard was twenty-two years of age at the time of her arrest, the fourth + child of a merchant of Lille, a strong, hardworking, respectable man. Her + mother, a delicate woman, had died of lung disease when Gabrielle was + thirteen. Even as a child lying and vicious, thinking only of men and + clothes, Gabrielle, after being expelled as incorrigible from four + educational establishments, stayed at a fifth for some three years. There + she astonished those in authority over her by her precocious propensity + for vice, her treacherous and lying disposition, and a lewdness of tongue + rare in one of her age and comparative inexperience. At eighteen she + returned to her father's house, only to quit it for a lover whom, she + alleged, had hypnotised and then seduced her. Gabrielle was singularly + susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. Her father implored the family doctor + to endeavour to persuade her, while in the hypnotic state, to reform her + deplorable conduct. The doctor did his best but with no success. He + declared Gabrielle to be a neuropath, who had not found in her home such + influences as would have tended to overcome her vicious instincts. Perhaps + the doctor was inclined to sympathise rather too readily with his patient, + if we are to accept the report of those distinguished medical gentlemen + who, at a later date, examined carefully into the mental and physical + characteristics of Gabrielle Bompard. + </p> + <p> + This girl of twenty had developed into a supreme instance of the "unmoral" + woman, the conscienceless egoist, morally colour-blind, vain, lewd, the + intelligence quick and alert but having no influence whatever on conduct. + One instance will suffice to show the sinister levity, the utter absence + of all moral sense in this strange creature. + </p> + <p> + After the murder of Gouffe, Gabrielle spent the night alone with the trunk + containing the bailiff's corpse. Asked by M. Goron what were her + sensations during this ghastly vigil, she replied with a smile, "You'd + never guess what a funny idea come into my head! You see it was not very + pleasant for me being thus tete-a-tete with a corpse, I couldn't sleep. So + I thought what fun it would be to go into the street and pick up some + respectable gentleman from the provinces. I'd bring him up to the room, + and just as he was beginning to enjoy himself say, 'Would you like to see + a bailiff?' open the trunk suddenly and, before he could recover from his + horror, run out into the street and fetch the police. Just think what a + fool the respectable gentleman would have looked when the officers came!" + </p> + <p> + Such callousness is almost unsurpassed in the annals of criminal + insensibility. Nero fiddling over burning Rome, Thurtell fresh from the + murder of Weare, inviting Hunt, the singer and his accomplice, to "tip + them a stave" after supper, Edwards, the Camberwell murderer, reading with + gusto to friends the report of a fashionable divorce case, post from the + murder of a young married couple and their baby—even examples such + as these pale before the levity of the "little demon," as the French + detectives christened Gabrielle. + </p> + <p> + Such was Gabrielle Bompard when, on July 26, exactly one year to a day + before the murder of Gouffe, she met in Paris Michel Eyraud. These two + were made for each other. If Gabrielle were unmoral, Eyraud was immoral. + Forty-six at the time of Gouffe's murder, he was sufficiently practised in + vice to appreciate and enjoy the flagrantly vicious propensities of the + young Gabrielle. All his life Eyraud had spent his substance in + debauchery. His passions were violent and at times uncontrollable, but + unlike many remarkable men of a similar temperament, this strong animalism + was not in his case accompanied by a capacity for vigorous intellectual + exertion or a great power of work. "Understand this," said Eyraud to one + of the detectives who brought him back to France, "I have never done any + work, and I never will do any work." To him work was derogatory; better + anything than that. Unfortunately it could not be avoided altogether, but + with Eyraud such work as he was compelled at different times to endure was + only a means for procuring money for his degraded pleasures, and when + honest work became too troublesome, dishonesty served in its stead. When + he met Gabrielle he was almost at the end of his tether, bankrupt and + discredited. At a pinch he might squeeze a little money out of his wife, + with whom he continued to live in spite of his open infidelities. + </p> + <p> + Save for such help as he could get from her small dowry, he was without + resources. A deserter from the army during the Mexican war in 1869, he had + since then engaged in various commercial enterprises, all of which had + failed, chiefly through his own extravagance, violence and dishonesty. + Gabrielle was quick to empty his pockets of what little remained in them. + The proceeds of her own immorality, which Eyraud was quite ready to share, + soon proved insufficient to replenish them. Confronted with ruin, Eyraud + and Gompard hit on a plan by which the woman should decoy some would-be + admirer to a convenient trysting-place. There, dead or alive, the victim + was to be made the means of supplying their wants. + </p> + <p> + On further reflection dead seemed more expedient than alive, extortion + from a living victim too risky an enterprise. Their plans were carefully + prepared. Gabrielle was to hire a ground-floor apartment, so that any + noise, such as footsteps or the fall of a body, would not be heard by + persons living underneath. + </p> + <p> + At the beginning of July, 1889, Eyraud and Bompard were in London. There + they bought at a West End draper's a red and white silk girdle, and at a + shop in Gower Street a large travelling trunk. They bought, also in + London, about thirteen feet of cording, a pulley and, on returning to + Paris on July 20, some twenty feet of packing-cloth, which Gabrielle, + sitting at her window on the fine summer evenings, sewed up into a large + bag. + </p> + <p> + The necessary ground-floor apartment had been found at No. 3 Rue + Tronson-Ducoudray. Here Gabrielle installed herself on July 24. The + bedroom was convenient for the assassins' purpose, the bed standing in an + alcove separated by curtains from the rest of the room. To the beam + forming the crosspiece at the entrance into the alcove Eyraud fixed a + pulley. Through the pulley ran a rope, having at one end of it a swivel, + so that a man, hiding behind the curtains could, by pulling the rope + strongly, haul up anything that might be attached to the swivel at the + other end. It was with the help of this simple piece of mechanism and a + good long pull from Eyraud that the impecunious couple hoped to refill + their pockets. + </p> + <p> + The victim was chosen on the 25th. Eyraud had already known of Gouffe's + existence, but on that day, Thursday, in a conversation with a common + friend, Eyraud learnt that the bailiff Gouffe was rich, that he was in the + habit of having considerable sums of money in his care, and that on Friday + nights Gouffe made it his habit to sleep from home. There was no time to + lose. The next day Gabrielle accosted Gouffe as he was going to his + dejeuner and, after some little conversation agreed to meet him at eight + o'clock that evening. + </p> + <p> + The afternoon was spent in preparing for the bailiff's reception in the + Rue Tronson-Ducoudray. A lounge-chair was so arranged that it stood with + its back to the alcove, within which the pulley and rope had been fixed by + Eyraud. Gouffe was to sit on the chair, Gabrielle on his knee. Gabrielle + was then playfully to slip round his neck, in the form of a noose, the + cord of her dressing gown and, unseen by him, attach one end of it to the + swivel of the rope held by Eyraud. Her accomplice had only to give a + strong pull and the bailiff's course was run.(17) + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (17) One writer on the case has suggested that the story of the murder +by rope and pulley was invented by Eyraud and Bompard to mitigate the +full extent of their guilt, and that the bailiff was strangled while +in bed with the woman. But the purchase of the necessary materials in +London would seem to imply a more practical motive for the use of rope +and pulley. +</pre> + <p> + At six o'clock Eyraud and Bompard dined together, after which Eyraud + returned to the apartment, whilst Bompard went to meet Gouffe near the + Madeline Church. What occurred afterwards at No. 3 Rue Tronson-Ducoudray + is best described in the statement made by Eyraud at his trial. + </p> + <p> + "At a quarter past eight there was a ring at the bell. I hid myself behind + the curtain. Gouffe came in. 'You've a nice little nest here,' he said. + 'Yes, a fancy of mine,' replied Gabrielle, 'Eyraud knows nothing about + it.' 'Oh, you're tired of him,' asked Gouffe. 'Yes,' she replied, 'that's + all over.' Gabrielle drew Gouffe down on to the chair. She showed him the + cord of her dressing-gown and said that a wealthy admirer had given it to + her. 'Very elegant,' said Gouffe, 'but I didn't come here to see that.' + </p> + <p> + "She then sat on his knee and, as if in play, slipped the cord round his + neck; then putting her hand behind him, she fixed the end of the cord into + the swivel, and said to him laughingly, 'What a nice necktie it makes!' + That was the signal. Eyraud pulled the cord vigorously and, in two + minutes, Gouffe had ceased to live." + </p> + <p> + Eyraud took from the dead man his watch and ring, 150 francs and his keys. + With these he hurried to Gouffe's office and made a fevered search for + money. It was fruitless. In his trembling haste the murderer missed a sum + of 14,000 francs that was lying behind some papers, and returned, baffled + and despairing, to his mistress and the corpse. The crime had been a + ghastly failure. Fortified by brandy and champagne, and with the help of + the woman, Eyraud stripped the body, put it into the bag that had been + sewn by Gabrielle, and pushed the bag into the trunk. Leaving his mistress + to spend the night with their hateful luggage, Eyraud returned home and, + in his own words, "worn out by the excitement of the day, slept heavily." + </p> + <p> + The next day Eyraud, after saying good-bye to his wife and daughter, left + with Gabrielle for Lyons. On the 28th they got rid at Millery of the body + of Gouffe and the trunk in which it had travelled; his boots and clothes + they threw into the sea at Marseilles. There Eyraud borrowed 500 francs + from his brother. Gabrielle raised 2,000 francs in Paris, where they spent + August 18 and 19, after which they left for England, and from England + sailed for America. During their short stay in Paris Eyraud had the + audacity to call at the apartment in the Rue Tronson-Ducoudray for his + hat, which he had left behind; in the hurry of the crime he had taken away + Gouffe's by mistake. + </p> + <p> + Eyraud had been brought back to Paris from Cuba at the end of June, 1890. + Soon after his return, in the room in which Gouffe had been done to death + and in the presence of the examining magistrate, M. Goron, and some + fifteen other persons, Eyraud was confronted with his accomplice. Each + denied vehemently, with hatred and passion, the other's story. Neither + denied the murder, but each tried to represent the other as the more + guilty of the two. Eyraud said that the suggestion and plan of the crime + had come from Gabrielle; that she had placed around Gouffe's neck the cord + that throttled him. Gabrielle attributed the inception of the murder to + Eyraud, and said that he had strangled the bailiff with his own hands. + </p> + <p> + Eyraud, since his return, had seemed indifferent to his own fate; whatever + it might be, he wished that his mistress should share it. He had no + objection to going to the guillotine as long as he was sure that Gabrielle + would accompany him. She sought to escape such a consummation by + representing herself as a mere instrument in Eyraud's hands. It was even + urged in her defence that, in committing the crime, she had acted under + the influence of hypnotic suggestion on the part of her accomplice. Three + doctors appointed by the examining magistrate to report on her mental + state came unanimously to the conclusion that, though undoubtedly + susceptible to hypnotic suggestion, there was no ground for thinking that + she had been acting under such influence when she participated in the + murder of Gouffe. Intellectually the medical gentlemen found her alert and + sane enough, but morally blind. + </p> + <p> + The trial of Eyraud and Bompard took place before the Paris Assize Court + on December 16, 1890. It had been delayed owing to the proceedings of an + enterprising journalist. The names of the jurymen who were to be called on + to serve at the assize had been published. The journalist conceived the + brilliant idea of interviewing some of these gentlemen. + </p> + <p> + He succeeded in seeing four of them, but in his article which appeared in + the Matin newspaper said that he had seen twenty-one. Nine of them, he + stated, had declared themselves in favour of Gabrielle Bompard, but in + some of these he had discerned a certain "eroticism of the pupil of the + eye" to which he attributed their leniency. A month's imprisonment was the + reward of these flights of journalistic imagination. + </p> + <p> + A further scandal in connection with the trial was caused by the lavish + distribution of tickets of admission to all sorts and kinds of persons by + the presiding judge, M. Robert, whose occasional levities in the course of + the proceedings are melancholy reading. As a result of his indulgence a + circular was issued shortly after the trial by M. Fallieres, then Minister + of Justice, limiting the powers of presidents of assize in admitting + visitors into the reserved part of the court. + </p> + <p> + The proceedings at the trial added little to the known facts of the case. + Both Eyraud and Bompard continued to endeavour to shift the blame on to + each other's shoulders. A curious feature of the trial was the appearance + for the defence of a M. Liegeois, a professor of law at Nancy. To the + dismay of the Court, he took advantage of a clause in the Code of Criminal + Instruction which permits a witness to give his evidence without + interruption, to deliver an address lasting four hours on hypnotic + suggestion. He undertook to prove that, not only Gabrielle Bompard, but + Troppmann, Madame Weiss, and Gabrielle Fenayrou also, had committed murder + under the influence of suggestion.(18) In replying to this rather + fantastic defence, the Procureur-General, M. Quesnay de Beaurepaire, + quoted a statement of Dr. Brouardel, the eminent medical jurist who had + been called for the prosecution, that "there exists no instance of a + crime, or attempted crime committed under the influence of hypnotic + suggestion." As to the influence of Eyraud over Bompard, M. de Beaurepaire + said: "The one outstanding fact that has been eternally true for six + thousand years is that the stronger will can possess the weaker: that is + no peculiar part of the history of hypnotism; it belongs to the history of + the world. Dr. Liegeois himself, in coming to this court to-day, has + fallen a victim to the suggestion of the young advocate who has persuaded + him to come here to air his theories." The Court wisely declined to allow + an attempt to be made to hypnotise the woman Bompard in the presence of + her judges, and M. Henri Robert, her advocate, in his appeal to the jury, + threw over altogether any idea of hypnotic suggestion, resting his plea on + the moral weakness and irresponsibility of his client. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + (18) Moll in his "Hypnotism" (London, 1909) states that, after Gabrielle +Bompard's release M. Liegeois succeeded in putting her into a hypnotic +state, in which she reacted the scene in which the crime was originally +suggested to her. The value of such experiments with a woman as +mischievous and untruthful as Gabrielle Bompard must be very doubtful. +No trustworthy instance seems to be recorded in which a crime has +been committed under, or brought about by, hypnotic or post-hypnotic +suggestion, though, according to Moll, "the possibility of such a crime +cannot be unconditionally denied." +</pre> + <p> + In sheer wickedness there seems little enough to choose between Eyraud and + Bompard. But, in asking a verdict without extenuating circumstances + against the woman, the Procureur-General was by no means insistent. He + could not, he said, ask for less, his duty would not permit it: "But I am + ready to confess that my feelings as a man suffer by the duty imposed on + me as a magistrate. On one occasion, at the outset of my career, it fell + to my lot to ask from a jury the head of a woman. I felt then the same + kind of distress of mind I feel to-day. The jury rejected my demand; they + accorded extenuating circumstances; though defeated, I left the court a + happier man. What are you going to do to-day, gentlemen? It rests with + you. What I cannot ask of you, you have the right to accord. But when the + supreme moment comes to return your verdict, remember that you have sworn + to judge firmly and fearlessly." The jury accorded extenuating + circumstances to the woman, but refused them to the man. After a trial + lasting four days Eyraud was sentenced to death, Bompard to twenty years + penal servitude. + </p> + <p> + At first Eyraud appeared to accept his fate with resignation. He wrote to + his daughter that he was tired of life, and that his death was the best + thing that could happen for her mother and herself. But, as time went on + and the efforts of his advocate to obtain a commutation of his sentence + held out some hope of reprieve, Eyraud became more reluctant to quit the + world. + </p> + <p> + "There are grounds for a successful appeal," he wrote, "I am pretty + certain that my sentence will be commuted.... You ask me what I do? + Nothing much. I can't write; the pens are so bad. I read part of the time, + smoke pipes, and sleep a great deal. Sometimes I play cards, and talk a + little. I have a room as large as yours at Sevres. I walk up and down it, + thinking of you all." + </p> + <p> + But his hopes were to be disappointed. The Court of Cassation rejected his + appeal. A petition was addressed to President Carnot, but, with a firmness + that has not characterised some of his successors in office, he refused to + commute the sentence. + </p> + <p> + On the morning of February 3, 1891, Eyraud noticed that the warders, who + usually went off duty at six o'clock, remained at their posts. An hour + later the Governor of the Roquette prison entered his cell, and informed + him that the time had come for the execution of the sentence. Eyraud + received the intelligence quietly. The only excitement he betrayed was a + sudden outburst of violent animosity against M. Constans, then Minister of + the Interior. Eyraud had been a Boulangist, and so may have nourished some + resentment against the Minister who, by his adroitness, had helped to + bring about the General's ruin. Whatever his precise motive, he suddenly + exclaimed that M. Constans was his murderer: "It's he who is having me + guillotined; he's got what he wanted; I suppose now he'll decorate + Gabrielle!" He died with the name of the hated Minister on his lips. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Book of Remarkable Criminals, by H. B. 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Irving + +Release Date: February, 1996 [Etext #446] +Posting Date: November 28, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF REMARKABLE CRIMINALS *** + + + + +Produced by Mike Lough + + + + + +A BOOK OF REMARKABLE CRIMINALS + +By H.B. Irving + + +TO MY FRIEND + +E. V. LUCAS + + + +"For violence and hurt tangle every man in their toils, and for the most +part fall on the head of him from whom they had their rise; nor is it +easy for one who by his act breaks the common pact of peace to lead a +calm and quiet life." + +Lucretius on the Nature of Things. + + +Transcriber's Note: + +The upper outside corner of page 15 and 16 has been torn from the +hardcopy. The spots are marked with?? and a best guess at missing words +is in brackets. Footnotes have been moved from end of page to end of +paragraph positions, sequentially numbered. + + +Contents + + INTRODUCTION + + THE LIFE OF CHARLES PEACE: + + I. HIS EARLY YEARS + II. PEACE IN LONDON + III. HIS TRIAL AND EXECUTION + + THE CAREER OF ROBERT BUTLER: + + I. THE DUNEDIN MURDERS + II. THE TRIAL OF BUTLER + III. HIS DECLINE AND FALL + + M. DERUES: + + I. THE CLIMBING LITTLE GROCER + II. THE GAYE OF BLUFF + + DR. CASTAING: + + I. AN UNHAPPY COINCIDENCE + II. THE TRIAL OF DR. CASTAING + + PROFESSOR WEBSTER + + + THE MYSTERIOUS MR. HOLMES: + + I. HONOUR AMONGST THIEVES + II THE WANDERING ASSASSIN + + PARTNERSHIP IN CRIME: + + I. THE WIDOW GRAS + 1. THE CHARMER + 2. THE WOUNDED PIGEON + II. VITALIS AND MARIE BOYER + III. THE FENAYROU CASE + IV. EYRAUD AND BOMPARD + + + + + +A BOOK OF REMARKABLE CRIMINALS + + + + +Introduction + +"The silent workings, and still more the explosions, of human passion +which bring to light the darker elements of man's nature present to the +philosophical observer considerations of intrinsic interest; while +to the jurist, the study of human nature and human character with its +infinite varieties, especially as affecting the connection between +motive and action, between irregular desire or evil disposition and +crime itself, is equally indispensable and difficult."--_Wills on +Circumstantial Evidence_. + +I REMEMBER my father telling me that sitting up late one night talking +with Tennyson, the latter remarked that he had not kept such late +hours since a recent visit of Jowett. On that occasion the poet and +the philosopher had talked together well into the small hours of the +morning. My father asked Tennyson what was the subject of conversation +that had so engrossed them. "Murders," replied Tennyson. It would have +been interesting to have heard Tennyson and Jowett discussing such a +theme. The fact is a tribute to the interest that crime has for many +men of intellect and imagination. Indeed, how could it be otherwise? +Rob history and fiction of crime, how tame and colourless would be the +residue! We who are living and enduring in the presence of one of the +greatest crimes on record, must realise that trying as this period of +the world's history is to those who are passing through it, in the hands +of some great historian it may make very good reading for posterity. +Perhaps we may find some little consolation in this fact, like the +unhappy victims of famous freebooters such as Jack Sheppard or Charley +Peace. + +But do not let us flatter ourselves. Do not let us, in all the pomp and +circumstance of stately history, blind ourselves to the fact that the +crimes of Frederick, or Napoleon, or their successors, are in essence no +different from those of Sheppard or Peace. We must not imagine that +the bad man who happens to offend against those particular laws which +constitute the criminal code belongs to a peculiar or atavistic type, +that he is a man set apart from the rest of his fellow-men by mental or +physical peculiarities. That comforting theory of the Lombroso school +has been exploded, and the ordinary inmates of our prisons shown to be +only in a very slight degree below the average in mental and physical +fitness of the normal man, a difference easily explained by the +environment and conditions in which the ordinary criminal is bred. + +A certain English judge, asked as to the general characteristics of the +prisoners tried before him, said: "They are just like other people; +in fact, I often think that, but for different opportunities and other +accidents, the prisoner and I might very well be in one another's +places." "Greed, love of pleasure," writes a French judge, "lust, +idleness, anger, hatred, revenge, these are the chief causes of crime. +These passions and desires are shared by rich and poor alike, by the +educated and uneducated. They are inherent in human nature; the germ is +in every man." + +Convicts represent those wrong-doers who have taken to a particular form +of wrong-doing punishable by law. Of the larger army of bad men +they represent a minority, who have been found out in a peculiarly +unsatisfactory kind of misconduct. There are many men, some lying, +unscrupulous, dishonest, others cruel, selfish, vicious, who go through +life without ever doing anything that brings them within the scope of +the criminal code, for whose offences the laws of society provide no +punishment. And so it is with some of those heroes of history who have +been made the theme of fine writing by gifted historians. + +Mr. Basil Thomson, the present head of the Criminal Investigation +Department, has said recently that a great deal of crime is due to a +spirit of "perverse adventure" on the part of the criminal. The same +might be said with equal justice of the exploits of Alexander the Great +and half the monarchs and conquerors of the world, whom we are taught +in our childhood's days to look up to as shining examples of all that a +great man should be. Because crimes are played on a great stage instead +of a small, that is no reason why our moral judgment should be suspended +or silenced. Class Machiavelli and Frederick the Great as a couple of +rascals fit to rank with Jonathan Wild, and we are getting nearer a +perception of what constitutes the real criminal. "If," said Frederick +the Great to his minister, Radziwill, "there is anything to be gained +by it, we will be honest; if deception is necessary, let us be cheats." +These are the very sentiments of Jonathan Wild. + +Crime, broadly speaking, is the attempt by fraud or violence to possess +oneself of something belonging to another, and as such the cases of it +in history are as clear as those dealt with in criminal courts. Germany +to-day has been guilty of a perverse and criminal adventure, the outcome +of that false morality applied to historical transactions, of which +Carlyle's life of Frederick is a monumental example. In that book +we have a man whose instincts in more ways than one were those of a +criminal, held up for our admiration, in the same way that the same +writer fell into dithyrambic praise over a villain called Francia, a +former President of Paraguay. A most interesting work might be written +on the great criminals of history, and might do something towards +restoring that balance of moral judgment in historical transactions, for +the perversion of which we are suffering to-day. + +In the meantime we must be content to study in the microcosm of ordinary +crime those instincts, selfish, greedy, brutal which, exploited often +by bad men in the so-called cause of nations, have wrought such havoc +to the happiness of mankind. It is not too much to say that in every +man there dwell the seeds of crime; whether they grow or are stifled +in their growth by the good that is in us is a chance mysteriously +determined. As children of nature we must not be surprised if our +instincts are not all that they should be. "In sober truth," writes +John Stuart Mill, "nearly all the things for which men are hanged or +imprisoned for doing to one another are nature's everyday performances," +and in another passage: "The course of natural phenomena being replete +with everything which when committed by human beings is most worthy of +abhorrence, anyone who endeavoured in his actions to imitate the natural +course of things would be universally seen and acknowledged to be the +wickedest of men." + +Here is explanation enough for the presence of evil in our natures, that +instinct to destroy which finds comparatively harmless expression in +certain forms of taking life, which is at its worst when we fall +to taking each other's. It is to check an inconvenient form of the +expression of this instinct that we punish murderers with death. We must +carry the definition of murder a step farther before we can count +on peace or happiness in this world. We must concentrate all our +strength on fighting criminal nature, both in ourselves and in the +world around us. With the destructive forces of nature we are waging a +perpetual struggle for our very existence. Why dissipate our strength by +fighting among ourselves? By enlarging our conception of crime we move +towards that end. What is anti-social, whether it be written in the +pages of the historian or those of the Newgate Calendar, must in the +future be regarded with equal abhorrence and subjected to equally sure +punishment. Every professor of history should now and then climb down +from the giddy heights of Thucydides and Gibbon and restore his moral +balance by comparing the acts of some of his puppets with those of their +less fortunate brethren who have dangled at the end of a rope. If this +war is to mean anything to posterity, the crime against humanity must be +judged in the future by the same rigid standard as the crime against the +person. + +The individual criminals whose careers are given in this book have been +chosen from among their fellows for their pre-eminence in character or +achievement. Some of the cases, such as Butler, Castaing and Holmes, are +new to most English readers. + +Charles Peace is the outstanding popular figure in nineteenth-century +crime. He is the type of the professional criminal who makes crime a +business and sets about it methodically and persistently to the end. +Here is a man, possessing many of those qualities which go to make the +successful man of action in all walks of life, driven by circumstances +to squander them on a criminal career. Yet it is a curious circumstance +that this determined and ruthless burglar should have suffered for what +would be classed in France as a "crime passionel." There is more than +a possibility that a French jury would have found extenuating circumstances in the murder of Dyson. The fate of Peace is only another instance of the wrecking a strong man's career by his passion for a woman. In Albert Butler we have the criminal by conviction, a conviction which finds the ground ready prepared +for its growth in the natural laziness and idleness of the man's +disposition. The desire to acquire things by a short cut, without taking +the trouble to work for them honestly, is perhaps the most fruitful of +all sources of crime. Butler, a bit of a pedant, is pleased to +justify his conduct by reason and philosophy--he finds in the acts of +unscrupulous monarchs an analogy to his own attitude towards life. What +is good enough for Caesar Borgia is good enough for Robert Butler. Like +Borgia he comes to grief; criminals succeed and criminals fail. In the +case of historical criminals their crimes are open; we can estimate the +successes and failures. With ordinary criminals, we know only those +who fail. The successful, the real geniuses in crime, those whose guilt +remains undiscovered, are for the most part unknown to us. Occasionally +in society a man or woman is pointed out as having once murdered +somebody or other, and at times, no doubt, with truth. But the matter +can only be referred to clandestinely; they are gazed at with awe or +curiosity, mute witnesses to their own achievement. Some years ago James +Payn, the novelist, hazarded the reckoning that one person in every five +hundred was an undiscovered murderer. This gives us all a hope, almost +a certainty, that we may reckon one such person at least among our +acquaintances.(1) + + + (1) The author was one of three men discussing this subject in a London +club. They were able to name six persons of their various acquaintance +who were, or had been, suspected of being successful murderers. + + +Derues is remarkable for the extent of his social ambition, the daring +and impudent character of his attempts to gratify it, the skill, the +consummate hypocrisy with which he played on the credulity of honest +folk, and his flagrant employment of that weapon known and recognised +to-day in the most exalted spheres by the expressive name of "bluff." +He is remarkable, too, for his mirth and high spirits, his genial +buffoonery; the merry murderer is a rare bird. + +Professor Webster belongs to that order of criminal of which Eugene Aram +and the Rev. John Selby Watson are our English examples, men of culture +and studious habits who suddenly burst on the astonished gaze of +their fellowmen as murderers. The exact process of mind by which these +hitherto harmless citizens are converted into assassins is to a great +extent hidden from us. + +Perhaps Webster's case is the clearest of the three. Here we have a +selfish, self-indulgent and spendthrift gentleman who has landed himself +in serious financial embarrassment, seeking by murder to escape from an +importunate and relentless creditor. He has not, apparently, the moral +courage to face the consequences of his own weakness. He forgets the +happiness of his home, the love of those dear to him, in the desire to +free himself from a disgrace insignificent{sic} in comparison with that +entailed by committing the highest of all crimes. One would wish to +believe that Webster's deed was unpremeditated, the result of a sudden +gust of passion caused by his victim's acrimonious pursuit of his +debtor. But there are circumstances in the case which tell powerfully +against such a view. The character of the murderer seems curiously +contradictory; both cunning and simplicity mark his proceedings; he +makes a determined attempt to escape from the horrors of his situation +and shows at the same time a curious insensibility to its real gravity. +Webster was a man of refined tastes and seemingly gentle character, +loved by those near to him, well liked by his friends. + +The mystery that surrounds the real character of Eugene Aram is greater, +and we possess little or no means of solving it. From what motive this +silent, arrogant man, despising his ineffectual wife, this reserved and +moody scholar stooped to fraud and murder the facts of the case help us +little to determine. Was it the hope of leaving the narrow surroundings +of Knaresborough, his tiresome belongings, his own poor way of life, +and seeking a wider field for the exercise of those gifts of scholarship +which he undoubtedly possessed that drove him to commit fraud in company +with Clark and Houseman, and then, with the help of the latter, +murder the unsuspecting Clark? The fact of his humble origin makes +his association with so low a ruffian as Houseman the less remarkable. +Vanity in all probability played a considerable part in Aram's +disposition. He would seem to have thought himself a superior person, +above the laws that bind ordinary men. He showed at the end no +consciousness of his guilt. Being something of a philosopher, he had +no doubt constructed for himself a philosophy of life which served to +justify his own actions. He was a deist, believing in "one almighty +Being the God of Nature," to whom he recommended himself at the last in +the event of his "having done amiss." He emphasised the fact that his +life had been unpolluted and his morals irreproachable. But his views +as to the murder of Clark he left unexpressed. He suggested as +justification of it that Clark had carried on an intrigue with his +neglected wife, but he never urged this circumstance in his defence, and +beyond his own statement there is no evidence of such a connection. + +The Revd. John Selby Watson, headmaster of the Stockwell Grammar School, +at the age of sixty-five killed his wife in his library one Sunday +afternoon. Things had been going badly with the unfortunate man. After +more than twenty-five years' service as headmaster of the school at a +meagre salary of L400 a year, he was about to be dismissed; the +number of scholars had been declining steadily and a change in the +headmastership thought necessary; there was no suggestion of his +receiving any kind of pension. The future for a man of his years +was dark enough. The author of several learned books, painstaking, +scholarly, dull, he could hope to make but little money from literary +work. Under a cold, reserved and silent exterior, Selby Watson concealed +a violence of temper which he sought diligently to repress. His wife's +temper was none of the best. Worried, depressed, hopeless of his future, +he in all probability killed his wife in a sudden access of rage, +provoked by some taunt or reproach on her part, and then, instead of +calling in a policeman and telling him what he had done, made clumsy and +ineffectual efforts to conceal his crime. Medical opinion was divided as +to his mental condition. Those doctors called for the prosecution could +find no trace of insanity about him, those called for the defence said +that he was suffering from melancholia. The unhappy man would appear +hardly to have realised the gravity of his situation. To a friend who +visited him in prison he said: "Here's a man who can write Latin, which +the Bishop of Winchester would commend, shut up in a place like this." +Coming from a man who had spent all his life buried in books and knowing +little of the world the remark is not so greatly to be wondered at. +Profound scholars are apt to be impatient of mundane things. Professor +Webster showed a similar want of appreciation of the circumstances of a +person charged with wilful murder. Selby Watson was convicted of murder +and sentenced to death. The sentence was afterwards commuted to one of +penal servitude for life, the Home Secretary of the day showing by +his decision that, though not satisfied of the prisoner's insanity, he +recognised certain extenuating circumstances in his guilt.(2) + + + (2) Selby Watson was tried at the Central Criminal Court January, 1872. + + +In Castaing much ingenuity is shown in the conception of the crime, +but the man is weak and timid; he is not the stuff of which the great +criminal is made; Holmes is cast in the true mould of the instinctive +murderer. Castaing is a man of sensibility, capable of domestic +affection; Holmes completely insensible to all feelings of humanity. +Taking life is a mere incident in the accomplishment of his schemes; +men, women and children are sacrificed with equal mercilessness to the +necessary end. A consummate liar and hypocrite, he has that strange +power of fascination over others, women in particular, which is often +independent altogether of moral or even physical attractiveness. We +are accustomed to look for a certain vastness, grandeur of scale in the +achievements of America. A study of American crime will show that it +does not disappoint us in this expectation. The extent and audacity of +the crimes of Holmes are proof of it. + +To find a counterpart in imaginative literature to the complete criminal +of the Holmes type we must turn to the pages of Shakespeare. In the +number of his victims, the cruelty and insensibility with which he +attains his ends, his unblushing hypocrisy, the fascination he can +exercise at will over others, the Richard III. of Shakespeare shows how +clearly the poet understood the instinctive criminal of real life. The +Richard of history was no doubt less instinctively and deliberately an +assassin than the Richard of Shakespeare. In the former we can trace +the gradual temptation to crime to which circumstances provoke him. The +murder of the Princes, if, as one writer contends, it was not the work +of Henry VII.--in which case that monarch deserves to be hailed as +one of the most consummate criminals that ever breathed and the worthy +father of a criminal son--was no doubt forced to a certain extent on +Richard by the exigencies of his situation, one of those crimes to which +bad men are driven in order to secure the fruits of other crimes. But +the Richard of Shakespeare is no child of circumstance. He espouses +deliberately a career of crime, as deliberately as Peace or Holmes or +Butler; he sets out "determined to prove a villain," to be "subtle, +false and treacherous," to employ to gain his ends "stern murder in the +dir'st degree." The character is sometimes criticised as being overdrawn +and unreal. It may not be true to the Richard of history, but it is very +true to crime, and to the historical criminal of the Borgian or Prussian +type, in which fraud and violence are made part of a deliberate system +of so-called statecraft. + +Shakespeare got nearer to what we may term the domestic as opposed to +the political criminal when he created Iago. In their envy and dislike +of their fellowmen, their contempt for humanity in general, their +callousness to the ordinary sympathies of human nature, Robert Butler, +Lacenaire, Ruloff are witnesses to the poet's fidelity to criminal +character in his drawing of the Ancient. But there is a weakness in +the character of Iago regarded as a purely instinctive and malignant +criminal; indeed it is a weakness in the consistency of the play. On two +occasions Iago states explicitly that Othello is more than suspected of +having committed adultery with his wife, Emilia, and that therefore he +has a strong and justifiable motive for being revenged on the Moor. +The thought of it he describes as "gnawing his inwards." Emilia's +conversation with Desdemona in the last act lends some colour to the +correctness of Iago's belief. If this belief be well-founded it +must greatly modify his character as a purely wanton and mischievous +criminal, a supreme villain, and lower correspondingly the character +of Othello as an honourable and high-minded man. If it be a morbid +suspicion, having no ground in fact, a mental obsession, then Iago +becomes abnormal and consequently more or less irresponsible. But this +suggestion of Emilia's faithlessness made in the early part of the play +is never followed up by the dramatist, and the spectator is left in +complete uncertainty as to whether there be any truth or not in +Iago's suspicion. If Othello has played his Ancient false, that is an +extenuating circumstance in the otherwise extraordinary guilt of Iago, +and would no doubt be accorded to him as such, were he on trial before a +French jury. + +The most successful, and therefore perhaps the greatest, criminal in +Shakespeare is King Claudius of Denmark. His murder of his brother by +pouring a deadly poison into his ear while sleeping, is so skilfully +perpetrated as to leave no suspicion of foul play. But for a +supernatural intervention, a contingency against which no murderer could +be expected to have provided, the crime of Claudius would never have +been discovered. Smiling, jovial, genial as M. Derues or Dr. Palmer, +King Claudius might have gone down to his grave in peace as the bluff +hearty man of action, while his introspective nephew would in all +probability have ended his days in the cloister, regarded with amiable +contempt by his bustling fellowmen. How Claudius got over the great +difficulty of all poisoners, that of procuring the necessary poison +without detection, we are not told; by what means he distilled the +"juice of cursed hebenon"; how the strange appearance of the late +King's body, which "an instant tetter" had barked about with "vile and +loathsome crust," was explained to the multitude we are left to imagine. +There is no real evidence to show that Queen Gertrude was her lover's +accomplice in her husband's murder. If that had been so, she would +no doubt have been of considerable assistance to Claudius in the +preparation of the crime. But in the absence of more definite proof +we must assume Claudius' murder of his brother to have been a solitary +achievement, skilfully carried out by one whose genial good-fellowship +and convivial habits gave the lie to any suggestion of criminality. +Whatever may have been his inward feelings of remorse or self-reproach, +Claudius masked them successfully from the eyes of all. Hamlet's +instinctive dislike of his uncle was not shared by the members of the +Danish court. The "witchcraft of his wit," his "traitorous gifts," +were powerful aids to Claudius, not only in the seduction of his +sister-in-law, but the perpetration of secret murder. + +The case of the murder of King Duncan of Scotland by Macbeth and his +wife belongs to a different class of crime. It is a striking example of +dual crime, four instances of which are given towards the end of this +book. An Italian advocate, Scipio Sighele, has devoted a monograph to +the subject of dual crime, in which he examines a number of cases in +which two persons have jointly committed heinous crimes.(3) He finds +that in couples of this kind there is usually an incubus and a succubus, +the one who suggests the crime, the other on whom the suggestion works +until he or she becomes the accomplice or instrument of the stronger +will; "the one playing the Mephistophelian part of tempter, preaching +evil, urging to crime, the other allowing himself to be overcome by his +evil genius." In some cases these two roles are clearly differentiated; +it is easy, as in the case of Iago and Othello, Cassius and Brutus, to +say who prompted the crime. In others the guilt seems equally divided +and the original suggestion of crime to spring from a mutual tendency +towards the adoption of such an expedient. In Macbeth and his wife we +have a perfect instance of the latter class. No sooner have the witches +prophesied that Macbeth shall be a king than the "horrid image" of +the suggestion to murder Duncan presents itself to his mind, and, on +returning to his wife, he answers her question as to when Duncan is +to leave their house by the significant remark, "To-morrow--as he +proposes." To Lady Macbeth from the moment she has received her +husband's letter telling of the prophecy of the weird sisters, murder +occurs as a means of accomplishing their prediction. In the minds +of Macbeth and his wife the suggestion of murder is originally an +auto-suggestion, coming to them independently of each other as soon as +they learn from the witches that Macbeth is one day to be a king. To +Banquo a somewhat similar intimation is given, but no foul thought of +crime suggests itself for an instant to his loyal nature. What Macbeth +and his wife lack at first as thorough-going murderers is that complete +insensibility to taking human life that marks the really ruthless +assassin. Lady Macbeth has the stronger will of the two for the +commission of the deed. It is doubtful whether without her help Macbeth +would ever have undertaken it. But even she, when her husband hesitates +to strike, cannot bring herself to murder the aged Duncan with her own +hands because of his resemblance as he sleeps to her father. It is only +after a deal of boggling and at serious risk of untimely interruption +that the two contrive to do the murder, and plaster with blood the +"surfeited grooms." In thus putting suspicion on the servants of Duncan +the assassins cunningly avert suspicion from themselves, and Macbeth's +killing of the unfortunate men in seeming indignation at the discovery +of their crime is a master-stroke of ingenuity. "Who," he asks in a +splendid burst of feigned horror, "can be wise, amazed, temperate and +furious, loyal and natural in a moment?" At the same time Lady Macbeth +affects to swoon away in the presence of so awful a crime. For the time +all suspicion of guilt, except in the mind of Banquo, is averted from +the real murderers. But, like so many criminals, Macbeth finds it +impossible to rest on his first success in crime. His sensibility grows +dulled; he "forgets the taste of fear"; the murder of Banquo and his +son is diabolically planned, and that is soon followed by the outrageous +slaughter of the wife and children of Macduff. Ferri, the Italian writer +on crime, describes the psychical condition favourable to the commission +of murder as an absence of both moral repugnance to the crime itself and +the fear of the consequences following it. In the murder of Duncan, it +is the first of these two states of mind to which Macbeth and his wife +have only partially attained. The moral repugnance stronger in the +man has not been wholly lost by the woman. But as soon as the crime is +successfully accomplished, this repugnance begins to wear off until the +King and Queen are able calmly and deliberately to contemplate those +further crimes necessary to their peace of mind. But now Macbeth, at +first the more compunctious of the two, has become the more ruthless; +the germ of crime, developed by suggestion, has spread through his whole +being; he has begun to acquire that indifference to human suffering with +which Richard III. and Iago were gifted from the first. In both +Macbeth and Lady Macbeth the germ of crime was latent; they wanted only +favourable circumstances to convert them into one of those criminal +couples who are the more dangerous for the fact that the temptation +to crime has come to each spontaneously and grown and been fostered by +mutual understanding, an elective affinity for evil. Such couples are +frequent in the history of crime. Eyraud and Bompard, Mr. and Mrs. +Manning, Burke and Hare, the Peltzer brothers, Barre and Lebiez, are +instances of those collaborations in crime which find their counterpart +in history, literature, drama and business. Antoninus and Aurelius, +Ferdinand and Isabella, the De Goncourt brothers, Besant and Rice, +Gilbert and Sullivan, Swan and Edgar leap to the memory. + + + (3) "Le Crime a Deux," by Scipio Sighele (translated from the Italian), +Lyons, 1893. + +In the cases of Eyraud and Bompard, both man and woman are idle, vicious +criminals by instinct. They come together, lead an abandoned life, +sinking lower and lower in moral degradation. In the hour of need, crime +presents itself as a simple expedient for which neither of them has any +natural aversion. The repugnance to evil, if they ever felt it, has +long since disappeared from their natures. The man is serious, the woman +frivolous, but the criminal tendency in both cases is the same; each +performs his or her part in the crime with characteristic aptitude. +Mrs. Manning was a creature of much firmer character than her husband, +a woman of strong passions, a redoubtable murderess. Without her +dominating force Manning might never have committed murder. But he was a +criminal before the crime, more than suspected as a railway official of +complicity in a considerable train robbery; in his case the suggestion +of murder involved only the taking of a step farther in a criminal +career. Manning suffered from nerves almost as badly as Macbeth; after +the deed he sought to drown the prickings of terror and remorse by heavy +drinking Mrs. Manning was never troubled with any feelings of this kind; +after the murder of O'Connor the gratification of her sexual passion +seemed uppermost in her mind; and she met the consequences of her crime +fearlessly. Burke and Hare were a couple of ruffians, tempted by what +must have seemed almost fabulous wealth to men of their wretched +poverty to commit a series of cruel murders. Hare, with his queer, +Mephistophelian countenance, was the wickeder of the two. Burke became +haunted as time went on and flew to drink to banish horror, but Hare +would seem to have been free from such "compunctious visitings of +Nature." He kept his head and turned King's evidence. + +In the case of the Peltzer brothers we have a man who is of good social +position, falling desperately in love with the wife of a successful +barrister. The wife, though unhappy in her domestic life, refuses to +become her lover's mistress; marriage is the only way to secure her. So +Armand Peltzer plots to murder the husband. For this purpose he calls in +the help of a brother, a ne'er-do-well, who has left his native country +under a cloud. He sends for this dubious person to Europe, and there +between them they plan the murder of the inconvenient husband. Though +the idea of the crime comes from the one brother, the other receives the +idea without repugnance and enters wholeheartedly into the commission of +the murder. The ascendency of the one is evident, but he knows his +man, is sure that he will have no difficulty in securing the other's +co-operation in his felonious purpose. Armand Peltzer should have lived +in the Italy of the Renaissance. + +The crime was cunningly devised, and methodically and successfully +accomplished. Only an over-anxiety to secure the fruits of it led to its +detection. Barre and Lebiez are a perfect criminal couple, both young +men of good education, trained to better things, but the one idle, +greedy and vicious, the other cynical, indifferent, inclined at best to +a lazy sentimentalism. Barre is a needy stockbroker at the end of his +tether, desperate to find an expedient for raising the wind, Lebiez +a medical student who writes morbid verses to a skull and lectures on +Darwinism. To Barre belongs the original suggestion to murder an old +woman who sells milk and is reputed to have savings. But his friend +and former schoolfellow, Lebiez, accepts the suggestion placidly, and +reconciles himself to the murder of an unnecessary old woman by the +same argument as that used by Raskolnikoff in "Crime and Punishment" to +justify the killing of his victim. + +In all the cases here quoted the couples are essentially criminal +couples. From whichever of the two comes the first suggestion of crime, +it falls on soil already prepared to receive it; the response to the +suggestion is immediate. In degree of guilt there is little or nothing +to choose between them. But the more interesting instances of dual crime +are those in which one innocent hitherto of crime, to whom it is morally +repugnant, is persuaded by another to the commission of a criminal act, +as Cassius persuades Brutus; Iago, Othello. Cassius is a criminal +by instinct. Placed in a social position which removes him from the +temptation to ordinary crime, circumstances combine in his case to bring +out the criminal tendency and give it free play in the projected murder +of Caesar. Sour, envious, unscrupulous, the suggestion to kill Caesar +under the guise of the public weal is in reality a gratification +to Cassius of his own ignoble instincts, and the deliberate +unscrupulousness with which he seeks to corrupt the honourable metal, +seduce the noble mind of his friend, is typical of the man's innate +dishonesty. Cassius belongs to that particular type of the envious +nature which Shakespeare is fond of exemplifying with more or less +degree of villainy in such characters as Iago, Edmund, and Don John, +of which Robert Butler, whose career is given in this book, is a living +instance. Cassius on public grounds tempts Brutus to crime as subtly as +on private grounds Iago tempts Othello, and with something of the same +malicious satisfaction; the soliloquy of Cassius at the end of the +second scene of the first act is that of a bad man and a false friend. +Indeed, the quarrel between Brutus and Cassius after the murder of +Caesar loses much of its sincerity and pathos unless we can forget for +the moment the real character of Cassius. But the interest in the cases +of Cassius and Brutus, Iago and Othello, lies not so much in the +nature of the prompter of the crime. The instances in which an honest, +honourable man is by force of another's suggestion converted into a +criminal are psychologically remarkable. It is to be expected that we +should look in the annals of real crime for confirmation of the truth to +life of stories such as these, told in fiction or drama. + +The strongest influence, under which the naturally non-criminal person +may be tempted in violation of instinct and better nature to the +commission of a crime, is that of love or passion. Examples of this kind +are frequent in the annals of crime. There is none more striking than +that of the Widow Gras and Natalis Gaudry. Here a man, brave, honest, of +hitherto irreproachable character, is tempted by a woman to commit the +most cruel and infamous of crimes. At first he repels the suggestion; +at last, when his senses have been excited, his passion inflamed by the +cunning of the woman, as the jealous passion of Othello is played on and +excited by Iago, the patriotism of Brutus artfully exploited by Cassius, +he yields to the repeated solicitation and does a deed in every way +repugnant to his normal character. Nothing seems so blinding in its +effect on the moral sense as passion. It obscures all sense of humour, +proportion, congruity; the murder of the man or woman who stands in +the way of its full enjoyment becomes an act of inverted justice to +the perpetrators; they reconcile themselves to it by the most perverse +reasoning until they come to regard it as an act, in which they may +justifiably invoke the help of God; eroticism and religion are often +jumbled up together in this strange medley of conflicting emotions. + +A woman, urging her lover to the murder of her husband, writes of the +roses that are to deck the path of the lovers as soon as the crime is +accomplished; she sends him flowers and in the same letter asks if he +has got the necessary cartridges. Her husband has been ill; she hopes +that it is God helping them to the desired end; she burns a candle +on the altar of a saint for the success of their murderous plan.(4) A +jealous husband setting out to kill his wife carries in his pockets, +beside a knife and a service revolver, a rosary, a medal of the Virgin +and a holy image.(5) Marie Boyer in the blindness of her passion and +jealousy believes God to be helping her to get rid of her mother. + + + (4) Case of Garnier and the woman Aveline, 1884. + + (5) Case of the Comte +de Cornulier: "Un An de Justice," Henri Varennes, 1901. + + +A lover persuades the wife to get rid of her husband. For a whole year +he instils the poison into her soul until she can struggle no longer +against the obsession; he offers to do the deed, but she writes that she +would rather suffer all the risks and consequences herself. "How many +times," she writes, "have I wished to go away, leave home, but it meant +leaving my children, losing them for ever.. that made my lover jealous, +he believed that I could not bring myself to leave my husband. But if my +husband were out of the way then I would keep my children, and my +lover would see in my crime a striking proof of my devotion." A curious +farrago of slavish passion, motherly love and murder.(6) + + + (6) Case of Madame Weiss and the engineer Roques. If I may be permitted +the reference, there is an account of this case and that of Barre and +Lebiez in my book "French Criminals of the Nineteenth Century." + + +There are some women such as Marie Boyer and Gabrielle Fenayrou, who may +be described as passively criminal, chameleon-like, taking colour from +their surroundings. By the force of a man's influence they commit a +dreadful crime, in the one instance it is matricide, in the other the +murder of a former lover, but neither of the women is profoundly vicious +or criminal in her instincts. In prison they become exemplary, their +crime a thing of the past. + +Gabrielle Fenayrou during her imprisonment, having won the confidence +of the religious sisters in charge of the convicts, is appointed head +of one of the workshops. Marie Boyer is so contrite, exemplary in her +behaviour that she is released after fifteen years' imprisonment. In +some ways, perhaps, these malleable types of women, "soft paste" as one +authority has described them, "effacees" in the words of another, are +the most dangerous material of all for the commission of crime, their +obedience is so complete, so cold and relentless. + +There are cases into which no element of passion enters, in which one +will stronger than the other can so influence, so dominate the weaker as +to persuade the individual against his or her better inclination to an +act of crime, just as in the relations of ordinary life we see a man +or woman led and controlled for good or ill by one stronger than +themselves. There is no more extraordinary instance of this than the +case of Catherine Hayes, immortalised by Thackeray, which occurred +as long ago as the year 1726. This singular woman by her artful +insinuations, by representing her husband as an atheist and a murderer, +persuaded a young man of the name of Wood, of hitherto exemplary +character, to assist her in murdering him. It was unquestionably the +sinister influence of Captain Cranstoun that later in the same century +persuaded the respectable Miss Mary Blandy to the murder of her father. +The assassin of an old woman in Paris recounts thus the arguments used +by his mistress to induce him to commit the crime: "She began by telling +me about the money and jewellery in the old woman's possession which +could no longer be of any use to her"--the argument of Raskolnikoff--"I +resisted, but next day she began again, pointing out that one killed +people in war, which was not considered a crime, and therefore one +should not be afraid to kill a miserable old woman. I urged that the old +woman had done us no harm, and that I did not see why one should kill +her; she reproached me for my weakness and said that, had she been +strong enough, she would soon have done this abominable deed herself. +'God,' she added, 'will forgive us because He knows how poor we are.'" +When he came to do the murder, this determined woman plied her lover +with brandy and put rouge on his cheeks lest his pallor should betray +him.(7) + + + (7) Case of Albert and the woman Lavoitte, Paris, 1877. + + +There are occasions when those feelings of compunction which troubled +Macbeth and his wife are wellnigh proof against the utmost powers of +suggestion, or, as in the case of Hubert and Prince Arthur, compel the +criminal to desist from his enterprise. + +A man desires to get rid of his father and mother-in-law. By means of +threats, reproaches and inducements he persuades another man to commit +the crime. Taking a gun, the latter sets out to do the deed; but he +realises the heinousness of it and turns back. "The next day," he says, +"at four o'clock in the morning I started again. I passed the village +church. At the sight of the place where I had celebrated my first +communion I was filled with remorse. I knelt down and prayed to God to +make me good. But some unknown force urged me to the crime. I started +again--ten times I turned back, but the more I hesitated the stronger +was the desire to go on." At length the faltering assassin arrived at +the house, and in his painful anxiety of mind shot a servant instead of +the intended victims.(8) + + + (8) Case of Porcher and Hardouin cited in Despine. "Psychologie +Naturelle." + + +In a town in Austria there dwelt a happy and contented married couple, +poor and hard-working. A charming young lady, a rich relation and an +orphan, comes to live with them. She brings to their modest home wealth +and comfort. But as time goes on, it is likely that the young lady will +fall in love and marry. What then? Her hosts will have to return +to their original poverty. The idea of how to secure to himself the +advantages of his young kinswoman's fortune takes possession of the +husband's mind. He revolves all manner of means, and gradually murder +presents itself as the only way. The horrid suggestion fixes itself +in his mind, and at last he communicates it to his wife. At first she +resists, then yields to the temptation. The plan is ingenious. The wife +is to disappear to America and be given out as dead. The husband will +then marry his attractive kinswoman, persuade her to make a will in his +favour, poison her and, the fortune secured, rejoin his wife. As if +to help this cruel plan, the young lady has developed a sentimental +affection for her relative. The wife goes to America, the husband +marries the young lady. He commences to poison her, but, in the presence +of her youth, beauty and affection for him, relents, hesitates to commit +a possibly unnecessary crime. He decides to forget and ignore utterly +his wife who is waiting patiently in America. A year passes. The +expectant wife gets no sign of her husband's existence. She comes back +to Europe, visits under a false name the town in which her faithless +husband and his bride are living, discovers the truth and divulges the +intended crime to the authorities. A sentence of penal servitude for +life rewards this perfidious criminal.(9) + + + (9) Case of the Scheffer couple at Linz, cited by Sighele. + + +Derues said to a man who was looking at a picture in the Palais de +Justice: "Why study copies of Nature when you can look at such a +remarkable original as I?" A judge once told the present writer that he +did not go often to the theatre because none of the dramas which he saw +on the stage, seemed to him equal in intensity to those of real life +which came before him in the course of his duties. The saying that truth +is stranger than fiction applies more forcibly to crime than to +anything else. But the ordinary man and woman prefer to take their crime +romanticised, as it is administered to them in novel or play. The true +stories told in this book represent the raw material from which works +of art have been and may be yet created. The murder of Mr. Arden of +Faversham inspired an Elizabethan tragedy attributed by some critics +to Shakespeare. The Peltzer trial helped to inspire Paul Bourget's +remarkable novel, "Andre Cornelis." To Italian crime we owe Shelley's +"Cenci" and Browning's "The Ring and the Book." Mrs. Manning was the +original of the maid Hortense in "Bleak House." Jonathan Wild, Eugene +Aram, Deacon Brodie, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright have all been made +the heroes of books or plays of varying merit. But it is not only in its +stories that crime has served to inspire romance. In the investigation +of crime, especially on the broader lines of Continental procedure, we +can track to the source the springs of conduct and character, and come +near to solving as far as is humanly possible the mystery of human +motive. There is always and must be in every crime a terra incognita +which, unless we could enter into the very soul of a man, we cannot hope +to reach. Thus far may we go, no farther. It is rarely indeed that a man +lays bare his whole soul, and even when he does we can never be quite +sure that he is telling us all the truth, that he is not keeping back +some vital secret. It is no doubt better so, and that it should be left +to the writer of imagination to picture for us a man's inmost soul. The +study of crime will help him to that end. It will help us also in the +ethical appreciation of good and evil in individual conduct, about which +our notions have been somewhat obscured by too narrow a definition +of what constitutes crime. These themes, touched on but lightly and +imperfectly in these pages, are rich in human interest. + +And so it is hardly a matter for surprise that the poet and the +philosopher sat up late one night talking about murders. + + + + +The Life of Charles Peace + + +"Charles Peace, or the Adventures of a Notorious Burglar," a large +volume published at the time of his death, gives a full and accurate +account of the career of Peace side by side with a story of the Family +Herald type, of which he is made the hero. "The Life and Trial of +Charles Peace" (Sheffield, 1879), "The Romantic Career of a Great +Criminal" (by N. Kynaston Gaskell, London 1906), and "The Master +Criminal," published recently in London give useful information. I have +also consulted some of the newspapers of the time. There is a delightful +sketch of Peace in Mr. Charles Whibley's "Book of Scoundrels." + +I + +HIS EARLY YEARS + +Charles Peace told a clergyman who had an interview with him in prison +shortly before his execution that he hoped that, after he was gone, he +would be entirely forgotten by everybody and his name never mentioned +again. + +Posterity, in calling over its muster-roll of famous men, has refused +to fulfil this pious hope, and Charley Peace stands out as the one +great personality among English criminals of the nineteenth century. In +Charley Peace alone is revived that good-humoured popularity which +in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries fell to the lot of Claude +Duval, Dick Turpin and Jack Sheppard. But Peace has one grievance +against posterity; he has endured one humiliation which these heroes +have been spared. His name has been omitted from the pages of the +"Dictionary of National Biography." From Duval, in the seventeenth, +down to the Mannings, Palmer, Arthur Orton, Morgan and Kelly, the +bushrangers, in the nineteenth century, many a criminal, far less +notable or individual than Charley Peace, finds his or her place in that +great record of the past achievements of our countrymen. Room has +been denied to perhaps the greatest and most naturally gifted criminal +England has produced, one whose character is all the more remarkable for +its modesty, its entire freedom from that vanity and vaingloriousness +so common among his class. + +The only possible reason that can be suggested for so singular an +omission is the fact that in the strict order of alphabetical succession +the biography of Charles Peace would have followed immediately on that +of George Peabody. It may have been thought that the contrast was too +glaring, that even the exigencies of national biography had no right +to make the philanthropist Peabody rub shoulders with man's constant +enemy, Peace. To the memory of Peace these few pages can make but +poor amends for the supreme injustice, but, by giving a particular and +authentic account of his career, they may serve as material for +the correction of this grave omission should remorse overtake those +responsible for so undeserved a slur on one of the most unruly of +England's famous sons. + +From the literary point of view Peace was unfortunate even in the hour +of his notoriety. In the very year of his trial and execution, the +Annual Register, seized with a fit of respectability from which it +has never recovered, announced that "the appetite for the strange and +marvellous" having considerably abated since the year 1757 when the +Register was first published, its "Chronicle," hitherto a rich mine of +extraordinary and sensational occurrences, would become henceforth a +mere diary of important events. Simultaneously with the curtailment +of its "Chronicle," it ceased to give those excellent summaries of +celebrated trials which for many years had been a feature of its +volumes. The question whether "the appetite for the strange and +marvellous" has abated in an appreciable degree with the passing of time +and is not perhaps keener than it ever was, is a debatable one. But +it is undeniable that the present volumes of the Annual Register have +fallen away dismally from the variety and human interest of their +predecessors. Of the trial and execution of Peace the volume for 1879 +gives but the barest record. + +Charles Peace was not born of criminal parents. His father, John +Peace, began work as a collier at Burton-on-Trent. Losing his leg in an +accident, he joined Wombwell's wild beast show and soon acquired some +reputation for his remarkable powers as a tamer of wild animals. About +this time Peace married at Rotherham the daughter of a surgeon in +the Navy. On the death of a favourite son to whom he had imparted +successfully the secrets of his wonderful control over wild beasts of +every kind, Mr. Peace gave up lion-taming and settled in Sheffield as a +shoemaker. + +It was at Sheffield, in the county of Yorkshire, already famous in the +annals of crime as the county of John Nevison and Eugene Aram, that +Peace first saw the light. On May 14, 1832, there was born to John Peace +in Sheffield a son, Charles, the youngest of his family of four. When he +grew to boyhood Charles was sent to two schools near Sheffield, where +he soon made himself remarkable, not as a scholar, but for his singular +aptitude in a variety of other employments such as making paper models, +taming cats, constructing a peep-show, and throwing up a heavy ball of +shot which he would catch in a leather socket fixed on to his forehead. + +The course of many famous men's lives has been changed by what appeared +at the time to be an unhappy accident. Who knows what may have been the +effect on Charles Peace's subsequent career of an accident he met with +in 1846 at some rolling mills, in which he was employed? A piece of red +hot steel entered his leg just below the knee, and after eighteen months +spent in the Sheffield Infirmary he left it a cripple for life. About +this time Peace's father died. Peace and his family were fond of +commemorating events of this kind in suitable verse; the death of John +Peace was celebrated in the following lines: + + "In peace he lived; + In peace he died; + Life was our desire, + But God denied." + + +Of the circumstances that first led Peace to the commission of crime we +know nothing. How far enforced idleness, bad companionship, according to +some accounts the influence of a criminally disposed mother, how far +his own daring and adventurous temper provoked him to robbery, cannot +be determined accurately. His first exploit was the stealing of an old +gentleman's gold watch, but he soon passed to greater things. On October +26, 1851, the house of a lady living in Sheffield was broken into and a +quantity of her property stolen. Some of it was found in the possession +of Peace, and he was arrested. Owing no doubt to a good character for +honesty given him by his late employer Peace was let off lightly with a +month's imprisonment. + +After his release Peace would seem to have devoted himself for a time to +music, for which he had always a genuine passion. He taught himself to +play tunes on a violin with one string, and at entertainments which he +attended was described as "the modern Paganini." In later life when he +had attained to wealth and prosperity the violin and the harmonium were +a constant source of solace during long winter evenings in Greenwich and +Peckham. But playing a one-stringed violin at fairs and public-houses +could not be more than a relaxation to a man of Peace's active temper, +who had once tasted what many of those who have practised it, describe +as the fascination of that particular form of nocturnal adventure known +by the unsympathetic name of burglary. Among the exponents of the art +Peace was at this time known as a "portico-thief," that is to say one +who contrived to get himself on to the portico of a house and from that +point of vantage make his entrance into the premises. During the +year 1854 the houses of a number of well-to-do residents in and about +Sheffield were entered after this fashion, and much valuable property +stolen. Peace was arrested, and with him a girl with whom he was keeping +company, and his sister, Mary Ann, at that time Mrs. Neil. On October +20, 1854, Peace was sentenced at Doncaster Sessions to four years' penal +servitude, and the ladies who had been found in possession of the +stolen property to six months apiece. Mrs. Neil did not long survive her +misfortune. She would seem to have been married to a brutal and drunken +husband, whom Peace thrashed on more than one occasion for ill-treating +his sister. After one of these punishments Neil set a bulldog on to +Peace; but Peace caught the dog by the lower jaw and punched it into a +state of coma. The death in 1859 of the unhappy Mrs. Neil was lamented +in appropriate verse, probably the work of her brother: + + "I was so long with pain opprest + That wore my strength away; + It made me long for endless rest + Which never can decay." + + +On coming out of prison in 1858, Peace resumed his fiddling, but it was +now no more than a musical accompaniment to burglary. This had become +the serious business of Peace's life, to be pursued, should necessity +arise, even to the peril of men's lives. His operations extended beyond +the bounds of his native town. The house of a lady living in Manchester +was broken into on the night of August 11, 1859, and a substantial booty +carried away. This was found the following day concealed in a hole in +a field. The police left it undisturbed and awaited the return of +the robber. When Peace and another man arrived to carry it away, the +officers sprang out on them. Peace, after nearly killing the officer +who was trying to arrest him, would have made his escape, had not other +policemen come to the rescue. For this crime Peace was sentenced to six +years' penal servitude, in spite of a loyal act of perjury on the part +of his aged mother, who came all the way from Sheffield to swear that he +had been with her there on the night of the crime. + +He was released from prison again in 1864, and returned to Sheffield. +Things did not prosper with him there, and he went back to Manchester. +In 1866 he was caught in the act of burglary at a house in Lower +Broughton. He admitted that at the time he was fuddled with whisky; +otherwise his capture would have been more difficult and dangerous. +Usually a temperate man, Peace realised on this occasion the value +of sobriety even in burglary, and never after allowed intemperance to +interfere with his success. A sentence of eight years' penal servitude +at Manchester Assizes on December 3, 1866, emphasised this wholesome +lesson. + +Whilst serving this sentence Peace emulated Jack Sheppard in a daring +attempt to escape from Wakefield prison. Being engaged on some repairs, +he smuggled a small ladder into his cell. With the help of a saw made +out of some tin, he cut a hole through the ceiling of the cell, and was +about to get out on to the roof when a warder came in. As the latter +attempted to seize the ladder Peace knocked him down, ran along the +wall of the prison, fell off on the inside owing to the looseness of the +bricks, slipped into the governor's house where he changed his clothes, +and there, for an hour and a half, waited for an opportunity to escape. +This was denied him, and he was recaptured in the governor's bedroom. +The prisons at Millbank, Chatham and Gibraltar were all visited by Peace +before his final release in 1872. At Chatham he is said to have taken +part in a mutiny and been flogged for his pains. + +On his liberation from prison Peace rejoined his family in Sheffield. +He was now a husband and father. In 1859 he had taken to wife a widow +of the name of Hannah Ward. Mrs. Ward was already the mother of a +son, Willie. Shortly after her marriage with Peace she gave birth to a +daughter, and during his fourth term of imprisonment presented him with +a son. Peace never saw this child, who died before his release. But, +true to the family custom, on his return from prison the untimely death +of little "John Charles" was commemorated by the printing of a funeral +card in his honour, bearing the following sanguine verses: + + "Farewell, my dear son, by us all beloved, + Thou art gone to dwell in the mansions above. + In the bosom of Jesus Who sits on the throne + Thou art anxiously waiting to welcome us home." + + +Whether from a desire not to disappoint little John Charles, for some +reason or other the next two or three years of Peace's career would seem +to have been spent in an endeavour to earn an honest living by picture +framing, a trade in which Peace, with that skill he displayed in +whatever he turned his hand to, was remarkably proficient. In Sheffield +his children attended the Sunday School. Though he never went to church +himself, he was an avowed believer in both God and the devil. As he +said, however, that he feared neither, no great reliance could be placed +on the restraining force of such a belief to a man of Peace's daring +spirit. There was only too good reason to fear that little John Charles' +period of waiting would be a prolonged one. + +In 1875 Peace moved from Sheffield itself to the suburb of Darnall. Here +Peace made the acquaintance--a fatal acquaintance, as it turned out--of +a Mr. and Mrs. Dyson. Dyson was a civil engineer. He had spent some +years in America, where, in 1866, he married. + +Toward the end of 1873 or the beginning of 1874, he came to England with +his wife, and obtained a post on the North Eastern Railway. He was a +tall man, over six feet in height, extremely thin, and gentlemanly in +his bearing. His engagement with the North Eastern Railway terminated +abruptly owing to Dyson's failing to appear at a station to which he had +been sent on duty. + +It was believed at the time by those associated with Dyson that this +unlooked-for dereliction of duty had its cause in domestic trouble. +Since the year 1875, the year in which Peace came to Darnall, the +domestic peace of Mr. Dyson had been rudely disturbed by this same ugly +little picture-framer who lived a few doors away from the Dysons' +house. Peace had got to know the Dysons, first as a tradesman, then as +a friend. To what degree of intimacy he attained with Mrs. Dyson it is +difficult to determine. In that lies the mystery of the case Mrs. Dyson +is described as an attractive woman, "buxom and blooming"; she was +dark-haired, and about twenty-five years of age. In an interview with +the Vicar of Darnall a few days before his execution, Peace asserted +positively that Mrs. Dyson had been his mistress. Mrs. Dyson as +strenuously denied the fact. There was no question that on one occasion +Peace and Mrs. Dyson had been photographed together, that he had given +her a ring, and that he had been in the habit of going to music halls +and public-houses with Mrs. Dyson, who was a woman of intemperate +habits. + +Peace had introduced Mrs. Dyson to his wife and daughter, and on one +occasion was said to have taken her to his mother's house, much to the +old lady's indignation. If there were not many instances of ugly men who +have been notably successful with women, one might doubt the likelihood +of Mrs. Dyson falling a victim to the charms of Charles Peace. But +Peace, for all his ugliness, could be wonderfully ingratiating when he +chose. According to Mrs. Dyson, Peace was a demon, "beyond the power of +even a Shakespeare to paint," who persecuted her with his attentions, +and, when he found them rejected, devoted all his malignant energies +to making the lives of her husband and herself unbearable. According to +Peace's story he was a slighted lover who had been treated by Mrs. Dyson +with contumely and ingratitude. + +Whether to put a stop to his wife's intimacy with Peace, or to protect +himself against the latter's wanton persecution, sometime about the end +of June, 1876, Dyson threw over into the garden of Peace's house a card, +on which was written: "Charles Peace is requested not to interfere with +my family." On July 1 Peace met Mr. Dyson in the street, and tried to +trip him up. The same night he came up to Mrs. Dyson, who was talking +with some friends, and threatened in coarse and violent language to +blow out her brains and those of her husband. In consequence of +these incidents Mr. Dyson took out a summons against Peace, for whose +apprehension a warrant was issued. To avoid the consequences of this +last step Peace left Darnall for Hull, where he opened an eating-shop, +presided over by Mrs. Peace. + +But he himself was not idle. From Hull he went to Manchester on +business, and in Manchester he committed his first murder. Entering the +grounds of a gentleman's home at Whalley Range, about midnight on +August 1, he was seen by two policemen. One of them, Constable Cock, +intercepted him as he was trying to escape. + +Peace took out his revolver and warned Cock to stand back. The policeman +came on. Peace fired, but deliberately wide of him. Cock, undismayed, +drew out his truncheon, and made for the burglar. Peace, desperate, +determined not to be caught, fired again, this time fatally. Cock's +comrade heard the shots, but before he could reach the side of the dying +man, Peace had made off. He returned to Hull, and there learned shortly +after, to his intense relief, that two brothers, John and William +Habron, living near the scene of the murder, had been arrested and +charged with the killing of Constable Cock. + +If the Dysons thought that they had seen the last of Peace, they were +soon to be convinced to the contrary. Peace had not forgotten his +friends at Darnall. By some means or other he was kept informed of all +their doings, and on one occasion was seen by Mrs. Dyson lurking near +her home. To get away from him the Dysons determined to leave Darnall. +They took a house at Banner Cross, another suburb of Sheffield, and +on October 29 moved into their new home. One of the first persons Mrs. +Dyson saw on arriving at Banner Cross was Peace himself. "You see," +he said, "I am here to annoy you, and I'll annoy you wherever you go." +Later, Peace and a friend passed Mr. Dyson in the street. Peace took out +his revolver. "If he offers to come near me," said he, "I will make him +stand back." But Mr. Dyson took no notice of Peace and passed on. He had +another month to live. + +Whatever the other motives of Peace may have been--unreasoning passion, +spite, jealousy, or revenge it must not be forgotten that Dyson, by +procuring a warrant against Peace, had driven him from his home in +Sheffield. This Peace resented bitterly. According to the statements of +many witnesses, he was at this time in a state of constant irritation +and excitement on the Dyson's account. He struck his daughter because +she alluded in a way he did not like to his relations with Mrs. Dyson. +Peace always believed in corporal chastisement as a means of keeping +order at home. Pleasant and entertaining as he could be, he was feared. +It was very dangerous to incur his resentment. "Be sure," said his wife, +"you do nothing to offend our Charley, or you will suffer for it." Dyson +beyond a doubt had offended "our Charley." But for the moment Peace was +interested more immediately in the fate of John and William Habron, +who were about to stand their trial for the murder of Constable Cock at +Whalley Range. + +The trial commenced at the Manchester Assizes before Mr. Justice (now +Lord) Lindley on Monday, November 27. John Habron was acquitted. + +The case against William Habron depended to a great extent on the fact +that he, as well as his brother, had been heard to threaten to "do for" +the murdered man, to shoot the "little bobby." Cock was a zealous young +officer of twenty-three years of age, rather too eager perhaps in +the discharge of his duty. In July of 1876 he had taken out summonses +against John and William Habron, young fellows who had been several +years in the employment of a nurseryman in Whalley Range, for being +drunk and disorderly. On July 27 William was fined five shillings, +and on August 1, the day of Cock's murder, John had been fined half +a sovereign. Between these two dates the Habrons had been heard to +threaten to "do for" Cock if he were not more careful. Other facts +relied upon by the prosecution were that William Habron had inquired +from a gunsmith the price of some cartridges a day or two before the +murder; that two cartridge percussion caps had been found in the pocket +of a waistcoat given to William Habron by his employer, who swore that +they could not have been there while it was in his possession; that the +other constable on duty with Cock stated that a man he had seen lurking +near the house about twelve o'clock on the night of the murder appeared +to be William Habron's age, height and complexion, and resembled him in +general appearance; and that the boot on Habron's left foot, which was +"wet and sludgy" at the time of his arrest, corresponded in certain +respects with the footprints of the murderer. The prisoner did not +help himself by an ineffective attempt to prove an alibi. The Judge was +clearly not impressed by the strength of the case for the prosecution. +He pointed out to the jury that neither the evidence of identification +nor that of the footprint went very far. As to the latter, what evidence +was there to show that it had been made on the night of the murder? If +it had been made the day before, then the defence had proved that it +could not have been Habron's. He called their attention to the facts +that Habron bore a good character, that, when arrested on the night of +the murder, he was in bed, and that no firearms had been traced to him. +In spite, however, of the summing-up the jury convicted William Habron, +but recommended him to mercy. The Judge without comment sentenced him to +death. The Manchester Guardian expressed its entire concurrence with the +verdict of the jury. "Few persons," it wrote, "will be found to dispute +the justice of the conclusions reached." However, a few days later +it opened its columns to a number of letters protesting against the +unsatisfactory nature of the conviction. On December 6 a meeting of +some forty gentlemen was held, at which it was resolved to petition Mr. +Cross, the Home Secretary, to reconsider the sentence. Two days before +the day of execution Habron was granted a respite, and later his +sentence commuted to one of penal servitude for life. And so a tragic +and irrevocable miscarriage of justice was happily averted. + +Peace liked attending trials. The fact that in Habron's case he was the +real murderer would seem to have made him the more eager not to miss so +unique an experience. Accordingly he went from Hull to Manchester, +and was present in court during the two days that the trial lasted. No +sooner had he heard the innocent man condemned to death than he left +Manchester for Sheffield--now for all he knew a double murderer. + +It is a question whether, on the night of November 28, Peace met Mrs. +Dyson at an inn in one of the suburbs of Sheffield. In any case, the +next morning, Wednesday, the 29th, to his mother's surprise Peace walked +into her house. He said that he had come to Sheffield for the fair. +The afternoon of that day Peace spent in a public-house at Ecclesall, +entertaining the customers by playing tunes on a poker suspended from +a piece of strong string, from which he made music by beating it with +a short stick. The musician was rewarded by drinks. It took very little +drink to excite Peace. There was dancing, the fun grew fast and furious, +as the strange musician beat out tune after tune on his fantastic +instrument. + +At six o'clock the same evening a thin, grey-haired, +insignificant-looking man in an evident state of unusual excitement +called to see the Rev. Mr. Newman, Vicar of Ecclesall, near Banner +Cross. Some five weeks before, this insignificant-looking man had +visited Mr. Newman, and made certain statements in regard to the +character of a Mr. and Mrs. Dyson who had come to live in the parish. +The vicar had asked for proof of these statements. These proofs his +visitor now produced. They consisted of a number of calling cards and +photographs, some of them alleged to be in the handwriting of Mrs. +Dyson, and showing her intimacy with Peace. The man made what purported +to be a confession to Mr. Newman. Dyson, he said, had become jealous of +him, whereupon Peace had suggested to Mrs. Dyson that they should give +her husband something to be jealous about. Out of this proposal their +intimacy had sprung. Peace spoke of Mrs. Dyson in terms of forgiveness, +but his wrath against Dyson was extreme. He complained bitterly that +by taking proceedings against him, Dyson had driven him to break up his +home and become a fugitive in the land. He should follow the Dysons, he +said, wherever they might go; he believed that they were at that moment +intending to take further proceedings against him. As he left, Peace +said that he should not go and see the Dysons that night, but would call +on a friend of his, Gregory, who lived next door to them in Banner Cross +Terrace. It was now about a quarter to seven. + +Peace went to Gregory's house, but his friend was not at home. The lure +of the Dysons was irresistible. A little after eight o'clock Peace was +watching the house from a passageway that led up to the backs of the +houses on the terrace. He saw Mrs. Dyson come out of the back door, +and go to an outhouse some few yards distant. He waited. As soon as +she opened the door to come out, Mrs. Dyson found herself confronted +by Peace, holding his revolver in his hand. "Speak," he said, "or I'll +fire." Mrs. Dyson in terror went back. In the meantime Dyson, hearing +the disturbance, came quickly into the yard. Peace made for the passage. +Dyson followed him. Peace fired once, the shot striking the lintel +of the passage doorway. Dyson undaunted, still pursued. Then Peace, +according to his custom, fired a second time, and Dyson fell, shot +through the temple. Mrs. Dyson, who had come into the yard again on +hearing the first shot, rushed to her husband's side, calling out: +"Murder! You villain! You have shot my husband." Two hours later Dyson +was dead. + +After firing the second shot Peace had hurried down; the passage into +the roadway. He stood there hesitating a moment, until the cries of Mrs. +Dyson warned him of his danger. He crossed the road, climbed a wall, +and made his way back to Sheffield. There he saw his mother and brother, +told them that he had shot Mr. Dyson, and bade them a hasty good-bye. +He then walked to Attercliffe Railway Station, and took a ticket for +Beverley. Something suspicious in the manner of the booking-clerk made +him change his place of destination. Instead of going to Beverley that +night he got out of the train at Normanton and went on to York. He spent +the remainder of the night in the station yard. He took the first train +in the morning for Beverley, and from there travelled via Collingham +to Hull. He went straight to the eating-house kept by his wife, and +demanded some dinner. He had hardly commenced to eat it when he heard +two detectives come into the front shop and ask his wife if a man called +Charles Peace was lodging with her. Mrs. Peace said that that was +her husband's name, but that she had not seen him for two months. The +detectives proposed to search the house. Some customers in the shop told +them that if they had any business with Mrs. Peace, they ought to go +round to the side door. The polite susceptibility of these customers +gave Peace time to slip up to a back room, get out on to an adjoining +roof, and hide behind a chimney stack, where he remained until the +detectives had finished an exhaustive search. So importunate were the +officers in Hull that once again during the day Peace had to repeat this +experience. For some three weeks, however, he contrived to remain in +Hull. He shaved the grey beard he was wearing at the time of Dyson's +murder, dyed his hair, put on a pair of spectacles, and for the first +time made use of his singular power of contorting his features in such +a way as to change altogether the character of his face. But the hue and +cry after him was unremitting. There was a price of L100 on his head, +and the following description of him was circulated by the police: + + +"Charles Peace wanted for murder on the night of the 29th inst. He is +thin and slightly built, from fifty-five to sixty years of age. Five +feet four inches or five feet high; grey (nearly white) hair, beard and +whiskers. He lacks use of three fingers of left hand, walks with his +legs rather wide apart, speaks somewhat peculiarly as though his +tongue were too large for his mouth, and is a great boaster. He is +a picture-frame maker. He occasionally cleans and repairs clocks and +watches and sometimes deals in oleographs, engravings and pictures. He +has been in penal servitude for burglary in Manchester. He has lived in +Manchester, Salford, and Liverpool and Hull." + + +This description was altered later and Peace's age given as forty-six. +As a matter of fact he was only forty-four at this time, but he looked +very much older. Peace had lost one of his fingers. He said that it had +been shot off by a man with whom he had quarrelled, but it was believed +to be more likely that he had himself shot it off accidentally in +handling one of his revolvers. It was to conceal this obvious means of +identification that Peace made himself the false arm which he was in the +habit of wearing. This was of gutta percha, with a hole down the middle +of it into which he passed his arm; at the end was a steel plate to +which was fixed a hook; by means of this hook Peace could wield a fork +and do other dexterous feats. + +Marked man as he was, Peace felt it dangerous to stay longer in Hull +than he could help. During the closing days of the year 1876 and the +beginning of 1877, Peace was perpetually on the move. He left Hull for +Doncaster, and from there travelled to London. On arriving at King's +Cross he took the underground railway to Paddington, and from there a +train to Bristol. At the beginning of January he left Bristol for Bath, +and from Bath, in the company of a sergeant of police, travelled by +way of Didcot to Oxford. The officer had in his custody a young woman +charged with stealing L40. Peace and the sergeant discussed the case +during the journey. "He seemed a smart chap," said Peace in relating +the circumstances, "but not smart enough to know me." From Oxford he +went to Birmingham, where he stayed four or five days, then a week in +Derby, and on January 9th he arrived in Nottingham. + +Here Peace found a convenient lodging at the house of one, Mrs. Adamson, +a lady who received stolen goods and on occasion indicated or organised +suitable opportunities for acquiring them. + +She lived in a low part of the town known as the Marsh. It was at +her house that Peace met the woman who was to become his mistress and +subsequently betray his identity to the police. Her maiden name was +Susan Gray. + +She was at this time about thirty-five years of age, described as +"taking" in appearance, of a fair complexion, and rather well educated. +She had led a somewhat chequered married life with a gentleman named +Bailey, from whom she continued in receipt of a weekly allowance until +she passed under the protection of Peace. Her first meeting with her +future lover took place on the occasion of Peace inviting Mrs. Adamson +to dispose of a box of cigars for him, which that good woman did at a +charge of something like thirty per cent. At first Peace gave himself +out to Mrs. Bailey as a hawker, but before long he openly acknowledged +his real character as an accomplished burglar. With characteristic +insistence Peace declared his passion for Mrs. Bailey by threatening +to shoot her if she did not become his. Anxious friends sent for her to +soothe the distracted man. Peace had been drowning care with the help +of Irish whiskey. He asked "his pet" if she were not glad to see him, to +which the lady replied with possible sarcasm: "Oh, particularly, very, +I like you so much." Next day Peace apologised for his rude behaviour +of the previous evening, and so melted the heart of Mrs. Bailey that she +consented to become his mistress, and from that moment discarding the +name of Bailey is known to history as Mrs. Thompson. + +Life in Nottingham was varied pleasantly by burglaries carried out with +the help of information supplied by Mrs. Adamson. In the June of 1877 +Peace was nearly detected in stealing, at the request of that worthy, +some blankets, but by flourishing his revolver he contrived to get +away, and, soon after, returned for a season to Hull. Here this hunted +murderer, with L100 reward on his head, took rooms for Mrs. Thompson and +himself at the house of a sergeant of police. One day Mrs. Peace, who +was still keeping her shop in Hull, received a pencilled note saying, "I +am waiting to see you just up Anlaby Road." She and her stepson, Willie +Ward, went to the appointed spot, and there to their astonishment stood +her husband, a distinguished figure in black coat and trousers, top +hat, velvet waistcoat, with stick, kid gloves, and a pretty little fox +terrier by his side. Peace told them of his whereabouts in the town, but +did not disclose to them the fact that his mistress was there also. To +the police sergeant with whom he lodged, Peace described himself as +an agent. But a number of sensational and successful burglaries at +the houses of Town Councillors and other well-to-do citizens of Hull +revealed the presence in their midst of no ordinary robber. Peace had +some narrow escapes, but with the help of his revolver, and on one +occasion the pusillanimity of a policeman, he succeeded in getting away +in safety. The bills offering a reward for his capture were still to +be seen in the shop windows of Hull, so after a brief but brilliant +adventure Peace and Mrs. Thompson returned to Nottingham. + +Here, as the result of further successful exploits, Peace found a reward +of L50 offered for his capture. On one occasion the detectives came +into the room where Peace and his mistress were in bed. After politely +expressing his surprise at seeing "Mrs. Bailey" in such a situation, +one of the officers asked Peace his name. He gave it as John Ward, and +described himself as a hawker of spectacles. He refused to get up and +dress in the presence of the detectives who were obliging enough to go +downstairs and wait his convenience. Peace seized the opportunity to +slip out of the house and get away to another part of the town. From +there he sent a note to Mrs. Thompson insisting on her joining him. +He soon after left Nottingham, paid another brief visit to Hull, but +finding that his wife's shop was still frequented by the police, whom he +designated freely as "a lot of fools," determined to quit the North for +good and begin life afresh in the ampler and safer field of London. + + +II + +PEACE IN LONDON + + +Peace's career in London extended over nearly two years, but they were +years of copious achievement. In that comparatively short space of time, +by the exercise of that art, to his natural gifts for which he had now +added the wholesome tonic of experience, Peace passed from a poor and +obscure lodging in a slum in Lambeth to the state and opulence of a +comfortable suburban residence in Peckham. These were the halcyon days +of Peace's enterprise in life. From No. 25 Stangate Street, Lambeth, the +dealer in musical instruments, as Peace now described himself, sallied +forth night after night, and in Camberwell and other parts of South +London reaped the reward of skill and vigilance in entering other +people's houses and carrying off their property. Though in the beginning +there appeared to be but few musical instruments in Stangate Street to +justify his reputed business, "Mr. Thompson," as he now called himself, +explained that he was not wholly dependent on his business, as Mrs. +Thompson "had money." + +So successful did the business prove that at the Christmas of 1877 Peace +invited his daughter and her betrothed to come from Hull and spend +the festive season with him. This, in spite of the presence of Mrs. +Thompson, they consented to do. Peace, in a top hat and grey ulster, +showed them the sights of London, always inquiring politely of a +policeman if he found himself in any difficulty. At the end of the visit +Peace gave his consent to his daughter's marriage with Mr. Bolsover, +and before parting gave the young couple some excellent advice. For more +reasons than one Peace was anxious to unite under the same roof Mrs. +Peace and Mrs. Thompson. Things still prospering, Peace found himself +able to remove from Lambeth to Crane Court, Greenwich, and before long +to take a couple of adjoining houses in Billingsgate Street in the +same district. These he furnished in style. In one he lived with Mrs. +Thompson, while Mrs. Peace and her son, Willie, were persuaded after +some difficulty to leave Hull and come to London to dwell in the other. + +But Greenwich was not to the taste of Mrs. Thompson. To gratify her +wish, Peace, some time in May, 1877, removed the whole party to a house, +No. 5, East Terrace, Evelina Road, Peckham. He paid thirty pounds a year +for it, and obtained permission to build a stable for his pony and trap. +When asked for his references, Peace replied by inviting the agent to +dine with him at his house in Greenwich, a proceeding that seems to have +removed all doubt from the agent's mind as to the desirability of the +tenant. + +This now famous house in Peckham was of the ordinary type of suburban +villa, with basement, ground floor, and one above; there were steps up +to the front door, and a bow window to the front sitting-room. A garden +at the back of the house ran down to the Chatham and Dover railway line. +It was by an entrance at the back that Peace drove his horse and trap +into the stable which he had erected in the garden. Though all living +in the same house, Mrs. Peace, who passed as Mrs. Ward, and her son, +Willie, inhabited the basement, while Peace and Mrs. Thompson occupied +the best rooms on the ground floor. The house was fitted with Venetian +blinds. In the drawing-room stood a good walnut suite of furniture; a +Turkey carpet, gilded mirrors, a piano, an inlaid Spanish guitar, and, +by the side of an elegant table, the beaded slippers of the good +master of the house completed the elegance of the apartment. Everything +confirmed Mr. Thompson's description of himself as a gentleman of +independent means with a taste for scientific inventions. In association +with a person of the name of Brion, Peace did, as a fact, patent an +invention for raising sunken vessels, and it is said that in pursuing +their project, the two men had obtained an interview with Mr. Plimsoll +at the House of Commons. In any case, the Patent Gazette records the +following grant: + + +"2635 Henry Fersey Brion, 22 Philip Road, Peckham Rye, London, S.E., and +John Thompson, 5 East Terrace, Evelina Road, Peckham Rye, London, S.E., +for an invention for raising sunken vessels by the displacement of water +within the vessels by air and gases." + + +At the time of his final capture Peace was engaged on other inventions, +among them a smoke helmet for firemen, an improved brush for washing +railway carriages, and a form of hydraulic tank. To the anxious +policeman who, seeing a light in Mr. Thompson's house in the small hours +of the morning, rang the bell to warn the old gentleman of the possible +presence of burglars, this business of scientific inventions was +sufficient explanation. + +Socially Mr. Thompson became quite a figure in the neighbourhood. He +attended regularly the Sunday evening services at the parish church, and +it must have been a matter of anxious concern to dear Mr. Thompson that +during his stay in Peckham the vicarage was broken into by a burglar and +an unsuccessful attempt made to steal the communion plate which was kept +there. + +Mr. Thompson was generous in giving and punctual in paying. He had his +eccentricities. His love of birds and animals was remarkable. Cats, +dogs, rabbits, guinea-pigs, canaries, parrots and cockatoos all found +hospitality under his roof. It was certainly eccentricity in Mr. +Thompson that he should wear different coloured wigs; and that his dark +complexion should suggest the use of walnut juice. His love of music was +evinced by the number of violins, banjoes, guitars, and other musical +instruments that adorned his drawing-room. Tea and music formed the +staple of the evening entertainments which Mr. and Mrs. Thompson would +give occasionally to friendly neighbours. Not that the pleasures of +conversation were neglected wholly in favour of art. The host was +a voluble and animated talker, his face and body illustrating +by appropriate twists and turns the force of his comments. The +Russo-Turkish war, then raging, was a favourite theme of Mr. Thompson's. +He asked, as we are still asking, what Christianity and civilisation +mean by countenancing the horrors of war. He considered the British +Government in the highest degree guilty in supporting the cruel Turks, a +people whose sobriety seemed to him to be their only virtue, against +the Christian Russians. He was confident that our Ministers would be +punished for opposing the only Power which had shown any sympathy with +suffering races. About ten o'clock Mr. Thompson, whose health, he said, +could not stand late hours, would bid his guests good night, and by +half-past ten the front door of No. 5, East Terrace, Evelina Road, would +be locked and bolted, and the house plunged in darkness. + +Not that it must be supposed that family life at No. 5, East Terrace, +was without its jars. These were due chiefly to the drunken habits of +Mrs. Thompson. Peace was willing to overlook his mistress' failing +as long as it was confined to the house. But Mrs. Thompson had an +unfortunate habit of slipping out in an intoxicated condition, and +chattering with the neighbours. As she was the repository of many a +dangerous secret the inconvenience of her habit was serious. Peace was +not the man to hesitate in the face of danger. On these occasions +Mrs. Thompson was followed by Peace or his wife, brought back home and +soundly beaten. To Hannah Peace there must have been some satisfaction +in spying on her successful rival, for, in her own words, Peace never +refused his mistress anything; he did not care what she cost him in +dress; "she could swim in gold if she liked." Mrs. Thompson herself +admitted that with the exception of such punishment as she brought on +herself by her inebriety, Peace was always fond of her, and treated her +with great kindness. It was she to whom he would show with pride the +proceeds of his nightly labours, to whom he would look for a smile when +he returned home from his expeditions, haggard and exhausted + +Through all dangers and difficulties the master was busy in the practice +of his art. Night after night, with few intervals of repose, he would +sally forth on a plundering adventure. If the job was a distant one, he +would take his pony and trap. Peace was devoted to his pony, Tommy, +and great was his grief when at the end of six months' devotion to duty +Tommy died after a few days' sickness, during which his master attended +him with unremitting care. Tommy had been bought in Greenwich for +fourteen guineas, part of a sum of two hundred and fifty pounds which +Peace netted from a rich haul of silver and bank-notes taken from a +house in Denmark Hill. Besides the pony and trap, Peace would take with +him on these expeditions a violin case containing his tools; at other +times they would be stuffed into odd pockets made for the purpose in +his trousers. These tools consisted of ten in all--a skeleton key, two +pick-locks, a centre-bit, gimlet, gouge, chisel, vice jemmy and knife; a +portable ladder, a revolver and life preserver completed his equipment. + +The range of Peace's activities extended as far as Southampton, +Portsmouth and Southsea; but the bulk of his work was done in +Blackheath, Streatham, Denmark Hill, and other suburbs of South London. +Many dramatic stories are told of his exploits, but they rest for the +most part on slender foundation. On one occasion, in getting on to a +portico, he fell, and was impaled on some railings, fortunately in no +vital part. His career as a burglar in London lasted from the beginning +of the year 1877 until October, 1878. During that time this wanted man, +under the very noses of the police, exercised with complete success his +art as a burglar, working alone, depending wholly on his own mental and +physical gifts, disposing in absolute secrecy of the proceeds of his +work, and living openly the life of a respectable and industrious old +gentleman. + +All the while the police were busily seeking Charles Peace, the murderer +of Mr. Dyson. Once or twice they came near to capturing him. On one +occasion a detective who had known Peace in Yorkshire met him in +Farringdon Road, and pursued him up the steps of Holborn Viaduct, but +just as the officer, at the top of the steps, reached out and was on the +point of grabbing his man, Peace with lightning agility slipped through +his fingers and disappeared. The police never had a shadow of suspicion +that Mr. Thompson of Peckham was Charles Peace of Sheffield. They knew +the former only as a polite and chatty old gentleman of a scientific +turn of mind, who drove his own pony and trap, and had a fondness for +music and keeping pet animals. + +Peace made the mistake of outstaying his welcome in the neighbourhood +of South-East London. Perhaps he hardly realised the extent to which +his fame was spreading. During the last three months of Peace's career, +Blackheath was agog at the number of successful burglaries committed +in the very midst of its peaceful residents. The vigilance of the local +police was aroused, the officers on night duty were only too anxious to +effect the capture of the mysterious criminal. + +About two o'clock in the morning of October 10, 1878, a police +constable, Robinson by name, saw a light appear suddenly in a window at +the back of a house in St. John's Park, Blackheath, the residence of a +Mr. Burness. Had the looked-for opportunity arrived? Was the mysterious +visitor, the disturber of the peace of Blackheath, at his burglarious +employment? Without delay Robinson summoned to his aid two of his +colleagues. One of them went round to the front of the house and rang +the bell, the other waited in the road outside, while Robinson stayed in +the garden at the back. No sooner had the bell rung than Robinson saw a +man come from the dining-room window which opened on to the garden, and +make quickly down the path. Robinson followed him. The man turned; "Keep +back!" he said, "or by God I'll shoot you!" Robinson came on. The man +fired three shots from a revolver, all of which passed close to the +officer's head. Robinson made another rush for him, the man fired +another shot. It missed its mark. The constable closed with his would-be +assassin, and struck him in the face. "I'll settle you this time," cried +the man, and fired a fifth shot, which went through Robinson's arm just +above the elbow. But, in spite of his wound, the valiant officer held +his prisoner, succeeded in flinging him to the ground, and catching hold +of the revolver that hung round the burglar's wrist, hit him on the head +with it. Immediately after the other two constables came to the help of +their colleague, and the struggling desperado was secured. + +Little did the police as they searched their battered and moaning +prisoner realise the importance of their capture. When next morning +Peace appeared before the magistrate at Greenwich Police Court he was +not described by name--he had refused to give any--but as a half-caste +about sixty years of age, of repellant aspect. He was remanded for a +week. The first clue to the identity of their prisoner was afforded +by a letter which Peace, unable apparently to endure the loneliness and +suspense of prison any longer, wrote to his co-inventor Mr. Brion. It is +dated November 2, and is signed "John Ward." Peace was disturbed at the +absence of all news from his family. Immediately after his arrest, the +home in Peckham had been broken up. Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Peace, taking +with them some large boxes, had gone first to the house of a sister of +Mrs. Thompson's in Nottingham, and a day or two later Mrs. Peace had +left Nottingham for Sheffield. There she went to a house in Hazel Road, +occupied by her son-in-law Bolsover, a working collier.(10) + + + (10) Later, Mrs. Peace was arrested and charged with being in possession +of stolen property. She was taken to London and tried at the Old Bailey +before Mr. Commissioner Kerr, but acquitted on the ground of her having +acted under the compulsion of her husband. + + +It was no doubt to get news of his family that Peace wrote to Brion. But +the letters are sufficiently ingenious. Peace represents himself as a +truly penitent sinner who has got himself into a most unfortunate and +unexpected "mess" by giving way to drink. The spelling of the letters is +exaggeratedly illiterate. He asks Mr. Brion to take pity on him and not +despise him as "his own famery has don," to write him a letter to "hease +his trobel hart," if possible to come and see him. Mr. Brion complied +with the request of the mysterious "John Ward," and on arriving at +Newgate where Peace was awaiting trial, found himself in the presence of +his friend and colleague, Mr. Thompson. + +In the meantime the police were getting hot on the scent of the identity +of "John Ward" with the great criminal who in spite of all their efforts +had eluded them for two years. The honour and profit of putting the +police on the right scent were claimed by Mrs. Thompson. To her Peace +had contrived to get a letter conveyed about the same time that he wrote +to Mr. Brion. It is addressed to his "dearly beloved wife." He asks +pardon for the "drunken madness" that has involved him in his present +trouble, and gives her the names of certain witnesses whom he would wish +to be called to prove his independent means and his dealings in musical +instruments. It is, he writes, his first offence, and as he has "never +been in prison before," begs her not to feel it a disgrace to come and +see him there. But Peace was leaning on a broken reed. Loyalty does not +appear to have been Susan Thompson's strong point. In her own words she +"was not of the sentimental sort." The "traitress Sue," as she is called +by chroniclers of the time, had fallen a victim to the wiles of the +police. Since, after Peace's arrest, she had been in possession of a +certain amount of stolen property, it was easier no doubt to persuade +her to be frank. + +In any case, we find that on February 5, 1879, the day after Peace had +been sentenced to death for the murder of Dyson, Mrs. Thompson appealed +to the Treasury for the reward of L100 offered for Peace's conviction. +She based her application on information which she said she had supplied +to the police officers in charge of the case on November 5 in the +previous year, the very day on which Peace had first written to her from +Newgate. In reply to her letter the Treasury referred "Mrs. S. Bailey, +alias Thompson," to the Home Office, but whether she received from that +office the price of blood history does not relate. + +The police scouted the idea that any revelation of hers had assisted +them to identify "John Ward" with Charles Peace. They said that it +was information given them in Peckham, no doubt by Mr. Brion, who, on +learning the deplorable character of his coadjutor, had placed himself +unreservedly in their hands, which first set them on the track. From +Peckham they went to Nottingham, where they no doubt came across Sue +Thompson, and thence to Sheffield, where on November 6 they visited +the house in Hazel Road, occupied by Mrs. Peace and her daughter, Mrs. +Bolsover. There they found two of the boxes which Mrs. Peace had brought +with her from Peckham. Besides stolen property, these boxes contained +evidence of the identity of Ward with Peace. A constable who had known +Peace well in Sheffield was sent to Newgate, and taken into the yard +where the prisoners awaiting trial were exercising. As they passed +round, the constable pointed to the fifth man: "That's Peace," he said, +"I'd know him anywhere." The man left the ranks and, coming up to the +constable, asked earnestly, "What do you want me for?" but the Governor +ordered him to go on with his walk. + +It was as John Ward, alias Charles Peace, that Peace, on November 19, +1878, was put on his trial for burglary and the attempted murder of +Police Constable Robinson, at the Old Bailey before Mr. Justice Hawkins. +His age was given in the calendar as sixty, though Peace was actually +forty-six. The evidence against the prisoner was clear enough. All Mr. +Montagu Williams could urge in his defence was that Peace had never +intended to kill the officer, merely to frighten him. The jury found +Peace guilty of attempted murder. Asked if he had anything to say why +judgment should not be passed upon him, he addressed the Judge. He +protested that he had not been fairly dealt with, that he never intended +to kill the prosecutor, that the pistol was one that went off very +easily, and that the last shot had been fired by accident. "I really did +not know," he said, "that the pistol was loaded, and I hope, my lord, +that you will have mercy on me. I feel that I have disgraced myself, I +am not fit either to live or die. I am not prepared to meet my God, but +still I feel that my career has been made to appear much worse than it +really is. Oh, my lord, do have mercy on me; do give me one chance of +repenting and of preparing to meet my God. Do, my lord, have mercy on +me; and I assure you that you shall never repent it. As you hope for +mercy yourself at the hands of the great God, do have mercy on me, and +give me a chance of redeeming my character and preparing myself to meet +my God. I pray, and beseech you to have mercy upon me." + +Peace's assumption of pitiable senility, sustained throughout the trial, +though it imposed on Sir Henry Hawkins, failed to melt his heart. He +told Peace that he did not believe his statement that he had fired the +pistol merely to frighten the constable; had not Robinson guarded +his head with his arm he would have been wounded fatally, and Peace +condemned to death. He did not consider it necessary, he said, to make +an inquiry into Peace's antecedents; he was a desperate burglar, and +there was an end of the matter. Notwithstanding his age, Mr. Justice +Hawkins felt it his duty to sentence him to penal servitude for life. +The severity of the sentence was undoubtedly a painful surprise +to Peace; to a man of sixty years of age it would be no doubt less +terrible, but to a man of forty-six it was crushing. + +Not that Peace was fated to serve any great part of his sentence. + +With as little delay as possible he was to be called on to answer to +the murder of Arthur Dyson. The buxom widow of the murdered man had been +found in America, whither she had returned after her husband's death. +She was quite ready to come to England to give evidence against +her husband's murderer. On January 17, 1879, Peace was taken from +Pentonville prison, where he was serving his sentence, and conveyed by +an early morning train to Sheffield. There at the Town Hall he appeared +before the stipendiary magistrate, and was charged with the murder of +Arthur Dyson. When he saw Mrs. Dyson enter the witness box and tell her +story of the crime, he must have realised that his case was desperate. +Her cross-examination was adjourned to the next hearing, and Peace was +taken back to London. On the 22nd, the day of the second hearing in +Sheffield, an enormous crowd had assembled outside the Town Hall. Inside +the court an anxious and expectant audiience{sic}, among them Mrs. +Dyson, in the words of a contemporary reporter, "stylish and cheerful," +awaited the appearance of the protagonist. Great was the disappointment +and eager the excitement when the stipendiary came into the court about +a quarter past ten and stated that Peace had attempted to escape that +morning on the journey from London to Sheffield, and that in consequence +of his injuries the case would be adjourned for eight days. + +What had happened was this. Peace had left King's Cross by the 5.15 +train that morning, due to arrive at Sheffield at 8.45. From the very +commencement of the journey he had been wilful and troublesome. He kept +making excuses for leaving the carriage whenever the train stopped. +To obviate this nuisance the two warders, in whose charge he was, had +provided themselves with little bags which Peace could use when he +wished and then throw out of the window. Just after the train passed +Worksop, Peace asked for one of the bags. When the window was lowered +to allow the bag to be thrown away, Peace with lightning agility took a +flying leap through it. One of the warders caught him by the left foot. +Peace, hanging from the carriage, grasped the footboard with his hands +and kept kicking the warder as hard as he could with his right foot. +The other warder, unable to get to the window to help his colleague, was +making vain efforts to stop the train by pulling the communication cord. +For two miles the train ran on, Peace struggling desperately to escape. +At last he succeeded in kicking off his left shoe, and dropped on to the +line. The train ran on another mile until, with the assistance of some +gentlemen in other carriages, the warders were able to get it pulled up. +They immediately hurried back along the line, and there, near a place +called Kineton Park, they found their prisoner lying in the footway, +apparently unconscious and bleeding from a severe wound in the scalp. A +slow train from Sheffield stopped to pick up the injured man. As he was +lifted into the guard's van, he asked them to cover him up as he was +cold. On arriving at Sheffield, Peace was taken to the Police Station +and there made as comfortable as possible in one of the cells. Even then +he had energy enough to be troublesome over taking the brandy ordered +for him by the surgeon, until one of the officers told "Charley" they +would have none of his hanky-panky, and he had got to take it. "All +right," said Peace, "give me a minute," after which he swallowed +contentedly a couple of gills of the genial spirit. + +Peace's daring feat was not, according to his own account, a mere +attempt to escape from the clutches of the law; it was noble and Roman +in its purpose. This is what he told his stepson, Willie Ward: "I saw +from the way I was guarded all the way down from London and all the way +back, when I came for my first trial, that I could not get away from the +warders, and I knew I could not jump from an express train without being +killed. I took a look at Darnall as I went down and as I went back, and +after I was put in my cell, I thought it all over. I felt that I could +not get away, and then I made up my mind to kill myself. I got two bits +of paper and pricked on them the words, 'Bury me at Darnall. God bless +you all!' With a bit of black dirt that I found on the floor of my cell +I wrote the same words on another piece of paper, and then I hid them in +my clothes. My hope was that, when I jumped from the train I should be +cut to pieces under the wheels. Then I should have been taken to the +Duke of York (a public-house at Darnall) and there would have been an +inquest over me. As soon as the inquest was over you would have claimed +my body, found the pieces of paper, and then you would have buried me at +Darnall." + +This statement of Peace is no doubt in the main correct. But it is +difficult to believe that there was not present to his mind the sporting +chance that he might not be killed in leaping from the train, in which +event he would no doubt have done his best to get away, trusting to his +considerable powers of ingenious disguise to elude pursuit. But such a +chance was remote. Peace had faced boldly the possibility of a dreadful +death. + +With that strain of domestic sentiment, which would appear to have been +a marked characteristic of his family, Peace was the more ready to +cheat the gallows in the hope of being by that means buried decently at +Darnall. It was at Darnall that he had spent some months of comparative +calm in his tempestuous career, and it was at Darnall that he had first +met Mrs. Dyson. Another and more practical motive that may have urged +Peace to attempt to injure seriously, if not kill himself, was the +hope of thereby delaying his trial. If the magisterial investigation +in Sheffield were completed before the end of January, Peace could be +committed for trial to the ensuing Leeds Assizes which commenced in the +first week in February. If he were injured too seriously, this would not +be possible. Here again he was doomed to disappointment. + +Peace recovered so well from the results of his adventure on the railway +that the doctor pronounced him fit to appear for his second examination +before the magistrate on January 30. To avoid excitement, both on +the part of the prisoner and the public, the court sat in one of the +corridors of the Town Hall. The scene is described as dismal, dark and +cheerless. The proceedings took place by candlelight, and Peace, who was +seated in an armchair, complained frequently of the cold. At other times +he moaned and groaned and protested against the injustice with which +he was being treated. But the absence of any audience rather dashed the +effect of his laments. + +The most interesting part of the proceedings was the cross-examination +of Mrs. Dyson by Mr. Clegg, the prisoner's solicitor. + +Its purpose was to show that Mrs. Dyson had been on more intimate terms +with Peace than she was ready to admit, and that Dyson had been shot +by Peace in the course of a struggle, in which the former had been the +aggressor. + +In the first part of his task Mr. Clegg met with some success. Mrs. +Dyson, whose memory was certainly eccentric--she could not, she said, +remember the year in which she had been married--was obliged to admit +that she had been in the habit of going to Peace's house, that she had +been alone with him to public-houses and places of entertainment, and +that she and Peace had been photographed together during the summer fair +at Sheffield. She could not "to her knowledge" recollect having told the +landlord of a public-house to charge her drink to Peace. + +A great deal of Mrs. Dyson's cross-examination turned on a bundle of +letters that had been found near the scene of Dyson's murder on the +morning following the crime. These letters consisted for the most part +of notes, written in pencil on scraps of paper, purporting to have been +sent from Mrs. Dyson to Peace. In many of them she asks for money to get +drink, others refer to opportunities for their meetings in the absence +of Dyson; there are kind messages to members of Peace's family, his wife +and daughter, and urgent directions to Peace to hold his tongue and not +give ground for suspicion as to their relations. This bundle of letters +contained also the card which Dyson had thrown into Peace's garden +requesting him not to interfere with his family. According to the theory +of the defence, these letters had been written by Mrs. Dyson to Peace, +and went to prove the intimacy of their relations. At the inquest after +her husband's murder, Mrs. Dyson had been questioned by the coroner +about these letters. She denied that she had ever written to Peace; in +fact, she said, she "never did write." It was stated that Dyson himself +had seen the letters, and declared them to be forgeries written by Peace +or members of his family for the purpose of annoyance. Nevertheless, +before the Sheffield magistrate Mr. Clegg thought it his duty to +cross-examine Mrs. Dyson closely as to their authorship. He asked her +to write out a passage from one of them: "You can give me something as a +keepsake if you like, but I don't like to be covetous, and to take them +from your wife and daughter. Love to all!" Mrs. Dyson refused to admit +any likeness between what she had written and the handwriting of the +letter in question. Another passage ran: "Will see you as soon as I +possibly can. I think it would be easier after you move; he won't watch +so. The r--g fits the little finger. Many thanks and love to--Jennie +(Peace's daughter Jane). I will tell you what I thought of when I see +you about arranging matters. Excuse this scribbling." In answer to Mr. +Clegg, Mrs. Dyson admitted that Peace had given her a ring, which she +had worn for a short time on her little finger. + +Another letter ran: "If you have a note for me, send now whilst he is +out; but you must not venture, for he is watching, and you cannot be too +careful. Hope your foot is better. I went to Sheffield yesterday, but +I could not see you anywhere. Were you out? Love to Jane." Mrs. Dyson +denied that she had known of an accident which Peace had had to his foot +at this time. In spite of the ruling of the magistrate that Mr. +Clegg had put forward quite enough, if true, to damage Mrs. Dyson's +credibility, he continued to press her as to her authorship of these +notes and letters, but Mrs. Dyson was firm in her repudiation of +them. She was equally firm in denying that anything in the nature of a +struggle had taken place between Peace and her husband previous to his +murder. + +At the conclusion of Mrs. Dyson's evidence the prisoner was committed to +take his trial at the Leeds Assizes, which commenced the week following. +Peace, who had groaned and moaned and constantly interrupted the +proceedings, protested his innocence, and complained that his witnesses +had not been called. The apprehension with which this daring malefactor +was regarded by the authorities is shown by this clandestine hearing +of his case in a cold corridor of the Town Hall, and the rapidity with +which his trial followed on his committal. There is an appearance almost +of precipitation in the haste with which Peace was bustled to his doom. +After his committal he was taken to Wakefield Prison, and a few days +later to Armley Jail, there to await his trial. + +This began on February 4, and lasted one day. Mr. Justice Lopes, who had +tried vainly to persuade the Manchester Grand Jury to throw out the +bill in the case of the brothers Habron, was the presiding judge. Mr. +Campbell Foster, Q.C., led for the prosecution. Peace was defended by +Mr. Frank Lockwood, then rising into that popular success at the bar +which some fifteen years later made him Solicitor-General, and but for +his premature death would have raised him to even higher honours in his +profession. + +In addressing the jury, both Mr. Campbell Foster and Mr. Lockwood took +occasion to protest against the recklessness with which the press of +the day, both high and low, had circulated stories and rumours about +the interesting convict. As early as November in 1878 one leading London +daily newspaper had said that "it was now established beyond doubt that +the burglar captured by Police Constable Robinson was one and the same +as the Banner Cross murderer." Since then, as the public excitement grew +and the facts of Peace's extraordinary career came to light, the press +had responded loyally to the demands of the greedy lovers of sensation, +and piled fiction on fact with generous profusion. "Never," said Mr. +Lockwood, "in the whole course of his experience--and he defied any +of his learned friends to quote an experience--had there been such an +attempt made on the part of those who should be most careful of all +others to preserve the liberties of their fellowmen and to preserve the +dignity of the tribunals of justice to determine the guilt of a man." +Peace exclaimed "Hear, hear!" as Mr. Lockwood went on to say that "for +the sake of snatching paltry pence from the public, these persons had +wickedly sought to prejudice the prisoner's life." Allowing for Mr. +Lockwood's zeal as an advocate, there can be no question that, had +Peace chosen or been in a position to take proceedings, more than one +newspaper had at this time laid itself open to prosecution for contempt +of Court. The Times was not far wrong in saying that, since Muller +murdered Mr. Briggs on the North London Railway and the poisonings of +William Palmer, no criminal case had created such excitement as that of +Charles Peace. The fact that property seemed to be no more sacred to him +than life aggravated in a singular degree the resentment of a commercial +people. + +The first witness called by the prosecution was Mrs. Dyson. She +described how on the night of November 29, 1876, she had come out of +the outhouse in the yard at the back of her house, and found herself +confronted by Peace holding a revolver; how he said: "Speak, or I'll +fire!" and the sequence of events already related up to the moment when +Dyson fell, shot in the temple. + +Mr. Lockwood commenced his cross-examination of Mrs. Dyson by +endeavouring to get from her an admission; the most important to the +defence, that Dyson had caught hold of Peace after the first shot had +been fired, and that in the struggle which ensued, the revolver had gone +off by accident. But he was not very successful. He put it to Mrs. Dyson +that before the magistrate at Sheffield she had said: "I can't say +my husband did not get hold of the prisoner." "Put in the little +word 'try,' please," answered Mrs. Dyson. In spite of Mr. Lockwood's +questions, she maintained that, though her husband may have attempted to +get hold of Peace, he did not succeed in doing so. As she was the only +witness to the shooting there was no one to contradict her statement. + +Mr. Lockwood fared better when he came to deal with the relations of +Mrs. Dyson with Peace previous to the crime. Mrs. Dyson admitted that +in the spring of 1876 her husband had objected to her friendship with +Peace, and that nevertheless, in the following summer, she and Peace +had been photographed together at the Sheffield fair. She made a vain +attempt to escape from such an admission by trying to shift the occasion +of the summer fair to the previous year, 1875, but Mr. Lockwood put +it to her that she had not come to Darnall, where she first met Peace, +until the end of that year. Finally he drove her to say that she could +not remember when she came to Darnall, whether in 1873, 1874, 1875, or +1876. She admitted that she had accepted a ring from Peace, but could +not remember whether she had shown it to her husband. She had been +perhaps twice with Peace to the Marquis of Waterford public-house, and +once to the Star Music Hall. She could not swear one way or the other +whether she had charged to Peace's account drink consumed by her at an +inn in Darnall called the Half-way House. Confronted with a little girl +and a man, whom Mr. Lockwood suggested she had employed to carry notes +to Peace, Mrs. Dyson said that these were merely receipts for pictures +which he had framed for her. On the day before her husband's murder, +Mrs. Dyson was at the Stag Hotel at Sharrow with a little boy belonging +to a neighbour. A man followed her in and sat beside her, and afterwards +followed her out. In answer to Mr. Lockwood, Mrs. Dyson would "almost +swear" the man was not Peace; he had spoken to her, but she could not +remember whether she had spoken to him or not. She denied that this man +had said to her that he would come and see her the next night. As +the result of a parting shot Mr. Lockwood obtained from Mrs. Dyson a +reluctant admission that she had been "slightly inebriated" at the +Half-way House in Darnall, but had not to her knowledge been turned +out of the house on that account. "You may not have known you were +inebriated?" suggested Mr. Lockwood. "I always know what I am doing," +was Mrs. Dyson's reply, to which an unfriendly critic might have replied +that she did not apparently know with anything like certainty what she +had been doing during the last three or four years. In commenting on +the trial the following day, the Times stigmatised as "feeble" the +prevarications by which Mrs. Dyson tried to explain away her intimacy +with Peace. In this part of his cross-examination Mr. Lockwood had made +it appear at least highly probable that there had been a much closer +relationship between Mrs. Dyson and Peace than the former was willing to +acknowledge. + +The evidence of Mrs. Dyson was followed by that of five persons who had +either seen Peace in the neighbourhood of Banner Cross Terrace on the +night of the murder, or heard the screams and shots that accompanied it. +A woman, Mrs. Gregory, whose house was between that of the Dysons and +the passage in which Dyson was shot, said that she had heard the noise +of the clogs Mrs. Dyson was wearing as she went across the yard. A +minute later she heard a scream. She opened her back door and saw Dyson +standing by his own. She told him to go to his wife. She then went back +into her house, and almost directly after heard two shots, followed by +another scream, but no sound as of any scuffling. + +Another witness was a labourer named Brassington. He was a stranger to +Peace, but stated that about eight o'clock on the night of the murder +a man came up to him outside the Banner Cross Hotel, a few yards from +Dyson's house. He was standing under a gas lamp, and it was a bright +moonlight night. The man asked him if he knew of any strange people who +had come to live in the neighbourhood. Brassington answered that he +did not. The man then produced a bundle of letters which he asked +Brassington to read. But Brassington declined, as reading was not one of +his accomplishments. The man then said that "he would make it a warm 'un +for those strange folks before morning--he would shoot both of them," +and went off in the direction of Dyson's house. Brassington swore +positively that Peace was the stranger who had accosted him that night, +and Mr. Lockwood failed to shake him in his evidence. Nor could Mr. +Lockwood persuade the surgeon who was called to Dyson at the time of his +death to admit that the marks on the nose and chin of the dead man +could have been caused by a blow; they were merely abrasions of the skin +caused by the wounded man falling to the ground. + +Evidence was then given as to threats uttered by Peace against the +Dysons in the July of 1876, and as to his arrest at Blackheath in the +October of 1878. The revolver taken from Peace that night was produced, +and it was shown that the rifling of the bullet extracted from Dyson's +head was the same as that of the bullet fired from the revolver carried +by Peace at the time of his capture. + +Mr. Campbell Foster wanted to put in as evidence the card that Dyson +had flung into Peace's garden at Darnall requesting him not to interfere +with his family. This card had been found among the bundle of letters +dropped by Peace near the scene of the murder. Mr. Lockwood objected to +the admission of the card unless all the letters were admitted at the +same time. The Judge ruled that both the card and the letters were +inadmissible, as irrelevant to the issue; Mr. Lockwood had, he said, +very properly cross-examined Mrs. Dyson on these letters to test her +credibility, but he was bound by her answers and could not contradict +her by introducing them as evidence in the case. + +Mr. Lockwood in his address to the jury did his best to persuade them +that the death of Dyson was the accidental result of a struggle between +Peace and himself. He suggested that Mrs. Dyson had left her house that +night for the purpose of meeting Peace, and that Dyson, who was jealous +of his wife's intimacy with him, had gone out to find her; that Dyson, +seeing Peace, had caught hold of him; and that the revolver had gone +off accidentally as Dyson tried to wrest it from his adversary. +He repudiated the suggestion of Mr. Foster that the persons he had +confronted with Mrs. Dyson in the course of his cross-examination had +been hired for a paltry sum to come into court and lie. + +Twice, both at the beginning and the end of his speech, Mr. Lockwood +urged as a reason for the jury being tender in taking Peace's life that +he was in such a state of wickedness as to be quite unprepared to meet +death. Both times that his counsel put forward this curious plea, Peace +raised his eyes to heaven and exclaimed "I am not fit to die." + +Mr. Justice Lopes in summing up described as an "absolute surmise" the +theory of the accidental discharge of the pistol. He asked the jury to +take Peace's revolver in their hands and try the trigger, so as to see +for themselves whether it was likely to go off accidentally or not. He +pointed out that the pistol produced might not have been the pistol used +at Banner Cross; at the same time the bullet fired in November, 1876, +bore marks such as would have been produced had it been fired from the +pistol taken from Peace at Blackheath in October, 1878. He said that Mr. +Lockwood had been perfectly justified in his attempt to discredit the +evidence of Mrs. Dyson, but the case did not rest on her evidence alone. +In her evidence as to the threats uttered by Peace in July, 1876, Mrs. +Dyson was corroborated by three other witnesses. In the Judge's opinion +it was clearly proved that no struggle or scuffle had taken place +before the murder. If the defence, he concluded, rested on no solid +foundation, then the jury must do their duty to the community at large +and by the oath they had sworn. + +It was a quarter past seven when the jury retired. Ten minutes later +they came back into court with a verdict of guilty. Asked if he had +anything to say, Peace in a faint voice replied, "It is no use my +saying anything." The Judge, declining very properly to aggravate the +prisoner's feelings by "a recapitulation of any portion of the details +of what I fear, I can only call your criminal career," passed on him +sentence of death. Peace accepted his fate with composure. + +Before we proceed to describe the last days of Peace on earth, let us +finish with the two women who had succeeded Mrs. Peace in his ardent +affections. + +A few days after Peace's execution Mrs. Dyson left England for America, +but before going she left behind her a narrative intended to contradict +the imputations which she felt had been made against her moral +character. An Irishwoman by birth, she said that she had gone to America +when she was fifteen years old. + +There she met and married Dyson, a civil engineer on the Atlantic and +Great Western Railway. Theirs was a rough and arduous life. But Mrs. +Dyson was thoroughly happy in driving her husband about in a buggy among +bears and creeks. She did not know fear and loved danger: "My husband +loved me and I loved him, and in his company and in driving him about in +this wild kind of fashion I derived much pleasure." However, Mr. Dyson's +health broke down, and he was obliged to return to England. It was at +Darnall that the fatal acquaintance with Peace began. Living next +door but one to the Dysons, Peace took the opportunity of introducing +himself, and Mr. Dyson "being a gentleman," took polite notice of his +advances. He became a constant visitor at the house. But after a time +Peace began to show that he was not the gentleman Mr. Dyson was. He +disgusted the latter by offering to show him improper pictures and "the +sights of the town" of Sheffield. + +The Dysons tried to shake off the unwelcome acquaintance, but that was +easier said than done. By this time Peace had set his heart on making +Mrs. Dyson leave her husband. He kept trying to persuade her to go to +Manchester with him, where he would take a cigar or picture shop, to +which Mrs. Dyson, in fine clothes and jewelry, should lend the charm of +her comely presence. He offered her a sealskin jacket, yards of silk, +a gold watch. She should, he said, live in Manchester like a lady, to +which Mrs. Dyson replied coldly that she had always lived like one and +should continue to do so quite independently of him. But Peace would +listen to no refusal, however decided its tone. Dyson threw over +the card into Peace's garden. This only served to aggravate his +determination to possess himself of the wife. He would listen at +keyholes, leer in at the window, and follow Mrs. Dyson wherever she +went. When she was photographed at the fair, she found that Peace had +stood behind her chair and by that means got himself included in the +picture. At times he had threatened her with a revolver. On one occasion +when he was more insulting than usual, Mrs. Dyson forgot her fear of him +and gave him a thrashing. Peace threatened "to make her so that neither +man nor woman should look at her, and then he would have her all to +himself." It was with some purpose of this kind, Mrs. Dyson suggested, +that Peace stole a photograph of herself out of a locket, intending to +make some improper use of it. At last, in desperation, the Dysons moved +to Banner Cross. From the day of their arrival there until the murder, +Mrs. Dyson never saw Peace. She denied altogether having been in his +company the night before the murder. The letters were "bare forgeries," +written by Peace or members of his family to get her into their power. + +Against the advice of all her friends Mrs. Dyson had come back from +America to give evidence against Peace. To the detective who saw her at +Cleveland she said, "I will go back if I have to walk on my head all the +way"; and though she little knew what she would have to go through in +giving her evidence, she would do it again under the circumstances. "My +opinion is," she said, "that Peace is a perfect demon--not a man. I am +told that since he has been sentenced to death he has become a changed +character. That I don't believe. The place to which the wicked go is not +bad enough for him. I think its occupants, bad as they might be, are too +good to be where he is. No matter where he goes, I am satisfied that +there will be hell. Not even a Shakespeare could adequately paint such a +man as he has been. My lifelong regret will be that I ever knew him." + +With these few earnest words Mrs. Dyson quitted the shores of England, +hardly clearing up the mystery of her actual relations with Peace. + +A woman with whom Mrs. Dyson very much resented finding herself +classed--inebriety would appear to have been their only common +weakness--was Mrs. Thompson, the "traitress Sue." In spite of the fact +that on February 5 Mrs. Thompson had applied to the Treasury for L100, +blood money due her for assisting the police in the identification of +Peace, she was at the same time carrying on a friendly correspondence +with her lover and making attempts to see him. Peace had written to her +before his trial hoping she would not forsake him; "you have been my +bosom friend, and you have ofttimes said you loved me, that you would +die for me." He asked her to sell some goods which he had left with +her in order to raise money for his defence. The traitress replied on +January 27 that she had already sold everything and shared the proceeds +with Mrs. Peace. "You are doing me great injustice," she wrote, "by +saying that I have been out to 'work' with you. Do not die with such a +base falsehood on your conscience, for you know I am young and have my +living and character to redeem. I pity you and myself to think we should +have met." After his condemnation Mrs. Thompson made repeated efforts +to see Peace, coming to Leeds for the purpose. Peace wrote a letter on +February 9 to his "poor Sue," asking her to come to the prison. But, +partly at the wish of Peace's relatives and for reasons of their own, a +permission given Mrs. Thompson by the authorities to visit the convict +was suddenly withdrawn, and she never saw him again. + + + +III + +HIS TRIAL AND EXECUTION + + +In the lives of those famous men who have perished on the scaffold +their behaviour during the interval between their condemnation and their +execution has always been the subject of curiosity and interest. + +It may be said at once that nothing could have been more deeply +religious, more sincerely repentant, more Christian to all appearances +than Peace's conduct and demeanour in the last weeks of his life. He +threw himself into the work of atonement with the same uncompromising +zeal and energy that he had displayed as a burglar. By his death a truly +welcome and effective recruit was lost to the ranks of the contrite +and converted sinners. However powerless as a controlling force--and he +admitted it--his belief in God and the devil may have been in the past, +that belief was assured and confident, and in the presence of death +proclaimed itself with vigour, not in words merely, but in deeds. + +In obedience to the wishes of his family, Peace had refrained from +seeing Sue Thompson. This was at some sacrifice, for he wished very much +to see her and to the last, though he knew that she had betrayed him, +sent her affectionate and forgiving messages. These were transmitted +to Sue by Mr. Brion. This disingenuous gentleman was a fellow-applicant +with Sue to the Treasury for pecuniary recognition of his efforts in +bringing about the identification of Peace, and furnishing the police +with information as to the convict's disposal of his stolen property. In +his zeal he had even gone so far as to play the role of an accomplice of +Peace, and by this means discovered a place in Petticoat Lane where the +burglar got rid of some of his booty. + +After Peace's condemnation Mr. Brion visited him in Armley Jail. His +purpose in doing so was to wring from his co-inventor an admission that +the inventions which they had patented together were his work alone. +Peace denied this, but offered to sell his share for L50. Brion refused +the offer, and persisted in his assertion that Peace had got his name +attached to the patents by undue influence, whatever that might mean. +Peace, after wrestling with the spirit, gave way. "Very well, my +friend," he said, "let it be as you say. I have not cheated you, Heaven +knows. But I also know that this infamy of mine has been the cause of +bringing harm to you, which is the last thing I should have wished to +have caused to my friend." A deed of gift was drawn up, making over to +Brion Peace's share in their inventions; this Peace handed to Brion +as the price of the latter's precious forgiveness and a token of the +sincerity of his colleague's repentance. Thus, as has often happened +in this sad world, was disreputable genius exploited once again by +smug mediocrity. Mr. Brion, having got all he wanted, left the prison, +assuring the Governor that Peace's repentance was "all bunkum," and +advising, with commendable anxiety for the public good, that the warders +in the condemned cell should be doubled. + +Peace had one act of atonement to discharge more urgent than displaying +Christian forbearance towards ignoble associates. That was the righting +of William Habron, who was now serving the third year of his life +sentence for the murder of Constable Cock at Whalley Range. Peace +sent for the Governor of the jail a few days before his execution and +obtained from him the materials necessary for drawing up a plan. Peace +was quite an adept at making plans; he had already made an excellent one +of the scene of Dyson's murder. He now drew a plan of the place where +Cock had been shot, gave a detailed account of how he came by his death, +and made a full confession of his own guilt. + +In the confession he described how, some days before the burglary, he +had, according to his custom, "spotted" the house at Whalley Range. In +order to do this he always dressed himself respectably, because he had +found that the police never suspected anyone who wore good clothes. On +the night of the crime he passed two policemen on the road to the house. +He had gone into the grounds and was about to begin operations when he +heard a rustle behind him and saw a policeman, whom he recognised as one +of those he had met in the road, enter the garden. With his well-known +agility Peace climbed on to the wall, and dropped on to the other side, +only to find himself almost in the arms of the second policeman. Peace +warned the officer to stand back and fired his revolver wide of him. +But, as Peace said, "these Manchester policemen are a very obstinate +lot." The constable took out his truncheon. Peace fired again and killed +him. + +Soon after the murderer saw in the newspapers that two men had been +arrested for the crime. "This greatly interested me," said Peace. "I +always had a liking to be present at trials, as the public no doubt know +by this time." So he went to Manchester Assizes and saw William Habron +sentenced to death. "People will say," he said, "that I was a hardened +wretch for allowing an innocent man to suffer for the crime of which +I was guilty but what man would have given himself up under such +circumstances, knowing as I did that I should certainly be hanged?" +Peace's view of the question was a purely practical one: "Now that I +am going to forfeit my own life and feel that I have nothing to gain +by further secrecy, I think it is right in the sight of God and man to +clear this innocent young man." It would have been more right in the +sight of God and man to have done it before, but then Peace admitted +that during all his career he had allowed neither God nor man to +influence his actions. + +How many men in the situation of Peace at the time, with the certainty +of death before him if he confessed, would have sacrificed themselves to +save an innocent man? Cold-blooded heroism of this kind is rare in the +annals of crime. Nor did Peace claim to have anything of the hero about +him. + + "Lion-hearted I've lived, + And when my time comes + Lion-hearted I'll die." + +Though fond of repeating this piece of doggerel, Peace would have +been the last man to have attributed to himself all those qualities +associated symbolically with the lion. + +A few days before his execution Peace was visited in his prison by Mr. +Littlewood, the Vicar of Darnall. Mr. Littlewood had known Peace a few +years before, when he had been chaplain at Wakefield Prison. "Well, my +old friend Peace," he said as he entered the cell, "how are you to-day?" +"'I am very poorly, sir," replied the convict, "but I am exceedingly +pleased to see you." Mr. Littlewood assured Peace that there was at any +rate one person in the world who had deep sympathy with him, and that +was himself. Peace burst into tears. He expressed a wish to unburden +himself to the vicar, but before doing so, asked for his assurance that +he believed in the truth and sincerity of what he was about to say to +him. He said that he preferred to be hanged to lingering out his life +in penal servitude, that he was grieved and repentant for his past +life. "If I could undo, or make amends for anything I have done, I would +suffer my body as I now stand to be cut in pieces inch by inch. I feel, +sir, that I am too bad to live or die, and having this feeling I cannot +think that either you or anyone else would believe me, and that is the +reason why I ask you so much to try to be assured that you do not think +I am telling lies. I call my God to witness that all I am saying and +wish to say shall be the truth--the whole truth--nothing but the truth." +Mr. Littlewood said that, after carefully watching Peace and having +regard to his experience of some of the most hardened of criminals +during his service in Wakefield Prison, he felt convinced that Peace +was in earnest and as sincere as any man could be; he spoke rationally, +coherently, and without excitement. + +Peace was determined to test the extent of the reverend gentleman's +faith in his asseverations. "Now, sir," he said, "I understand that you +still have the impression that I stole the clock from your day-schools." +Mr. Littlewood admitted that such was his impression. "I thought so," +replied Peace, "and this has caused me much grief and pain, for I can +assure you I have so much respect for you personally that I would rather +have given you a clock and much more besides than have taken it. At the +time your clock was stolen I had reason for suspecting that it was taken +by some colliers whom I knew." There was a pause. Mr. Littlewood thought +that Peace was going to give him the name of the colliers. But that was +not Peace's way. He said sharply: "Do you now believe that I have spoken +the truth in denying that I took your clock, and will you leave me +to-day fully believing that I am innocent of doing that?" Mr. Littlewood +looked at him closely and appeared to be deliberating on his reply. +Peace watched him intently. At last Mr. Littlewood said, "Peace, I am +convinced that you did not take the clock. I cannot believe that you +dare deny it now in your position, if you really did." Once more Peace +burst into tears, and was unable for some time to speak. + +Having recovered his self-possession, Peace turned to the serious +business of confession. He dealt first with the murder of Dyson. + +He maintained that his relations with Mrs. Dyson had been of an intimate +character. He wanted to see her on the night of the crime in order +to get her to induce her husband to withdraw the warrant which he had +procured against him; he was tired, he said, of being hunted about +from place to place. He intercepted Mrs. Dyson as she crossed the +yard. Instead of listening to him quietly Mrs. Dyson became violent and +threatening in her language. Peace took out his revolver, and, holding +it close to her head, warned her that he was not to be trifled with. She +refused to be warned. Dyson, hearing the loud voices, came out of his +house. Peace tried to get away down the passage into Banner Cross Road, +but Dyson followed and caught hold of him. In the struggle Peace fired +one barrel of his revolver wide. Dyson seized the hand in which Peace +was holding the weapon. "Then I knew," said Peace, "I had not a moment +to spare. I made a desperate effort, wrenched the arm from him and fired +again. All that was in my head at the time was to get away. I never did +intend, either there or anywhere else, to take a man's life; but I was +determined that I should not be caught at that time, as the result, +knowing what I had done before, would have been worse even than had I +stayed under the warrant." If he had intended to murder Dyson, Peace +pointed out that he would have set about it in quite a different and +more secret way; it was as unintentional a thing as ever was done; Mrs. +Dyson had committed the grossest perjury in saying that no struggle had +taken place between her husband and himself. + +It is to be remembered that Peace and Mrs. Dyson were the sole +witnesses of what took place that night between the two men. In point +of credibility there may be little to choose between them, but Peace can +claim for his account that it was the statement of a dying, and, to all +appearances, sincerely repentant sinner. + +Peace then repeated to Mr. Littlewood his confession of the killing of +Constable Cock, and his desire that Habron should be set free.(11) As to +this part of his career Peace indulged in some general reflections. +"My great mistake, sir," he said, "and I can see it now as my end +approaches, has been this--in all my career I have used ball cartridge. +I can see now that in using ball cartridge I did wrong I ought to have +used blank cartridge; then I would not have taken life." Peace said that +he hoped he would meet his death like a hero. "I do not say this in +any kind of bravado. I do not mean such a hero as some persons will +understand when they read this. I mean such a hero as my God might wish +me to be. I am deeply grieved for all I have done, and would atone +for it to the utmost of my power." To Mr. Littlewood the moment seemed +convenient to suggest that as a practical means of atonement Peace +should reveal to him the names of the persons with whom he had disposed +of the greater part of his stolen property. But in spite of much +attempted persuasion by the reverend gentleman Peace explained that he +was a man and meant to be a man to the end. + + + (11) William Habron was subsequently given a free pardon and L800 by way +of compensation. + + +Earlier in their interview Peace had expressed to Mr. Littlewood a hope +that after his execution his name would never be mentioned again, but +before they parted he asked Mr. Littlewood, as a favour, to preach a +sermon on him after his death to the good people of Darnall. He wished +his career held up to them as a beacon, in order that all who saw might +avoid his example, and so his death be of some service to society. + +Before Mr. Littlewood left, Peace asked him to hear him pray. Having +requested the warders to kneel down, Peace began a prayer that lasted +twenty minutes. He prayed for himself, his family, his victims, Mr. +Littlewood, society generally, and all classes of the community. Mr. +Littlewood described the prayer as earnest, fervent and fluent. At the +end Peace asked Mr. Littlewood if he ought to see Mrs. Dyson and beg +her forgiveness for having killed her husband. Mr. Littlewood, believing +erroneously that Mrs. Dyson had already left the country, told Peace +that he should direct all his attention to asking forgiveness of his +Maker. At the close of their interview Peace was lifted into bed and, +turning his face to the wall, wept. + +Tuesday, February 25, was the day fixed for the execution of Peace. +As the time drew near, the convict's confidence in ultimate salvation +increased. A Dr. Potter of Sheffield had declared in a sermon that "all +hope of Peace's salvation was gone for ever." Peace replied curtly, +"Well, Dr. Potter may think so, but I don't." Though his health had +improved, Peace was still very feeble in body. But his soul was hopeful +and undismayed. On the Saturday before his death his brother and +sister-in-law, a nephew and niece visited him for the last time. He +spoke with some emotion of his approaching end. He said he should die +about eight o'clock, and that at four o'clock an inquest would be held +on his body; he would then be thrown into his grave without service +or sermon of any kind. He asked his relatives to plant a flower on a +certain grave in a cemetery in Sheffield on the day of his execution. He +was very weak, he said, but hoped he should have strength enough to +walk to the scaffold. He sent messages to friends and warnings to avoid +gambling and drinking. He begged his brother to change his manner of +life and "become religious." His good counsel was not apparently +very well received. Peace's visitors took a depressing view of their +relative's condition. They found him "a poor, wretched, haggard man," +and, meeting Mrs. Thompson who was waiting outside the gaol for news of +"dear Jack," wondered how she could have taken up with such a man. + +When, the day before his execution, Peace was visited for the last time +by his wife, his stepson, his daughter, Mrs. Bolsover, and her husband, +he was in much better spirits. He asked his visitors to restrain +themselves from displays of emotion, as he felt very happy and did +not wish to be disturbed. He advised them to sell or exhibit for money +certain works of art of his own devising. Among them was a design +in paper for a monument to be placed over his grave. The design is +elaborate but well and ingeniously executed; in the opinion of Frith, +the painter, it showed "the true feeling of an artist." It is somewhat +in the style of the Albert Memorial, and figures of angels are prominent +in the scheme. The whole conception is typical of the artist's sanguine +and confident assurance of his ultimate destiny. A model boat and a +fiddle made out of a hollow bamboo cane he wished also to be made the +means of raising money. He was describing with some detail the ceremony +of his approaching death and burial when he was interrupted by a sound +of hammering. Peace listened for a moment and then said, "That's a noise +that would make some men fall on the floor. They are working at my own +scaffold." A warder said that he was mistaken. "No, I am not," answered +Peace, "I have not worked so long with wood without knowing the sound of +deals; and they don't have deals inside a prison for anything else than +scaffolds." But the noise, he said, did not disturb him in the least, as +he was quite prepared to meet his fate. He would like to have seen his +grave and coffin; he knew that his body would be treated with scant +ceremony after his death. But what of that? By that time his soul would +be in Heaven. He was pleased that one sinner who had seen him on his way +from Pentonville to Sheffield, had written to tell him that the sight of +the convict had brought home to him the sins of his own past life, and +by this means he had found salvation. + +The time had come to say good-bye for the last time. Peace asked his +weeping relatives whether they had anything more that they wished to ask +him. Mrs. Peace reminded him that he had promised to pray with them +at the last. Peace, ever ready, knelt with them and prayed for half an +hour. He then shook hands with them, prayed for and blessed each one +singly, and himself gave way to tears as they left his presence. To his +wife as she departed Peace gave a funeral card of his own designing. It +ran: + + In + Memory + of + Charles Peace + Who was executed in + Armley Prison + Tuesday February 25th, + 1879 Aged 47 + + For that I don but never + Intended. + + +The same day there arrived in the prison one who in his own trade had +something of the personality and assurance of the culprit he was to +execute. William Marwood--unlike his celebrated victim, he has his place +in the Dictionary of National Biography--is perhaps the most remarkable +of these persons who have held at different times the office of public +executioner. As the inventor of the "long drop," he has done a lasting +service to humanity by enabling the death-sentence passed by the judge +to be carried out with the minimum of possible suffering. Marwood took a +lofty view of the office he held, and refused his assent to the somewhat +hypocritical loathing, with which those who sanction and profit by his +exertions are pleased to regard this servant of the law. "I am doing +God's work," said Marwood, "according to the divine command and the +law of the British Crown. I do it simply as a matter of duty and as +a Christian. I sleep as soundly as a child and am never disturbed by +phantoms. Where there is guilt there is bad sleeping, but I am conscious +that I try to live a blameless life. Detesting idleness, I pass +my vacant time in business (he was a shoemaker at Horncastle, in +Lincolnshire) and work in my shoeshop near the church day after day +until such time as I am required elsewhere. It would have been better +for those I executed if they had preferred industry to idleness." + +Marwood had not the almost patriarchal air of benevolent respectability +which his predecessor Calcraft had acquired during a short experience +as a family butler; but as an executioner that kindly old gentleman +had been a sad bungler in his time compared with the scientific and +expeditious Marwood. The Horncastle shoemaker was saving, businesslike, +pious and thoughtful. Like Peace, he had interests outside his ordinary +profession. He had at one time propounded a scheme for the abolition of +the National Debt, a man clearly determined to benefit his fellowmen in +some way or other. A predilection for gin would seem to have been his +only concession to the ordinary weakness of humanity. And now he had +arrived in Armley Jail to exercise his happy dispatch on the greatest +of the many criminals who passed through his hands, one who, in his own +words, "met death with greater firmness" than any man on whom he had +officiated during seven years of Crown employment. + +The day of February the 25th broke bitterly cold. Like Charles I. +before him, Peace feared lest the extreme cold should make him appear +to tremble on the scaffold. He had slept calmly till six o'clock in the +morning. A great part of the two hours before the coming of the hangman +Peace spent in letter-writing. He wrote two letters to his wife, in one +of which he copied out some verses he had written in Woking Prison +on the death of their little boy John. In the second he expressed his +satisfaction that he was to die now and not linger twenty years in +prison. To his daughter, step-son and son-in-law he wrote letters of +fervent, religious exhortation and sent them tracts and pictures +which he had secured from well-intentioned persons anxious about +his salvation. To an old friend, George Goodlad, a pianist, who +had apparently lived up to his name, he wrote: "You chose an honest +industrious way through life, but I chose the one of dishonesty, +villainy and sin"; let his fate, he said, be a warning. + +Peace ate a hearty breakfast and awaited the coming of the executioner +with calm. He had been troubled with an inconvenient cough the night +before. "I wonder," he said to one of his warders, "if Marwood could +cure this cough of mine." He had got an idea into his head that Marwood +would "punish" him when he came to deal with him on the scaffold, and +asked to see the hangman a few minutes before the appointed hour. "I +hope you will not punish me. I hope you will do your work quickly," he +said to Marwood. "You shall not suffer pain from my hand," replied that +worthy. "God bless you," exclaimed Peace, "I hope to meet you all in +heaven. I am thankful to say my sins are all forgiven." And so these two +pious men--on the morning of an execution Marwood always knelt down and +asked God's blessing on the work he had to do--shook hands together and +set about their business. Firmly and fearlessly Peace submitted himself +to the necessary preparations. For one moment he faltered as the gallows +came in sight, but recovered himself quickly. + +As Marwood was about to cover his face, Peace stopped him with some +irritation of manner and said that he wished to speak to the gentlemen +of the press who had been admitted to the ceremony. No one gainsaid him, +and he thus addressed the reporters: "You gentlemen reporters, I wish +you to notice the few words I am going to say. You know what my life +has been. It has been base; but I wish you to notice, for the sake of +others, how a man can die, as I am about to die, in fear of the Lord. +Gentlemen, my heart says that I feel assured that my sins are forgiven +me, that I am going to the Kingdom of Heaven, or else to the place +prepared for those who rest until the great Judgment day. I do not think +I have any enemies, but if there are any who would be so, I wish them +well. Gentlemen, all and all, I wish them to come to the Kingdom of +Heaven when they die, as I am going to die." He asked a blessing on the +officials of the prison and, in conclusion, sent his last wishes and +respects to his dear children and their mother. "I hope," he said, "no +one will disgrace them by taunting them or jeering them on my account, +but to have mercy upon them. God bless you, my dear children. Good-bye, +and Heaven bless you. Amen: Oh, my Lord God, have mercy upon me!" + +After the cap had been placed over his head Peace asked twice very +sharply, as a man who expected to be obeyed, for a drink of water. But +this time his request was not compiled with. He died instantaneously and +was buried in Armley Jail. + +Had Peace flourished in 1914 instead of 1874, his end might have been +honourable instead of dishonourable. The war of to-day has no doubt +saved many a man from a criminal career by turning to worthy account +qualities which, dangerous in crime, are useful in war. Absolute +fearlessness, agility, resource, cunning and determination; all these +are admirable qualities in the soldier; and all these Charles Peace +possessed in a signal degree. But fate denied him opportunity, he became +a burglar and died on the scaffold. Years of prison life failed, as they +did in those days, to make any impression for good on one resolute in +whatever way he chose to go. Peace was a born fighter. A detective who +knew him and had on one occasion come near capturing him in London, said +that he was a fair fighter, that he always gave fair warning to those on +whom he fired, and that, being a dead shot, the many wide shots which +he fired are to be reckoned proofs of this. Peace maintained to the last +that he had never intended to kill Dyson. This statement ex-detective +Parrock believed, and that the fatal shot was fired over Peace's +shoulder as he was making off. Though habitually sober, Peace was made +intoxicated now and then by the drink, stood him by those whom he used +to amuse with his musical tricks and antics in public-houses. At such +times he would get fuddled and quarrelsome. He was in such a frame +of mind on the evening of Dyson's murder. His visit to the Vicar of +Ecclesall brought him little comfort or consolation. It was in this +unsatisfactory frame of mind that he went to Dyson's house. This much +the ex-detective would urge in his favour. To his neighbours he was an +awe-inspiring but kind and sympathetic man. "If you want my true opinion +of him," says Detective Parrock, "he was a burglar to the backbone but +not a murderer at heart. He deserved the fate that came to him as little +as any who in modern times have met with a like one." Those who are in +the fighting line are always the most generous about their adversaries. +Parrock as a potential target for Peace's revolver, may have erred on +the side of generosity, but there is some truth in what he says. + +As Peace himself admitted, his life had been base. He was well aware +that he had misused such gifts as nature had bestowed on him. One +must go back to mediaeval times to find the counterpart of this daring +ruffian who, believing in personal God and devil, refuses until the end +to allow either to interfere with his business in life. In this respect +Charles Peace reminds us irresistibly of our Angevin kings. + +There is only one criminal who vies with Charley Peace in that genial +popular regard which makes Charles "Charley" and John "Jack," and that +is Jack Sheppard. What Jack was to the eighteenth century, that Charley +was to the nineteenth. And each one is in a sense typical of his period. +Lecky has said that the eighteenth century is richer than any other +in the romance of crime. I think it may fairly be said that in the +nineteenth century the romance of crime ceased to be. In the eighteenth +century the scenery and dresses, all the stage setting of crime make for +romance; its literature is quaint and picturesque; there is something +gay and debonair about the whole business. + +Sheppard is typical of all this. There is a certain charm about the +rascal; his humour is undeniable; he is a philosopher, taking all that +comes with easy grace, even his betrayal by his brother and others +who should have been loyal to him. Jack Sheppard has the good-humoured +carelessness of that most engaging of all eighteenth century +malefactors, Deacon Brodie. It is quite otherwise with Charley Peace. +There is little enough gay or debonair about him. Compared with +Sheppard, Peace is as drab as the surroundings of mid-Victorian crime +are drab compared with the picturesqueness of eighteenth century +England. + +Crime in the nineteenth century becomes more scientific in its methods +and in its detection also. The revolver places a more hasty, less +decorous weapon than the old-fashioned pistol in the hands of the +determined burglar. The literature of crime, such as it is, becomes +vulgar and prosaic. Peace has no charm about him, no gaiety, but he has +the virtues of his defects. He, unlike Sheppard, shuns company; he works +alone, never depending on accomplices; a "tight cock," as Sheppard would +have phrased it, and not relying on a like quality of tightness in +his fellows. Sheppard is a slave to his women, Edgeworth Bess and Mrs. +Maggot; Mrs. Peace and Sue Thompson are the slaves of Peace. Sheppard +loves to stroll openly about the London streets in his fine suit +of black, his ruffled shirt and his silver-hilted sword. Peace lies +concealed at Peckham beneath the homely disguise of old Mr. Thompson. +Sheppard is an imp, Peace a goblin. But both have that gift of +personality which, in their own peculiar line, lifts them out from the +ruck, and makes them Jack and Charley to those who like to know famous +people by cheery nicknames. + +And so we must accept Charles Peace as a remarkable character, whose +unquestioned gifts as a man of action were squandered on a criminal +career; neither better nor worse than a great number of other persons, +whose good fortune it has been to develop similar qualities under +happier surroundings. There are many more complete villains than the +ordinary criminal, who contrive to go through life without offending +against the law. Close and scientific investigation has shown that the +average convicted criminal differs intellectually from the normal person +only in a slightly lower level of intelligence, a condition that may +well be explained by the fact that the convicted criminal has been +found out. Crime has been happily defined by a recent and most able +investigator into the character of the criminal(12) as "an unusual act +committed by a perfectly normal person." At the same time, according +to the same authority, there is a type of normal person who tends to +be convicted of crime, and he is differentiated from his fellows by +defective physique and mental capacity and an increased possession of +antisocial qualities.(13) + + + (12) "The English Convict," a statistical study, by Charles Goring, M.D. +His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1913. + + (13) Murderers--at least those executed for their crimes--have not for +obvious reasons been made the subject of close scientific observation. +Their mental capacity would in all probability be found to be rather +higher than that of less ambitious criminals. + + +How does Peace answer to the definition? Though short in stature, his +physical development left little to be desired: he was active, agile, +and enjoyed excellent health at all times. For a man of forty-seven he +had aged remarkably in appearance. That is probably to be accounted for +by mental worry. With two murders on his conscience we know from Sue +Thompson that all she learnt of his secrets was what escaped from him in +his troubled dreams--Peace may well have shown traces of mental +anxiety. But in all other respects Charles Peace would seem to have been +physically fit. In intellectual capacity he was undoubtedly above the +average of the ordinary criminal. The facts of his career, his natural +gifts, speak for themselves. Of anti-social proclivities he no doubt +possessed his share at the beginning, and these were aggravated, as in +most cases they were in his day, by prison life and discipline. + +Judged as scientifically as is possible where the human being is +concerned, Peace stands out physically and intellectually well above +the average of his class, perhaps the most naturally gifted of all those +who, without advantages of rank or education, have tried their hands at +crime. Ordinary crime for the most part would appear to be little better +than the last resort of the intellectually defective, and a poor game +at that. The only interesting criminals are those worthy of something +better. Peace was one of these. If his life may be said to point a +moral, it is the very simple one that crime is no career for a man of +brains. + + + + +The Career of Robert Butler + + +There is a report of Butler's trial published in Dunedin. It gives in +full the speeches and the cross-examination of the witnesses, but not +in all cases the evidence-in-chief. By the kindness of a friend in +New Zealand I obtained a copy of the depositions taken before the +magistrate; with this I have been able to supplement the report of the +trial. A collection of newspaper cuttings furnished me with the details +of the rest of Butler's career. + +I + +THE DUNEDIN MURDERS + +On the evening of March 23, 1905, Mr. William Munday, a highly respected +citizen of the town of Tooringa, in Queensland, was walking to the +neighbouring town of Toowong to attend a masonic gathering. It was about +eight o'clock, the moon shining brightly. Nearing Toowong, Mr. Munday +saw a middle-aged man, bearded and wearing a white overcoat, step +out into the moonlight from under the shadow of a tree. As Mr. Munday +advanced, the man in the white coat stood directly in his way. "Out with +all you have, and quick about it," he said. Instead of complying with +this peremptory summons, Mr. Munday attempted to close with him. The man +drew back quickly, whipped out a revolver, fired, and made off as fast +as he could. The bullet, after passing through Mr. Munday's left arm, +had lodged in the stomach. The unfortunate gentleman was taken to a +neighbouring hospital where, within a few hours, he was dead. + +In the meantime a vigorous search was made for his assailant. Late the +same night Constable Hennessy, riding a bicycle, saw a man in a white +coat who seemed to answer to the description of the assassin. He +dismounted, walked up to him and asked him for a match. The man put his +hand inside his coat. "What have you got there?" asked the constable. +"I'll--soon show you," replied the man in the white coat, producing +suddenly a large revolver. But Hennessy was too quick for him. Landing +him one under the jaw, he sent him to the ground and, after a sharp +struggle, secured him. Constable Hennessy little knew at the time that +his capture in Queensland of the man in the white coat was almost as +notable in the annals of crime as the affray at Blackheath on an autumn +night in 1878, when Constable Robinson grappled successfully, wounded as +he was, with Charles Peace. + +The man taken by Hennessy gave the name of James Wharton, and as +James Wharton he was hanged at Brisbane. But before his death it was +ascertained beyond doubt, though he never admitted it himself, that +Wharton was none other than one Robert Butler, whose career as a +criminal and natural wickedness may well rank him with Charles Peace in +the hierarchy of scoundrels. Like Peace, Butler was, in the jargon of +crime, a "hatter," a "lone hand," a solitary who conceived and +executed his nefarious designs alone; like Peace, he supplemented an +insignificant physique by a liberal employment of the revolver; like +Peace, he was something of a musician, the day before his execution he +played hymns for half an hour on the prison organ; like Peace, he knew +when to whine when it suited his purpose; and like Peace, though not +with the same intensity, he could be an uncomfortably persistent lover, +when the fit was on him. Both men were cynics in their way and viewed +their fellow-men with a measure of contempt. But here parallel ends. +Butler was an intellectual, inferior as a craftsman to Peace, the +essentially practical, unread, naturally gifted artist. Butler was a man +of books. He had been schoolmaster, journalist. He had studied the lives +of great men, and as a criminal, had devoted especial attention to those +of Frederick the Great and Napoleon. Butler's defence in the Dunedin +murder trial was a feat of skill quite beyond the power of Peace. Peace +was a religious man after the fashion of the mediaeval tyrant, Butler +an infidel. Peace, dragged into the light of a court of justice, cut a +sorry figure; here Butler shone. Peace escaped a conviction for murder +by letting another suffer in his place; Butler escaped a similar +experience by the sheer ingenuity of his defence. Peace had the modesty +and reticence of the sincere artist; Butler the loquacious vanity of the +literary or forensic coxcomb. Lastly, and it is the supreme difference, +Butler was a murderer by instinct and conviction, as Lacenaire or +Ruloff; "a man's life," he said, "was of no more importance than a +dog's; nature respects the one no more than the other, a volcanic +eruption kills mice and men with the one hand. The divine command, +'kill, kill and spare not,' was intended not only for Joshua, but for +men of all time; it is the example of our rulers, our Fredericks and +Napoleons." + +Butler was of the true Prussian mould. "In crime," he would say, "as +in war, no half measures. Let us follow the example of our rulers whose +orders in war run, 'Kill, burn and sink,' and what you cannot carry +away, destroy.'" Here is the gospel of frightfulness applied almost +prophetically to crime. To Butler murder is a principle of warfare; to +Peace it was never more than a desperate resort or an act the outcome of +ungovernable passion. + +Ireland can claim the honour of Butler's birth. It took place at +Kilkenny about 1845. At an early age he left his native land for +Australia, and commenced his professional career by being sentenced +under the name of James Wilson--the same initials as those of James +Wharton of Queensland--to twelve months' imprisonment for vagrancy. Of +the sixteen years he passed in Victoria he spent thirteen in prison, +first for stealing, then in steady progression for highway robbery and +burglary. Side by side with the practical and efficient education in +crime furnished by the Victorian prisons of that day, Butler availed +himself of the opportunity to educate his mind. It was during this +period that he found inspiration and encouragement in the study of the +lives of Frederick and Napoleon, besides acquiring a knowledge of music +and shorthand. + +When in 1876 Butler quitted Australia for New Zealand, he was +sufficiently accomplished to obtain employment as a schoolmaster. + +At Cromwell, Otago, under the name of "C. J. Donelly, Esq.," Butler +opened a "Commercial and Preparatory Academy," and in a prospectus that +recalls Mr. Squeers' famous advertisement of Dotheboys Hall, announced +that the programme of the Academy would include "reading, taught as +an art and upon the most approved principles of elocution, writing, +arithmetic, euclid, algebra, mensuration, trigonometry, book-keeping, +geography, grammar, spelling and dictation, composition, logic and +debate, French, Latin, shorthand, history, music, and general lectures +on astronomy, natural philosophy, geology, and other subjects." The +simpler principles of these branches of learning were to be "rendered +intelligible, and a firm foundation laid for the acquirement of future +knowledge." Unfortunately a suspicion of theft on Butler's part cut +short the fulfilment of this really splendid programme, and Butler left +Cromwell hurriedly for the ampler field of Dunedin. There, less than a +fortnight after his arrivel{sic}, he was sentenced to four years' hard +labour for several burglaries committed in and about that city. + +On the 18th of February, 1880, Butler was released from prison. With +that consummate hypocrisy which was part of the man, he had contrived to +enlist the sympathies of the Governor of the Dunedin Jail, who gave +him, on his departure, a suit of clothes and a small sum of money. +A detective of the name of Bain tried to find him employment. Butler +wished to adopt a literary career. He acted as a reporter on the Dunedin +Evening Star, and gave satisfaction to the editor of that newspaper. An +attempt to do some original work, in the shape of "Prison Sketches," +for another newspaper, was less successful. Bain had arranged for the +publication of the articles in the Sunday Advertiser, but when the time +came to deliver his manuscript, Butler failed to appear. Bain, whose +duty it was to keep an eye on Butler, found him in the street looking +wild and haggard. He said that he had found the work "too much for his +head," that he had torn up what he had written, that he had nowhere to +go, and had been to the end of the jetty with the intention of drowning +himself. Bain replied somewhat caustically that he thought it a pity he +had not done so, as nothing would have given him greater joy than +going to the end of the jetty and identifying his body. "You speak +very plainly," said Butler. "Yes, and what is more, I mean what I say," +replied Bain. Butler justified Bain's candour by saying that if he broke +out again, he would be worse than the most savage tiger ever let loose +on the community. As a means of obviating such an outbreak, Butler +suggested that, intellectual employment having failed, some form of +manual labour should be found him. Bain complied with Butler's request, +and got him a job at levelling reclaimed ground in the neighbourhood of +Dunedin. On Wednesday, March 10, Butler started work, but after three +hours of it relinquished the effort. Bain saw Butler again in Dunedin on +the evening of Saturday, March 13, and made an appointment to meet him +at half-past eight that night. Butler did not keep the appointment. Bain +searched the town for him, but he was nowhere to be found. + +About the same time Butler had some talk with another member of the +Dunedin police force, Inspector Mallard. They discussed the crimes of +Charles Peace and other notable artists of that kind. Butler remarked to +Mallard how easy it would be to destroy all traces of a murder by fire, +and asked the inspector whether if he woke up one morning to find some +brutal murder had been committed, he would not put it down to him. "No, +Butler," replied the inspector, "the first thing I should do would be to +look for suspicious circumstances, and most undoubtedly, if they pointed +to you, you would be looked after." + +In the early morning of this Saturday, March 13, the house of a Mr. +Stamper, a solicitor of Dunedin, had been broken into, and some articles +of value, among them a pair of opera glasses, stolen. The house had been +set on fire, and burned to the ground. On the morning of the following +day, Sunday, the 14th, Dunedin was horrified by the discovery of a far +more terrible crime, tigerish certainly in its apparent ferocity. In a +house in Cumberland Street, a young married couple and their little baby +were cruelly murdered and un{sic}{an??} unsuccessful attempt made to +fire the scene of the crime. + +About half-past six on Sunday morning a man of the name of Robb, a +carpenter, on getting out of bed, noticed smoke coming from the house +of a neighbor of his, Mr. J. M. Dewar, who occupied a small one-floored +cottage standing by itself in Cumberland Street, a large and broad +thoroughfare on the outskirts of the town. Dewar was a butcher by trade, +a young man, some eighteen months married, and father of a baby girl. +Robb, on seeing smoke coming from Dewar's house, woke his son, who was +a member of the fire brigade. The latter got up, crossed the street, +and going round to the back door, which he found wide open, entered the +house. As he went along the passage that separated the two front rooms, +a bedroom and sitting-room, he called to the inmates to get up. He +received no answer, but as he neared the bedroom he heard a "gurgling" +sound. Crawling on his hands and knees he reached the bedroom door, and +two feet inside it his right hand touched something. It was the body of +a woman; she was still alive, but in a dying condition. Robb dragged +her across the passage into the sitting-room. He got some water, and +extinguished the fire in the bedroom. On the bed lay the body of Dewar. +To all appearances he had been killed in his sleep. By his side was +the body of the baby, suffocated by the smoke. Near the bed was an +axe belonging to Dewar, stained with blood. It was with this weapon, +apparently, that Mr. and Mrs. Dewar had been attacked. Under the bed was +a candlestick belonging also to the Dewars, which had been used by +the murderer in setting fire to the bed. The front window of the +sitting-room was open, there were marks of boot nails on the sill, and +on the grass in front of the window a knife was found. An attempt +had been made to ransack a chest of drawers in the bedroom, but some +articles of jewellery lying in one of the drawers, and a ring on the +dressing-table had been left untouched. As far as was known, Mr. and +Mrs. Dewar were a perfectly happy and united couple. Dewar had been last +seen alive about ten o'clock on the Saturday night getting off a car +near his home. At eleven a neighbour had noticed a light in the Dewars' +house. About five o'clock on the Sunday morning another neighbour +had been aroused from his sleep by the sound as of something falling +heavily. It was a wild and boisterous night. Thinking the noise might be +the slamming of his stable door, he got up and went out to see that +it was secure. He then noticed that a light was burning in the bedroom +window of the Dewars' cottage. + +Nothing more was known of what had occurred that morning until at +half-past six Robb saw the smoke coming from Dewars' house. Mrs. Dewar, +who alone could have told something, never recovered consciousness +and died on the day following the crime. Three considerable wounds +sufficient to cause death had been inflicted on the unfortunate woman's +head, and five of a similar character on that of her husband. At the +head of the bed, which stood in the corner of the room, there was a +large smear of blood on the wall just above the door; there were spots +of blood all over the top of the bed, and some smaller ones that had to +all appearances spurted on to the panel of the door nearest to the bed. + +The investigation of this shocking crime was placed in the hands of +Detective Bain, whose duty it had been to keep an eye on Robert Butler, +but he did not at first associate his interesting charge with the +commission of the murder. About half-past six on Sunday evening Bain +happened to go to a place called the Scotia Hotel, where the landlord +informed him that one of his servants, a girl named Sarah Gillespie, was +very anxious to see him. Her story was this: On the morning of Thursday, +March 11, Robert Butler had come to the hotel; he was wearing a dark +lavender check suit and carried a top coat and parcel. Butler had stayed +in the hotel all Thursday and slept there that night. He had not slept +in the hotel on the Friday night, and Sarah Gillespie had not seen him +again until he came into the house about five and twenty minutes to +seven on Sunday morning. The girl noticed that he was pale and excited, +seemed afraid and worried, as if someone were coming after him. After +giving her some money for the landlord, he went upstairs, fetched his +top coat, a muffler, and his parcel. Before leaving he said he would +have a pint of beer, as he had not breakfasted. He then left, presumably +to catch an early train. + +Butler was next seen a few minutes later at a shop near the hotel, where +he bought five tins of salmon, and about the same time a milk-boy saw +him standing on the kerb in Cumberland Street in a stooping position, +his head turned in the direction of Dewars' house. A little after ten +the same night Butler entered a hotel at a place called Blueskin, some +twelve miles distant from Dunedin. He was wearing an overcoat and a +light muffler. He sat down at a table in the dining-room and seemed +weary and sleepy. Someone standing at the bar said "What a shocking +murder that was in Cumberland Street!" Butler started up, looked +steadily from one to the other of the two men who happened to be in the +room, then sat down again and, taking up a book, appeared to be reading. +More than once he put down the book and kept shifting uneasily in his +chair. After having some supper he got up, paid his reckoning, and left +the hotel. + +At half-past three the following morning, about fifteen miles from +Dunedin, on the road to Waikouaiti, two constables met a man whom they +recognised as Butler from a description that had been circulated by the +police. The constables arrested and searched him. They found on him a +pair of opera glasses, the property of Mr. Stamper, whose house had been +burgled and burned down on the morning of the 13th. Of this crime Butler +acknowledged himself to be the perpetrator. Besides the opera glasses +the constables took from Butler two tins of salmon, a purse containing +four shillings and sixpence, a pocket knife, a box of matches, a piece +of candle, and a revolver and cartridges. The prisoner was carrying a +top coat, and was dressed in a dark coat and grey trousers, underneath +which he was wearing a white shirt, an under flannel and a Rob Roy +Crimean shirt. One of the constables noticed that there were marks of +blood on his shirt. Another singular feature in Butler's attire was the +fact that the outer soles of his boots had been recently removed. When +last seen in Dunedin Butler had been wearing a moustache; he was now +clean shaven. + +The same evening a remarkable interview took place in the lock-up at +Waikouaiti between Butler and Inspector Mallard. Mallard, who had some +reason for suspecting Butler, bearing in mind their recent conversation, +told the prisoner that he would be charged with the murder in Cumberland +Street. For a few seconds, according to Mallard, the prisoner seemed +terribly agitated and appeared to be choking. Recovering himself +somewhat, he said, "If for that, you can get no evidence against me; and +if I am hanged for it, I shall be an innocent man, whatever other crimes +I may have committed." Mallard replied, "There is evidence to convict +you--the fire was put out." Butler than{sic} said that he would ask +Mallard a question, but, after a pause, decided not to do so. Mallard, +after examining Butler's clothes, told him that those were not the +clothes in which he had left the Scotia Hotel. Butler admitted it, and +said he had thrown those away in the North East Valley. Mallard alluded +to the disappearance of the prisoner's moustache. Butler replied that he +had cut it off on the road. Mallard noticed then the backs of Butler's +hands were scratched, as if by contact with bushes. Butler seemed often +on the point of asking questions, but would then stop and say "No, I +won't ask you anything." To the constables who had arrested him Butler +remarked, "You ought to remember me, because I could have shot you if I +had wished." When Mallard later in the evening visited Butler again, the +prisoner who was then lying down said, "I want to speak to you. I want +to ask the press not to publish my career. Give me fair play. I suppose +I shall be convicted and you will see I can die like a man." + +A few days after Butler's arrest a ranger on the Town Belt, a hill +overlooking Dunedin, found a coat, a hat and silk striped cravat, and +a few days later a pair of trousers folded up and placed under a bush. +These articles of clothing were identified as those which Butler +had been seen wearing on the Saturday and Sunday morning. They were +examined. There were a number of bloodstains on them, not one of them +larger in size than a pea, some almost invisible. On the front of the +trousers about the level of the groin there were blood spots on both +sides. There was blood on the fold of the left breast of the coat and on +the lining of the cuff of the right arm. The shirt Butler was wearing +at the time of his arrest was examined also. There were small spots of +blood, about fourteen altogether, on the neck and shoulder bands, the +right armpit, the left sleeve, and on both wristbands. Besides the +clothes, a salmon tin was found on the Town Belt, and behind a seat in +the Botanical Gardens, from which a partial view of the Dewars' house +in Cumberland Street could be obtained, two more salmon tins were found, +all three similar to the five purchased by Butler on the Sunday morning, +two of which had been in his possession at the time of his arrest. + +Such were the main facts of the case which Butler had to answer when, +a few weeks later, he was put on his trial before the Supreme Court at +Dunedin. The presiding judge was Mr. Justice Williams, afterwards Sir +Joshua Williams and a member of the Privy Council. The Crown Prosecutor, +Mr. Haggitt, conducted the case for the Crown, and Butler defended +himself. + + +II + +THE TRIAL OF BUTLER + + +To a man of Butler's egregious vanity his trial was a glorious +opportunity for displaying his intellectual gifts, such as they were. +One who had known him in prison about this time describes him as a +strange compound of vanity and envy, blind to his own faults and envious +of the material advantages enjoyed by others. Self-willed and arrogant, +he could bully or whine with equal effect. Despising men, he believed +that if a man did not possess some requisite quality, he had only to ape +it, as few would distinguish between the real and the sham. + +But with all these advantages in the struggle for life, it is certain +that Butler's defence would have been far less effective had be{sic} +been denied all professional aid. As a matter of fact, throughout his +trial Butler was being advised by three distinguished members of the New +Zealand bar, now judges of the Supreme Court, who though not appearing +for him in court, gave him the full benefit of their assistance +outside it. At the same time Butler carried off the thing well. Where +imagination was required, Butler broke down; he could not write sketches +of life in prison; that was too much for his pedestrian intellect. But +given the facts of a case, dealing with a transaction of which he alone +knew the real truth, and aided by the advice and guidance of trained +intellects, Butler was unquestionably clever and shrewd enough to make +the best use of such advantages in meeting the case against him. + +Thus equipped for the coming struggle, this high-browed ruffian, with +his semi-intellectual cast of countenance, his jerky restless posturing, +his splay-footed waddle, "like a lame Muscovy duck," in the graphic +words of his gaol companion, stood up to plead for his life before the +Supreme Court at Dunedin. + +It may be said at the outset that Butler profited greatly by the +scrupulous fairness shown by the Crown Prosecutor. Mr. Haggitt extended +to the prisoner a degree of consideration and forbearance, justified +undoubtedly towards an undefended prisoner. But, as we have seen, Butler +was not in reality undefended. At every moment of the trial he was in +communication with his legal advisers, and being instructed by them how +to meet the evidence given against him. Under these circumstances the +unfailing consideration shown him by the Crown Prosecutor seems almost +excessive. From the first moment of the trial Butler was fully alive +to the necessities of his situation. He refrained from including in his +challenges of the jury the gentleman who was afterwards foreman; he knew +he was all right, he said, because he parted his hair in the middle, a +"softy," in fact. He did not know in all probability that one gentleman +on the jury had a rooted conviction that the murder of the Dewars was +the work of a criminal lunatic. There was certainly nothing in Butler's +demeanour or behaviour to suggest homicidal mania. + +The case against Butler rested on purely circumstantial evidence. + +No new facts of importance were adduced at the trial. The stealing +of Dewar's wages, which had been paid to him on the Saturday, was the +motive for the murder suggested by the Crown. The chief facts pointing +to Butler's guilt were: his conversation with Mallard and Bain previous +to the crime; his demeanour after it; his departure from Dunedin; the +removal of his moustache and the soles of his boots; his change of +clothes and the bloodstains found upon them, added to which was +his apparent inability to account for his movements on the night in +question. + +Such as the evidence was, Butler did little to shake it in +cross-examination. His questions were many of them skilful and pointed, +but on more than one occasion the judge intervened to save him from the +danger common to all amateur cross-examiners, of not knowing when to +stop. He was most successful in dealing with the medical witnesses. +Butler had explained the bloodstains on his clothes as smears that had +come from scratches on his hands, caused by contact with bushes. This +explanation the medical gentlemen with good reason rejected. But they +went further, and said that these stains might well have been caused by +the spurting and spraying of blood on to the murderer as he struck his +victims. Butler was able to show by the position of the bloodstains on +the clothes that such an explanation was open to considerable doubt. + +Butler's speech in his defence lasted six hours, and was a creditable +performance. Its arrangement is somewhat confused and repetitious, some +points are over-elaborated, but on the whole he deals very successfully +with most of the evidence given against him and exposes the +unquestionable weakness of the Crown case. At the outset he declared +that he had taken his innocence for his defence. "I was not willing," +he said, "to leave my life in the hands of a stranger. I was willing to +incur all the disadvantages which the knowledge of the law might bring +upon me. I was willing, also, to enter on this case without +any experience whatever of that peculiarly acquired art of +cross-examination. I fear I have done wrong. If I had had the assistance +of able counsel, much more light would have been thrown on this case +than has been." As we have seen, Butler enjoyed throughout his trial the +informal assistance of three of the most able counsel in New Zealand, so +that this heroic attitude of conscious innocence braving all dangers +loses most of its force. Without such assistance his danger might have +been very real. + +A great deal of the evidence as to his conduct and demeanour at the time +of the murder Butler met by acknowledging that it was he who had broken +into Mr. Stamper's house on the Saturday morning, burgled it and set it +on fire. His consciousness of guilt in this respect was, he said, quite +sufficient to account for anything strange or furtive in his manner +at that time. He was already known to the police; meeting Bain on the +Saturday night, he felt more than ever sure that he was susspected{sic} +of the robbery at Mr. Stamper's; he therefore decided to leave Dunedin +as soon as possible. That night, he said, he spent wandering about the +streets half drunk, taking occasional shelter from the pouring rain, +until six o'clock on the Sunday morning, when he went to the Scotia +Hotel. A more detailed account of his movements on the night of the +Dewars' murder he did not, or would not, give. + +When he comes to the facts of the murder and his theories as to the +nature and motive of the crime--theories which he developed at rather +unnecessary length for the purpose of his own defence--his speech is +interesting. It will be recollected that on the discovery of the murder, +a knife was found on the grass outside the house. This knife was not +the property of the Dewars. In Butler's speech he emphasised the opinion +that this knife had been brought there by the murderer: "Horrible though +it may be, my conclusion is that he brought it with the intention of +cutting the throats of his victims, and that, finding they lay in rather +an untoward position, he changed his mind, and, having carried out the +object with which he entered the house, left the knife and, going back, +brought the axe with which he effected his purpose. What was the purpose +of the murderer? Was it the robbery of Dewar's paltry wages? Was it +the act of a tiger broken loose on the community? An act of pure wanton +devilry? or was there some more reasonable explanation of this most +atrocious crime?" + +Butler rejected altogether the theory of ordinary theft. No thief +of ambitious views, he said, would pitch upon the house of a poor +journeyman butcher. The killing of the family appeared to him to be +the motive: "an enemy hath done this." The murderer seems to have had a +knowledge of the premises; he enters the house and does his work swiftly +and promptly, and is gone. "We cannot know," Butler continues, "all the +passages in the lives of the murdered man or woman. What can we know of +the hundred spites and jealousies or other causes of malice which might +have caused the crime? If you say some obscure quarrel, some spite or +jealousy is not likely to have been the cause of so dreadful a murder, +you cannot revert to the robbery theory without admitting a motive much +weaker in all its utter needlessness and vagueness. The prominent +feature of the murder, indeed the only feature, is its ruthless, +unrelenting, determined vindictiveness. Every blow seemed to say, 'You +shall die you shall not live.'" + +Whether Butler were the murderer of the Dewars or not, the theory that +represented them as having been killed for the purpose of robbery +has its weak side all the weaker if Butler, a practical and ambitious +criminal, were the guilty man. + +In 1882, two years after Butler's trial, there appeared in a New Zealand +newspaper, Society, published in Christchurch, a series of Prison +"Portraits," written evidently by one who had himself undergone a term +of imprisonment. One of the "Portraits" was devoted to an account of +Butler. The writer had known Butler in prison. According to the story +told him by Butler, the latter had arrived in Dunedin with a quantity of +jewellery he had stolen in Australia. This jewellery he entrusted to a +young woman for safe keeping. After serving his first term of two years' +imprisonment in Dunedin, Butler found on his release that the young +woman had married a man of the name of Dewar. Butler went to Mrs. Dewar +and asked for the return of his jewellery; she refused to give it up. On +the night of the murder he called at the house in Cumberland Street and +made a last appeal to her, but in vain. He determined on revenge. During +his visit to Mrs. Dewar he had had an opportunity of seeing the axe and +observing the best way to break into the house. He watched the husband's +return, and decided to kill him as well as his wife on the chance of +obtaining his week's wages. With the help of the knife which he had +found in the backyard of a hotel he opened the window. The husband he +killed in his sleep, the woman waked with the first blow he struck her. +He found the jewellery in a drawer rolled up in a pair of stockings. +He afterwards hid it in a well-marked spot some half-hour before his +arrest. + +A few years after its appearance in Society, this account of Butler was +reproduced in an Auckland newspaper. Bain, the detective, wrote a letter +questioning the truth of the writer's statements. He pointed out +that when Butler first came to Dunedin he had been at liberty only a +fortnight before serving his first term of imprisonment, very little +time in which to make the acquaintance of a woman and dispose of the +stolen jewellery. He asked why, if Butler had hidden the jewellery just +before his arrest, he had not also hidden the opera-glasses which he +had stolen from Mr. Stamper's house. Neither of these comments is very +convincing. A fortnight seems time enough in which a man of Butler's +character might get to know a woman and dispose of some jewellery; +while, if Butler were the murderer of Mr. Dewar as well as the burglar +who had broken into Stamper's house, it was part of his plan to +acknowledge himself guilty of the latter crime and use it to justify his +movements before and after the murder. Bain is more convincing when he +states at the conclusion of his letter that he had known Mrs. Dewar from +childhood as a "thoroughly good and true woman," who, as far as he knew, +had never in her life had any acquaintance with Butler. + +At the same time, the account given by Butler's fellow-prisoner, in +which the conduct of the murdered woman is represented as constituting +the provocation for the subsequent crime, explains one peculiar +circumstance in connection with the tragedy, the selection of this +journeyman butcher and his wife as the victims of the murderer. It +explains the theory, urged so persistently by Butler in his speech to +the jury, that the crime was the work of an enemy of the Dewars, the +outcome of some hidden spite, or obscure quarrel; it explains the +apparent ferocity of the murder, and the improbability of a practical +thief selecting such an unprofitable couple as his prey. The rummaged +chest of drawers and the fact that some trifling articles of jewellery +were left untouched on the top of them, are consistent with an eager +search by the murderer for some particular object. Against this theory +of revenge is the fact that Butler was a malignant ruffian and liar in +any case, that, having realised very little in cash by the burglary at +Stamper's house, he would not be particular as to where he might get a +few shillings more, that he had threatened to do a tigerish deed, and +that it is characteristic of his vanity to try to impute to his crime a +higher motive than mere greed or necessity. + +Butler showed himself not averse to speaking of the murder in Cumberland +Street to at least one of those, with whom he came in contact in his +later years. After he had left New Zealand and returned to Australia, +he was walking in a street in Melbourne with a friend when they passed +a lady dressed in black, carrying a baby in her arms. The baby looked +at the two men and laughed. Butler frowned and walked rapidly away. His +companion chaffed him, and asked whether it was the widow or the baby +that he was afraid of. Butler was silent, but after a time asked his +companion to come into some gardens and sit down on one of the seats, as +he had something serious to say to him. For a while Butler sat silent. +Then he asked the other if he had ever been in Dunedin. "Yes," was the +reply. "Look here," said Butler, "you are the only man I ever made any +kind of confidant of. You are a good scholar, though I could teach you +a lot." After this gracious compliment he went on: "I was once tried in +Dunedin on the charge of killing a man, woman and child, and although +innocent, the crime was nearly brought home to me. It was my own ability +that pulled me through. Had I employed a professional advocate, I should +not have been here to-day talking to you." After describing the murder, +Butler said: "Trying to fire the house was unnecessary, and killing +the baby was unnecessary and cruel. I respect no man's life, for no man +respects mine. A lot of men I have never injured have tried to put a +rope round my neck more than once. I hate society in general, and one +or two individuals in particular. The man who did that murder in Dunedin +has, if anything, my sympathy, but it seems to me he need not have +killed that child." His companion was about to speak. Butler stopped +him. "Now, don't ever ask me such a silly question as that," he said. +"What?" asked his friend. "You were about to ask me if I did that deed," +replied Butler, "and you know perfectly well that, guilty or innocent, +that question would only be answered in one way." "I was about to ask +nothing of the kind," said the other, "for you have already told me that +you were innocent." "Good!" said Butler, "then let that be the end of +the subject, and never refer to it again, except, perhaps, in your own +mind, when you can, if you like, remember that I said the killing of the +child was unnecessary and cruel." + +Having developed to the jury his theory of why the crime was committed, +Butler told them that, as far as he was concerned, there were four +points against him on which the Crown relied to prove his guilt. +Firstly, there was the fact of his being in the neighbourhood of the +crime on the Sunday morning; that, he said, applied to scores of other +people besides himself. Then there was his alleged disturbed appearance +and guilty demeanour. The evidence of that was, he contended, doubtful +in any case, and referable to another cause; as also his leaving Dunedin +in the way and at the time he did. He scouted the idea that murderers +are compelled by some invisible force to betray their guilt. "The doings +of men," he urged, "and their success are regulated by the amount +of judgment that they possess, and, without impugning or denying the +existence of Providence, I say this is a law that holds good in all +cases, whether for evil or good. Murderers, if they have the sense and +ability and discretion to cover up their crime, will escape, do escape, +and have escaped. Many people, when they have gravely shaken their heads +and said 'Murder will out,' consider they have done a great deal and +gone a long way towards settling the question. Well, this, like many +other stock formulas of Old World wisdom, is not true. How many murders +are there that the world has never heard of, and never will? How many a +murdered man, for instance, lies among the gum-trees of Victoria, or +in the old abandoned mining-shafts on the diggings, who is missed by +nobody, perhaps, but a pining wife at home, or helpless children, or +an old mother? But who were their murderers? Where are they? God knows, +perhaps, but nobody else, and nobody ever will." The fact, he said, that +he was alleged to have walked up Cumberland Street on the Sunday morning +and looked in the direction of the Dewars' house was, unless the causes +of superstition and a vague and incomplete reasoning were to be accepted +as proof, evidence rather of his innocence than his guilt. He had +removed the soles of his boots, he said, in order to ease his feet in +walking; the outer soles had become worn and ragged, and in lumps under +his feet. He denied that he had told Bain, the detective, that he would +break out as a desperate tiger let loose on the community; what he had +said was that he was tired of living the life of a prairie dog or a +tiger in the jungle. + +Butler was more successful when he came to deal with the bloodstains on +his clothes. These, he said, were caused by the blood from the scratches +on his hands, which had been observed at the time of his arrest. The +doctors had rejected this theory, and said that the spots of blood +had been impelled from the axe or from the heads of the victims as the +murderer struck the fatal blow. Butler put on the clothes in court, and +was successful in showing that the position and appearance of certain +of the blood spots was not compatible with such a theory. "I think," +he said, "I am fairly warranted in saying that the evidence of these +gentlemen is, not to put too fine a point on it, worth just nothing at +all." + +Butler's concluding words to the jury were brief but emphatic: "I stand +in a terrible position. So do you. See that in your way of disposing of +me you deliver yourselves of your responsibilities." + +In the exercise of his forbearance towards an undefended prisoner, Mr. +Haggitt did not address the jury for the Crown. At four o'clock the +judge commenced his summing-up. Mr. Justice Williams impressed on +the jury that they must be satisfied, before they could convict the +prisoner, that the circumstances of the crime and the prisoner's conduct +were inconsistent with any other reasonable hypothesis than his guilt. +There was little or no evidence that robbery was the motive of the +crime. The circumstance of the prisoner being out all Saturday night and +in the neighbourhood of the crime on Sunday morning only amounted to +the fact that he had an opportunity shared by a great number of other +persons of committing the murder. The evidence of his agitation and +demeanour at the time of his arrest must be accepted with caution. The +evidence of the blood spots was of crucial importance; there was nothing +save this to connect him directly with the crime. The jury must be +satisfied that the blood on the clothes corresponded with the blood +marks which, in all probability, would be found on the person who +committed the murder. In regard to the medical testimony some caution +must be exercised. Where medical gentlemen had made observations, seen +with their own eyes, the direct inference might be highly trustworthy, +but, when they proceeded to draw further inferences, they might be in +danger of looking at facts through the spectacles of theory; "we know +that people do that in other things besides science--politics, religion, +and so forth." Taking the Crown evidence, at its strongest, there was +a missing link; did the evidence of the bloodstains supply it? These +bloodstains were almost invisible. Could a person be reasonably asked to +explain how they came where they did? Could they be accounted for in no +other reasonable way than that the clothes had been worn by the murderer +of the Dewars? + +In spite of a summing-up distinctly favourable to the prisoner, the jury +were out three hours. According to one account of their proceedings, +told to the writer, there was at first a majority of the jurymen in +favour of conviction. But it was Saturday night; if they could not come +to a decision they were in danger of being locked up over Sunday. For +this reason the gentleman who held an obstinate and unshaken belief that +the crime was the work of a homicidal maniac found an unexpected ally in +a prominent member of a church choir who was down to sing a solo in his +church on Sunday, and was anxious not to lose such an opportunity for +distinction. Whatever the cause, after three hours' deliberation the +jury returned a verdict of "Not Guilty." Later in the Session Butler +pleaded guilty to the burglary at Mr. Stamper's house, and was sentenced +to eighteen years' imprisonment. The severity of this sentence was not, +the judge said, intended to mark the strong suspicion under which Butler +laboured of being a murderer as well as a burglar. + +The ends of justice had been served by Butler's acquittal. But in the +light of after events, it is perhaps unfortunate that the jury did not +stretch a point and so save the life of Mr. Munday of Toowong. Butler +underwent his term of imprisonment in Littleton Jail. There his +reputation was most unenviable. He is described by a fellow prisoner as +ill-tempered, malicious, destructive, but cowardly and treacherous. He +seems to have done little or no work; he looked after the choir and the +library, but was not above breaking up the one and smashing the other, +if the fit seized him. + + + +III + +HIS DECLINE AND FALL + + +In 1896 Butler was released from prison. The news of his release was +described as falling like a bombshell among the peaceful inhabitants +of Dunedin. In the colony of Victoria, where Butler had commenced his +career, it was received with an apprehension that was justified by +subsequent events. It was believed that on his release the New Zealand +authorities had shipped Butler off to Rio. But it was not long before he +made his way once more to Australia. From the moment of his arrival +in Melbourne he was shadowed by the police. One or two mysterious +occurrences soon led to his arrest. On June 5 he was sentenced to twelve +months' imprisonment under the Criminal Influx Act, which makes it a +penal offence for any convict to enter Victoria for three years +after his release from prison. Not content with this, the authorities +determined to put Butler on trial on two charges of burglary and one of +highway robbery, committed since his return to the colony. To one charge +of burglary, that of breaking into a hairdresser's shop and stealing a +wig, some razors and a little money, Butler pleaded guilty. + +But the charge of highway robbery, which bore a singular resemblance +to the final catastrophe in Queensland, he resisted to the utmost, and +showed that his experience in the Supreme Court at Dunedin had not been +lost on him. At half-past six one evening in a suburb of Melbourne an +elderly gentleman found himself confronted by a bearded man, wearing a +long overcoat and a boxer hat and flourishing a revolver, who told him +abruptly to "turn out his pockets." The old man did ashe was told. The +robber then asked for his watch and chain, saying "Business must +be done." The old gentleman mildly urged that this was a dangerous +business. On being assured that the watch was a gold one, the robber +appeared willing to risk the danger, and departed thoroughly satisfied. +The old gentleman afterwards identified Butler as the man who had taken +his watch. Another elderly man swore that he had seen Butler at the time +of the robbery in the possession of a fine gold watch, which he said had +been sent him from home. But the watch had not been found in Butler's +possession. + +On June 18 Butler was put on his trial in the Melbourne Criminal +Court before Mr. Justice Holroyd, charged with robbery under arms. His +appearance in the dock aroused very considerable interest. "It was the +general verdict," wrote one newspaper, "that his intellectual head and +forehead compared not unfavourably with those of the judge." He +was decently dressed and wore pince-nez, which he used in the best +professional manner as he referred to the various documents that lay in +front of him. He went into the witness-box and stated that the evening +of the crime he had spent according to his custom in the Public Library. + +For an hour and a half he addressed the jury. He disputed the +possibility of his identification by his alleged victim. He was "an old +gentleman of sedentary pursuits and not cast in the heroic mould." Such +a man would be naturally alarmed and confused at meeting suddenly an +armed robber. Now, under these circumstances, could his recognition of +a man whose face was hidden by a beard, his head by a boxer hat, and his +body by a long overcoat, be considered trustworthy? And such recognition +occurring in the course of a chance encounter in the darkness, that +fruitful mother of error? The elderly gentleman had described his +moustache as a slight one, but the jury could see that it was full and +overhanging. He complained that he had been put up for identification +singly, not with other men, according to the usual custom; the police +had said to the prosecutor: "We have here a man that we think robbed +you, and, if he is not the man, we shall be disappointed," to which +the prosecutor had replied: "Yes, and if he is not the man, I shall be +disappointed too." For the elderly person who had stated that he had +seen a gold watch in Butler's possession the latter had nothing but +scorn. He was a "lean and slippered pantaloon in Shakespeare's last +stage"; and he, Butler, would have been a lunatic to have confided in +such a man. + +The jury acquitted Butler, adding as a rider to their verdict that there +was not sufficient evidence of identification. The third charge against +Butler was not proceeded with. He was put up to receive sentence for the +burglary at the hairdresser's shop. Butler handed to the judge a written +statement which Mr. Justice Holroyd described as a narrative that +might have been taken from those sensational newspapers written for +nursery-maids, and from which, he said, he could not find that Butler +had ever done one good thing in the whole course of his life. Of that +life of fifty years Butler had spent thirty-five in prison. The judge +expressed his regret that a man of Butler's knowledge, information, +vanity, and utter recklessness of what evil will do, could not be put +away somewhere for the rest of his life, and sentenced him to fifteen +years' imprisonment with hard labour. "An iniquitous and brutal +sentence!" exclaimed the prisoner. After a brief altercation with the +judge, who said that he could hardly express the scorn he felt for such +a man, Butler was removed. The judge subsequently reduced the sentence +to one of ten years. Chance or destiny would seem implacable in their +pursuit of Mr. William Munday of Toowong. + +Butler after his trial admitted that it was he who had robbed the old +gentleman of his watch, and described to the police the house in which +it was hidden. When the police went there to search they found that the +house had been pulled down, but among the debris they discovered a brown +paper parcel containing the old gentleman's gold watch and chain, a +five-chambered revolver, a keen-edged butcher's knife, and a mask. + +Butler served his term of imprisonment in Victoria, "an unmitigated +nuisance" to his custodians. On his release in 1904, he made, as in +Dunedin, an attempt to earn a living by his pen. He contributed some +articles to a Melbourne evening paper on the inconveniences of prison +discipline, but he was quite unfitted for any sustained effort as a +journalist. According to his own account, with the little money he had +left he made his way to Sydney, thence to Brisbane. He was half-starved, +bewildered, despairing; in his own words, "if a psychological camera +could have been turned on me it would have shown me like a bird +fascinated by a serpent, fascinated and bewildered by the fate in front, +behind, and around me." Months of suffering and privation passed, months +of tramping hundreds of miles with occasional breakdowns, months of +hunger and sickness; "my actions had become those of a fool; my mind and +will had become a remnant guided or misguided by unreasoning impulse." + +It was under the influence of such an impulse that on March 23 Butler +had met and shot Mr. Munday at Toowong. On May 24 he was arraigned at +Brisbane before the Supreme Court of Queensland. But the Butler who +stood in the dock of the Brisbane Criminal Court was very different +from the Butler who had successfully defended himself at Dunedin and +Melbourne. The spirit had gone out of him; it was rather as a suppliant, +represented by counsel, that he faced the charge of murder. His attitude +was one of humble and appropriate penitence. In a weak and nervous voice +he told the story of his hardships since his release from his Victorian +prison; he would only urge that the shooting of Mr. Munday was +accidental, caused by Munday picking up a stone and attacking him. When +about to be sentenced to death he expressed great sorrow and contrition +for his crime, for the poor wife and children of his unfortunate victim. +His life, he said, was a poor thing, but he would gladly give it fifty +times over. + +The sentence of death was confirmed by the Executive on June 30. To +a Freethought advocate who visited him shortly before his execution, +Butler wrote a final confession of faith: "I shall have to find my way +across the harbour bar without the aid of any pilot. In these matters +I have for many years carried an exempt flag, and, as it has not been +carried through caprice or ignorance, I am compelled to carry it to the +last. There is an impassable bar of what I honestly believe to be the +inexorable logic of philosophy and facts, history and experience of the +nature of the world, the human race and myself, between me and the +views of the communion of any religious organisation. So instead of the +'depart Christian soul' of the priest, I only hope for the comfort and +satisfaction of the last friendly good-bye of any who cares to give it." + +From this positive affirmation of unbelief Butler wilted somewhat at the +approach of death. The day before his execution he spent half an hour +playing hymns on the church organ in the prison; and on the scaffold, +where his agitation rendered him almost speechless, he expressed his +sorrow for what he had done, and the hope that, if there were a heaven, +mercy would be shown him. + + + + +M. Derues + + +The last word on Derues has been said by M. Georges Claretie in his +excellent monograph, "Derues L'Empoisonneur," Paris. 1907. There is a +full account of the case in Vol. V. of Fouquier, "Causes Celebres." + +I + +THE CLIMBING LITTLE GROCER + +M. Etienne Saint-Faust de Lamotte, a provincial nobleman of ancient +lineage and moderate health, ex-equerry to the King, desired in +the year 1774 to dispose of a property in the country, the estate of +Buisson-Souef near Villeneuve-le-Roi, which he had purchased some ten +years before out of money acquired by a prudent marriage. + +With an eye to the main chance M. de Lamotte had in 1760 ran away with +the daughter of a wealthy citizen of Rheims, who was then staying with +her sister in Paris. They lived together in the country for some time, +and a son was born to them, whom the father legitimised by subsequently +marrying the mother. For a few years M. and Mme. de Lamotte dwelt +happily together at Buisson-Souef. But as their boy grew up they became +anxious to leave the country and return to Paris, where M. de Lamotte +hoped to be able to obtain for his son some position about the Court of +Louis XVI. And so it was that in May, 1775, M. de Lamotte gave a +power of attorney to his wife in order that she might go to Paris +and negotiate for the sale of Buisson-Souef. The legal side of the +transaction was placed in the hands of one Jolly, a proctor at the +Chatelet in Paris. + +Now the proctor Jolly had a client with a great desire to acquire a +place in the country, M. Derues de Cyrano de Bury, lord of Candeville, +Herchies, and other places. Here was the very man to comply with +the requirements of the de Lamottes, and such a pleasing, ready, +accommodating gentleman into the bargain! Very delicate to all +appearances, strangely pale, slight, fragile in build, with his +beardless chin and feminine cast of feature, there was something +cat-like in the soft insinuating smile of this seemingly most amiable, +candid and pious of men. Always cheerful and optimistic, it was quite +a pleasure to do business with M. Derues de Cyrano de Bury. The +de Lamottes after one or two interviews were delighted with their +prospective purchaser. Everything was speedily settled. M. Derues and +his wife, a lady belonging to the distinguished family of Nicolai, +visited Buisson-Souef. They were enchanted with what they saw, and their +hosts were hardly less enchanted with their visitors. By the end of +December, 1775, the purchase was concluded. M. Derues was to give +130,000 livres (about L20,000) for the estate, the payments to be made +by instalments, the first of 12,000 livres to be paid on the actual +signing of the contract of sale, which, it was agreed, was to be +concluded not later than the first of June, 1776. In the meantime, as an +earnest of good faith, M. Derues gave Mme. de Lamotte a bill for 4,200 +livres to fall due on April 1, 1776. + +What could be more satisfactory? That M. Derues was a substantial person +there could be no doubt. Through his wife he was entitled to a sum of +250,000 livres as her share of the property of a wealthy kinsman, one +Despeignes-Duplessis, a country gentleman, who some four years before +had been found murdered in his house under mysterious circumstances. +The liquidation of the Duplessis inheritance, as soon as the law's delay +could be overcome, would place the Derues in a position of affluence +fitting a Cyrano de Bury and a Nicolai. + +At this time M. Derues was in reality far from affluent. In point of +fact he was insolvent. Nor was his lineage, nor that of his wife, in any +way distinguished. He had no right to call himself de Cyrano de Bury or +Lord of Candeville. His wife's name was Nicolais, not Nicolai--a very +important difference from the genealogical point of view. The Duplessis +inheritance, though certainly existent, would seem to have had little +more chance of realisation than the mythical Crawford millions of Madame +Humbert. And yet, crippled with debt, without a penny in the world, +this daring grocer of the Rue Beaubourg, for such was M. Derues' +present condition in life, could cheerfully and confidently engage in +a transaction as considerable as the purchase of a large estate for +130,000 livres! The origin of so enterprising a gentleman is worthy of +attention. + +Antoine Francois Derues was born at Chartres in 1744; his father was a +corn merchant. His parents died when he was three years old. For some +time after his birth he was assumed to be a girl; it was not until +he was twelve years old that an operation determined his sex to be +masculine. Apprenticed by his relatives to a grocer, Derues succeeded +so well in the business that he was able in 1770 to set up on his +own account in Paris, and in 1772 he married. Among the grocer's +many friends and acquaintances this marriage created something of a +sensation, for Derues let it be known that the lady of his choice was of +noble birth and an heiress. The first statement was untrue. The lady +was one Marie Louise Nicolais, daughter of a non-commissioned artillery +officer, turned coachbuilder. But by suppressing the S at the end of her +name, which Derues was careful also to erase in his marriage contract, +the ambitious grocer was able to describe his wife as connected with +the noble house of Nicolai, one of the most distinguished of the great +French families. + +There was more truth in the statement that Mme. Derues was an heiress. A +kinsman of her mother, Beraud by name, had become the heir to a certain +Marquis Desprez. Beraud was the son of a small merchant. His mother +had married a second time, the husband being the Marquis Desprez, and +through her Beraud had inherited the Marquis' property. According to the +custom of the time, Beraud, on coming into his inheritance, took a +title from one of his estates and called himself thenceforth the lord of +Despeignes-Duplessis. A rude, solitary, brutal man, devoted to sport, +he lived alone in his castle of Candeville, hated by his neighbours, a +terror to poachers. One day he was found lying dead in his bedroom; he +had been shot in the chest; the assassin had escaped through an open +window. + +The mystery of Beraud's murder was never solved. His estate of 200,000 +livres was divided among three cousins, of whom the mother of Mme. +Derues was one. Mme. Derues herself was entitled to a third of his +mother's share of the estate, that is, one-ninth of the whole. But in +1775 Derues acquired the rest of the mother's share on condition that +he paid her an annual income of 1,200 livres. Thus on the liquidation +of the Duplessis inheritance Mme. Derues would be entitled nominally to +some 66,500 livres, about L11,000 in English money. But five years had +passed since the death of Despeignes-Duplessis, and the estate was still +in the slow process of legal settlement. If Derues were to receive the +full third of the Duplessis inheritance--a very unlikely supposition +after four years of liquidation--66,000 livres would not suffice to pay +his ordinary debts quite apart from the purchase money of Buisson-Souef. +His financial condition was in the last degree critical. Not content +with the modest calling of a grocer, Derues had turned money-lender, +a money-lender to spendthrift and embarrassed noblemen. Derues dearly +loved a lord; he wanted to become one himself; it delighted him to +receive dukes and marquises at the Rue Beaubourg, even if they came +there with the avowed object of raising the wind. The smiling grocer, in +his everlasting bonnet and flowered dressing-gown a la J. J. Rousseau, +was ever ready to oblige the needy scion of a noble house. What he +borrowed at moderate interest from his creditors he lent at enhanced +interest to the quality. Duns and bailiffs jostled the dukes and +marquises whose presence at the Rue Beaubourg so impressed the wondering +neighbours of the facile grocer. + +This aristocratic money-lending proved a hopeless trade; it only plunged +Derues deeper and deeper into the mire of financial disaster. The +noblemen either forgot to pay while they were alive, or on their death +were found to be insolvent. Derues was driven to ordering goods and +merchandise on credit, and selling them at a lower price for ready +money. Victims of this treatment began to press him seriously for their +money or their goods. Desperately he continued to fence them off with +the long expected windfall of the Duplessis inheritance. + +Paris was getting too hot for him. Gay and irrepressible as he was, the +strain was severe. If he could only find some retreat in the country +where he might enjoy at once refuge from his creditors and the rank and +consequence of a country gentleman! Nothing--no fear, no disappointment, +no disaster--could check the little grocer's ardent and overmastering +desire to be a gentleman indeed, a landed proprietor, a lord or +something or other. At the beginning of 1775 he had purchased a place +near Rueil from a retired coffeehouse-keeper, paying 1,000 livres on +account, but the non-payment of the rest of the purchase-money had +resulted in the annulment of the contract. Undefeated, Derues only +determined to fly the higher. Having failed to pay 9,000 livres for a +modest estate near Rueil, he had no hesitation in pledging himself to +pay 130,000 livres for the lordly domain of Buisson-Souef. So great were +his pride and joy on the conclusion of the latter bargain that he amused +himself by rehearsing on paper his future style and title: "Antoine +Francois de Cyrano Derues de Bury, Seigneur de Buisson-Souef et Valle +Profonde." He is worthy of Thackeray's pen, this little grocer-snob, +with his grand and ruinous acquaintance with the noble and the great, +his spurious titles, his unwearied climbing of the social ladder. + +The confiding, if willing, dupe of aristocratic impecuniosity, Derues +was a past master of the art of duping others. From the moment of the +purchase of Buisson-Souef all his art was employed in cajoling the +trusting and simple de Lamottes. Legally Buisson-Souef was his from the +signing of the agreement in December, 1775. His first payment was due +in April, 1776. Instead of making it, Derues went down to Buisson-Souef +with his little girl, and stayed there as the guests of the de Lamottes +for six months. His good humour and piety won all hearts. The village +priest especially derived great satisfaction from the society of so +devout a companion. He entertained his good friends, the merry little +man, by dressing up as a woman, a role his smooth face and effeminate +features well fitted him to play. If business were alluded to, the merry +gentleman railed at the delay and chicanery of lawyers; it was that +alone that postponed the liquidation of the Duplessis inheritance; as +soon as the lawyers could be got rid of, the purchase-money of his new +estate would be promptly paid up. But as time went on and no payment was +forthcoming the de Lamottes began to feel a little uneasy. As soon as +Derues had departed in November M. de Lamotte decided to send his +wife to Paris to make further inquiries and, if possible, bring their +purchaser up to the scratch. Mme. de Lamotte had developed into a stout, +indolent woman, of the Mrs. Bloss type, fond of staying in bed and +taking heavy meals. Her son, a fat, lethargic youth of fourteen, +accompanied his mother. + +On hearing of Mme. de Lamotte's contemplated visit to Paris, Derues was +filled with alarm. If she were living free and independent in Paris she +might find out the truth about the real state of his affairs, and then +good-bye to Buisson-Souef and landed gentility! No, if Mme. de Lamotte +were to come to Paris, she must come as the guest of the Derues, +a pleasant return for the hospitality accorded to the grocer at +Buisson-Souef. The invitation was given and readily accepted; M. de +Lamotte still had enough confidence in and liking for the Derues to be +glad of the opportunity of placing his wife under their roof. And so it +was that on December 16, 1776, Mme. de Lamotte arrived at Paris and took +up her abode at the house of the Derues in the Rue Beaubourg Her son she +placed at a private school in a neighbouring street. + +To Derues there was now one pressing and immediate problem to be +solved--how to keep Buisson-Souef as his own without paying for it? To +one less sanguine, less daring, less impudent and desperate in his need, +the problem would have appeared insoluble. + +But that was by no means the view of the cheery and resourceful grocer. +He had a solution ready, well thought out and bearing to his mind +the stamp of probability. He would make a fictitious payment of the +purchase-money to Mme. de Lamotte. She would then disappear, taking her +son with her. Her indiscretion in having been the mistress of de Lamotte +before she became his wife, would lend colour to his story that she had +gone off with a former lover, taking with her the money which Derues +had paid her for Buisson-Souef. He would then produce the necessary +documents proving the payment of the purchase-money, and Buisson-Souef +would be his for good and all. + +The prime necessity to the success of this plan was the disappearance, +willing or unwilling, of Mme. de Lamotte and her son. The former had +settled down quite comfortably beneath the hospitable roof of the +Derues, and under the soothing influence of her host showed little +vigour in pressing him for the money due to herself and her husband. She +had already spent a month in quietly enjoying Paris and the society of +her friends when, towards the end of January, 1770, her health and that +of her son began to fail. Mme. de Lamotte was seized with sickness and +internal trouble. Though Derues wrote to her husband that his wife was +well and their business was on the point of conclusion, by the 30th of +January Mme. de Lamotte had taken to her bed, nursed and physicked by +the ready Derues. On the 31st the servant at the Rue Beaubourg was +told that she could go to her home at Montrouge, whither Derues had +previously sent his two children. Mme. Derues, who was in an interesting +condition, was sent out for an hour by her husband to do some shopping. +Derues was alone with his patient. + +In the evening a friend, one Bertin, came to dine with Derues. Bertin +was a short, hustling, credulous, breathless gentleman, always in a +hurry, with a great belief in the abilities of M. Derues. He found the +little man in excellent spirits. Bertin asked if he could see Mme. de +Lamotte. Mme. Derues said that that was impossible, but that her husband +had given her some medicine which was working splendidly. The young de +Lamotte called to see his mother. Derues took him into her room; in the +dim light the boy saw her sleeping, and crept out quietly for fear of +disturbing her. The Derues and their friends sat down to dinner. Derues +kept jumping up and running into the sick room, from which a horrible +smell began to pervade the house. But Derues was radiant at the success +of his medicine. "Was there ever such a nurse as I am?" he exclaimed. +Bertin remarked that he thought it was a woman's and not a man's place +to nurse a lady under such distressing circumstances. Derues protested +that it was an occupation he had always liked. Next day, February 1, the +servant was still at Montrouge; Mme. Derues was again sent out shopping; +again Derues was alone with his patient. But she was a patient no +longer; she had become a corpse. The highly successful medicine +administered to the poor lady by her jolly and assiduous nurse had +indeed worked wonders. + +Derues had bought a large leather trunk. It is possible that to Derues +belongs the distinction of being the first murderer to put that harmless +and necessary article of travel to a criminal use. He was engaged in +his preparations for coffining Mme. de Lamotte, when a female creditor +knocked insistently at the door. She would take no denial. Clad in his +bonnet and gown, Derues was compelled to admit her. She saw the +large trunk, and suspected a bolt on the part of her creditor. Derues +reassured her; a lady, he said, who had been stopping with them was +returning to the country. The creditor departed. Later in the day Derues +came out of the house and summoned some porters. With their help the +heavy trunk was taken to the house of a sculptor, a friend of Derues, +who agreed to keep it in his studio until Derues could take it down to +his place in the country. Bertin came in to dinner again that evening, +and also the young de Lamotte. Derues was gayer than ever, laughing +and joking with his guests. He told the boy that his mother had quite +recovered and gone to Versailles to see about finding him some post at +the Court. "We'll go and see her there in a day or two," he said, "I'll +let you know when." + +On the following day a smartly dressed, dapper, but very pale little +gentleman, giving the name of Ducoudray, hired a vacant cellar in a +house in the Rue de la Mortellerie. He had, he said, some Spanish wine +he wanted to store there, and three or four days later M. Ducoudray +deposited in this cellar a large grey trunk. A few days after he +employed a man to dig a large hole in the floor of the cellar, giving as +his reason for such a proceeding that "there was no way of keeping wine +like burying it." While the man worked at the job, his genial employer +beguiled his labours with merry quips and tales, which he illustrated +with delightful mimicry. The hole dug, the man was sent about his +business. "I will bury the wine myself," said his employer, and on one +or two occasions M. Ducoudray was seen by persons living in the house +going in and out of his cellar, a lighted candle in his hand. One day +the pale little gentleman was observed leaving the cellar, accompanied +by a porter carrying a large trunk, and after that the dwellers in the +Rue de la Mortellerie saw the pale little gentleman no more. + +A few days later M. Derues sent down to his place at Buisson-Souef a +large trunk filled with china. It was received there by M. de Lamotte. +Little did the trusting gentleman guess that it was in this very trunk +that the body of his dear wife had been conveyed to its last resting +place in the cellar of M. Ducoudray in the Rue de la Mortellerie. Nor +had M. Mesvrel-Desvergers, importunate creditor of M. Derues, guessed +the contents of the large trunk that he had met his debtor one day +early in February conveying through the streets of Paris. Creditors +were always interrupting Derues at inconvenient moments. M. +Mesvrel-Desvergers had tapped Derues on the shoulder, reminded him +forcibly of his liability towards him, and spoken darkly of possible +imprisonment. Derues pointed to the trunk. It contained, he said, a +sample of wine; he was going to order some more of it, and he would then +be in a position to pay his debt. But the creditor, still doubting, had +M. Derues followed, and ascertained that he had deposited his sample of +wine at a house in the Rue de la Mortellerie. + +On Wednesday, February 12, a M. Beaupre of Commercy arrived at +Versailles with his nephew, a fat boy, in reality some fourteen years of +age, but given out as older. They hired a room at the house of a cooper +named Pecquet. M. Beaupre was a very pale little gentleman, who seemed +in excellent spirits, in spite of the fact that his nephew was clearly +anything but well. Indeed, so sick and ailing did he appear to be that +Mme. Pecquet suggested that his uncle should call in a doctor. But +M. Beaupre said that that was quite unnecessary; he had no faith in +doctors; he would give the boy a good purge. His illness was due, he +said, to a venereal disorder and the drugs which he had been taking in +order to cure it; it was a priest the boy needed rather than a +doctor. On the Thursday and Friday the boy's condition showed little +improvement; the vomiting continued. But on Saturday M. Beaupre declared +himself as highly delighted with the success of his medicine. The same +night the boy was dead. The priest, urgently sent for by his devout +uncle, arrived to find a corpse. On the following day "Louis Anotine +Beaupre, aged twenty-two and a half," was buried at Versailles, his +pious uncle leaving with the priest six livres to pay for masses for the +repose of his erring nephew's soul. + +The same evening M. Derues who, according to his own account, had left +Paris with the young de Lamotte in order to take the boy to his mother +in Versailles, returned home to the Rue Beaubourg. As usual, Bertin +dropped in to dinner. He found his host full of merriment, singing in +the lightness of his heart. Indeed, he had reason to be pleased, for +at last, he told his wife and his friend, Buisson-Souef was his. He had +seen Mme. de Lamotte at Versailles and paid her the full purchase-money +in good, sounding gold. And, best joke of all, Mme. de Lamotte had no +sooner settled the business than she had gone off with a former lover, +her son and her money, and would in all probability never be heard of +again. The gay gentleman laughingly reminded his hearers that such an +escapade on the part of Mme. de Lamotte was hardly to be wondered at, +when they recollected that her son had been born out of wedlock. + +To all appearances Mme. de Lamotte had undoubtedly concluded the sale of +Buisson-Souef to Derues and received the price of it before disappearing +with her lover. Derues had in his possession a deed of sale signed +by Mme. de Lamotte and acknowledging the payment to her by Derues of +100,000 livres, which he had borrowed for that purpose from an advocate +of the name of Duclos. As a fact the loan from Duclos to Derues was +fictitious. A legal document proving the loan had been drawn up, but the +cash which the notary had demanded to see before executing the document +had been borrowed for a few hours. Duclos, a provincial advocate, +had acted in good faith, in having been represented to him that such +fictitious transactions were frequently used in Paris for the purpose +of getting over some temporary financial difficulty. On the 15th of +February the deed of the sale of Buisson-Souef had been brought by a +woman to the office of a scrivener employed by Derues; it was already +signed, but the woman asked that certain blanks should be filled in and +that the document should be dated. She was told that the date should +be that of the day on which the parties had signed it. She gave it as +February 12. A few days later Derues called at the office and was told +of the lady's visit. "Ah!" he said, "it was Mme. de Lamotte herself, the +lady who sold me the estate." + +In the meantime Derues, through his bustling and ubiquitous friend +Bertin, took good care that the story of Mme. de Lamotte's sale of +Buisson-Souef and subsequent elopement should be spread sedulously +abroad. By Bertin it was told to M. Jolly, the proctor in whose hands +the de Lamottes had placed the sale of Buisson-Souef. It was M. Jolly +who had in the first instance recommended to them his client Derues as a +possible purchaser. The proctor, who knew Mme. de Lamotte to be a woman +devoted to her husband and her home, was astonished to hear of her +infidelity, more especially as the story told by Derues represented her +as saying in very coarse terms how little she cared for her husband's +honour. He was surprised, too, that she should not have consulted +him about the conclusion of the business with Derues, and that Derues +himself should have been able to find so considerable a sum of money as +100,000 livres. But, said M. Jolly, if he were satisfied that Mme. de +Lamotte had taken away the money with her, then he would deliver up to +Derues the power of attorney which M. de Lamotte had left with him in +1775, giving his wife authority to carry out the sale of Buisson-Souef. +Mme. de Lamotte, being a married woman, the sale of the property to +Derues would be legally invalid if the husband's power of attorney were +not in the hands of the purchaser. + + + +II + +THE GAME OF BLUFF + + +To Derues, on the eve of victory, the statement of Jolly in regard to +the power of attorney was a serious reverse. He had never thought of +such an instrument, or he would have persuaded Mme. de Lamotte to have +gotten permission of it before her disappearance. Now he must try to get +it from Jolly himself. On the 26th of February he once again raised from +a friendly notary a few thousand livres on the Duplessis inheritance, +and deposited the deed of sale of Buisson-Souef as further security. +His pocket full of gold, he went straight to the office of Jolly. To the +surprise of the proctor Derues announced that he had come to pay him 200 +livres which he owed him, and apologised for the delay. Taking the +gold coins from his pockets he filled his three-cornered hat with +considerably more than the sum due, and held it out invitingly to +M. Jolly. Then he proceeded to tell him of his dealings with Mme. de +Lamotte. She had offered, he said, to get the power of attorney for him, +but he, trusting in her good faith, had said that there was no occasion +for hurry; and then, faithless, ungrateful woman that she was, she had +gone off with his money and left him in the lurch. "But," he added, "I +trust you absolutely, M. Jolly, you have all my business in your hands, +and I shall be a good client in the future. You have the power of +attorney--you will give it to me?" and he rattled the coins in his +hat. "I must have it," he went on, "I must have it at any price at any +price," and again the coins danced in his hat, while his eyes looked +knowingly at the proctor. M. Jolly saw his meaning, and his surprise +turned to indignation. He told Derues bluntly that he did not believe +his story, that until he was convinced of its truth he would not part +with the power of attorney, and showed the confounded grocer the door. + +Derues hastened home filled with wrath, and took counsel with his friend +Bertin. Bertin knew something of legal process; they would try whether +the law could not be invoked to compel Jolly to surrender the power of +attorney. Bertin went off to the Civil Lieutenant and applied for an +order to oblige M. Jolly to give up the document in question. An order +was made that Jolly must either surrender it into the hands of Derues or +appear before a referee and show cause why he should not comply with +the order. Jolly refused still to give it up or allow a copy of it to be +made, and agreed to appear before the referee to justify his action. In +the meantime Derues, greatly daring, had started for Buisson-Souef to +try what "bluff" could do in this serious crisis in his adventure. + +At Buisson-Souef poor M. de Lamotte waited, puzzled and distressed, +for news from his wife. On Saturday, 17th, the day after the return of +Derues from Versailles, he heard from Mme. Derues that his wife had left +Paris and gone with her son to Versailles. A second letter told him that +she had completed the sale of Buisson-Souef to Derues, and was still at +Versailles trying to obtain some post for the boy. On February 19 Mme. +Derues wrote again expressing surprise that M. de Lamotte had not had +any letter from his wife and asking if he had received some oysters +which the Derues had sent him. The distracted husband was in no mood for +oysters. "Do not send me oysters," he writes, "I am too ill with worry. +I thank you for all your kindness to my son. I love him better than +myself, and God grant he will be good and grateful." The only reply he +received from the Derues was an assurance that he would see his wife +again in a few days. + +The days passed, but Mme. de Lamotte made no sign. About four o'clock on +the afternoon of February 28, Derues, accompanied by the parish +priest of Villeneuvele-Roi, presented himself before M. de Lamotte at +Buisson-Souef. For the moment M. de Lamotte was rejoiced to see +the little man; at last he would get news of his wife. But he was +disappointed. Derues could tell him only what he had been told already, +that his wife had sold their estate and gone away with the money. + +M. de Lamotte was hardly convinced. How, he asked Derues, had he found +the 100,000 livres to buy Buisson-Souef, he who had not a halfpenny a +short time ago? Derues replied that he had borrowed it from a friend; +that there was no use in talking about it; the place was his now, his +alone, and M. de Lamotte had no longer a right to be there; he was very +sorry, poor dear gentleman, that his wife had gone off and left him +without a shilling, but personally he would always be a friend to him +and would allow him 3,000 livres a year for the rest of his life. In the +meantime, he said, he had already sold forty casks of the last year's +vintage, and would be obliged if M. de Lamotte would see to their being +sent off at once. + +By this time the anger and indignation of M. de Lamotte blazed forth. He +told Derues that his story was a pack of lies, that he was still master +at Buisson-Souef, and not a bottle of wine should leave it. "You are +torturing me," he exclaimed, "I know something has happened to my wife +and child. I am coming to Paris myself, and if it is as I fear, +you shall answer for it with your head!" Derues, undismayed by this +outburst, re-asserted his ownership and departed in defiant mood, +leaving on the premises a butcher of the neighbourhood to look after his +property. + +But things were going ill with Derues. M. de Lamotte meant to show +fight; he would have powerful friends to back him; class against class, +the little grocer would be no match for him. It was immediate possession +of Buisson-Souef that Derues wanted, not lawsuits; they were expensive +and the results uncertain. He spoke freely to his friends of the +difficulties of the situation. + +What could he do? The general opinion seemed to be that some fresh +news of Mme. de Lamotte--her reappearance, perhaps--would be the +only effective settlement of the dispute. He had made Mme. de Lamotte +disappear, why should he not make her reappear? He was not the man to +stick at trifles. His powers of female impersonation, with which he +had amused his good friends at Buisson-Souef, could now be turned to +practical account. On March 5 he left Paris again. + +On the evening of March 7 a gentleman, M. Desportes of Paris, hired a +room at the Hotel Blanc in Lyons. On the following day he went out early +in the morning, leaving word that, should a lady whom he was expecting, +call to see him, she was to be shown up to his room. The same morning a +gentleman, resembling M. Desportes of Paris, bought two lady's dresses +at a shop in Lyons. + +The same afternoon a lady dressed in black silk, with a hood well drawn +over her eyes, called at the office of M. Pourra, a notary. + +The latter was not greatly attracted by his visitor, whose nose struck +him as large for a woman. She said that she had spent her youth in +Lyons, but her accent was distinctly Parisian. The lady gave her name as +Madame de Lamotte, and asked for a power of attorney by which she could +give her husband the interest due to her on a sum of 30,000 livres, +part of the purchase-money of the estate of Buisson-Souef, which she +had recently sold. As Mme. de Lamotte represented herself as having been +sent to M. Pourra by a respectable merchant for whom he was in the +habit of doing business, he agreed to draw up the necessary document, +accepting her statement that she and her husband had separate estates. +Mme. de Lamotte said that she would not have time to wait until the +power of attorney was ready, and therefore asked M. Pourra to send it +to the parish priest at Villeneuvele-Roi; this he promised to do. Mme. +de-Lamotte had called twice during the day at the Hotel Blanc and asked +for M. Desportes of Paris, but he was not at home. While Derues, alias +Desportes, alias Mme. de Lamotte, was masquerading in Lyons, events had +been moving swiftly and unfavourably in Paris. Sick with misgiving and +anxiety, M. de Lamotte had come there to find, if possible, his wife and +child. By a strange coincidence he alighted at an inn in the Rue de la +Mortellerie, only a few yards from the wine-cellar in which the corpse +of his ill-fated wife lay buried. He lost no time in putting his case +before the Lieutenant of Police, who placed the affair in the hands +of one of the magistrates of the Chatelet, then the criminal court of +Paris. At first the magistrate believed that the case was one of fraud +and that Mme. de Lamotte and her son were being kept somewhere in +concealment by Derues. But as he investigated the circumstances further, +the evidence of the illness of the mother and son, the date of the +disappearance of Mme. de Lamotte, and her reputed signature to the deed +of sale on February 12, led him to suspect that he was dealing with a +case of murder. + +When Derues returned to Paris from Lyons, on March 11, he found that the +police had already visited the house and questioned his wife, and +that he himself was under close surveillance. A day or two later the +advocate, Duclos, revealed to the magistrate the fictitious character +of the loan of 100,000 livres, which Derues alleged that he had paid +to Mme. de Lamotte as the price of Buisson-Souef. When the new power of +attorney purporting to be signed by Mme. de Lamotte arrived from +Lyons, and the signature was compared with that on the deed of sale of +Buisson-Souef to Derues, both were pronounced to be forgeries. Derues +was arrested and lodged in the Prison of For l'Eveque. + +The approach of danger had not dashed the spirits of the little man, nor +was he without partisans in Paris. Opinion in the city was divided as +to the truth of his account of Mme. de Lamotte's elopement. The nobility +were on the side of the injured de Lamotte, but the bourgeoisie +accepted the grocer's story and made merry over the deceived husband. +Interrogated, however, by the magistrate of the Chatelet, Derues' +position became more difficult. Under the stress of close questioning +the flimsy fabric of his financial statements fell to pieces like a +house of cards. He had to admit that he had never paid Mme. de Lamotte +100,000 livres; he had paid her only 25,000 livres in gold; further +pressed he said that the 25,000 livres had been made up partly in gold, +partly in bills; but where the gold had come from, or on whom he had +drawn the bills, he could not explain. Still his position was not +desperate; and he knew it. In the absence of Mme. de Lamotte he could +not be charged with fraud or forgery; and until her body was discovered, +it would be impossible to charge him with murder. + +A month passed; Mme. Derues, who had made a belated attempt to follow +her husband's example by impersonating Mme. de Lamotte in Paris, had +been arrested and imprisoned in the Grand Chatelet; when, on April 18, +information was received by the authorities which determined them to +explore the wine-cellar in the Rue de la Mortellerie. Whether the woman +who had let the cellar to Derues, or the creditor who had met him taking +his cask of wine there, had informed the investigating magistrate, seems +uncertain. In any case, the corpse of the unhappy lady was soon brought +to light and Derues confronted with it. At first he said that he failed +to recognise it as the remains of Mme. de Lamotte, but he soon abandoned +that rather impossible attitude. He admitted that he had given some +harmless medicine to Mme. de Lamotte during her illness, and then, to +his horror, one morning had awakened to find her dead. A fear lest +her husband would accuse him of having caused her death had led him to +conceal the body, and also that of her son who, he now confessed, had +died and been buried by him at Versailles. On April 23 the body of the +young de Lamotte was exhumed. Both bodies were examined by doctors, and +they declared themselves satisfied that mother and son had died "from +a bitter and corrosive poison administered in some kind of drink." What +the poison was they did not venture to state, but one of their number, +in the light of subsequent investigation, arrived at the conclusion that +Derues had used in both cases corrosive sublimate. How or where he had +obtained the poison was never discovered. + +Justice moved swiftly in Paris in those days. The preliminary +investigation in Derues' case was ended on April 28. Two days later his +trial commenced before the tribunal of the Chatelet. + +It lasted one day. The judges had before them the depositions taken by +the examining magistrate. Both Derues and his wife were interrogated. He +maintained that he had not poisoned either Mme. de Lamotte or her son; +his only crime, he said, lay in having concealed their deaths. Mme; +Derues said: "It is Buisson-Souef that has ruined us! I always told my +husband that he was mad to buy these properties--I am sure my husband is +not a poisoner--I trusted my husband and believed every word he said." +The court condemned Derues to death, but deferred judgment in his wife's +case on the ground of her pregnancy. + +And now the frail, cat-like little man had to brace himself to meet +a cruel and protracted execution. But sanguine to the last, he still +hoped. An appeal lay from the Chatelet to the Parliament of Paris. It +was heard on March 5. Derues was brought to the Palais de Justice. +The room in which he waited was filled with curious spectators, who +marvelled at his coolness and impudence. He recognised among them a +Benedictine monk of his acquaintance. "My case," he called out to him, +"will soon be over; we'll meet again yet and have a good time together." +One visitor, wishing not to appear too curious, pretended to be looking +at a picture. "Come, sir," said Derues, "you haven't come here to see +the pictures, but to see me. Have a good look at me. Why study copies of +nature when you can look at such a remarkable original as I?" But there +were to be no more days of mirth and gaiety for the jesting grocer. His +appeal was rejected, and he was ordered for execution on the morrow. + +At six o'clock on the morning of May 6 Derues returned to the Palais +de Justice, there to submit to the superfluous torments of the question +ordinary and extraordinary. Though condemned to death, torture was to +be applied in the hope of wringing from the prisoner some sort of +confession. The doctors declared him too delicate to undergo the torture +of pouring cold water into him, which his illustrious predecessor, Mme. +de Brinvilliers, had suffered; he was to endure the less severe torture +of the "boot." + +His legs were tightly encased in wood, and wedges were then hammered in +until the flesh was crushed and the bones broken. But never a word +of confession was wrung from the suffering creature. Four wedges +constituting the ordinary torture he endured; at the third of the +extraordinary he fainted away. Put in the front of a fire the warmth +restored him. Again he was questioned, again he asserted his wife's +innocence and his own. + +At two o'clock in the afternoon Derues was recovered sufficiently to be +taken to Notre Dame. There, in front of the Cathedral, candle in hand +and rope round his neck, he made the amende honorable. But as the +sentence was read aloud to the people Derues reiterated the assertion +of his innocence. From Notre Dame he was taken to the Hotel de Ville. +A condemned man had the right to stop there on his way to execution, +to make his will and last dying declarations. Derues availed himself +of this opportunity to protest solemnly and emphatically his wife's +absolute innocence of any complicity in whatever he had done. "I want +above all," he said, "to state that my wife is entirely innocent. She +knew nothing. I used fifty cunning devices to hide everything from her. +I am speaking nothing but the truth, she is wholly innocent--as for me, +I am about to die." His wife was allowed to see him; he enjoined her to +bring up their children in the fear of God and love of duty, and to let +them know how he had died. Once again, as he took up the pen to sign the +record of his last words, he re-asserted her innocence. + +Of the last dreadful punishment the offending grocer was to be spared +nothing. For an aristocrat like Mme. de Brinvilliers beheading was +considered indignity enough. But Derues must go through with it all; he +must be broken on the wheel and burnt alive and his ashes scattered to +the four winds of heaven; there was to be no retentum for him, a +clause sometimes inserted in the sentence permitting the executioner to +strangle the broken victim before casting him on to the fire. He must +endure all to the utmost agony the law could inflict. It was six o'clock +when Derues arrived at the Place de Greve, crowded to its capacity, the +square itself, the windows of the houses; places had been bought at high +prices, stools, ladders, anything that would give a good view of the end +of the now famous poisoner. + +Pale but calm, Derues faced his audience. He was stripped of all but his +shirt; lying flat on the scaffold, his face looking up to the sky, his +head resting on a stone, his limbs were fastened to the wheel. Then with +a heavy bar of iron the executioner broke them one after another, and +each time he struck a fearful cry came from the culprit. The customary +three final blows on the stomach were inflicted, but still the little +man lived. Alive and broken, he was thrown on to the fire. His burnt +ashes, scattered to the winds, were picked up eagerly by the mob, +reputed, as in England the pieces of the hangman's rope, talismans. + +Some two months after the execution of her husband Mme. Derues was +delivered in the Conciergerie of a male child; it is hardly surprising, +in face of her experiences during her pregnancy, that it was born an +idiot. In January, 1778, the judges of the Parliament, by a majority of +one, decided that she should remain a prisoner in the Conciergerie for +another year, while judgment in her case was reserved. In the following +August she was charged with having forged the signature of Mme. de +Lamotte on the deeds of sale. In February, 1779, the two experts in +handwriting to whom the question had been submitted decided in her +favour, and the charge was abandoned. + +But Mme. Derues had a far sterner, more implacable and, be it added, +more unscrupulous adversary than the law in M. de Lamotte. + +Not content with her husband's death, M. de Lamotte believed the wife to +have been his partner in guilt, and thirsted for revenge. + +To accomplish it he even stooped to suborn witnesses, but the conspiracy +was exposed, and so strong became the sympathy with the accused woman +that a young proctor of the Parliament published a pamphlet in her +defence, asking for an immediate inquiry into the charges made against +her, charges that had in no instance been proved. + +At last, in March, 1779, the Parliament decided to finish with the +affair. In secret session the judges met, examined once more all the +documents in the case, listened to a report on it from one of their +number, interrogated the now weary, hopeless prisoner, and, by a large +majority, condemned her to a punishment that fell only just short of +the supreme penalty. On the grounds that she had wilfully and knowingly +participated with her husband in the fraudulent attempt to become +possessed of the estate of Buisson-Souef, and was strongly suspected of +having participated with him in his greater crime, she was sentenced +to be publicly flogged, branded on both shoulders with the letter V +(Voleuse) and imprisoned for life in the Salpetriere Prison. On March +13, in front of the Conciergerie Mme. Derues underwent the first part of +her punishment. The same day her hair was cut short, and she was dressed +in the uniform of the prison in which she was to pass the remainder of +her days. + +Paris had just begun to forget Mme. Derues when a temporary interest +was-excited in her fortunes by the astonishing intelligence that, two +months after her condemnation, she had been delivered of a child in her +new prison. Its fatherhood was never determined, and, taken from her +mother, the child died in fifteen days. Was its birth the result of some +passing love affair, or some act of drunken violence on the part of her +jailors, or had the wretched woman, fearing a sentence of death, made an +effort to avert once again the supreme penalty? History does not relate. + +Ten years passed. A fellow prisoner in the Salpetriere described Mme. +Derues as "scheming, malicious, capable of anything." She was accused +of being violent, and of wishing to revenge herself by setting fire to +Paris. At length the Revolution broke on France, the Bastille fell, and +in that same year an old uncle of Mme. Derues, an ex-soldier of +Louis XV., living in Brittany, petitioned for his niece's release. He +protested her innocence, and begged that he might take her to his home +and restore her to her children. For three years he persisted vainly in +his efforts. At last, in the year 1792, it seemed as if they might be +crowned with success. He was told that the case would be re-examined; +that it was possible that the Parliament had judged unjustly. This good +news came to him in March. But in September of that year there took +place those shocking massacres in the Paris prisons, which rank high +among the atrocities of the Revolution. At four o'clock on the afternoon +of September 4, the slaughterers visited the Salpetriere Prison, and +fifth among their victims fell the widow of Derues. + + + + +Dr. Castaing + + +There are two reports of the trial of Castaing: "Proces Complet d'Edme +Samuel Castaing," Paris, 1823; "Affaire Castaing," Paris, 1823. + +I + +AN UNHAPPY COINCIDENCE + +Edme Castaing, born at Alencon in 1796, was the youngest of the three +sons of an Inspector-General in the department of Woods and Forests. +His elder brother had entered the same service as his father, the other +brother was a staff-captain of engineers. Without being wealthy, the +family, consisting of M. and Mme. Castaing and four children, was in +comfortable circumstances. The young Edme was educated at the College of +Angers--the Alma Mater of Barre and Lebiez--where, intelligent and hard +working, he carried off many prizes. He decided to enter the medical +profession, and at the age of nineteen commenced his studies at the +School of Medicine in Paris. For two years he worked hard and well, +living within the modest allowance made him by his father. At the end of +that time this young man of two or three-and-twenty formed a passionate +attachment for a lady, the widow of a judge, and the mother of three +children. Of the genuine depth and sincerity of this passion for a woman +who must have been considerably older than himself, there can be no +doubt. Henceforth the one object in life to Castaing was to make money +enough to relieve the comparative poverty of his adored mistress, and +place her and her children beyond the reach of want. In 1821 Castaing +became a duly qualified doctor, and by that time had added to the +responsibilities of his mistress and himself by becoming the father of +two children, whom she had brought into the world. The lady was exigent, +and Castaing found it difficult to combine his work with a due regard to +her claims on his society. Nor was work plentiful or lucrative. To add +to his embarrassments Castaing, in 1818, had backed a bill for a +friend for 600 francs. To meet it when it fell due two years later was +impossible, and desperate were the efforts made by Castaing and his +mother to put off the day of reckoning. His father, displeased with his +son's conduct, would do nothing to help him. But his mother spared +no effort to extricate him from his difficulties. She begged a highly +placed official to plead with the insistent creditor, but all in vain. +There seemed no hope of a further delay when suddenly, in the October +of 1822, Castaing became the possessor of 100,000 francs. How he became +possessed of this considerable sum of money forms part of a strange and +mysterious story. + +Among the friends of Castaing were two young men of about his own age, +Auguste and Hippolyte Ballet. Auguste, the elder, had the misfortune +a few days after his birth to incur his mother's lasting dislike. The +nurse had let the child fall from her arms in the mother's presence, and +the shock had endangered Mme. Ballet's life. From that moment the +mother took a strong aversion to her son; he was left to the charge of +servants; his meals were taken in the kitchen. As soon as he was five +years old he was put out to board elsewhere, while his brother Hippolyte +and his sister were well cared for at home. The effect of this unjust +neglect on the character of Auguste Ballet was, as may be imagined, had; +he became indolent and dissipated. His brother Hippolyte, on the other +hand, had justified the affectionate care bestowed on his upbringing; he +had grown into a studious, intelligent youth of a refined and attractive +temperament. Unhappily, early in his life he had developed consumption, +a disease he inherited from his mother. As he grew older his health grew +steadily worse until, in 1822, his friends were seriously alarmed at his +condition. It became so much graver that, in the August of that year, +the doctors recommended him to take the waters at Enghien. In September +he returned to Paris apparently much better, but on October 2 he was +seized with sudden illness, and three days later he was dead. + +A few years before the death of Hippolyte his father and mother had +died almost at the same time. M. Ballet had left to each of his sons a +fortune of some 260,000 francs. Though called to the bar, both Auguste +and Hippolyte Ballet were now men of independent means. After the death +of their parents, whatever jealousy Auguste may have felt at the unfair +preference which his mother had shown for her younger son, had died +down. At the time of Hippolyte's death the brothers were on good terms, +though the more prudent Hippolyte disapproved of his elder brother's +extravagance. + +Of Hippolyte Ballet Dr. Castaing had become the fast friend. Apart +from his personal liking for Castaing, it was a source of comfort to +Hippolyte, in his critical state of health, to have as his friend one +whose medical knowledge was always at his service. + +About the middle of August, 1822, Hippolyte, on the advice of his +doctors, went to Enghien to take the waters. There Castaing paid him +frequent visits. He returned to Paris on September 22, and seemed to +have benefited greatly by the cure. On Tuesday, October 1, he saw his +sister, Mme. Martignon, and her husband; he seemed well, but said that +he was having leeches applied to him by his friend Castaing. On the +Wednesday evening his sister saw him again, and found him well and with +a good appetite. On the Thursday, after a night disturbed by severe +attacks of vomiting, his condition seemed serious. His brother-in-law, +who visited him, found that he had taken to his bed, his face was +swollen, his eyes were red. His sister called in the evening, but could +not see him. The servants told her that her brother was a little better +but resting, and that he did not wish to be disturbed; they said that +Dr. Castaing had been with him all day. + +On Friday Castaing himself called on the Martignons, and told them that +Hippolyte had passed a shockingly bad night. Madame Martignon insisted +on going to nurse her brother herself, but Castaing refused positively +to let her see him; the sight of her, he said, would be too agitating +to the patient. Later in the day Mme. Martignon went to her brother's +house. In order to obey Dr. Castaing's injunctions, she dressed herself +in some of the clothes of the servant Victoire, in the hope that if she +went into his bedroom thus disguised, Hippolyte would not recognise her. +But even this subterfuge was forbidden by Castaing, and Mme. Martignon +had to content herself with listening in an adjoining room for the sound +of her brother's voice. At eight o'clock that evening the Martignons +learnt that Hippolyte was better, but at ten o'clock they received a +message that he was dying, and that his brother Auguste had been sent +for. Mme. Martignon was prostrated with grief, but her husband hastened +to his brother-in-law's house. There he found Castaing, who said that +the death agony of his friend was so dreadful that he had not the +strength to remain in the room with the dying man. Another doctor was +sent for, but at ten o'clock the following morning, after protracted +suffering, Hippolyte Ballet passed away. + +A post-mortem was held on his body. It was made by Drs. Segalas and +Castaing. They stated that death was due to pleurisy aggravated by the +consumptive condition of the deceased, which, however serious, was not +of itself likely to have been so rapidly fatal in its consequences. + +Hippolyte had died, leaving a fortune of some 240,000 francs. In the +previous September he had spoken to the notary Lebret, a former clerk +of his father's, of his intention of making a will. He had seen that his +brother Auguste was squandering his share of their inheritance; he told +Lebret that whatever he might leave to Auguste should not be placed at +his absolute disposal. To his servant Victoire, during his last illness, +Hippolyte had spoken of a will he had made which he wished to destroy. +If Hippolyte had made such a will, did he destroy it before his death? +In any case, no trace of it was ever found after his death. He +was presumed to have died intestate, and his fortune was divided, +three-quarters of it going to his brother Auguste, the remaining quarter +to his sister, Mme. Martignon. + +On the day of Hippolyte's death Auguste Ballet wrote from his brother's +house to one Prignon: "With great grief I have to tell you that I have +just lost my brother; I write at the same time to say that I must have +100,000 francs to-day if possible. I have the greatest need of it. +Destroy my letter, and reply at once. M. Sandrie will, I am sure, +accommodate me. I am at my poor brother's house, from which I am +writing." Prignon did as he was asked, but it was two days before the +stockbroker, Sandrie, could raise the necessary sum. On October 7 he +sold out sufficient of Auguste's stock to realise 100,000 francs, and +the following day gave Prignon an order on the Bank of France for that +amount. The same day Prignon took the order to Auguste. Accompanied by +Castaing and Jean, Auguste's black servant, Auguste and Prignon drove to +the bank. There the order was cashed. Prignon's part of the business was +at an end. He said good-bye to Auguste outside the bank. As the latter +got into his cabriolet, carrying the bundle of notes, Prignon heard him +say to Castaing: "There are the 100,000 francs." + +Why had Auguste Ballet, after his brother's death, such urgent need of +100,000 francs? If the statements of Auguste made to other persons +are to be believed, he had paid the 100,000 francs which he had raised +through Prignon to Lebret, his father's former clerk, who would seem to +have acted as legal and financial adviser to his old master's children. +According to Auguste's story, his sister, Mme. Martignon, had offered +Lebret 80,000 francs to preserve a copy of a will made by Hippolyte, +leaving her the bulk of his fortune. Castaing, however, had ascertained +that Lebret would be willing, if Auguste would outbid his sister and pay +100,000 francs, to destroy the will so that, Hippolyte dying intestate, +Auguste would take the greater part of his brother's fortune. Auguste +agreed to accept Lebret's terms, raised the necessary sum, and handed +over the money to Castaing, who, in turn, gave it to Lebret, who had +thereupon destroyed the copy of the will. Castaing, according to the +evidence of Auguste's mistress, an actress of the name of Percillie, +had spoken in her presence of having himself destroyed one copy of +Hippolyte's will before his death, and admitted having arranged with +Lebret after Hippolyte's death for the destruction of the other copy. + +How far was the story told by Auguste, and repeated in somewhat +different shape by Castaing to other persons, true? There is no doubt +that after the visit to the Bank of France with Prignon on October +8, Auguste and Castaing drove together to Lebret's office. The negro +servant said that on arriving there one of them got out of the cab and +went up to Lebret's house, but which of the two he would not at first +say positively. Later he swore that it was Auguste Ballet. Whatever +happened on that visit to Lebret's--and it was the theory of the +prosecution that Castaing and not Auguste had gone up to the office--the +same afternoon Auguste Ballet showed his mistress the seals of the copy +of his brother's will which Lebret had destroyed, and told her that +Lebret, all through the business, had refused to deal directly with him, +and would only act through the intermediary of Castaing. + +Did Lebret, as a fact, receive the 100,000 francs? A close examination +of his finances showed no trace of such a sum. Castaing, on the other +hand, on October 10, 1822, had given a stockbroker a sum of 66,000 +francs to invest in securities; on the 11th of the same month he had +lent his mother 30,000 francs; and on the 14th had given his mistress +4,000 francs. Of how this large sum of money had come to Castaing at +a time when he was practically insolvent he gave various accounts. +His final version was that in the will destroyed by Auguste, Hippolyte +Ballet had left him an income for life equivalent to a capital of +100,000 francs, and that Auguste had given him that sum out of respect +for his brother's wishes. If that explanation were true, it was +certainly strange that shortly after his brother's death Auguste Ballet +should have expressed surprise and suspicion to a friend on hearing that +Castaing had been buying stock to the value of 8,000 francs. If he had +given Castaing 100,000 francs for himself, there was no occasion for +surprise or suspicion at his investing 8,000. That Auguste had paid out +100,000 francs to some one in October the state of his finances at +his death clearly proved. According to the theory of the prosecution, +Auguste believed that he had paid that money to Lebret through the +intermediary of Castaing, and not to Castaing himself. Hence his +surprise at hearing that Castaing, whom he knew to be impecunious, was +investing such a sum as 8,000 francs. + +No money had ever reached Lebret. His honesty and good faith were +demonstrated beyond any shadow of a doubt; no copy of any will of +Hippolyte Ballet had ever been in his possession. But Castaing had shown +Auguste Ballet a copy of his brother's will, the seals of which Auguste +had shown to his mistress. In all probability, and possibly at the +instigation of Castaing, Hippolyte Ballet had made a will, leaving the +greater part of his property to his sister. Somehow or other Castaing +had got possession of this will. On his death Castaing had invented the +story of Mme. Martignon's bribe to Lebret, and so persuaded Auguste +to outbid her. He had ingeniously kept Auguste and Lebret apart by +representing Lebret as refusing to deal direct with Auguste, and by +these means had secured to his own use the sum of 100,000 francs, which +Auguste believed was being paid to Lebret as the price of his +alleged destruction of his brother's will. The plot was ingenious and +successful. To Lebret and the Martignons Castaing said that Hippolyte +had made a will in Mme. Martignon's favour, but had destroyed it himself +some days before his death. The Martignons expressed themselves as glad +that Hippolyte had done so, for they feared lest such a will should +have provoked resentment against them on the part of Auguste. By keeping +Auguste and Lebret apart, Castaing prevented awkward explanations. The +only possible danger of discovery lay in Auguste's incautious admissions +to his mistress and friends; but even had the fact of the destruction +of the will come to the ears of the Martignons, it is unlikely that they +would have taken any steps involving the disgrace of Auguste. + +Castaing had enriched himself considerably by the opportune death of his +friend Hippolyte. It might be made a matter of unfriendly comment that, +on the first day of May preceding that sad event, Castaing had purchased +ten grains of acetate of morphia from a chemist in Paris, and on +September 18, less than a month before Hippolyte's death, he had +purchased another ten grains of acetate of morphia from the same +chemist. The subject of poisons had always been a favourite branch of +Castaing's medical studies, especially vegetable poisons; morphia is a +vegetable poison. + +Castaing's position relative to Auguste Ballet was now a strong one. +They were accomplices in the unlawful destruction of Hippolyte's will. +Auguste believed it to be in his friend's power to ruin him at any time +by revealing his dealings with Lebret. But, more than that, to Auguste, +who believed that his 100,000 francs had gone into Lebret's pocket, +Castaing could represent himself as so far unrewarded for his share in +the business; Lebret had taken all the money, while he had received no +recompense of any kind for the trouble he had taken and the risk he was +encountering on his friend's behalf. Whatever the motive, from fear or +gratitude, Auguste Ballet was persuaded to make a will leaving Dr. Edme +Samuel Castaing the whole of his fortune, subject to a few trifling +legacies. But Auguste's feelings towards his sole legatee were no longer +cordial. To one or two of his friends he expressed his growing distaste +for Castaing's society. + +Dr. Castaing can hardly have failed to observe this change. He knew +Auguste to be reckless and extravagant with his money; he learnt that he +had realised another 100,000 francs out of his securities, and that he +kept the money locked up in a drawer in his desk. If Auguste's fortune +were dissipated by extravagance, or he revoked his will, Castaing stood +to lose heavily. As time went on Castaing felt less and less sure that +he could place much reliance on the favourable disposition or thrift of +Auguste. The latter had fallen in love with a new mistress; he began to +entertain expensively; even if he should not change his mind and leave +his money away from Castaing, there might very soon be no money to +leave. At the end of May, 1823, Castaing consulted a cousin of his, +Malassis, a notary's clerk, as to the validity of a will made by a sick +man in favour of his medical attendant. He said that he had a patient +gravely ill who, not wishing to leave his money to his sister, whom he +disliked, intended to leave it to him. Malassis reassured him as to the +validity of such a will, and gave him the necessary instructions for +preparing it. On May 29 Castaing sent Malassis the will of Auguste +Ballet with the following note, "I send you the will of M. Ballets +examine it and keep it as his representative." The will was dated +December 1, 1822, and made Castaing sole legatee. On the same day +that the will was deposited with Malassis, Castaing and Auguste Ballet +started to-gether on a little two days' trip into the country. To his +friends Auguste seemed in the best of health and spirits; so much so +that his housekeeper remarked as he left how well he was looking, and +Castaing echoed her remark, saying that he looked like a prince! + +During the afternoon the two friends visited Saint Germain, then +returned to Paris, and at seven o'clock in the evening arrived at the +Tete Noire Hotel at Saint Cloud, where they took a double-bedded room, +Castaing paying five francs in advance. They spent the following day, +Friday, May 30, in walking about the neighbourhood, dined at the hotel +at seven, went out again and returned about nine o'clock. Soon after +their return Castaing ordered some warmed wine to be sent up to the +bedroom. It was taken up by one of the maid-servants. Two glasses were +mixed with lemon and sugar which Castaing had brought with him. Both the +young men drank of the beverage. Auguste complained that it was sour, +and thought that he had put too much lemon in it. He gave his glass to +the servant to taste, who also found the drink sour. Shortly after +she left the room and went upstairs to the bedside of one of her +fellow-servants who was ill. Castaing, for no apparent reason, followed +her up and stayed in the room for about five minutes. Auguste spent a +bad night, suffering from internal pains, and in the morning his legs +were so swollen that he could not put on his boots. + +Castaing got up at four o'clock that morning and asked one of the +servants to let him out. Two hours later he drove up in a cabriolet to +the door of a chemist in Paris, and asked for twelve grains of tartar +emetic, which he wanted to mix in a wash according to a prescription of +Dr. Castaing. But he did not tell the chemist that he was Dr. Castaing +himself. An hour later Castaing arrived at the shop of another chemist, +Chevalier, with whom he had already some acquaintance; he had bought +acetate of morphia from him some months before, and had discussed with +him then the effects of vegetable poisons. On this particular morning he +bought of his assistant thirty-six grains of acetate of morphia, paying, +as a medical man, three francs fifty centimes for it instead of the +usual price of four francs. Later in the morning Castaing returned to +Saint Cloud, a distance of ten miles from Paris, and said that he had +been out for a long walk. He found Auguste ill in bed. Castaing asked +for some cold milk, which was taken up to the bedroom by one of the +servants. Shortly after this Castaing went out again. During his absence +Auguste was seized with violent pains and sickness. When Castaing +returned he found his friend in the care of the people of the hotel. He +told them to throw away the matter that had been vomited, as the smell +was offensive, and Auguste told them to do as his friend directed. +Castaing proposed to send for a doctor from Paris, but Auguste insisted +that a local doctor should be called in at once. + +Accordingly Dr. Pigache of Saint Cloud was summoned. He arrived at the +hotel about eleven o'clock. Before seeing the patient Castaing told the +doctor that he believed him to be suffering from cholera. Pigache asked +to see the matter vomited but was told that it had been thrown away. He +prescribed a careful diet, lemonade and a soothing draught. + +Dr. Pigache returned at three o'clock, when he found that the patient +had taken some lemonade, but, according to Castaing, had refused to take +the draught. He called again that afternoon. Ballet was much better; +he said that he would be quite well if he could get some sleep, and +expressed a wish to return to Paris. Dr. Pigache dissuaded him from this +and left, saying that he would come again in the evening. Castaing said +that that would be unnecessary, and it was agreed that Pigache should +see the patient again at eight o'clock the next morning. During the +afternoon Castaing sent a letter to Paris to Jean, Auguste's negro +servant, telling him to take the two keys of his master's desk to his +cousin Malassis. But the negro distrusted Castaing. He knew of the will +which his master had made in the doctor's favour. Rather than compromise +himself by any injudicious act, he brought the keys to Saint Cloud and +there handed them over to Castaing. + +When Jean arrived his master complained to him of feeling very ill. +Jean said that he hoped he would be well enough to go back to Paris the +following day, to which Auguste replied, "I don't think so. But if I am +lucky enough to get away to-morrow, I shall leave fifty francs for +the poor here." About eleven o'clock that night Castaing, in Jean's +presence, gave the sick man a spoonful of the draught prescribed by Dr. +Pigache. Four or five minutes later Auguste was seized with terrible +convulsions, followed by unconsciousness. Dr. Pigache was sent for. He +found Ballet lying on his back unconscious, his throat strained, his +mouth shut and his eyes fixed; the pulse was weak, his body covered +with cold sweat; and every now and then he was seized with strong +convulsions. The doctor asked Castaing the cause of the sudden change in +Ballet's condition. Castaing replied that it had commenced shortly after +he had taken a spoonful of the draught which the doctor had prescribed +for him. Dr. Pigache bled the patient and applied twenty leeches. He +returned about six; Ballet was sinking, and Castaing appeared to be +greatly upset. He told the doctor what an unhappy coincidence it was +that he should have been present at the deathbeds of both Hippolyte and +his brother Auguste; and that the position was the more distressing +for him as he was the sole heir to Auguste's fortune. To M. Pelletan, a +professor of medicine, who had been sent for to St. Cloud in the early +hours of Sunday morning, Castaing appeared to be in a state of great +grief and agitation; he was shedding tears. Pelletan was from the first +impressed by the suspicious nature of the case, and pointed out to +Castaing the awkwardness of his situation as heir to the dying man. +"You're right," replied Castaing, "my position is dreadful, horrible. In +my great grief I had never thought of it till now, but now you make me +see it clearly. Do you think there will be an investigation?" Pelletan +answered that he should be compelled to ask for a post-mortem. "Ah! You +will be doing me the greatest service," said Castaing, "I beg you to +insist on a post-mortem. You will be acting as a second father to me in +doing so." The parish priest was sent for to administer extreme unction +to the dying man. To the parish clerk who accompanied the priest +Castaing said, "I am losing a friend of my childhood," and both priest +and clerk went away greatly edified by the sincere sorrow and pious +demeanour of the young doctor. About mid-day on Sunday, June 1, Auguste +Ballet died. + +During the afternoon Castaing left the hotel for some hours, and that +same afternoon a young man about twenty-five years of age, short and +fair, left a letter at the house of Malassis. The letter was from +Castaing and said, "My dear friend, Ballet has just died, but do nothing +before to-morrow, Monday. I will see you and tell you, yes or no, +whether it is time to act. I expect that his brother-in-law, M. +Martignon, whose face is pock-marked and who carries a decoration, will +call and see you. I have said that I did not know what dispositions +Ballet may have made, but that before his death he had told me to give +you two little keys which I am going to deliver to you myself to-morrow, +Monday. I have not said that we are cousins, but only that I had seen +you once or twice at Ballet's, with whom you were friendly. So say +nothing till I have seen you, but whatever you do, don't say you are +a relative of mine." When he returned to the hotel Castaing found +Martignon, Lebret, and one or two friends of Auguste already assembled. +It was only that morning that Martignon had received from Castaing any +intimation of his brother-in-law's critical condition. From the first +Castaing was regarded with suspicion; the nature of the illness, the +secrecy maintained about it by Castaing, the coincidence of some of +the circumstances with those of the death of Hippolyte, all combined to +excite suspicion. Asked if Auguste had left a will Castaing said no; +but the next day he admitted its existence, and said that it was in the +hands of Malassis. + +Monday, June 2, was the day fixed for the post-mortem; it was performed +in the hotel at Saint Cloud. Castaing was still in the hotel under +provisional arrest. While the post-mortem was going on his agitation was +extreme; he kept opening the door of the room in which he was confined, +to hear if possible some news of the result. At last M. Pelletan +obtained permission to inform him of the verdict of the doctors. It was +favourable to Castaing; no trace of death by violence or poison had been +discovered. + +The medical men declared death to be due to an inflammation of +the stomach, which could be attributed to natural causes; that the +inflammation had subsided; that it had been succeeded by cerebral +inflammation, which frequently follows inflammation of the stomach, +and may have been aggravated in this case by exposure to the sun or by +over-indulgence of any kind. + + +II + +THE TRIAL OF DR. CASTAING + + +Castaing expected, as a result of the doctors' report, immediate +release. In this he was disappointed; he was placed under stricter +arrest and taken to Paris, where a preliminary investigation commenced, +lasting five months. During the early part of his imprisonment Castaing +feigned insanity, going to disgusting lengths in the hope of convincing +those about him of the reality of his madness. But after three days of +futile effort he gave up the attempt, and turned his attention to more +practical means of defence. In the prison at Versailles, whither he had +been removed from Paris, he got on friendly terms with a prisoner, one +Goupil, who was awaiting trial for some unimportant offence. To Goupil +Castaing described the cruelty of his position and the causes that had +led to his wrongful arrest. He admitted his unfortunate possession of +the poison, and said that the 100,000 francs which he had invested +he had inherited from an uncle. Through Goupil he succeeded in +communicating with his mother in the hope that she would use her +influence to stifle some of the more serious evidence against him. +Through other prisoners he tried to get at the chemists from whom he had +bought acetate of morphia, and persuade them to say that the preparation +of morphia which he had purchased was harmless. + +The trial of Castaing commenced before the Paris Assize Court on +November 10, 1823. He was charged with the murder of Hippolyte Ballet, +the destruction of a document containing the final dispositions of +Hippolyte's property, and with the murder of Auguste Ballet. The three +charges were to be tried simultaneously. The Act of Accusation +in Castaing's case is a remarkable document, covering a hundred +closely-printed pages. It is a well-reasoned, graphic and unfair +statement of the case for the prosecution. It tells the whole story +of the crime, and inserts everything that can possibly prejudice the +prisoner in the eyes of the jury. As an example, it quotes against +Castaing a letter of his mistress in which, in the course of some +quarrel, she had written to him saying that his mother had said some +"horrible things" (des horreurs) of him; but what those "horrible +things" were was not revealed, nor were they ever alluded to again +in the course of the trial, nor was his mistress called as a witness, +though payments of money by Castaing to her formed an important part +of the evidence against him. Again, the evidence of Goupil, his fellow +prisoner, as to the incriminating statements made to him by Castaing is +given in the Act of Accusation, but Goupil himself was not called at the +trial. + +During the reading of the Act of Accusation by the Clerk of the Court +Castaing listened calmly. Only when some allusion was made to his +mistress and their children did he betray any sign of emotion. As soon +as the actual facts of the case were set out he was all attention, +making notes busily. He is described as rather attractive in appearance, +his face long, his features regular, his forehead high, his hair, +fair in colour, brushed back from the brows; he wore rather large +side-whiskers. One of the witnesses at Saint Cloud said that Castaing +looked more like a priest than a doctor; his downcast eyes, gentle +voice, quiet and unassuming demeanour, lent him an air of patience and +humility. + +The interrogatory of Castaing by the presiding judge lasted all the +afternoon of the first day of the trial and the morning of the second. +The opening part of it dealt with the murder of Hippolyte Ballet, +and elicited little or nothing that was fresh. Beyond the purchase +of acetate of morphia previous to Hippolyte's death, which Castaing +reluctantly admitted, there was no serious evidence against him, and +before the end of the trial the prosecution abandoned that part of the +charge. + +Questioned by the President as to the destruction of Hippolyte Ballet's +will, Castaing admitted that he had seen a draft of a will executed by +Hippolyte in favour of his sister, but he denied having told Auguste +that Lebret had in his possession a copy which he was prepared to +destroy for 100,000 francs. Asked to explain the assertion of Mlle. +Percillie, Auguste's mistress, that statements to this effect had been +made in her presence by both Auguste Ballet and himself, he said that it +was not true; that he had never been to her house. "What motive," he was +asked, "could Mlle. Percillie have for accusing you?" "She hated me," +was the reply, "because I had tried to separate Auguste from her." +Castaing denied that he had driven with Auguste to Lebret's office on +October 8. Asked to explain his sudden possession of 100,000 francs at a +moment when he was apparently without a penny, he repeated his statement +that Auguste had given him the capital sum as an equivalent for an +income of 4,000 francs which his brother had intended to leave him. +"Why, when first asked if you had received anything from Auguste, did +you say you had received nothing?" was the question. + +"It was a thoughtless statement," was the answer. "Why," pursued the +President, "should you not have admitted at once a fact that went to +prove your own good faith? If, however, this fact be true, it does not +explain the mysterious way in which Auguste asked Prignon to raise for +him 100,000 francs; and unless those 100,000 francs were given to you, +it is impossible to account for them. It is important to your case that +you should give the jury a satisfactory explanation on this point." +Castaing could only repeat his previous explanations. + +The interrogatory was then directed to the death of Auguste Ballet. +Castaing said that Auguste Ballet had left him all his fortune on +account of a disagreement with his sister. Asked why, after Auguste's +death, he had at first denied all knowledge of the will made in his +favour and deposited by him with Malassis, he could give no satisfactory +reason. Coming to the facts of the alleged poisoning of Auguste Ballet, +the President asked Castaing why, shortly after the warm wine was +brought up on the night of May 30, he went up to the room where one of +the servants of the hotel was lying sick. Castaing replied that he was +sent for by the wife of the hotel-keeper. This the woman denied; she +said that she did not even know that he was a doctor. "According to +the prosecution," said the judge, "you left the room in order to avoid +drinking your share of the wine." Castaing said that he had drunk half +a cupful of it. The judge reminded him that to one of the witnesses +Castaing had said that he had drunk only a little. + +A ridiculous statement made by Castaing to explain the purchase of +morphia and antimony in Paris on May 31 was brought up against him. +Shortly after his arrest Castaing had said that the cats and dogs about +the hotel had made such a noise on the night of May 30 that they had +disturbed the rest of Auguste, who, in the early morning, had asked +Castaing to get some poison to kill them. He had accordingly gone all +the way, about ten miles, to Paris at four in the morning to purchase +antimony and morphia to kill cats and dogs. All the people of the +hotel denied that there had been any such disturbance on the night in +question. Castaing now said that he had bought the poisons at Auguste's +request, partly to kill the noisy cats and dogs, and partly for the +purpose of their making experiments on animals. Asked why he had not +given this second reason before, he said that as Auguste was not a +medical man it would have been damaging to his reputation to divulge the +fact of his wishing to make unauthorised experiments on animals. "Why +go to Paris for the poison?" asked the judge, "there was a chemist a few +yards from the hotel. And when in Paris, why go to two chemists?" To all +these questions Castaing's answers were such as to lead the President +to express a doubt as to whether they were likely to convince the jury. +Castaing was obliged to admit that he had allowed, if not ordered, the +evacuations of the sick man to be thrown away. He stated that he had +thrown away the morphia and antimony, which he had bought in Paris, +in the closets of the hotel, because, owing to the concatenation of +circumstances, he thought that he would be suspected of murder. In reply +to a question from one of the jury, Castaing said that he had mixed +the acetate of morphia and tartar emetic together before reaching Saint +Cloud, but why he had done so he could not explain. + +The medical evidence at the trial was favourable to the accused. Orfila, +the famous chemist of that day, said that, though the symptoms in +Auguste Ballet's case might be attributed to poisoning by acetate of +morphia or some other vegetable poison, at the same time they could +be equally well attributed to sudden illness of a natural kind. The +liquids, taken from the stomach of Ballet, had yielded on analysis no +trace of poison of any sort. The convulsive symptoms present in Ballet's +case were undoubtedly a characteristic result of a severe dose of +acetate of morphia.(14) Castaing said that he had mixed the acetate of +morphia and tartar emetic together, but in any case no trace of either +poison was found in Auguste's body, and his illness might, from all +appearances, have been occasioned by natural causes. Some attempt was +made by the prosecution to prove that the apoplexy to which Hippolyte +Ballet had finally succumbed, might be attributed to a vegetable poison; +one of the doctors expressed an opinion favourable to that conclusion +"as a man but not as a physician." But the evidence did not go further. + + + (14) It was asserted some years later by one medical authority in +Palmer's case that it might have been morphia and not strychnine that +had caused the tetanic symptoms which preceded Cook's death. + + +To the young priest-like doctor the ordeal of his trial was a severe +one. It lasted eight days. It was only at midday on the sixth day that +the evidence was concluded. Not only was Castaing compelled to submit to +a long interrogatory by the President, but, after each witness had given +his or her evidence, the prisoner was called on to refute or explain any +points unfavourable to him. This he did briefly, with varying success; +as the trial went on, with increasing embarrassment. A great deal of +the evidence given against Castaing was hearsay, and would have been +inadmissible in an English court of justice. Statements made by Auguste +to other persons about Castaing were freely admitted. But more serious +was the evidence of Mlle. Percillie, Auguste's mistress. She swore that +on one occasion in her presence Castaing had reproached Auguste with +ingratitude; he had complained that he had destroyed one copy of +Hippolyte Ballet's will, and for Auguste's sake had procured the +destruction of the other, and that yet, in spite of all this, Auguste +hesitated to entrust him with 100,000 francs. Asked what he had to say +to this statement Castaing denied its truth. He had, he said, only been +in Mlle. Percillie's house once, and then not with Auguste Ballet. Mlle. +Percillie adhered to the truth of her evidence, and the President left +it to the jury to decide between them. + +A Mme. Durand, a patient of Castaing, gave some curious evidence as to +a story told her by the young doctor. He said that a friend of his, +suffering from lung disease, had been persuaded into making a will in +his sister's favour. The sister had offered a bribe of 80,000 francs to +her brother's lawyer to persuade him to make such a will, and paid one +of his clerks 3,000 francs for drawing it up. Castaing, in his friend's +interest, and in order to expose the fraud, invited the clerk to come +and see him. His friend, hidden in an alcove in the room, overheard the +conversation between Castaing and the clerk, and so learnt the details +of his sister's intrigue. He at once destroyed the will and became +reconciled with his brother, whom he had been about to disinherit. After +his death the brother, out of gratitude, had given Castaing 100,000 +francs. + +President: Castaing, did you tell this story to Mme. Durand? + +Castaing: I don't recollect. + +Avocat-General: But Mme. Durand says that you did. + +Castaing: I don't recollect. + +President: You always say that you don't recollect; that is no answer. +Have you, yes or no, made such a statement to Mme. Durand? + +Castaing: I don't recollect; if I had said it, I should recollect it. + +Another lady whom Castaing had attended free of charge swore, with a +good deal of reluctance, that Castaing had told her a somewhat similar +story as accounting for his possession of 100,000 francs. + +Witnesses were called for the defence who spoke to the diligence and +good conduct of Castaing as a medical student; and eighteen, whom he had +treated free of expense, testified to his kindness and generosity. "All +these witnesses," said the President, "speak to your generosity; but, +for that very reason, you must have made little profit out of your +profession, and had little opportunity for saving anything," to which +Castaing replied: "These are not the only patients I attended; I have +not called those who paid me for my services." At the same time Castaing +found it impossible to prove that he had ever made a substantial living +by the exercise of his profession. + +One of the medical witnesses called for the defence, M. Chaussier, had +volunteered the remark that the absence of any trace of poison in the +portions of Auguste Ballet's body submitted to analysis, constituted an +absence of the corpus delicti. To this the President replied that that +was a question of criminal law, and no concern of his. But in his speech +for the prosecution the Avocat-General dealt with the point raised +at some length--a point which, if it had held good as a principle of +English law, would have secured the acquittal of so wicked a poisoner as +Palmer. He quoted from the famous French lawyer d'Aguesseau: "The corpus +delicti is no other thing than the delictum itself; but the proofs of +the delictum are infinitely variable according to the nature of things; +they may be general or special, principal or accessory, direct or +indirect; in a word, they form that general effect (ensemble) which goes +to determine the conviction of an honest man." If such a contention as +M. Chaussier's were correct, said the Avocat-General, then it would +be impossible in a case of poisoning to convict a prisoner after his +victim's death, or, if his victim survived, to convict him of the +attempt to poison. He reminded the jury of that paragraph in the Code +of Criminal Procedure which instructed them as to their duties: "The Law +does not ask you to give the reasons that have convinced you; it +lays down no rules by which you are to decide as to the fullness or +sufficiency of proof... it only asks you one question: 'Have you an +inward conviction?'" "If," he said, "the actual traces of poison are a +material proof of murder by poison, then a new paragraph must be added +to the Criminal Code--'Since, however, vegetable poisons leave no trace, +poisoning by such means may be committed with impunity.'" To poisoners +he would say in future: "Bunglers that you are, don't use arsenic or any +mineral poison; they leave traces; you will be found out. Use vegetable +poisons; poison your fathers, poison your mothers, poison all your +families, and their inheritance will be yours--fear nothing; you will go +unpunished! You have committed murder by poisoning, it is true; but the +corpus delicti will not be there because it can't be there!" This was +a case, he urged, of circumstantial evidence. "We have," he said, "gone +through a large number of facts. Of these there is not one that does not +go directly to the proof of poisoning, and that can only be explained on +the supposition of poisoning; whereas, if the theory of the defence +be admitted, all these facts, from the first to the last, become +meaningless and absurd. They can only be refuted by arguments or +explanations that are childish and ridiculous." + +Castaing was defended by two advocates--Roussel, a schoolfellow of his, +and the famous Berryer, reckoned by some the greatest French orator +since Mirabeau. Both advocates were allowed to address the jury. Roussel +insisted on the importance of the corpus delicti. "The delictum," he +said, "is the effect, the guilty man merely the cause; it is useless to +deal with the cause if the effect is uncertain," and he cited a case +in which a woman had been sent for trial, charged with murdering her +husband; the moral proof of her guilt seemed conclusive, when suddenly +her husband appeared in court alive and well. The advocate made a good +deal of the fact that the remains of the draught prescribed by Dr. +Pigache, a spoonful of which Castaing had given to Auguste Ballet, +had been analysed and showed no trace of poison. Against this the +prosecution set the evidence of the chemist at Saint Cloud, who had made +up the prescription. He said that the same day he had made up a second +prescription similar to that of Dr. Pigache, but not made out for +Auguste Ballet, which contained, in addition to the other ingredients, +acetate of morphia. The original of this prescription he had given to a +friend of Castaing, who had come to his shop and asked him for it a few +days after Ballet's death. It would seem therefore that there had +been two bottles of medicine, one of which containing morphia had +disappeared. + +M. Roussel combatted the suggestion that the family of Castaing were in +a state of indigence. He showed that his father had an income of 10,000 +francs, while his two brothers were holding good positions, one as an +officer in the army, the other as a government official. The mistress +of Castaing he represented as enjoying an income of 5,000 francs. +He protested against the quantity of hearsay evidence that had been +admitted into the case. "In England," he said, "when a witness is +called, he is asked 'What have you seen?' If he can only testify to mere +talk, and hearsay, he is not heard." He quoted the concluding paragraph +of the will of Auguste Ballet as showing his friendly feeling towards +Castaing: "It is only after careful reflection that I have made +this final disposition of my property, in order to mark the sincere +friendship which I have never for one moment ceased to feel for MM. +Castaing, Briant and Leuchere, in order to recognise the faithful +loyalty of my servants, and deprive M. and Mme. Martignon, my +brother-in-law and sister, of all rights to which they might be legally +entitled on my death, fully persuaded in soul and conscience that, in +doing so, I am giving to each their just and proper due." "Is this," +asked M. Roussel, "a document wrested by surprise from a weak man, +extorted by trickery? Is he not acting in the full exercise of his +faculties? He forgets no one, and justifies his conduct." + +When M. Roussel came to the incident of the noisy cats and dogs at Saint +Cloud, he was as ingenious as the circumstances permitted: "A serious +charge engrosses public attention; men's minds are concentrated on +the large, broad aspects of the case; they are in a state of unnatural +excitement. They see only the greatness, the solemnity of the +accusation, and then, suddenly, in the midst of all that is of such +tragic and surpassing interest, comes this trivial fact about cats and +dogs. It makes an unfavourable impression, because it is dramatically +out of keeping with the tragedy of the story. But we are not here to +construct a drama. No, gentlemen, look at it merely as a trivial +incident of ordinary, everyday life, and you will see it in its proper +light." M. Roussel concluded by saying that Castaing's most eloquent +advocate, if he could have been present, would have been Auguste Ballet. +"If Providence had permitted him to enter this court, he would cry out +to you, 'Save my friend's life! His heart is undefiled! He is +innocent!'" + +M. Roussel concluded his speech at ten o'clock on Sunday night, November +16. The next morning Berryer addressed the jury. His speech in defence +of Castaing is not considered one of his most successful efforts. He +gave personal testimony as to the taste of acetate of morphia. He said +that with the help of his own chemist he had put a quarter of a grain +of the acetate into a large spoonful of milk, and had found it so +insupportably bitter to the taste that he could not keep it in his +mouth. If, he contended, Ballet had been poisoned by tartar emetic, then +twelve grains given in milk would have given it an insipid taste, and +vomiting immediately after would have got rid of the poison. Later +investigations have shown that, in cases of antimonial poisoning, +vomiting does not necessarily get rid of all the poison, and the +convulsions in which Auguste Ballet died are symptomatic of poisoning +either by morphia or antimony. In conclusion, Berryer quoted the words +addressed by one of the Kings of France to his judges: "When God has not +vouchsafed clear proof of a crime, it is a sign that He does not wish +that man should determine it, but leaves its judgment to a higher +tribunal." + +The Avocat-General, in reply, made a telling answer to M. Roussel's +attempt to minimise the importance of the cats and dogs: "He has spoken +of the drama of life, and of its ordinary everyday incidents. If there +is drama in this case, it is of Castaing's making. As to the ordinary +incidents of everyday life, a man buys poison, brings it to the bedside +of his sick friend, saying it is for experiments on cats and dogs, the +friend dies, the other, his sole heir, after foretelling his death, +takes possession of his keys, and proceeds to gather up the spoils--are +these ordinary incidents of every-day life?" + +It was nine o'clock at night when the jury retired to consider their +verdict. They returned into court after two hours' deliberation. They +found the prisoner "Not Guilty" of the murder of Hippolyte Ballet, +"Guilty" of destroying his will, and "Guilty" by seven votes to five +of the murder of Auguste Ballet. Asked if he had anything to say before +judgment was given, Castaing, in a very loud voice, said "No; but I +shall know how to die, though I am the victim of ill-fortune, of fatal +circumstance. I shall go to meet my two friends. I am accused of having +treacherously murdered them. There is a Providence above us! If there +is such a thing as an immortal soul, I shall see Hippolyte and Auguste +Ballet again. This is no empty declamation; I don't ask for human pity" +(raising his hands to heaven), "I look to God's mercy, and shall go +joyfully to the scaffold. My conscience is clear. It will not reproach +me even when I feel" (putting his hands to his neck). "Alas! It is +easier to feel what I am feeling than to express what I dare not +express." (In a feeble voice): "You have desired my death; you have it!" +The judges retired to consider the sentence. The candles were guttering, +the light of the lamps was beginning to fade; the aspect of the court +grim and terrible. M. Roussel broke down and burst into tears. Castaing +leant over to his old schoolfellow: "Courage, Roussel," he said; "you +have always believed me innocent, and I am innocent. Embrace for me my +father, my mother, my brothers, my child." He turned to a group of young +advocates standing near: "And you, young people, who have listened to +my trial, attend also my execution; I shall be as firm then as I am now. +All I ask is to die soon. I should be ashamed to plead for mercy." The +judges returned. Castaing was condemned to death, and ordered to pay +100,000 francs damages to the family of Auguste Ballet. + +Castaing was not ashamed to appeal to the Court of Cassation for a +revision of his trial, but on December 4 his appeal was rejected. Two +days later he was executed. He had attempted suicide by means of poison, +which one of his friends had brought to him in prison, concealed inside +a watch. His courage failed him at the last, and he met his death in a +state of collapse. + +It is not often, happily, that a young man of gentle birth and good +education is a double murderer at twenty-six. And such a soft, humble, +insinuating young man too!--good to his mother, good to his mistress, +fond of his children, kind to his patients. + +Yet this gentle creature can deliberately poison his two friends. + +Was ever such a contradictory fellow? + + + + +Professor Webster + + +The best report of Webster's trial is that edited by Bemis. The +following tracts in the British Museum have been consulted by the +writer: "Appendix to the Webster Trial," Boston, 1850: "Thoughts on the +Conviction of Webster"; "The Boston Tragedy," by W. E. Bigelow. + + +It is not often that the gaunt spectre of murder invades the cloistered +calm of academic life. Yet such a strange and unwonted tragedy befell +Harvard University in the year 1849, when John W. Webster, Professor of +Chemistry, took the life of Dr. George Parkman, a distinguished citizen +of Boston. The scene of the crime, the old Medical School, now a Dental +Hospital, is still standing, or was when the present writer visited +Boston in 1907. It is a large and rather dreary red-brick, three-storied +building, situated in the lower part of the city, flanked on its west +side by the mud flats leading down to the Charles River. The first +floor consists of two large rooms, separated from each other by the main +entrance hall, which is approached by a flight of steps leading up +from the street level. Of these two rooms, the left, as you face the +building, is fitted up as a lecture-room. In the year 1849 it was +the lecture-room of Professor Webster. Behind the lecture-room is a +laboratory, known as the upper laboratory, communicating by a private +staircase with the lower laboratory, which occupies the left wing of the +ground floor. A small passage, entered by a door on the left-hand side +of the front of the building, separated this lower laboratory from the +dissecting-room, an out-house built on to the west wall of the college, +but now demolished. From this description it will be seen that any +person, provided with the necessary keys, could enter the college by +the side-door near the dissecting room on the ground floor, and pass +up through the lower and upper laboratory into Professor Webster's +lecture-room without entering any other part of the building. The +Professor of Chemistry, by locking the doors of his lecture-rooms and +the lower laboratory, could, if he wished, make himself perfectly secure +against intrusion, and come and go by the side-door without attracting +much attention. These rooms are little altered at the present time from +their arrangement in 1849. The lecture-room and laboratory are used for +the same purposes to-day; the lower laboratory, a dismal chamber, now +disused and somewhat rearranged, is still recognisable as the scene of +the Professor's chemical experiments. + +On the second floor of the hospital is a museum, once anatomical, now +dental. One of the principal objects of interest in this museum is a +plaster cast of the jaws of Dr. George Parkman, made by a well-known +dentist of Boston, Dr. Keep, in the year 1846. In that year the +new medical college was formally opened. Dr. Parkman, a wealthy and +public-spirited citizen of Boston, had given the piece of land, on which +the college had been erected. He had been invited to be present at the +opening ceremony. In anticipation of being asked to make a speech on +this occasion Dr. Parkman, whose teeth were few and far between, had +himself fitted by Dr. Keep with a complete set of false teeth. Oliver +Wendell Holmes, then Professor of Anatomy at Harvard, who was present at +the opening of the college, noticed how very nice and white the doctor's +teeth appeared to be. It was the discovery of the remains of these same +admirable teeth three years later in the furnace in Professor Webster's +lower laboratory that led to the conviction of Dr. Parkman's murderer. +By a strange coincidence the doctor met his death in the very college +which his generosity had helped to build. Though to-day the state of the +college has declined from the medical to the dental, his memory still +lives within its walls by the cast of his jaws preserved in the dental +museum as a relic of a case, in which the art of dentistry did signal +service to the cause of justice. + +In his lifetime Dr. Parkman was a well-known figure in the streets of +Boston. His peculiar personal appearance and eccentric habits combined +to make him something of a character. As he walked through the streets +he presented a remarkable appearance. He was exceptionally tall, longer +in the body than the legs; his lower jaw protruded some half an inch +beyond the upper; he carried his body bent forward from the small of his +back. He seemed to be always in a hurry; so impetuous was he that, if +his horse did not travel fast enough to please him, he would get off its +back, and, leaving the steed in the middle of the street, hasten on his +way on foot. A just and generous man, he was extremely punctilious in +matters of business, and uncompromising in his resentment of any form +of falsehood or deceit. It was the force of his resentment in such a +case that cost him his life. + +The doctor was unfailingly punctual in taking his meals. Dr. Kingsley, +during the fourteen years he had acted as his agent, had always been +able to make sure of finding him at home at his dinner hour, half-past +two o'clock. But on Friday, November 23, 1849, to his surprise and +that of his family, Dr. Parkman did not come home to dinner; and their +anxiety was increased when the day passed, and there was still no sign +of the doctor's return. Inquiries were made. From these it appeared that +Dr. Parkman had been last seen alive between one and two o'clock on the +Friday afternoon. About half-past one he had visited a grocer's shop +in Bridge Street, made some purchases, and left behind him a paper bag +containing a lettuce, which, he said, he would call for on his way home. +Shortly before two o'clock he was seen by a workman, at a distance of +forty or fifty feet from the Medical College, going in that direction. +From that moment all certain trace of him was lost. His family knew that +he had made an appointment for half-past one that day, but where and +with whom they did not know. As a matter of fact, Professor John +W. Webster had appointed that hour to receive Dr. Parkman in his +lecture-room in the Medical College. + +John W. Webster was at this time Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy +in Harvard University, a Doctor of Medicine and a Member of the American +Academy of Arts and Sciences, the London Geological Society and the St. +Petersburg Mineralogical Society. He was the author of several works +on geology and chemistry, a man now close on sixty years of age. His +countenance was genial, his manner mild and unassuming; he was clean +shaven, wore spectacles, and looked younger than his years. + +Professor Webster was popular with a large circle of friends. To those +who liked him he was a man of pleasing and attractive manners, artistic +in his tastes--he was especially fond of music--not a very profound +or remarkable chemist, but a pleasant social companion. His temper was +hasty and irritable. Spoilt in his boyhood as an only child, he was +self-willed and self-indulgent. His wife and daughters were better liked +than he. By unfriendly criticics{sic} the Professor was thought to be +selfish, fonder of the good things of the table and a good cigar than +was consistent with his duty to his family or the smallness of his +income. His father, a successful apothecary at Boston, had died in 1833, +leaving John, his only son, a fortune of some L10,000. In rather less +than ten years Webster had run through the whole of his inheritance. He +had built himself a costly mansion in Cambridge, spent a large sum +of money in collecting minerals, and delighted to exercise lavish +hospitality. By living consistently beyond his means he found himself +at length entirely dependent on his professional earnings. These were +small. His salary as Professor was fixed at L240 a year;(15) the rest of +his income he derived from the sale of tickets for his lectures at the +Medical College. That income was insufficient to meet his wants. + + + (15) I have given these sums of money in their English equivalents +in order to give the reader an idea of the smallness of the sum which +brought about the tragedy. + + +As early as 1842 he had borrowed L80 from his friend Dr. Parkman. It was +to Parkman's good offices that he owed his appointment as a Professor at +Harvard; they had entered the University as under-graduates in the same +year. Up to 1847 Webster had repaid Parkman twenty pounds of his debt; +but, in that year he found it necessary to raise a further loan of L490, +which was subscribed by a few friends, among them Parkman himself. As +a security for the repayment of this loan, the professor executed a +mortgage on his valuable collection of minerals in favour of Parkman. +In the April of 1848 the Professor's financial difficulties became so +serious that he was threatened with an execution in his house. In this +predicament he went to a Mr. Shaw, Dr. Parkman's brother-in-law, and +begged a loan of L240, offering him as security a bill of sale on the +collection of minerals, which he had already mortgaged to Parkman. Shaw +accepted the security, and lent the money. Shaw would seem to have had +a good deal of sympathy with Webster's embarrassments; he considered the +Professor's income very inadequate to his position, and showed himself +quite ready at a later period to waive his debt altogether. + +Dr. Parkman was a less easy-going creditor. Forbearing and patient as +long as he was dealt with fairly, he was merciless where he thought +he detected trickery or evasion. His forbearance and his patience were +utterly exhausted, his anger and indignation strongly aroused, when he +learnt from Shaw that Webster had given him as security for his debt +a bill of sale on the collection of minerals, already mortgaged to +himself. From the moment of the discovery of this act of dishonesty +on the part of Webster, Parkman pursued his debtor with unrelenting +severity. + +He threatened him with an action at law; he said openly that he was +neither an honourable, honest, nor upright man; he tried to appropriate +to the payment of his debt the fees for lectures which Mr. Pettee, +Webster's agent, collected on the Professor's behalf. He even visited +Webster in his lecture-room and sat glaring at him in the front row +of seats, while the Professor was striving under these somewhat +unfavourable conditions to impart instruction to his pupils--a +proceeding which the Doctor's odd cast of features must have aggravated +in no small degree. + +It was early in November that Parkman adopted these aggressive tactics. +On the 19th of that month Webster and the janitor of the College, +Ephraim Littlefield, were working in the upper laboratory. It was dark; +they had lit candles. Webster was reading a chemical book. As he looked +up from the book he saw Parkman standing in the doorway leading from +the lecture-room. "Dr. Webster, are you ready for me to-night?" asked +Parkman. "No," replied the other, "I am not ready to-night." After a +little further conversation in regard to the mortgage, Parkman departed +with the ominous remark, "Doctor, something must be done to-morrow." + +Unfortunately the Professor was not in a position to do anything. He had +no means sufficient to meet his creditor's demands; and that creditor +was unrelenting. On the 22nd Parkman rode into Cambridge, where Webster +lived, to press him further, but failed to find him. Webster's patience, +none too great at any time, was being sorely tried. To whom could +he turn? What further resource was open to him? There was none. He +determined to see his creditor once more. At 8 o'clock on the morning +of Friday the 23rd, Webster called at Dr. Parkman's house and made the +appointment for their meeting at the Medical College at half-past +one, to which the Doctor had been seen hastening just before his +disappearance. At nine o'clock the same morning Pettee, the agent, had +called on the Professor at the College and paid him by cheque a balance +of L28 due on his lecture tickets, informing him at the same time that, +owing to the trouble with Dr. Parkman, he must decline to receive any +further sums of money on his behalf. Webster replied that Parkman was +a nervous, excitable man, subject to mental aberrations, but he added, +"You will have no further trouble with Dr. Parkman, for I have settled +with him." It is difficult to see how the Professor could have settled, +or proposed to settle, with his creditor on that day. A balance of L28 +at his bank, and the L18 which Mr. Pettee had paid to him that morning, +represented the sum of Professor Webster's fortune on Friday, November +23, 1849. + +Since the afternoon of that day the search for the missing Parkman had +been unremitting. On the Saturday his friends communicated with the +police. On Sunday hand-bills were issued stating the fact of the +Doctor's disappearance, and on Monday, the 26th, a description and +the offer of a considerable reward for the discovery of his body were +circulated both in and out of the city. Two days later a further reward +was offered. But these efforts were fruitless. The only person who gave +any information beyond that afforded by those who had seen the Doctor in +the streets on the morning of his disappearance, was Professor Webster. +About four o'clock on the Sunday afternoon the Professor called at the +house of the Revd. Francis Parkman, the Doctor's brother. They were +intimate friends. Webster had for a time attended Parkman's chapel; and +Mr. Parkman had baptised the Professor's grand-daughter. On this Sunday +afternoon Mr. Parkman could not help remarking Webster's peculiar +manner. With a bare greeting and no expression of condolence with the +family's distress, his visitor entered abruptly and nervously on the +object of his errand. He had called, he said, to tell Mr. Parkman that +he had seen his brother at the Medical College on Friday afternoon, that +he had paid him L90 which he owed him, and that the Doctor had in the +course of their interview taken out a paper and dashed his pen +through it, presumably as an acknowledgment of the liquidation of the +Professor's debt. Having communicated this intelligence to the somewhat +astonished gentleman, Webster left him as abruptly as he had come. + +Another relative of Dr. Parkman, his nephew, Mr. Parkman Blake, in the +course of inquiries as to his uncle's fate, thought it right to see +Webster. Accordingly he went to the college on Monday, the 26th, about +eleven o'clock in the morning. Though not one of his lecture days, the +janitor Littlefield informed him that the Professor was in his room. The +door of the lecture-room, however, was found to be locked, and it was +only after considerable delay that Mr. Blake gained admittance. As he +descended the steps to the floor of the lecture-room Webster, dressed in +a working suit of blue overalls and wearing on his head a smoking cap, +came in from the back door. Instead of advancing to greet his visitor, +he stood fixed to the spot, and waited, as if defensively, for Mr. +Blake to speak. In answer to Mr. Blake's questions Webster described +his interview with Dr. Parkman on the Friday afternoon. He gave a +very similar account of it to that he had already given to Mr. Francis +Parkman. He added that at the end of their interview he had asked the +Doctor for the return of the mortgage, to which the latter had replied, +"I haven't it with me, but I will see it is properly cancelled." Mr. +Blake asked Webster if he could recollect in what form of money it +was that he had paid Dr. Parkman. Webster answered that he could only +recollect a bill of L20 on the New Zealand Bank: pressed on this point, +he seemed to rather avoid any further inquiries. Mr. Blake left him, +dissatisfied with the result of his visit. + +One particular in Webster's statement was unquestionably strange, if +not incredible. He had, he said, paid Parkman a sum of L90, which he +had given him personally, and represented the Doctor as having at their +interview promised to cancel the mortgage on the collection of minerals +which Webster had given as security for the loan of L490 that had been +subscribed by Parkman and four of his friends. Now L120 of this loan +was still owing. If Webster's statement were true, Parkman had a perfect +right to cancel Webster's personal debt to himself; but he had no right +to cancel entirely the mortgage on the minerals, so long as money due to +others on that mortgage was yet unpaid. Was it conceivable that one so +strict and scrupulous in all monetary transactions as Parkman would have +settled his own personal claim, and then sacrificed in so discreditable +a manner the claims of others, for the satisfaction of which he had made +himself responsible? + +There was yet another singular circumstance. On Saturday, the 24th, the +day after his settlement with Parkman, Webster paid into his own account +at the Charles River Bank the cheque for L18, lecture fees, handed +over to him by the agent Pettee just before Dr. Parkman's visit on the +Friday. This sum had not apparently gone towards the making up of the +L90, which Webster said that he had paid to Parkman that day. The +means by which Webster had been enabled to settle this debt became more +mysterious than ever. + +On Tuesday, November 27, the Professor received three other visitors in +his lecture-room. These were police officers who, in the course of +their search for the missing man, felt it their duty to examine, however +perfunctorily, the Medical College. With apologies to the Professor, +they passed through his lecture room to the laboratory at the back, +and from thence, down the private stairs, past a privy, into the lower +laboratory. As they passed the privy one of the officers asked what +place it was. "Dr. Webster's private lavatory," replied the janitor, who +was conducting them. At that moment Webster's voice called them away +to examine the store-room in the lower laboratory, and after a cursory +examination the officers departed. + +The janitor, Ephraim Littlefield, did not take the opportunity afforded +him by the visit of the police officers to impart to them the feelings +of uneasiness; which the conduct of Professor Webster during the last +three days had excited in his breast. There were circumstances in the +Professor's behaviour which could not fail to attract the attention of +a man, whose business throughout the day was to dust and sweep +the College, light the fires and overlook generally the order and +cleanliness of the building. + +Littlefield, it will be remembered, had seen Dr. Parkman on the Monday +before his disappearance, when he visited Webster at the College, and +been present at the interview, in the course of which the Doctor told +Webster that "something must be done." That Monday morning Webster asked +Littlefield a number of questions about the dissecting-room vault, which +was situated just outside the door of the lower laboratory. He asked +how it was built, whether a light could be put into it, and how it was +reached for the purpose of repair. On the following Thursday, the day +before Parkman's disappearance, the Professor told Littlefield to get +him a pint of blood from the Massachusetts Hospital; he said that +he wanted it for an experiment. On the morning of Friday, the day of +Parkman's disappearance, Littlefield informed the Professor that he had +been unsuccessful in his efforts to get the blood, as they had not been +bleeding anyone lately at the hospital. The same morning Littlefield +found to his surprise a sledge-hammer behind the door of the Professor's +back room; he presumed that it had been left there by masons, and took +it down to the lower laboratory. This sledge-hammer Littlefield never +saw again. About a quarter to two that afternoon Littlefield, standing +at the front door, after his dinner, saw Dr. Parkman coming towards +the College. At two o'clock Littlefield went up to Dr. Oliver Wendell +Holmes' room, immediately above Professor Webster's, to help the Doctor +to clear his table after his lecture, which was the last delivered that +day. About a quarter of an hour later he let Dr. Holmes out, locked the +front door and began to clear out the stoves in the other lecture-rooms. +When he reached Webster's he was surprised to find that both doors, that +of the lecture room and that of the lower laboratory, were either locked +or bolted. He could hear nothing but the running of water in one of the +sinks. About half-past five Littlefield saw the Professor coming down +the back stairs with a lighted candle in his hand. Webster blew out the +candle and left the building. Late that night Littlefield again tried +the Professor's doors; they were still fastened. The janitor was +surprised at this, as he had never known such a thing to happen before. + +On Saturday, the 24th, though not lecturing that day, the Professor came +to the College in the morning. He told Littlefield to light the stove +in the lower laboratory. When Littlefield made to pass from the +lecture-room into the Professor's private room at the back, and so down +by the private stairs to the lower laboratory, the Professor stopped him +and told him to go round by the door in front of the building. The whole +of that day and Sunday, the Professor's doors remained fast. On Sunday +evening at sunset Littlefield, who was talking with a friend in North +Grove Street, the street that faces the College, was accosted by +Webster. The Professor asked him if he recollected Parkman's visit +to the College on Friday, the 23rd, and, on his replying in the +affirmative, the Professor described to him their interview and the +repayment of his debt. Littlefield was struck during their conversation +by the uneasiness of the Professor's bearing; contrary to his habit he +seemed unable to look him in the face, his manner was confused, his face +pale. + +During the whole of Monday, except for a visit from Mr. Parkman Blake, +Professor Webster was again locked alone in his laboratory. Neither +that night, nor early Tuesday morning, could Littlefield get into +the Professor's rooms to perform his customary duties. On Tuesday the +Professor lectured at twelve o'clock, and later received the visit of +the police officers that has been described already. At four o'clock +that afternoon, the Professor's bell rang. Littlefield answered it. +The Professor asked the janitor whether he had bought his turkey for +Thanksgiving Day, which was on the following Thursday. Littlefield said +that he had not done so yet. Webster then handed him an order on his +provision dealer. "Take that," he said, "and get a nice turkey; perhaps +I shall want you to do some odd jobs for me." Littlefield thanked him, +and said that he would be glad to do anything for him that he could. The +janitor was the more surprised at Webster's generosity on this occasion, +as this turkey was the first present he had received at the Professor's +hands during the seven years he had worked in the College. Littlefield +saw the Professor again about half-past six that evening as the latter +was leaving the College. The janitor asked him if he wanted any more +fires lighted in his rooms, because owing to the holidays there were +to be no further lectures that week. Webster said that he did not, and +asked Littlefield whether he were a freemason. The janitor said "Yes," +and with that they parted. + +Littlefield was curious. The mysterious activity of the Professor of +Chemistry seemed to him more than unusual. His perplexity was increased +on the following day. Though on account of the holidays all work had +been suspended at the College for the remainder of the week, Webster was +again busy in his room early Wednesday morning. Littlefield could hear +him moving about. In vain did the janitor look through the keyhole, bore +a hole in the door, peep under it; all he could get was a sight of the +Professor's feet moving about the laboratory. Perplexity gave way to +apprehension when in the course of the afternoon Littlefield discovered +that the outer wall of the lower laboratory was so hot that he could +hardly bear to place his hand on it. On the outer side of this wall was +a furnace sometimes used by the Professor in his chemical experiments. +How came it to be so heated? The Professor had told Littlefield on +Tuesday that he should not be requiring any fires during the remainder +of the week. + +The janitor determined to resolve his suspicions. He climbed up to the +back windows of the lower laboratory, found one of them unfastened, and +let himself in. But, beyond evidences of the considerable fires that had +been kept burning during the last few days, Littlefield saw nothing +to excite peculiar attention. Still he was uneasy. Those he met in +the street kept on telling him that Dr. Parkman would be found in the +Medical College. He felt that he himself was beginning to be suspected +of having some share in the mystery, whilst in his own mind he became +more certain every day that the real solution lay within the walls +of Professor Webster's laboratory. His attention had fixed itself +particularly on the lavatory at the foot of the stairs connecting the +upper and lower laboratories. This room he found to be locked and the +key, a large one, had disappeared. He recollected that when the police +officers had paid their visit to the college, the Professor had +diverted their attention as they were about to inspect this room. The +only method by which, unknown to the Professor and without breaking open +the door, Littlefield could examine the vault of this retiring room was +by going down to the basement floor of the college and digging a hole +through the wall into the vault itself. This he determined to do. + +On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, Littlefield commenced operations with +a hatchet and a chisel. Progress was slow, as that evening he had been +invited to attend a festal gathering. On Friday the janitor, before +resuming work, acquainted two of the Professors of the college with +his proposed investigation, and received their sanction. As Webster, +however, was going constantly in and out of his rooms, he could make +little further progress that day. The Professor had come into town early +in the morning. + +Before going to the college he purchased some fish-hooks and gave orders +for the making of a strong tin box with firm handles, a foot and a half +square and a little more than a foot in depth; during the rest of the +day he had been busy in his rooms until he left the college about four +o'clock. Not till then was the watchful janitor able to resume his +labours. Armed with a crowbar, he worked vigorously until he succeeded +in penetrating the wall sufficiently to admit a light into the vault of +the lavatory. The first objects which the light revealed to his eyes, +were the pelvis of a man and two parts of a human leg. + +Leaving his wife in charge of the remains, Littlefield went immediately +to the house of Professor Bigelow, and informed him of the result of +his search. They returned to the college some twenty minutes later, +accompanied by the City Marshal. The human remains--a pelvis, a thigh +and a leg--were taken out of the vault, and on a further search some +pieces of bone were removed from one of the furnaces in the lower +laboratory. The City Marshal at once dispatched three of his officers to +Cambridge, to the house of Professor Webster. + +To his immediate circle of friends and relations the conduct of +the Professor during this eventful week had betrayed no unwonted +discomposure or disturbance of mind. His evenings had been spent either +at the house of friends, or at his own, playing whist, or reading +Milton's "Allegro" and "Penseroso" to his wife and daughters. On Friday +evening, about eight o'clock, as the Professor was saying good-bye to a +friend on the steps of his house at Cambridge, the three police officers +drove up to the door and asked him to accompany them to the Medical +College. It was proposed, they said, to make a further search there that +evening, and his presence was considered advisable. Webster assented +immediately, put on his boots, his hat and coat, and got into the hired +coach. As they drove towards the city, Webster spoke to the officers +of Parkman's disappearance, and suggested that they should stop at the +house of a lady who, he said, could give them some peculiar information +on that subject. As they entered Boston, he remarked that they were +taking the wrong direction for reaching the college. One of the officers +replied that the driver might be "green," but that he would find his +way to the college in time. At length the coach stopped. One of the +officers alighted, and invited his companions to follow him into the +office of the Leverett Street Jail. They obeyed. The Professor asked +what it all meant; he was informed that he must consider himself +in custody, charged with the murder of Dr. George Parkman. Webster, +somewhat taken aback, desired that word should be sent to his family, +but was dissuaded from his purpose for the time being. He was searched, +and among other articles taken from him was a key some four or five +inches long; it was the missing lavatory key. Whilst one of the officers +withdrew to make out a mittimus, the Professor asked one of the others +if they had found Dr. Parkman. The officer begged him not to question +him. "You might tell me something about it," pleaded Webster. "Where did +they find him? Did they find the whole body? Oh, my children! What will +they do? What will they think of me? Where did you get the information?" +The officers asked him if anybody had access to his apartments but +himself. "Nobody," he replied, "but the porter who makes the fire." +Then, after a pause, he exclaimed: "That villain! I am a ruined man." +He was walking up and down wringing his hands, when one of the officers +saw him put one hand into his waistcoat pocket, and raise it to his +lips. A few moments later the unhappy man was seized with violent +spasms. He was unable to stand, and was laid down in one of the cells. +From this distressing state he was roused shortly before eleven, to be +taken to the college. He was quite incapable of walking, and had to be +supported by two of the officers. He was present there while his rooms +were searched; but his state was painful in the extreme. He asked for +water, but trembled so convulsively that he could only snap at the +tumbler like a dog; his limbs were rigid; tears and sweat poured down +his cheeks. On the way back to the jail, one of the officers, moved +by his condition, expressed his pity for him. "Do you pity me? Are you +sorry for me? What for?" asked Webster. "To see you so excited," replied +the officer. "Oh! that's it," said the Professor. + +The whole night through the prisoner lay without moving, and not until +the following afternoon were his limbs relaxed sufficiently to allow of +his sitting up. As his condition improved, he grew more confident. "That +is no more Dr. Parkman's body," he said, "than mine. How in the world +it came there I don't know," and he added: "I never liked the looks of +Littlefield the janitor; I opposed his coming there all I could." + +In the meantime a further examination of the Professor's rooms on +Saturday had resulted in the discovery, in a tea-chest in the lower +laboratory, of a thorax, the left thigh of a leg, and a hunting knife +embedded in tan and covered over with minerals; some portions of bone +and teeth were found mixed with the slag and cinders of one of the +furnaces; also some fish-hooks and a quantity of twine, the latter +identical with a piece of twine that had been tied round the thigh found +in the chest. + +Two days later the Professor furnished unwittingly some additional +evidence against himself. On the Monday evening after his arrest he +wrote from prison to one of his daughters the following letter: + + +"MY DEAREST MARIANNE,--I wrote Mama yesterday; I had a good sleep last +night, and dreamt of you all. I got my clothes off, for the first time, +and awoke in the morning quite hungry. It was a long time before my +first breakfast from Parker's came; and it was relished, I can assure +you. At one o'clock I was notified that I must appear at the court room. +All was arranged with great regard to my comfort, and went off better +than I had anticipated. + +"On my return I had a bit of turkey and rice from Parker's. They send +much more than I can eat, and I have directed the steward to distribute +the surplus to any poor ones here. + +"If you will send me a small canister of tea, I can make my own. A +little pepper I may want some day. I would send the dirty clothes, but +they were taken to dry. Tell Mama NOT TO OPEN the little bundle I gave +her the other day, but to keep it just as she received it. With many +kisses to you all. Good night!--From your affectionate + +"FATHER." + +"P.S.--My tongue troubles me yet very much, and I must have bitten it +in my distress the other night; it is painful and swollen, affecting my +speech. Had Mama better send for Nancy? I think so; or Aunt Amelia." + +"Couple of coloured neck handkerchiefs, one Madras." + + +This letter, which shows an anxiety about his personal comfort singular +in one so tragically situated, passed through the hands of the keeper +of the jail. He was struck by the words underlined, "NOT TO OPEN," +in regard to the small bundle confided to Mrs. Webster. He called the +attention of the police to this phrase. They sent immediately an officer +armed with a search warrant to the Professor's house. He received from +Mrs. Webster among other papers a package which, on being opened, +was found to contain the two notes given by Webster to Parkman as +acknowledgments of his indebtedness to him in 1842 and 1847, and a paper +showing the amount of his debts to Parkman in 1847. There were daubs and +erasures made across these documents, and across one was written twice +over the word "paid." All these evidences of payments and cancellations +appeared on examination to be in the handwriting of the Professor. + +After an inquest lasting nine days the coroner's jury declared the +remains found in the college to be those of Dr. George Parkman, and that +the deceased had met his death at the hands of Professor J. W. Webster. +The prisoner waived his right to a magisterial investigation, and on +January 26, 1850, the Grand Jury returned a true bill. But it was not +until March 17 that the Professor's trial opened before the Supreme +Court of Massachusetts. The proceedings were conducted with that +dignity and propriety which we look for in the courts of that State. +The principal features in the defence were an attempt to impugn the +testimony of the janitor Littlefield, and to question the possibility +of the identification of the remains of Parkman's teeth. There was a +further attempt to prove that the deceased had been seen by a number +of persons in the streets of Boston on the Friday afternoon, after his +visit to the Medical College. The witness Littlefield was unshaken by a +severe cross-examination. The very reluctance with which Dr. Keep +gave his fatal evidence, and the support given to his conclusions +by distinguished testimony told strongly in favour of the absolute +trustworthiness of his statements. The evidence called to prove that +the murdered man had been seen alive late on Friday afternoon was highly +inconclusive. + +Contrary to the advice of his counsel, Webster addressed the jury +himself. He complained of the conduct of his case, and enumerated +various points that his counsel had omitted to make, which he conceived +to be in his favour. The value of his statements may be judged by the +fact that he called God to witness that he had not written any one of +the anonymous letters, purporting to give a true account of the doctor's +fate, which had been received by the police at the time of Parkman's +disappearance. After his condemnation Webster confessed to the +authorship of at least one of them. + +The jury retired at eight o'clock on the eleventh day of the trial. They +would seem to have approached their duty in a most solemn and devout +spirit, and it was with the greatest reluctance and after some searching +of heart that they brought themselves to find the prisoner guilty of +wilful murder. On hearing their verdict, the Professor sank into a seat, +and, dropping his head, rubbed his eyes behind his spectacles as if +wiping away tears. On the following morning the Chief Justice sentenced +him to death after a well-meaning speech of quite unnecessary length and +elaboration, at the conclusion of which the condemned man wept freely. + +A petition for a writ of error having been dismissed, the Professor in +July addressed a petition for clemency to the Council of the State. Dr. +Putnam, who had been attending Webster in the jail, read to the Council +a confession which he had persuaded the prisoner to make. According to +this statement Webster had, on the Friday afternoon, struck Parkman on +the head with a heavy wooden stick in a wild moment of rage, induced by +the violent taunts and threats of his creditor. Appalled by his deed, +he had in panic locked himself in his room, and proceeded with desperate +haste to dismember the body; he had placed it for that purpose in the +sink in his back room, through which was running a constant stream of +water that carried away the blood. Some portions of the body he had +burnt in the furnace; those in the lavatory and the tea-chest he had +concealed there, until he should have had an opportunity of getting rid +of them. + +In this statement Professor Webster denied all premeditation. Dr. Putnam +asked him solemnly whether he had not, immediately before the crime, +meditated at any time on the advantages that would accrue to him +from Parkman's death. Webster replied "Never, before God!" He had, he +protested, no idea of doing Parkman an injury until the bitter tongue +of the latter provoked him. "I am irritable and violent," he said, "a +quickness and brief violence of temper has been the besetting sin of my +life. I was an only child, much indulged, and I have never secured the +control over my passions that I ought to have acquired early; and the +consequence is--all this!" He denied having told Parkman that he was +going to settle with him that afternoon, and said that he had asked him +to come to the college with the sole object of pleading with him for +further indulgence. He explained his convulsive seizure at the time +of his arrest by his having taken a dose of strychnine, which he had +carried in his pocket since the crime. In spite of these statements and +the prayers of the unfortunate man's wife and daughters, who, until his +confession to Dr. Putnam, had believed implicity in his innocence, the +Council decided that the law must take its course, and fixed August 30 +as the day of execution. + +The Professor resigned himself to his fate. He sent for Littlefield and +his wife, and expressed his regret for any injustice he had done them: +"All you said was true. You have misrepresented nothing." Asked by the +sheriff whether he was to understand from some of his expressions that +he contemplated an attempt at suicide, "Why should I?" he replied, +"all the proceedings in my case have been just... and it is just that +I should die upon the scaffold in accordance with that sentence." +"Everybody is right," he said to the keeper of the jail, "and I am +wrong. And I feel that, if the yielding up of my life to the injured +law will atone, even in part, for the crime I have committed, that is a +consolation." + +In a letter to the Reverend Francis Parkman he expressed deep contrition +for his guilt. He added one sentence which may perhaps fairly express +the measure of premeditation that accompanied his crime. "I had never," +he wrote, "until the two or three last interviews with your brother, +felt towards him anything but gratitude for his many acts of kindness +and friendship." + +Professor Webster met his death with fortitude and resignation. That he +deserved his fate few will be inclined to deny. The attempt to procure +blood, the questions about the dissecting-room vault, the appointment +made with Parkman at the college, the statement to Pettee, all point to +some degree of premeditation, or at least would make it appear that the +murder of Parkman had been considered by him as a possible eventuality. +His accusation of Littlefield deprives him of a good deal of sympathy. +On the other hand, the age and position of Webster, the aggravating +persistency of Parkman, his threats and denunciations, coupled with his +own shortness of temper, make it conceivable that he may have killed his +victim on a sudden and overmastering provocation, in which case he had +better at once have acknowledged his crime instead of making a repulsive +attempt to conceal it. But for the evidence of Dr. Keep he would +possibly have escaped punishment altogether. Save for the portions +of his false teeth, there was not sufficient evidence to identify the +remains found in the college as those of Parkman. Without these teeth +the proof of the corpus delicti would have been incomplete, and so +afforded Webster a fair chance of acquittal. + + + + +The Mysterious Mr. Holmes + + +"The Holmes-Pitezel Case," by F. B. Geyer, 1896; "Holmes' Own Story," +Philadelphia, 1895; and "Celebrated Criminal Cases of America," by T. S. +Duke, San Francisco, are the authorities for this account of the case. + + + +I + +HONOUR AMONGST THIEVES + +In the year 1894 Mr. Smith, a carpenter, of Philadelphia, had patented a +new saw-set. Wishing to make some money out of his invention, Mr. Smith +was attracted by the sign: + +B. F. PERRY + +PATENTS BOUGHT AND SOLD + +which he saw stretched across the window of a two-storied house, 1,316 +Callowhill Street. He entered the house and made the acquaintance of Mr. +Perry, a tall, dark, bony man, to whom he explained the merits of his +invention. Perry listened with interest, and asked for a model. In the +meantime he suggested that Smith should do some carpenter's work for him +in the house. Smith agreed, and on August 22, while at work there saw a +man enter the house and go up with Perry to a room on the second story. + +A few days later Smith called at Callowhill Street to ask Perry about +the sale of the patent. He waited half an hour in the shop below, called +out to Perry who, he thought, might be in the rooms above, received no +answer and went away. Next day, September 4, Smith returned, found the +place just as he had left it the day before; called Perry again, but +again got no answer. Surprised, he went upstairs, and in the back room +of the second story the morning sunshine, streaming through the window, +showed him the dead body of a man, his face charred beyond recognition, +lying with his feet to the window and his head to the door. There was +evidence of some sort of explosion: a broken bottle that had contained +an inflammable substance, a broken pipe filled with tobacco, and a burnt +match lay by the side of the body. + +The general appearance of the dead man answered to that of B. F. Perry. +A medical examination of the body showed that death had been sudden, +that there had been paralysis of the involuntary muscles, and that the +stomach, besides showing symptoms of alcoholic irritation, emitted a +strong odour of chloroform. An inquest was held, and a verdict returned +that B. F. Perry had died of congestion of the lungs caused by the +inhalation of flame or chloroform. After lying in the mortuary for +eleven days the body was buried. + +In the meantime the Philadelphia branch of the Fidelity Mutual Life +Association had received a letter from one Jephtha D. Howe, an attorney +at St. Louis, stating that the deceased B. F. Perry was Benjamin F. +Pitezel of that city, who had been insured in their office for a sum of +ten thousand dollars. The insurance had been effected in Chicago in the +November of 1893. Mr. Howe proposed to come to Philadelphia with some +members of the Pitezel family to identify the remains. Referring to +their Chicago branch, the insurance company found that the only person +who would seem to have known Pitezel when in that city, was a certain +H. H. Holmes, living at Wilmette, Illinois. They got into communication +with Mr. Holmes, and forwarded to him a cutting from a newspaper, which +stated erroneously that the death of B. F. Perry had taken place in +Chicago. + +On September 18 they received a letter from Mr. Holmes, in which he +offered what assistance he could toward the identification of B. F. +Perry as B. F. Pitezel. He gave the name of a dentist in Chicago who +would be able to recognise teeth which he had made for Pitezel, and +himself furnished a description of the man, especially of a malformation +of the knee and a warty growth on the back of the neck by which he could +be further identified. Mr. Holmes offered, if his expenses were paid, to +come to Chicago to view the body. Two days later he wrote again saying +that he had seen by other papers that Perry's death had taken place in +Philadelphia and not in Chicago, and that as he had to be in Baltimore +in a day or two, he would run over to Philadelphia and visit the office +of the Fidelity Life Association. + +On September 20 the assiduous Mr. Holmes called at the office of the +Association in Philadelphia, inquired anxiously about the nature and +cause of Perry's death, gave again a description of him and, on learning +that Mr. Howe, the attorney from St. Louis, was about to come to +Philadelphia to represent the widow, Mrs. Pitezel, and complete the +identification, said that he would return to give the company any +further help he could in the matter. The following day Mr. Jephtha D. +Howe, attorney of St. Louis, arrived in Philadelphia, accompanied by +Alice Pitezel, a daughter of the deceased. Howe explained that Pitezel +had taken the name of Perry owing to financial difficulties. The company +said that they accepted the fact that Perry and Pitezel were one and the +same man, but were not convinced that the body was Pitezel's body. +The visit of Holmes was mentioned. Howe said that he did not know Mr. +Holmes, but would be willing to meet him. At this moment Holmes arrived +at the office. He was introduced to Howe as a stranger, and recognised +as a friend by Alice Pitezel, a shy, awkward girl of fourteen or fifteen +years of age. It was then arranged that all the parties should meet +again next day to identify, if possible, the body, which had been +disinterred for that purpose. + +The unpleasant duty of identifying the rapidly decomposing remains was +greatly curtailed by the readiness of Mr. Holmes. When the party met on +the 22nd at the Potter's Field, where the body had been disinterred and +laid out, the doctor present was unable to find the distinctive marks +which would show Perry and Pitezel to have been the same man. Holmes at +once stepped into the breach, took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, +put on the rubber gloves, and taking a surgeon's knife from his pocket, +cut off the wart at the back of the neck, showed the injury to the +leg, and revealed also a bruised thumbnail which had been another +distinctive mark of Pitezel. The body was then covered up all but +the teeth; the girl Alice was brought in, and she said that the teeth +appeared to be like those of her father. The insurance company declared +themselves satisfied, and handed to Mr. Howe a cheque for 9,175 dollars, +and to Mr. Holmes ten dollars for his expenses. Smith, the carpenter, +had been present at the proceedings at the Potter's Field. For a moment +he thought he detected a likeness in Mr. Holmes to the man who had +visited Perry at Callowhill Street on August 22 and gone upstairs with +him, but he did not feel sure enough of the fact to make any mention of +it. + +In the prison at St. Louis there languished in the year 1894 one Marion +Hedgspeth, serving a sentence of twenty years' imprisonment for +an audacious train robbery. On the night of November 30, 1891, the +'Friscow express from St. Louis had been boarded by four ruffians, the +express car blown open with dynamite, and 10,000 dollars carried off. +Hedgspeth and another man were tried for the robbery, and sentenced to +twenty years' imprisonment. On October 9, 1894, Hegspeth{sic} made a +statement to the Governor of the St. Louis prison, which he said he +wished to be communicated to the Fidelity Mutual Life Association. In +the previous July Hedgspeth said that he had met in the prison a man +of the name of H. M. Howard, who was charged with fraud, but had +been released on bail later in the month. While in prison Howard told +Hedgspeth that he had devised a scheme for swindling an insurance +company of 10,000 dollars, and promised Hedgspeth that, if he would +recommend him a lawyer suitable for such an enterprise, he should have +500 dollars as his share of the proceeds. Hedgspeth recommended Jephtha +D. Howe. The latter entered with enthusiasm into the scheme, and told +Hedgspeth that he thought Mr. Howard "one of the smoothest and slickest" +men he had ever known. A corpse was to be found answering to Pitezel's +description, and to be so treated as to appear to have been the victim +of an accidental explosion, while Pitezel himself would disappear to +Germany. From Howe Hedgspeth learnt that the swindle had been carried +out successfully, but he had never received from Howard the 500 dollars +promised him. Consequently, he had but little compunction in divulging +the plot to the authorities. + +It was realised at once that H. M. Howard and H. H. Holmes were the same +person, and that Jephtha D. Howe and Mr. Holmes were not the +strangers to each other that they had affected to be when they met +in Philadelphia. Though somewhat doubtful of the truth of Hedgspeth's +statement, the insurance company decided to set Pinkerton's detectives +on the track of Mr. H. H. Holmes. After more than a month's search he +was traced to his father's house at Gilmanton, N. H., and arrested in +Boston on November 17. + +Inquiry showed that, early in 1894, Holmes and Pitezel had acquired some +real property at Fort Worth in Texas and commenced building operations, +but had soon after left Texas under a cloud, arising from the theft of a +horse and other dubious transactions. + +Holmes had obtained the property at Fort Worth from a Miss Minnie +Williams, and transferred it to Pitezel. Pitezel was a drunken "crook," +of mean intelligence, a mesmeric subject entirely under the influence of +Holmes, who claimed to have considerable hypnotic powers. Pitezel had a +wife living at St. Louis and five children, three girls--Dessie, Alice, +and Nellie--a boy, Howard, and a baby in arms. At the time of Holmes' +arrest Mrs. Pitezel, with her eldest daughter, Dessie, and her little +baby, was living at a house rented by Holmes at Burlington, Vermont. She +also was arrested on a charge of complicity in the insurance fraud and +brought to Boston. + +Two days after his arrest Holmes, who dreaded being sent back to Texas +on a charge of horse-stealing, for which in that State the punishment is +apt to be rough and ready, made a statement to the police, in which he +acknowledged the fraud practised by him and Pitezel on the insurance +company. The body substituted for Pitezel had been obtained, said +Holmes, from a doctor in New York, packed in a trunk and sent to +Philadelphia, but he declined for the present to give the doctor's name. +Pitezel, he said, had gone with three of his children--Alice, Nellie +and Howard--to South America. This fact, however, Holmes had not +communicated to Mrs. Pitezel. When she arrived at Boston, the poor woman +was in great distress of mind. Questioned by the officers, she attempted +to deny any complicity in the fraud, but her real anxiety was to get +news of her husband and her three children. Alice she had not seen since +the girl had gone to Philadelphia to identify the supposed remains of +her father. Shortly after this Holmes had come to Mrs. Pitezel at St. +Louis, and taken away Nellie and Howard to join Alice, who, he said, +was in the care of a widow lady at Ovington, Kentucky. Since then Mrs. +Pitezel had seen nothing of the children or her husband. At Holmes' +direction she had gone to Detroit, Toronto, Ogdensberg and, lastly, to +Burlington in the hope of meeting either Pitezel or the children, but +in vain. She believed that her husband had deserted her; her only desire +was to recover her children. + +On November 20 Holmes and Mrs. Pitezel were transferred from Boston +to Philadelphia, and there, along with Benjamin Pitezel and Jephtha +D. Howe, were charged with defrauding the Fidelity Life Association of +10,000 dollars. Soon after his arrival in Philadelphia Holmes, who was +never averse to talking, was asked by an inspector of the insurance +company who it was that had helped him to double up the body sent from +New York and pack it into the trunk. He replied that he had done it +alone, having learned the trick when studying medicine in Michigan. The +inspector recollected that the body when removed from Callowhill Street +had been straight and rigid. He asked Holmes what trick he had learnt in +the course of his medical studies by which it was possible to re-stiffen +a body once the rigor mortis had been broken. To this Holmes made no +reply. But he realised his mistake, and a few weeks later volunteered +a second statement. He now said that Pitezel, in a fit of depression, +aggravated by his drinking habits, had committed suicide on the third +story of the house in Callowhill Street. There Holmes had found his +body, carried it down on to the floor below, and arranged it in the +manner agreed upon for deceiving the insurance company. Pitezel, he +said, had taken his life by lying on the floor and allowing chloroform +to run slowly into his mouth through a rubber tube placed on a chair. +The three children, Holmes now stated, had gone to England with a friend +of his, Miss Minnie Williams. + +Miss Minnie Williams was the lady, from whom Holmes was said to have +acquired the property in Texas which he and Pitezel had set about +developing. There was quite a tragedy, according to Holmes, connected +with the life of Miss Williams. She had come to Holmes in 1893, as +secretary, at a drug store which he was then keeping in Chicago. Their +relations had become more intimate, and later in the year Miss Williams +wrote to her sister, Nannie, saying that she was going to be married, +and inviting her to the wedding. Nannie arrived, but unfortunately a +violent quarrel broke out between the two sisters, and Holmes came home +to find that Minnie in her rage had killed her sister. He had helped +her out of the trouble by dropping Nannie's body into the Chicago lake. +After such a distressing occurrence Miss Williams was only too glad of +the opportunity of leaving America with the Pitezel children. In the +meantime Holmes, under the name of Bond, and Pitezel, under that of +Lyman, had proceeded to deal with Miss Williams' property in Texas. + +For women Holmes would always appear to have possessed some power of +attraction, a power of which he availed himself generously. Holmes, +whose real name was Herman W. Mudgett, was thirty-four years of age +at the time of his arrest. As a boy he had spent his life farming in +Vermont, after which he had taken up medicine and acquired some kind +of medical degree. In the course of his training Holmes and a fellow +student, finding a body that bore a striking resemblance to the latter; +obtained 1,000 dollars from an insurance company by a fraud similar +to that in which Holmes had engaged subsequently with Pitezel. After +spending some time on the staff of a lunatic asylum in Pennsylvania, +Holmes set up as a druggist in Chicago. His affairs in this city +prospered, and he was enabled to erect, at the corner of Wallace and +Sixty-Third Streets, the four-storied building known later as "Holmes +Castle." It was a singular structure. The lower part consisted of a shop +and offices. Holmes occupied the second floor, and had a laboratory on +the third. In his office was a vault, air proof and sound proof. In the +bathroom a trap-door, covered by a rug, opened on to a secret staircase +leading down to the cellar, and a similar staircase connected the cellar +with the laboratory. In the cellar was a large grate. To this building +Miss Minnie Williams had invited her sister to come for her wedding +with Holmes, and it was in this building, according to Holmes, that the +tragedy of Nannie's untimely death occurred. + +In hoping to become Holmes' wife, Miss Minnie Williams was not to enjoy +an exclusive privilege. At the time of his arrest Holmes had three +wives, each ignorant of the others' existence. He had married the first +in 1878, under the name of Mudgett, and was visiting her at Burlington, +Vermont, when the Pinkerton detectives first got on his track. The +second he had married at Chicago, under the name of Howard, and the +third at Denver as recently as January, 1894, under the name of Holmes. +The third Mrs. Holmes had been with him when he came to Philadelphia to +identify Pitezel's body. The appearance of Holmes was commonplace, but +he was a man of plausible and ingratiating address, apparent candour, +and able in case of necessity to "let loose," as he phrased it, "the +fount of emotion." + +The year 1895 opened to find the much enduring Holmes still a prisoner +in Philadelphia. The authorities seemed in no haste to indict him for +fraud; their interest was concentrated rather in endeavouring to find +the whereabouts of Miss Williams and her children, and of one Edward +Hatch, whom Holmes had described as helping him in arranging for +their departure. The "great humiliation" of being a prisoner was very +distressing to Holmes. + + "I only know the sky has lost its blue, + The days are weary and the night is drear." + +These struck him as two beautiful lines very appropriate to his +situation. He made a New Year's resolve to give up meat during his close +confinement. The visits of his third wife brought him some comfort. He +was "agreeably surprised" to find that, as an unconvicted prisoner, he +could order in his own meals and receive newspapers and periodicals. But +he was hurt at an unfriendly suggestion on the part of the authorities +that Pitezel had not died by his own hand, and that Edward Hatch was but +a figment of his rich imagination. He would like to have been released +on bail, but in the same unfriendly spirit was informed that, if he +were, he would be detained on a charge of murder. And so the months +dragged on. Holmes, studious, patient, injured, the authorities puzzled, +suspicions, baffled--still no news of Miss Williams or the three +children. It was not until June 3 that Holmes was put on his trial for +fraud, and the following day pleaded guilty. Sentence was postponed. + +The same day Holmes was sent for to the office of the District Attorney, +who thus addressed him: "It is strongly suspected, Holmes, that you have +not only murdered Pitezel, but that you have killed the children. The +best way to remove this suspicion is to produce the children at once. +Now, where are they?" Unfriendly as was this approach, Holmes met it +calmly, reiterated his previous statement that the children had gone +with Miss Williams to England, and gave her address in London, 80 Veder +or Vadar Street, where, he said, Miss Williams had opened a massage +establishment. He offered to draw up and insert a cipher advertisement +in the New York Herald, by means of which, he said, Miss Williams and he +had agreed to communicate, and almost tearfully he added, "Why should I +kill innocent children?" + +Asked to give the name of any person who had seen Miss Williams and the +children in the course of their journeyings in America, he resented +the disbelief implied in such a question, and strong was his manly +indignation when one of the gentlemen present expressed his opinion that +the story was a lie from beginning to end. This rude estimate of +Holmes' veracity was, however, in some degree confirmed when a cipher +advertisement published in the New York Herald according to Holmes' +directions, produced no reply from Miss Williams, and inquiry showed +that no such street as Veder or Vadar Street was to be found in London. + +In spite of these disappointments, Holmes' quiet confidence in his +own good faith continued unshaken. When the hapless Mrs. Pitezel was +released, he wrote her a long letter. "Knowing me as you do," he said, +"can you imagine me killing little and innocent children, especially +without any motive?" But even Mrs. Pitezel was not wholly reassured. She +recollected how Holmes had taken her just before his arrest to a house +he had rented at Burlington, Vermont, how he had written asking her to +carry a package of nitro-glycerine from the bottom to the top of the +house, and how one day she had found him busily removing the boards in +the cellar. + + +II THE WANDERING ASSASSIN + + +The District Attorney and the Insurance Company were not in agreement +as to the fate of the Pitezel children. The former still inclined to the +hope and belief that they were in England with Miss Williams, but the +insurance company took a more sinister view. No trace of them existed +except a tin box found among Holmes' effects, containing letters +they had written to their mother and grandparents from Cincinnati, +Indianapolis, and Detroit, which had been given to Holmes to dispatch +but had never reached their destination. The box contained letters from +Mrs. Pitezel to her children, which Holmes had presumably intercepted. + +It was decided to make a final attempt to resolve all doubts by sending +an experienced detective over the route taken by the children in +America. He was to make exhaustive inquiries in each city with a view to +tracing the visits of Holmes or the three children. For this purpose a +detective of the name of Geyer was chosen. The record of his search is a +remarkable story of patient and persistent investigation. + +Alice Pitezel had not seen her mother since she had gone with Holmes +to identify her father's remains in Philadelphia. From there Holmes had +taken her to Indianapolis. In the meantime he had visited Mrs. Pitezel +at St. Louis, and taken away with him the girl, Nellie, and the boy, +Howard, alleging as his reason for doing so that they and Alice were to +join their father, whose temporary effacement was necessary to carry out +successfully the fraud on the insurance company, to which Mrs. Pitezel +had been from the first an unwilling party. Holmes, Nellie and Howard +had joined Alice at Indianapolis, and from there all four were believed +to have gone to Cincinnati. It was here, accordingly, on June 27, 1895, +that Geyer commenced his search. + +After calling at a number of hotels, Geyer found that on Friday, +September 28, 1894, a man, giving the name of Alexander E. Cook, and +three children had stayed at a hotel called the Atlantic House. Geyer +recollected that Holmes, when later on he had sent Mrs. Pitezel to the +house in Burlington, had described her as Mrs. A. E. Cook and, though +not positive, the hotel clerk thought that he recognised in the +photographs of Holmes and he three children, which Geyer showed him, the +four visitors to the hotel. + +They had left the Atlantic House the next day, and on that same day, the +29th, Geyer found that Mr. A. E. Cook and three children had registered +at the Bristol Hotel, where they had stayed until Sunday the 30th. + +Knowing Holmes' habit of renting houses, Geyer did not confine his +enquiries to the hotels. He visited a number of estate agents and learnt +that a man and a boy, identified as Holmes and Howard Pitezel, had +occupied a house No. 305 Poplar Street. The man had given the name of A. +C. Hayes. He had taken the house on Friday the 28th, and on the 29th had +driven up to it with the boy in a furniture wagon. A curious neighbour, +interested in the advent of a newcomer, saw the wagon arrive, and was +somewhat astonished to observe that the only furniture taken into the +house was a large iron cylinder stove. She was still further surprised +when, on the following day, Mr. Hayes told her that he was not going +after all to occupy the house, and made her a present of the cylinder +stove. + +From Cincinnati Geyer went to Indianapolis. Here inquiry showed that +on September 30 three children had been brought by a man identified as +Holmes to the Hotel English, and registered in the name of Canning. +This was the maiden name of Mrs. Pitezel. The children had stayed at the +hotel one night. After that Geyer seemed to lose track of them until he +was reminded of a hotel then closed, called the Circle House. With some +difficulty he got a sight of the books of the hotel, and found that the +three Canning children had arrived there on October 1 and stayed until +the 10th. From the former proprietor of the hotel he learnt that Holmes +had described himself as the children's uncle, and had said that Howard +was a bad boy, whom he was trying to place in some institution. The +children seldom went out; they would sit in their room drawing or +writing, often they were found crying; they seemed homesick and unhappy. + +There are letters of the children written from Indianapolis to their +mothers, letters found in Holmes' possession, which had never reached +her. In these letters they ask their mother why she does not write to +them. She had written, but her letters were in Holmes' possession. Alice +writes that she is reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin." She has read so much +that her eyes hurt; they have bought a crystal pen for five cents which +gives them some amusement; they had been to the Zoo in Cincinnati the +Sunday before: "I expect this Sunday will pass away slower than I don't +know--Howard is two (sic) dirty to be seen out on the street to-day." +Sometimes they go and watch a man who paints "genuine oil paintings" +in a shoe store, which are given away with every dollar purchase of +shoes--"he can paint a picture in one and a half minutes, ain't that +quick!" Howard was getting a little troublesome. "I don't like to tell +you," writes Alice, "but you ask me, so I will have to. Howard won't +mind me at all. He wanted a book and I got 'Life of General Sheridan,' +and it is awful nice, but now he don't read it at all hardly." Poor +Howard! One morning, says Alice, Mr. Holmes told him to stay in and wait +for him, as he was coming to take him out, but Howard was disobedient, +and when Mr. Holmes arrived he had gone out. Better for Howard had he +never returned! "We have written two or three letters to you," Alice +tells her mother, "and I guess you will begin to get them now." She +will not get them. Mr. Holmes is so very particular that the insurance +company shall get no clue to the whereabouts of any member of the +Pitezel family. + +Geyer knew that from Indianapolis Holmes had gone to Detroit. He +ascertained that two girls, "Etta and Nellie Canning," had registered +on October 12 at the New Western Hotel in that city, and from there had +moved on the 15th to a boarding-house in Congress Street. From Detroit +Alice had written to her grandparents. It was cold and wet, she wrote; +she and Etta had colds and chapped hands: "We have to stay in all the +time. All that Nell and I can do is to draw, and I get so tired sitting +that I could get up and fly almost. I wish I could see you all. I am +getting so homesick that I don't know what to do. I suppose Wharton +(their baby brother) walks by this time, don't he? I would like to have +him here, he would pass away the time a good deal." As a fact little +Wharton, his mother and sister Dessie, were at this very moment in +Detroit, within ten minutes' walk of the hotel at which Holmes had +registered "Etta and Nellie Canning." + +On October 14 there had arrived in that city a weary, anxious-looking +woman, with a girl and a little baby. They took a room at Geis's Hotel, +registering as Mrs. Adams and daughter. Mrs. Adams seemed in great +distress of mind, and never left her room. + +The housekeeper, being shown their photographs, identified the woman +and the girl as Mrs. Pitezel and her eldest daughter Dessie. As the same +time there had been staying at another hotel in Detroit a Mr. and Mrs. +Holmes, whose photographs showed them to be the Mr. Holmes in question +and his third wife. These three parties--the two children, Mrs. Pitezel +and her baby, and the third Mrs. Holmes--were all ignorant of each +other's presence in Detroit; and under the secret guidance of Mr. Holmes +the three parties (still unaware of their proximity to each other), left +Detroit for Canada, arriving in Toronto on or about October 18, and +registering at three separate hotels. The only one who had not to all +appearances reached Toronto was the boy Howard. + +In Toronto "Alice and Nellie Canning" stayed at the Albion Hotel. + +They arrived there on October 19, and left on the 25th. During their +stay a man, identified as Holmes, had called every morning for the two +children, and taken them out; but they had come back alone, usually in +time for supper. On the 25th he had called and taken them out, but they +had not returned to supper. After that date Geyer could find no trace +of them. Bearing in mind Holmes' custom of renting houses, he compiled a +list of all the house agents in Toronto, and laboriously applied to each +one for information. The process was a slow one, and the result seemed +likely to be disappointing. + +To aid his search Geyer decided to call in the assistance of the Press. +The newspapers readily published long accounts of the case and portraits +of Holmes and the children. At last, after eight days of patient and +untiring investigation, after following up more than one false clue, +Geyer received a report that there was a house--No. 16 St. Vincent +Street--which had been rented in the previous October by a man answering +to the description of Holmes. The information came from an old Scottish +gentleman living next door. Geyer hastened to see him. The old gentleman +said that the man who had occupied No. 16 in October had told him that +he had taken the house for his widowed sister, and he recognised the +photograph of Alice Pitezel as one of the two girls accompanying +him. The only furniture the man had taken into the house was a bed, a +mattress and a trunk. During his stay at No. 16 this man had called on +his neighbour about four o'clock one afternoon and borrowed a spade, +saying that he wanted to dig a place in the cellar where his widowed +sister could keep potatoes; he had returned the spade the following +morning. The lady to whom the house belonged recognised Holmes' portrait +as that of the man to whom she had let No. 16. + +At last Geyer seemed to be on the right track. He hurried back to St. +Vincent Street, borrowed from the old gentleman at No. 18 the very +spade which he had lent to Holmes in the previous October, and got the +permission of the present occupier of No. 16 to make a search. In the +centre of the kitchen Geyer found a trap-door leading down into a small +cellar. In one corner of the cellar he saw that the earth had been +recently dug up. With the help of the spade the loose earth was removed, +and at a depth of some three feet, in a state of advanced decomposition, +lay the remains of what appeared to be two children. A little toy wooden +egg with a snake inside it, belonging to the Pitezel children, had been +found by the tenant who had taken the house after Holmes; a later tenant +had found stuffed into the chimney, but not burnt, some clothing that +answered the description of that worn by Alice and Etta Pitezel; and by +the teeth and hair of the two corpses Mrs. Pitezel was able to identify +them as those of her two daughters. The very day that Alice and Etta had +met their deaths at St. Vincent Street, their mother had been staying +near them at a hotel in the same city, and later on the same day Holmes +had persuaded her to leave Toronto for Ogdensburg. He said that they +were being watched by detectives, and so it would be impossible for her +husband to come to see her there. + +But the problem was not yet wholly solved. What had become of Howard? So +far Geyer's search had shown that Holmes had rented three houses, one in +Cincinnati, one in Detroit, and one in Toronto. Howard had been with his +sisters at the hotels in Indianapolis, and in Detroit the house agents +had said that, when Holmes had rented a house there, he had been +accompanied by a boy. Yet an exhaustive search of that house had +revealed no trace of him. Geyer returned to Detroit and again questioned +the house agents; on being pressed their recollection of the boy who had +accompanied Holmes seemed very vague and uncertain. This served only to +justify a conclusion at which Geyer had already arrived, that Howard +had never reached Detroit, but had disappeared in Indianapolis. Alice's +letters, written from there, had described how Holmes had wanted to take +Howard out one day and how the boy had refused to stay in and wait for +him. In the same way Holmes had called for the two girls at the Albion +Hotel in Toronto on October 25 and taken them out with him, after which +they had never been seen alive except by the old gentleman at No. 18 St. +Vincent Street. + +If Geyer could discover that Holmes had not departed in Indianapolis +from his usual custom of renting houses, he might be on the high way +to solving the mystery of Howard's fate. Accordingly he returned to +Indianapolis. + +In the meantime, Holmes, in his prison at Philadelphia, learnt of the +discovery at Toronto. "On the morning of the 16th of July," he writes +in his journal, "my newspaper was delivered to me about 8.30 a.m., and I +had hardly opened it before I saw in large headlines the announcement +of the finding of the children in Toronto. For the moment it seemed +so impossible that I was inclined to think it was one of the frequent +newspaper excitements that had attended the earlier part of the case, +but, in attempting to gain some accurate comprehension of what was +stated in the article, I became convinced that at least certain bodies +had been found there, and upon comparing the date when the house was +hired I knew it to be the same as when the children had been in Toronto; +and thus being forced to realise the awfulness of what had probably +happened, I gave up trying to read the article, and saw instead the two +little faces as they had looked when I hurriedly left them--felt the +innocent child's kiss so timidly given, and heard again their earnest +words of farewell, and realised that I had received another burden to +carry to my grave with me, equal, if not worse, than the horrors of +Nannie Williams' death." + +Questioned by the district attorney, Holmes met this fresh evidence by +evoking once again the mythical Edward Hatch and suggesting that Miss +Minnie Williams, in a "hellish wish for vengeance" because of Holmes' +fancied desertion, and in order to make it appear probable that he, +and not she, had murdered her sister, had prompted Hatch to commit the +horrid deed. Holmes asked to be allowed to go to Toronto that he might +collect any evidence which he could find there in his favour. The +district attorney refused his request; he had determined to try Holmes +in Philadelphia. "What more could, be said?" writes Holmes. Indeed, +under the circumstances, and in the unaccountable absence of Edward +Hatch and Minnie Williams, there was little more to be said. + +Detective Geyer reopened his search in Indianapolis by obtaining a list +of advertisements of houses to let in the city in 1894. Nine hundred +of these were followed up in vain. He then turned his attention to the +small towns lying around Indianapolis with no happier result. Geyer +wrote in something of despair to his superiors: "By Monday we will +have searched every outlying town except Irvington. After Irvington, I +scarcely know where we shall go." Thither he went on August 27, exactly +two months from the day on which his quest had begun. As he entered the +town he noticed the advertisement of an estate agent. He called at +the office and found a "pleasant-faced old gentleman," who greeted him +amiably. Once again Geyer opened his now soiled and ragged packet of +photographs, and asked the gentleman if in October, 1894, he had let +a house to a man who said that he wanted one for a widowed sister. He +showed him the portrait of Holmes. + +The old man put on his glasses and looked at the photograph for some +time. Yes, he said, he did remember that he had given the keys of +a cottage in October, 1894, to a man of Holmes' appearance, and he +recollected the man the more distinctly for the uncivil abruptness with +which he had asked for the keys; "I felt," he said, "he should have had +more respect for my grey hairs." + +From the old gentleman's office Geyer hastened to the cottage, and +made at once for the cellar. There he could find no sign of recent +disturbance. But beneath the floor of a piazza adjoining the house he +found the remains of a trunk, answering to the description of that which +the Pitezel children had had with them, and in an outhouse he discovered +the inevitable stove, Holmes' one indispensable piece of furniture. It +was stained with blood on the top. A neighbour had seen Holmes in the +same October drive up to the house in the furniture wagon accompanied +by a boy, and later in the day Holmes had asked him to come over to the +cottage and help him to put up a stove. The neighbour asked him why he +did not use gas; Holmes replied that he did not think gas was healthy +for children. While the two men were putting up the stove, the +little boy stood by and watched them. After further search there were +discovered in the cellar chimney some bones, teeth, a pelvis and the +baked remains of a stomach, liver and spleen. + +Medical examination showed them to be the remains of a child between +seven and ten years of age. A spinning top, a scarf-pin, a pair of shoes +and some articles of clothing that had belonged to the little Pitezels, +had been found in the house at different times, and were handed over to +Geyer. + +His search was ended. On September 1 he returned to Philadelphia. + +Holmes was put on his trial on October 28, 1895, before the Court of +Oyer and Terminer in Philadelphia, charged with the murder of Benjamin +Pitezel. In the course of the trial the district attorney offered to put +in evidence showing that Holmes had also murdered the three children of +Pitezel, contending that such evidence was admissible on the ground +that the murders of the children and their father were parts of the same +transaction. The judge refused to admit the evidence, though expressing +a doubt as to its inadmissibility. The defence did not dispute the +identity of the body found in Callowhill Street, but contended that +Pitezel had committed suicide. The medical evidence negatived such a +theory. The position of the body, its condition when discovered, +were entirely inconsistent with self-destruction, and the absence of +irritation in the stomach showed that the chloroform found there must +have been poured into it after death. In all probability, Holmes had +chloroformed Pitezel when he was drunk or asleep. He had taken the +chloroform to Callowhill Street as a proposed ingredient in a solution +for cleaning clothes, which he and Pitezel were to patent. It was no +doubt with the help of the same drug that he had done to death the +little children, and failing the nitro-glycerine, with that drug he had +intended to put Mrs. Pitezel and her two remaining children out of the +way at the house in Burlington; for after his trial there was found +there, hidden away in the cellar, a bottle containing eight or ten +ounces of chloroform. + +Though assisted by counsel, Holmes took an active part in his defence. +He betrayed no feeling at the sight of Mrs. Pitezel, the greater part of +whose family he had destroyed, but the appearance of his third wife as a +witness he made an opportunity for "letting loose the fount of emotion," +taking care to inform his counsel beforehand that he intended to perform +this touching feat. He was convicted and sentenced to death on November +2. + +Previous to the trial of Holmes the police had made an exhaustive +investigation of the mysterious building in Chicago known as "Holmes' +Castle." The result was sufficiently sinister. In the stove in the +cellar charred human bones were found, and in the middle of the room +stood a large dissecting table stained with blood. On digging up the +cellar floor some human ribs, sections of vertebrae and teeth were +discovered buried in quicklime, and in other parts of the "castle" the +police found more charred bones, some metal buttons, a trunk, and a +piece of a watch chain. + +The trunk and piece of watch chain were identified as having belonged to +Miss Minnie Williams. + +Inquiry showed that Miss Williams had entered Holmes' employment as a +typist in 1893, and had lived with him at the castle. In the latter part +of the year she had invited her sister, Nannie, to be present at her +wedding with Holmes. Nannie had come to Chicago for that purpose, and +since then the two sisters had never been seen alive. In February in the +following year Pitezel, under the name of Lyman, had deposited at Fort +Worth, Texas, a deed according to which a man named Bond had transferred +to him property in that city which had belonged to Miss Williams, and +shortly after, Holmes, under the name of Pratt, joined him at Fort +Worth, whereupon the two commenced building on Miss Williams' land. + +Other mysterious cases besides those of the Williams sisters revealed +the Bluebeard-like character of this latterday castle of Mr. Holmes. In +1887 a man of the name of Connor entered Holmes' employment. He brought +with him to the castle a handsome, intelligent wife and a little girl of +eight or nine years of age. + +After a short time Connor quarrelled with his wife and went away, +leaving Mrs. Connor and the little girl with Holmes. After 1892 Mrs. +Connor and her daughter had disappeared, but in August, 1895, the police +found in the castle some clothes identified as theirs, and the janitor, +Quinlan, admitted having seen the dead body of Mrs. Connor in the +castle. Holmes, questioned in his prison in Philadelphia, said that Mrs. +Connor had died under an operation, but that he did not know what had +become of the little girl. + +In the year of Mrs. Connor's disappearance, a typist named Emily +Cigrand, who had been employed in a hospital in which Benjamin Pitezel +had been a patient, was recommended by the latter to Holmes. She entered +his employment, and she and Holmes soon became intimate, passing as +"Mr. and Mrs. Gordon." Emily Cigrand had been in the habit of writing +regularly to her parents in Indiana, but after December 6, 1892, they +had never heard from her again, nor could any further trace of her be +found. + +A man who worked for Holmes as a handy man at the castle stated to the +police that in 1892 Holmes had given him a skeleton of a man to mount, +and in January, 1893, showed him in the laboratory another male skeleton +with some flesh still on it, which also he asked him to mount. As there +was a set of surgical instruments in the laboratory and also a tank +filled with a fluid preparation for removing flesh, the handy man +thought that Holmes was engaged in some kind of surgical work. + +About a month before his execution, when Holmes' appeals from his +sentence had failed and death appeared imminent, he sold to the +newspapers for 7,500 dollars a confession in which he claimed to have +committed twenty-seven murders in the course of his career. The day +after it appeared he declared the whole confession to be a "fake." +He was tired, he said, of being accused by the newspapers of having +committed every mysterious murder that had occurred during the last +ten years. When it was pointed out to him that the account given in his +confession of the murder of the Pitezel children was clearly untrue, +he replied, "Of course, it is not true, but the newspapers wanted +a sensation and they have got it." The confession was certainly +sensational enough to satisfy the most exacting of penny-a-liners, and a +lasting tribute to Holmes' undoubted power of extravagant romancing. + +According to his story, some of his twenty-seven victims had met their +death by poison, some by more violent methods, some had died a lingering +death in the air-tight and sound-proof vault of the castle. Most of +these he mentioned by name, but some of these were proved afterwards to +be alive. Holmes had actually perpetrated, in all probability, about ten +murders. But, given further time and opportunity, there is no reason why +this peripatetic assassin should not have attained to the considerable +figure with which he credited himself in his bogus confession. + +Holmes was executed in Philadelphia on May 7, 1896. He seemed to meet +his fate with indifference. + +The motive of Holmes in murdering Pitezel and three of his children and +in planning to murder his wife and remaining children, originated in all +probability in a quarrel that occurred between Pitezel and himself in +the July of 1894. Pitezel had tired apparently of Holmes and his doings, +and wanted to break off the connection. But he must have known enough +of Holmes' past to make him a dangerous enemy. It was Pitezel who had +introduced to Holmes, Emily Cigrand, the typist, who had disappeared +so mysteriously in the castle; Pitezel had been his partner in the +fraudulent appropriation of Miss Minnie Williams' property in Texas; it +is more than likely, therefore, that Pitezel knew something of the fate +of Miss Williams and her sister. By reviving, with Pitezel's help, his +old plan for defrauding insurance companies, Holmes saw the opportunity +of making 10,000 dollars, which he needed sorely, and at the same time +removing his inconvenient and now lukewarm associate. Having killed +Pitezel and received the insurance money, Holmes appropriated to his +own use the greater part of the 10,000 dollars, giving Mrs. Pitezel +in return for her share of the plunder a bogus bill for 5,000 dollars. +Having robbed Mrs. Pitezel of both her husband and her money, to +this thoroughgoing criminal there seemed only one satisfactory way of +escaping detection, and that was to exterminate her and the whole of her +family. + +Had Holmes not confided his scheme of the insurance fraud to Hedgspeth +in St. Louis prison and then broken faith with him, there is no reason +why the fraud should ever have been discovered. The subsequent murders +had been so cunningly contrived that, had the Insurance Company not put +the Pinkerton detectives on his track, Holmes would in all probability +have ended by successfully disposing of Mrs. Pitezel, Dessie, and the +baby at the house in Burlington, Vermont, and the entire Pitezel family +would have disappeared as completely as his other victims. + +Holmes admitted afterwards that his one mistake had been his confiding +to Hedgspeth his plans for defrauding an insurance company--a mistake, +the unfortunate results of which might have been avoided, if he had kept +faith with the train robber and given him the 500 dollars which he had +promised. + +The case of Holmes illustrates the practical as well as the purely +ethical value of "honour among thieves," and shows how a comparatively +insignificant misdeed may ruin a great and comprehensive plan of crime. +To dare to attempt the extermination of a family of seven persons, and +to succeed so nearly in effecting it, could be the work of no tyro, no +beginner like J. B. Troppmann. It was the act of one who having +already succeeded in putting out of the way a number of other persons +undetected, might well and justifiably believe that he was born for +greater and more compendious achievements in robbery and murder than +any who had gone before him. One can almost subscribe to America's claim +that Holmes is the "greatest criminal" of a century boasting no mean +record in such persons. + +In the remarkable character of his achievements as an assassin we are +apt to lose sight of Holmes' singular skill and daring as a liar and +a bigamist. As an instance of the former may be cited his audacious +explanation to his family, when they heard of his having married a +second time. He said that he had met with a serious accident to his +head, and that when he left the hospital, found that he had entirely +lost his memory; that, while in this state of oblivion, he had married +again and then, when his memory returned, realised to his horror his +unfortunate position. Plausibility would seem to have been one of +Holmes' most useful gifts; men and women alike--particularly the +latter--he seems to have deceived with ease. His appearance was +commonplace, in no way suggesting the conventional criminal, his +manner courteous, ingratiating and seemingly candid, and like so many +scoundrels, he could play consummately the man of sentiment. + +The weak spot in Holmes' armour as an enemy of society was a dangerous +tendency to loquacity, the defect no doubt of his qualities of plausible +and insinuating address and ever ready mendacity. + + + + +The Widow Gras + + +Report of the trial of the woman Gras and Gaudry in the Gazette +des Tribunaux. The case is dealt with also by Mace in his "Femmes +Criminelles." + +I + +THE CHARMER + +Jenny Amenaide Brecourt was born in Paris in the year 1837. Her father +was a printer, her mother sold vegetables. The parents neglected the +child, but a lady of title took pity on her, and when she was five years +old adopted her. Even as a little girl she was haughty and imperious. At +the age of eight she refused to play with another child on the ground +of her companion's social inferiority. "The daughter of a Baroness," she +said, "cannot play with the daughter of a wine-merchant." When she was +eleven years old, her parents took her away from her protectress and +sent her into the streets to sell gingerbread--a dangerous experience +for a child of tender years. After six years of street life, Amenaide +sought out her benefactress and begged her to take her back. The +Baroness consented, and found her employment in a silk manufactory. One +day the girl, now eighteen years old, attended the wedding of one of +her companions in the factory. She returned home after the ceremony +thoughtful. + +She said that she wanted to get married. The Baroness did not take her +statement seriously, and on the grocer calling one day, said in jest to +Amenaide, "You want a husband, there's one." + +But Amenaide was in earnest. She accepted the suggestion and, to the +Baroness' surprise, insisted on taking the grocer as her husband. +Reluctantly the good lady gave her consent, and in 1855 Amenaide +Brecourt became the wife of the grocer Gras. + +A union, so hasty and ill-considered, was not likely to be of long +duration. With the help of the worthy Baroness the newly married couple +started a grocery business. But Amenaide was too economical for her +husband and mother-in-law. Quarrels ensued, recriminations. In a spirit +of unamiable prophecy husband and wife foretold each other's future. +"You will die in a hospital," said the wife. "You will land your carcase +in prison," retorted the husband. In both instances they were correct in +their anticipations. One day the husband disappeared. For a short time +Amenaide returned to her long-suffering protectress, and then she too +disappeared. + +When she is heard of again, Amenaide Brecourt has become Jeanne de la +Cour. Jeanne de la Cour is a courtesan. She has tried commerce, acting, +literature, journalism, and failed at them all. Henceforth men are +to make her fortune for her. Such charms as she may possess, such +allurements as she can offer, she is ready to employ without heart or +feeling to accomplish her end. Without real passion, she has an almost +abnormal, erotic sensibility, which serves in its stead. She cares +only for one person, her sister. To her Jeanne de la Cour unfolded her +philosophy of life. While pretending to love men, she is going to make +them suffer. They are to be her playthings, she knows how to snare them: +"All is dust and lies. So much the worse for the men who get in my way. +Men are mere stepping-stones to me. As soon as they begin to fail or are +played out, I put them scornfully aside. Society is a vast chess-board, +men the pawns, some white, some black; I move them as I please, and +break them when they bore me." + +The early years of Jeanne de la Cour's career as a Phryne were hardly +more successful than her attempts at literature, acting and journalism. +True to her philosophy, she had driven one lover, a German, to suicide, +and brought another to his death by over-doses of cantharides. On +learning of the death of the first, she reflected patriotically, +"One German the less in Paris!" That of the second elicited the +matter-of-fact comment, "It was bound to happen; he had no moderation." +A third admirer, who died in a hospital, was dismissed as "a fool who, +in spite of all, still respects women." But, in ruining her lovers, she +had ruined her own health. In 1865 she was compelled to enter a private +asylum. There she is described as "dark in complexion, with dark +expressive eyes, very pale, and of a nervous temperament, agreeable, and +pretty." She was suffering at the time of her admission from hysterical +seizures, accompanied by insane exaltation, convulsions and loss of +speech. In speaking of her humble parents she said, "I don't know such +people"; her manner was bombastic, and she was fond of posing as a fine +lady. + +After a few months Jeanne de la Cour was discharged from the asylum as +cured, and on the advice of her doctors went to Vittel. + +There she assumed the rank of Baroness and recommenced her career, but +this time in a more reasonable and businesslike manner. Her comments, +written to her sister, on her fellow guests at the hotel are caustic. +She mocks at some respectable married women who are trying to convert +her to Catholicism. To others who refuse her recognition, she makes +herself so mischievous and objectionable that in self-defence they are +frightened into acknowledging her. Admirers among men she has many, +ex-ministers, prefects. It was at Vittel that occurred the incident +of the wounded pigeon. There had been some pigeon-shooting. One of the +wounded birds flew into the room of the Baroness de la Cour. She took +pity on it, tended it, taught it not to be afraid of her and to stay in +her room. So touching was her conduct considered by some of those who +heard it, that she was nicknamed "the Charmer." But she is well aware, +she writes to her sister, that with the true ingratitude of the male, +the pigeon will leave her as soon as it needs her help no longer. + +However, for the moment, "disfigured as it is, beautiful or ugly," she +loves it. "Don't forget," she writes, "that a woman who is practical and +foreseeing, she too enjoys her pigeon shooting, but the birds are her +lovers." + +Shortly after she left Vittel an event occurred which afforded Jeanne de +la Cour the prospect of acquiring that settled position in life which, +"practical and foreseeing," she now regarded as indispensable to her +future welfare. Her husband, Gras, died, as she had foretold, in the +Charity Hospital. The widow was free. If she could bring down her bird, +it was now in her power to make it hers for life. Henceforth all her +efforts were directed to that end. She was reaching her fortieth year, +her hair was turning grey, her charms were waning. Poverty, degradation, +a miserable old age, a return to the wretched surroundings of her +childhood, such she knew to be the fate of many of her kind. There was +nothing to be hoped for from the generosity of men. Her lovers were +leaving her. Blackmail, speculation on the Bourse, even the desperate +expedient of a supposititious child, all these she tried as means of +acquiring a competence. But fortune was shy of the widow. There was +need for dispatch. The time was drawing near when it might be man's +unkind privilege to put her scornfully aside as a thing spent and done +with. She must bring down her bird, and that quickly. It was at this +critical point in the widow's career, in the year 1873, that she met at +a public ball for the first time Georges de Saint Pierre.(16) + + + (16) For obvious reasons I have suppressed the real name of the widow's +lover. + + +Georges de Saint Pierre was twenty years of age when he made the +acquaintance of the Widow Gras. He had lost his mother at an early age, +and since then lived with relatives in the country. He was a young man +of independent means, idle, of a simple, confiding and affectionate +disposition. Four months after his first meeting with the widow they +met again. The end of the year 1873 saw the commencement of an intimacy, +which to all appearances was characterised by a more lasting and sincere +affection than is usually associated with unions of this kind. There can +be no doubt that during the three years the Widow Gras was the mistress +of Georges de Saint Pierre, she had succeeded in subjugating entirely +the senses and the affection of her young lover. In spite of the twenty +years between them, Georges de Saint Pierre idolised his middle-aged +mistress. She was astute enough to play not only the lover, but the +mother to this motherless youth. After three years of intimacy he writes +to her: "It is enough for me that you love me, because I don't weary +you, and I, I love you with all my heart. I cannot bear to leave you. +We will live happily together. You will always love me truly, and as for +me, my loving care will ever protect you. I don't know what would become +of me if I did not feel that your love watched over me." The confidence +of Georges in the widow was absolute. When, in 1876, he spent six months +in Egypt, he made her free of his rooms in Paris, she was at liberty to +go there when she liked; he trusted her entirely, idolised her. Whatever +her faults, he was blind to them. "Your form," he writes, "is ever +before my eyes; I wish I could enshrine your pure heart in gold and +crystal." + +The widow's conquest, to all appearances, was complete. But Georges was +very young. He had a family anxious for his future; they knew of his +liaison; they would be hopeful, no doubt, of one day breaking it off and +of marrying him to some desirable young person. From the widow's point +of view the situation lacked finality. How was that to be secured? + +One day, toward the end of the year 1876, after the return of Georges +from Egypt, the widow happened to be at the house of a friend, a ballet +dancer. She saw her friend lead into the room a young man; he was +sightless, and her friend with tender care guided him to a seat on the +sofa. The widow was touched by the spectacle. When they were alone, she +inquired of her friend the reason of her solicitude for the young man. +"I love this victim of nature," she replied, "and look after him with +every care. He is young, rich, without family, and is going to marry +me. Like you, I am just on forty; my hair is turning grey, my youth +vanishing. I shall soon be cast adrift on the sea, a wreck. This boy is +the providential spar to which I am going to cling that I may reach land +in safety." "You mean, then," said the widow, "that you will soon be +beyond the reach of want?" "Yes," answered the friend, "I needn't worry +any more about the future." + +"I congratulate you," said the widow, "and what is more, your lover will +never see you grow old." + +To be cast adrift on the sea and to have found a providential spar! The +widow was greatly impressed by her friend's rare good fortune. Indeed, +her experience gave the widow furiously to think, as she revolved in her +brain various expedients by which Georges de Saint Pierre might become +the "providential spar" in her own impending wreck. The picture of +the blind young man tenderly cared for, dependent utterly on the +ministrations of his devoted wife, fixed itself in the widow's mind; +there was something inexpressibly pathetic in the picture, whilst its +practical significance had its sinister appeal to one in her situation. + +At this point in the story there appears on the scene a character as +remarkable in his way as the widow herself, remarkable at least for +his share in the drama that is to follow. Nathalis Gaudry, of humble +parentage, rude and uncultivated, had been a playmate of the widow when +she was a child in her parents' house. + +They had grown up together, but, after Gaudry entered the army, had +lost sight of each other. Gaudry served through the Italian war of 1859, +gaining a medal for valour. In 1864 he had married. + +Eleven years later his wife died, leaving him with two children. He came +to Paris and obtained employment in an oil refinery at Saint Denis. His +character was excellent; he was a good workman, honest, hard-working, +his record unblemished. When he returned to Paris, Gaudry renewed his +friendship with the companion of his youth. But Jeanne Brecourt was now +Jeanne de la Cour, living in refinement and some luxury, moving in a +sphere altogether remote from and unapproachable by the humble workman +in an oil refinery. He could do no more than worship from afar +this strange being, to him wonderfully seductive in her charm and +distinction. + +On her side the widow was quite friendly toward her homely admirer. +She refused to marry him, as he would have wished, but she did her best +without success to marry him to others of her acquaintance. Neither a +sempstress nor an inferior actress could she persuade, for all her +zeal, to unite themselves with a hand in an oil mill, a widower with two +children. It is typical of the widow's nervous energy that she should +have undertaken so hopeless a task. In the meantime she made use of +her admirer. On Sundays he helped her in her apartment, carried coals, +bottled wine, scrubbed the floors, and made himself generally useful. He +was supposed by those about the house to be her brother. Occasionally, +in the absence of a maid, the widow allowed him to attend on her +personally, even to assist her in her toilette and perform for her such +offices as one woman would perform for another. The man soon came to be +madly in love with the woman; his passion, excited but not gratified, +enslaved and consumed him. To some of his fellow-workmen who saw him +moody and preoccupied, he confessed that he ardently desired to marry a +friend of his childhood, not a working woman but a lady. + +Such was the situation and state of mind of Nathalis Gaudry when, in +November, 1876, he received a letter from the widow, in which she wrote, +"Come at once. I want you on a matter of business. Tell your employer +it is a family affair; I will make up your wages." In obedience to this +message Gaudry was absent from the distillery from the 17th to the 23rd +of November. + +The "matter of business" about which the widow wished to consult with +Gaudry turned out to be a scheme of revenge. She told him that she had +been basely defrauded by a man to whom she had entrusted money. She +desired to be revenged on him, and could think of no better way than to +strike at his dearest affections by seriously injuring his son. This she +proposed to do with the help of a knuckle-duster, which she produced and +gave to Gaudry. Armed with this formidable weapon, Gaudry was to strike +her enemy's son so forcibly in the pit of the stomach as to disable him +for life. The widow offered to point out to Gaudry the young man whom he +was to attack. She took him outside the young man's club and showed him +his victim. He was Georges de Saint Pierre. + +The good fortune of her friend, the ballet-dancer, had proved a +veritable toxin in the intellectual system of the Widow Gras. The poison +of envy, disappointment, suspicion, apprehension had entered into her +soul. Of what use to her was a lover, however generous and faithful, +who was free to take her up and lay her aside at will? But such was her +situation relative to Georges de Saint Pierre. She remembered that the +wounded pigeon, as long as it was dependent on her kind offices, had +been compelled to stay by her side; recovered, it had flown away. Only a +pigeon, maimed beyond hope of recovery, could she be sure of compelling +to be hers for all time, tied to her by its helpless infirmity, too +suffering and disfigured to be lured from its captivity. And so, in +accordance with her philosophy of life, the widow, by a blow in the pit +of the stomach with a knuckle-duster, was to bring down her bird which +henceforth would be tended and cared for by "the Charmer" to her own +satisfaction and the admiration of all beholders. + +For some reason, the natural reluctance of Gaudry, or perhaps a feeling +of compunction in the heart of the widow, this plan was not put into +immediate execution. Possibly she hesitated before adopting a plan more +cruel, more efficacious. Her hesitation did not last long. + +With the dawn of the year 1877 the vigilant apprehension of the widow +was roused by the tone of M. de Saint Pierre's letters. He wrote from +his home in the country, "I cannot bear leaving you, and I don't +mean to. We will live together." But he adds that he is depressed by +difficulties with his family, "not about money or business but of a kind +he can only communicate to her verbally." To the widow it was clear that +these difficulties must relate to the subject of marriage. The character +of Georges was not a strong one; sooner or later he might yield to the +importunities of his family; her reign would be ended, a modest and +insufficient pension the utmost she could hope for. She had passed the +meridian of her life as a charmer of men, her health was giving way, she +was greedy, ambitious, acquisitive. In January she asked her nephew, who +worked as a gilder, to get her some vitriol for cleaning her copper. He +complied with her request. + +During Jeanne de la Cour's brief and unsuccessful appearance as an +actress she had taken part in a play with the rather cumbrous title, Who +Puts out the Eyes must Pay for Them. The widow may have forgotten +this event; its occurrence so many years before may have been merely +a sinister coincidence. But the incident of the ballet-dancer and her +sightless lover was fresh in her mind. + +Early in January the widow wrote to Georges, who was in the country, and +asked him to take her to the masked ball at the Opera on the 13th. Her +lover was rather surprised at her request, nor did he wish to appear +with her at so public a gathering. "I don't understand," he writes, "why +you are so anxious to go to the Opera. I can't see any real reason for +your wanting to tire yourself out at such a disreputable gathering. +However, if you are happy and well, and promise to be careful, I will +take you. I would be the last person, my dear little wife, to deny you +anything that would give you pleasure." But for some reason Georges was +unhappy, depressed. Some undefined presentiment of evil seems to have +oppressed him. His brother noticed his preoccupation. + +He himself alludes to it in writing to his mistress: "I am depressed +this evening. For a very little I could break down altogether and give +way to tears. You can't imagine what horrid thoughts possess me. If I +felt your love close to me, I should be less sad." Against his better +inclination Georges promised to take the widow to the ball on the 13th. +He was to come to Paris on the night of the 12th. + + + +II + +THE WOUNDED PIGEON + + +On the afternoon of January 11, Gaudry called to see the widow. There +had been an accident at the distillery that morning, and work was +suspended for three days. The widow showed Gaudry the bottle containing +the vitriol which her nephew had procured for her use. She was ill, +suffering, she said; the only thing that could make her well again would +be the execution of her revenge on the son of the man who had defrauded +her so wickedly: "Make him suffer, here are the means, and I swear I +will be yours." She dropped a little of the vitriol on to the floor to +show its virulent effect. At first Gaudry was shocked, horrified. He +protested that he was a soldier, that he could not do such a deed; he +suggested that he should provoke the young man to a duel and kill +him. "That is no use," said the widow, always sensitive to social +distinctions; "he is not of your class, he would refuse to fight with +you." Mad with desire for the woman, his senses irritated and excited, +the ultimate gratification of his passion held alluringly before him, +the honest soldier consented to play the cowardly ruffian. The trick was +done. The widow explained to her accomplice his method of proceeding. +The building in the Rue de Boulogne, in which the widow had her +apartment, stood at the end of a drive some twenty-seven and a half +yards long and five and a half yards wide. About half-way up the drive, +on either side, there were two small houses, or pavilions, standing by +themselves and occupied by single gentlemen. The whole was shut off from +the street by a large gate, generally kept closed, in which a smaller +gate served to admit persons going in or out. According to the widow's +plan, the young man, her enemy's son, was to take her to the ball at the +Opera on the night of January 13. Gaudry was to wait in her apartment +until their return. When he heard the bell ring, which communicated with +the outer gate, he was to come down, take his place in the shadow of one +of the pavilions on either side of the drive, and from the cover of this +position fling in the face of the young man the vitriol which she had +given him. The widow herself, under the pretence of closing the smaller +gate, would be well behind the victim, and take care to leave the gate +open so that Gaudry could make his escape. + +In spite of his reluctance, his sense of foreboding, Georges de Saint +Pierre came to Paris on the night of the 12th, which he spent at the +widow's apartment. He went to his own rooms on the morning of the 13th. + +This eventful day, which, to quote Iago, was either to "make or +fordo quite" the widow, found her as calm, cool and deliberate in the +execution of her purpose as the Ancient himself. Gaudry came to her +apartment about five o'clock in the afternoon. The widow showed him the +vitriol and gave him final directions. She would, she said, return from +the ball about three o'clock in the morning. Gaudry was then sent +away till ten o'clock, as Georges was dining with her. He returned at +half-past ten and found the widow dressing, arraying herself in a pink +domino and a blonde wig. She was in excellent spirits. When Georges came +to fetch her, she put Gaudry into an alcove in the drawing-room which +was curtained off from the rest of the room. Always thoughtful, she had +placed a stool there that he might rest himself. Gaudry could hear her +laughing and joking with her lover. She reproached him playfully with +hindering her in her dressing. To keep him quiet, she gave him a book to +read, Montaigne's "Essays." Georges opened it and read the thirty-fifth +chapter of the second book, the essay on "Three Good Women," which tells +how three brave women of antiquity endured death or suffering in order +to share their husbands' fate. Curiously enough, the essay concludes +with these words, almost prophetic for the unhappy reader: "I am +enforced to live, and sometimes to live is magnanimity." Whilst Georges +went to fetch a cab, the widow released Gaudry from his place of +concealment, exhorted him to have courage, and promised him, if he +succeeded, the accomplishment of his desire. And so the gay couple +departed for the ball. There the widow's high spirits, her complete +enjoyment, were remarked by more than one of her acquaintances; she +danced one dance with her lover, and with another young man made an +engagement for the following week. + +Meanwhile, at the Rue de Boulogne, Gaudry sat and waited in the widow's +bedroom. From the window he could see the gate and the lights of the cab +that was to bring the revellers home. The hours passed slowly. He tried +to read the volume of Montaigne where Georges had left it open, but the +words conveyed little to him, and he fell asleep. Between two and three +o'clock in the morning he was waked by the noise of wheels. They had +returned. He hurried downstairs and took up his position in the shadow +of one of the pavilions. As Georges de Saint Pierre walked up the drive +alone, for the widow had stayed behind to fasten the gate, he thought he +saw the figure of a man in the darkness. The next moment he was blinded +by the burning liquid flung in his face. The widow had brought down her +pigeon. + +At first she would seem to have succeeded perfectly in her attempt. +Georges was injured for life, the sight of one eye gone, that of the +other threatened, his face sadly disfigured. Neither he nor anyone +else suspected the real author of the crime. It was believed that the +unfortunate man had been mistaken for some other person, and made by +accident the victim of an act of vengeance directed against another. +Georges was indeed all the widow's now, lodged in her own house to +nurse and care for. She undertook the duty with every appearance of +affectionate devotion. The unhappy patient was consumed with gratitude +for her untiring solicitude; thirty nights she spent by his bedside. His +belief in her was absolute. It was his own wish that she alone should +nurse him. His family were kept away, any attempts his relatives or +friends made to see or communicate with him frustrated by the zealous +widow. + +It was this uncompromising attitude on her part toward the friends of +Georges, and a rumour which reached the ears of one of them that she +intended as soon as possible to take her patient away to Italy, that +sounded the first note of danger to her peace of mind. This friend +happened to be acquainted with the son of one of the Deputy Public +Prosecutors in Paris. To that official he confided his belief that there +were suspicious circumstances in the case of Georges de Saint Pierre. +The judicial authorities were informed and the case placed in the hands +of an examining magistrate. On February 2, nearly a month after the +crime, the magistrate, accompanied by Mace, then a commissary of police, +afterwards head of the Detective Department, paid a visit to the Rue de +Boulogne. Their reception was not cordial. It was only after they had +made known their official character that they got audience of the widow. +She entered the room, carrying in her hand a surgical spray, with which +she played nervously while the men of the law asked to see her charge. +She replied that it was impossible. Mace placed himself in front of the +door by which she had entered, and told her that her attitude was not +seemly. "Leave that spray alone," he said; "it might shoot over us, and +then perhaps we should be sprinkled as M. de Saint Pierre was." From +that moment, writes Mace, issue was joined between the widow and +himself. + +The magistrate insisted on seeing the patient. He sat by his bedside. +M. de Saint Pierre told him that, having no enemies, he was sure he had +been the victim of some mistake, and that, as he claimed no damages +for his injuries, he did not wish his misfortune to be made public. +He wanted to be left alone with his brave and devoted nurse, and to be +spared the nervous excitement of a meeting with his family. He intended, +he added, to leave Paris shortly for change of scene and air. The widow +cut short the interview on the ground that her patient was tired. + +It was inhuman, she said, to make him suffer so. The magistrate, before +leaving, asked her whither she intended taking her patient. She replied, +"To Italy." That, said the magistrate, would be impossible until his +inquiry was closed. In the meantime she might take him to any place +within the Department of the Seine; but she must be prepared to be under +the surveillance of M. Mace, who would have the right to enter her +house whenever he should think it expedient. With this disconcerting +intelligence the men of the law took leave of the widow. + +She was no longer to be left in undisturbed possession of her prize. +Her movements were watched by two detectives. She was seen to go to +the bachelor lodgings of Georges and take away a portable desk, which +contained money and correspondence. More mysterious, however, was a +visit she paid to the Charonne Cemetery, where she had an interview with +an unknown, who was dressed in the clothes of a workman. She left the +cemetery alone, and the detectives lost track of her companion. This +meeting took place on February 11. Shortly after the widow left Paris +with Georges de Saint Pierre for the suburb of Courbevoie. + +Mace had elicited certain facts from the porter at the Rue de Boulogne +and other witnesses, which confirmed his suspicion that the widow had +played a sinister part in her lover's misfortune. Her insistence that +he should take her to the ball on January 13; the fact that, contrary to +the ordinary politeness of a gentleman, he was walking in front of her +at the time of the attack; and that someone must have been holding the +gate open to enable the assailant to escape it was a heavy gate, which, +if left to itself after being opened, would swing too quickly on its +hinges and shut of its own accord--these facts were sufficient to +excite suspicion. The disappearance, too, of the man calling himself +her brother, who had been seen at her apartment on the afternoon of the +13th, coupled with the mysterious interview in the cemetery, suggested +the possibility of a crime in which the widow had had the help of an +accomplice. To facilitate investigation it was necessary to separate the +widow from her lover. The examining magistrate, having ascertained from +a medical report that such a separation would not be hurtful to the +patient, ordered the widow to be sent back to Paris, and the family of +M. de Saint Pierre to take her place. The change was made on March 6. On +leaving Courbevoie the widow was taken to the office of Mace. There the +commissary informed her that she must consider herself under provisional +arrest. "But who," she asked indignantly, "is to look after my Georges?" +"His family," was the curt reply. The widow, walking up and down the +room like a panther, stormed and threatened. When she had in some +degree recovered herself, Mace asked her certain questions. Why had she +insisted on her lover going to the ball? She had done nothing of the +kind. How was it his assailant had got away so quickly by the open gate? +She did not know. What was the name and address of her reputed brother? +She was not going to deliver an honest father of a family into the +clutches of the police. What was the meaning of her visit to the +Charonne Cemetery? She went there to pray, not to keep assignations. +"And if you want to know," she exclaimed, "I have had typhoid +fever, which makes me often forget things. So I shall say nothing +more--nothing--nothing." + +Taken before the examining magistrate, her attitude continued to +be defiant and arrogant. "Your cleverest policemen," she told the +magistrate, "will never find any evidence against me. Think well before +you send me to prison. I am not the woman to live long among thieves and +prostitutes." Before deciding finally whether the widow should be thrown +into such uncongenial society, the magistrate ordered Mace to search her +apartment in the Rue de Boulogne. + +On entering the apartment the widow asked that all the windows should be +opened. "Let in the air," she said; "the police are coming in; they +make a nasty smell." She was invited to sit down while the officers +made their search. Her letters and papers were carefully examined; +they presented a strange mixture of order and disorder. Carefully kept +account books of her personal expenses were mixed up with billets +dous, paints and pomades, moneylenders' circulars, belladonna and +cantharides. But most astounding of all were the contents of the widows' +prie-Dieu. In this devotional article of furniture were stored all the +inmost secrets of her profligate career. Affectionate letters from the +elderly gentleman on whom she had imposed a supposititious child lay +side by side with a black-edged card, on which was written the last +message of a young lover who had killed himself on her account. "Jeanne, +in the flush of my youth I die because of you, but I forgive you.--M." +With these genuine outpourings of misplaced affection were mingled the +indecent verses of a more vulgar admirer, and little jars of hashish. +The widow, unmoved by this rude exposure of her way of life, only broke +her silence to ask Mace the current prices on the Stock Exchange. + +One discovery, however, disturbed her equanimity. In the drawer of a +cupboard, hidden under some linen, Mace found a leather case containing +a sheaf of partially-burnt letters. As he was about to open it the widow +protested that it was the property of M. de Saint Pierre. Regardless of +her protest, Mace opened the case, and, looking through the letters, saw +that they were addressed to M. de Saint Pierre and were plainly of an +intimate character. "I found them on the floor near the stove in the +dining-room," said the widow, "and I kept them. I admit it was a wrong +thing to do, but Georges will forgive me when he knows why I did it." +From his better acquaintance with her character Mace surmised that +an action admitted by the widow to be "wrong" was in all probability +something worse. Without delay he took the prisoner back to his office, +and himself left for Courbevoie, there to enlighten, if possible, her +unhappy victim as to the real character of his enchantress. + +The interview was a painful one. The lover refused to hear a word +against his mistress. "Jeanne is my Antigone," he said. "She has +lavished on me all her care, her tenderness, her love, and she believes +in God." Mace told him of her past, of the revelations contained in the +prie-Dieu of this true believer, but he could make no impression. "I +forgive her past, I accept her present, and please understand me, no one +has the power to separate me from her." It was only when Mace placed in +his hands the bundle of burnt letters, that he might feel what he could +not see, and read him some passages from them, that the unhappy man +realised the full extent of his mistress' treachery. Feeling himself +dangerously ill, dying perhaps, M. de Saint Pierre had told the widow to +bring from his rooms to the Rue de Boulogne the contents of his private +desk. It contained some letters compromising to a woman's honour. These +he was anxious to destroy before it was too late. As he went through the +papers, his eyes bandaged, he gave them to the widow to throw into the +stove. He could hear the fire burning and feel its warmth. He heard the +widow take up the tongs. He asked her why she did so. She answered that +it was to keep the burning papers inside the stove. Now from Mace he +learnt the real truth. She had used the tongs to take out some of the +letters half burnt, letters which in her possession might be one day +useful instruments for levying blackmail on her lover. "To blind me," +exclaimed M. de Saint Pierre, "to torture me, and then profit by my +condition to lie to me, to betray me--it's infamous--infamous!" His +dream was shattered. Mace had succeeded in his task; the disenchantment +of M. de Saint Pierre was complete. That night the fastidious widow +joined the thieves and prostitutes in the St. Lazare Prison. + +It was all very well to imprison the widow, but her participation in the +outrage on M. de Saint Pierre was by no means established. + +The reputed brother, who had been in the habit of attending on her at +the Rue de Boulogne, still eluded the searches of the police. In silence +lay the widow's only hope of baffling her enemies. Unfortunately for the +widow, confinement told on her nerves. She became anxious, excited. Her +very ignorance of what was going on around her, her lover's silence +made her apprehensive; she began to fear the worst. At length--the widow +always had an itch for writing--she determined to communicate at all +costs with Gaudry and invoke his aid. She wrote appealing to him to +come forward and admit that he was the man the police were seeking, for +sheltering whom she had been thrown into prison. She drew a harrowing +picture of her sufferings in jail. She had refused food and been +forcibly fed; she would like to dash her head against the walls. If any +misfortune overtake Gaudry, she promises to adopt his son and leave him +a third of her property. She persuaded a fellow-prisoner; an Italian +dancer undergoing six months' imprisonment for theft, who was on the +point of being released, to take the letter and promise to deliver it to +Gaudry at Saint Denis. On her release the dancer told her lover of her +promise. He refused to allow her to mix herself up in such a case, and +destroyed the letter. Then the dancer blabbed to others, until her story +reached the ears of the police. Mace sent for her. At first she could +remember only that the name Nathalis occurred in the letter, but after +visiting accidentally the Cathedral at Saint Denis, she recollected that +this Nathalis lived there, and worked in an oil factory. It was easy +after this for the police to trace Gaudry. He was arrested. At his +house, letters from the widow were found, warning him not to come to her +apartment, and appointing to meet him in Charonne Cemetery. Gaudry made +a full confession. It was his passion for the widow, and a promise on +her part to marry him, which, he said, had induced him to perpetrate so +abominable a crime. He was sent to the Mazas Prison. + +In the meantime the Widow Gras was getting more and more desperate. +Her complete ignorance tormented her. At last she gave up all hope, and +twice attempted suicide with powdered glass and verdigris. On May 12 the +examining magistrate confronted her with Gaudry. The man told his story, +the widow feigned surprise that the "friend of her childhood" should +malign her so cruelly. But to her desperate appeals Gaudry would only +reply, "It is too late!" They were sent for trial. + +The trial of the widow and her accomplice opened before the Paris Assize +Court on July 23, 1877, and lasted three days. The widow was defended by +Lachaud, one of the greatest criminal advocates of France, the defender +of Madame Lafarge, La Pommerais, Troppmann, and Marshal Bazaine. M. +Demange (famous later for his defence of Dreyfus) appeared for Gaudry. +The case had aroused considerable interest. Among those present at the +trial were Halevy, the dramatist, and Mounet-Sully and Coquelin, from +the Comedie Francaise. Fernand Rodays thus described the widow in the +Figaro: "She looks more than her age, of moderate height, well made, +neither blatant nor ill at ease, with nothing of the air of a woman of +the town. Her hands are small. Her bust is flat, and her back round, her +hair quite white. Beneath her brows glitter two jet-black eyes--the eyes +of a tigress, that seem to breathe hatred and revenge." + +Gaudry was interrogated first. Asked by the President the motive of +his crime, he answered, "I was mad for Madame Gras; I would have done +anything she told me. I had known her as a child, I had been brought +up with her. Then I saw her again. I loved her, I was mad for her, I +couldn't resist it. Her wish was law to me." + +Asked if Gaudry had spoken the truth, the widow said that he lied. The +President asked what could be his motive for accusing her unjustly. +The widow was silent. Lachaud begged her to answer. "I cannot," she +faltered. The President invited her to sit down. After a pause the widow +seemed to recover her nerve. + +President: Was Gaudry at your house while you were at the ball? + +Widow: No, no! He daren't look me in the face and say so. + +President: But he is looking at you now. + +Widow: No, he daren't! (She fixes her eyes on Gaudry, who lowers his +head.) + +President: I, whose duty it is to interrogate you, look you in the face +and repeat my question: Was Gaudry at your house at half-past ten that +night? + +Widow: No. + +President: You hear her, Gaudry? + +Gaudry: Yes, Monsieur, but I was there. + +Widow: It is absolutely impossible! Can anyone believe me guilty of such +a thing. + +President: Woman Gras, you prefer to feign indignation and deny +everything. You have the right. I will read your examination before the +examining magistrate. I see M. Lachaud makes a gesture, but I must beg +the counsel for the defence not to impart unnecessary passion into these +proceedings. + +Lachaud: My gesture was merely meant to express that the woman Gras +is on her trial, and that under the circumstances her indignation is +natural. + +President: Very good. + +The appearance in the witness box of the widow's unhappy victim +evoked sympathy. He gave his evidence quietly, without resentment or +indignation. As he told his story the widow, whose eyes were fixed on +him all the time, murmured: "Georges! Georges! Defend me! Defend me!" "I +state the facts," he replied. + +The prisoners could only defend themselves by trying to throw on each +other the guilt of the crime. M. Demange represented Gaudry as acting +under the influence of his passion for the Widow Gras. Lachaud, on the +other hand, attributed the crime solely to Gaudry's jealousy of the +widow's lover, and contended that he was the sole author of the outrage. + +The jury by their verdict assigned to the widow the greater share of +responsibility. She was found guilty in the full degree, but to Gaudry +were accorded extenuating circumstances. The widow was condemned +to fifteen years' penal servitude, her accomplice to five years' +imprisonment. + +It is dreadful to think how very near the Widow Gras came to +accomplishing successfully her diabolical crime. A little less +percipitancy on her part, and she might have secured the fruits of +her cruelty. Her undoubted powers of fascination, in spite of the +fiendishness of her real character, are doubly proved by the devotion of +her lover and the guilt of her accomplice. At the same time, with that +strange contradiction inherent in human nature, the Jekyll and Hyde +elements which, in varying degree, are present in all men and women, the +Widow Gras had a genuine love for her young sister. Her hatred of men +was reasoned, deliberate, merciless and implacable. There is something +almost sadistic in the combination in her character of erotic sensibility +with extreme cruelty. + + + + +Vitalis and Marie Boyer + + +I found the story of this case in a brochure published in Paris as +one of a series of modern causes celebres. I have compared it with the +reports of the trial in the Gazette des Tribunaux. + +I In the May of 1874, in the town of Montpellier, M. Boyer, a retired +merchant, some forty-six years of age, lay dying. For some months +previous to his death he had been confined to his bed, crippled by +rheumatic gout. As the hour of his death drew near, M. Boyer was filled +with a great longing to see his daughter, Marie, a girl of fifteen, and +embrace her for the last time. The girl was being educated in a convent +at Marseilles. One of M. Boyer's friends offered to go there to fetch +her. On arriving at the convent, he was told that Marie had become +greatly attracted by the prospect of a religious life. "You are happy," +the Mother Superior had written to her mother, "very happy never to +have allowed the impure breath of the world to have soiled this little +flower. She loves you and her father more than one can say." Her +father's friend found the girl dressed in the costume of a novice, and +was told that she had expressed her desire to take, one day, her final +vows. He informed Marie of her father's dying state, of his earnest wish +to see her for the last time, and told her that he had come to take +her to his bedside. "Take me away from here?" she exclaimed. The Mother +Superior, surprised at her apparent reluctance to go, impressed on her +the duty of acceding to her father's wish. To the astonishment of both, +Marie refused to leave the convent. If she could save her father's life, +she said, she would go, but, as that was impossible and she dreaded +going out into the world again, she would stay and pray for her father +in the chapel of the convent, where her prayers would be quite as +effective as by his bedside. In vain the friend and the Mother Superior +tried to bend her resolution. + +Happily M. Boyer died before he could learn of his daughter's singular +refusal. But it had made an unfavourable impression on the friend's +mind. He looked on Marie as a girl without real feeling, an egoist, her +religion purely superficial, hiding a cold and selfish disposition; he +felt some doubt as to the future development of her character. + +M. Boyer left a widow, a dark handsome woman, forty years of age. + +Some twenty years before his death, Marie Salat had come to live with +M. Boyer as a domestic servant. He fell in love with her, she became his +mistress, and a few months before the birth of Marie, M. Boyer made her +his wife. Madame Boyer was at heart a woman of ardent and voluptuous +passions that only wanted opportunity to become careless in their +gratification. Her husband's long illness gave her such an opportunity. +At the time of his death she was carrying on an intrigue with a +bookseller's assistant, Leon Vitalis, a young man of twenty-one. Her +bed-ridden husband, ignorant of her infidelity, accepted gratefully +the help of Vitalis, whom his wife described as a relative, in the +regulation of his affairs. At length the unsuspecting Boyer died. The +night of his death Madame Boyer spent with her lover. + +The mother had never felt any great affection for her only child. + +During her husband's lifetime she was glad to have Marie out of the way +at the convent. But the death of M. Boyer changed the situation. He +had left almost the whole of his fortune, about 100,000 francs, to his +daughter, appointing her mother her legal guardian with a right to the +enjoyment of the income on the capital until Marie should come of age. +Madame Boyer had not hitherto taken her daughter's religious devotion +very seriously. But now that the greater part of her husband's fortune +was left to Marie, she realised that, should her daughter persist in +her intention of taking the veil, that fortune would in a very few +years pass into the hands of the sisterhood. Without delay Madame Boyer +exercised her authority, and withdrew Marie from the convent. The girl +quitted it with every demonstration of genuine regret. + +Marie Boyer when she left the convent was growing into a tall and +attractive woman, her figure slight and elegant, her hair and eyes +dark, dainty and charming in her manner. Removed from the influences of +convent life, her religious devotion became a thing of the past. In her +new surroundings she gave herself up to the enjoyments of music and +the theatre. She realised that she was a pretty girl, whose beauty +well repaid the hours she now spent in the adornment of her person. The +charms of Marie were not lost on Leon Vitalis. Mean and significant +in appearance, Vitalis would seem to have been one of those men who, +without any great physical recommendation, have the knack of making +themselves attractive to women. After her husband's death Madame Boyer +had yielded herself completely to his influence and her own undoubted +passion for him. She had given him the money with which to purchase +a business of his own as a second-hand bookseller. This trade the +enterprising and greedy young man combined with money-lending and he +clandestine sale of improper books and photographs. To such a man the +coming of Marie Boyer was a significant event. She was younger, more +attractive than her mother; in a very few years the whole of her +father's fortune would be hers. Slowly Vitalis set himself to win the +girl's affections. The mother's suspicions were aroused; her jealousy +was excited. She sent Marie to complete her education at a convent +school in Lyons. This was in the April of 1875. By this time Marie +and Vitalis had become friendly enough to arrange to correspond +clandestinely during the girl's absence from home. Marie was so far +ignorant of the relations of Vitalis with her mother. + +Her daughter sent away, Madame Boyer surrendered herself with complete +abandonment to her passion for her lover. At Castelnau, close to +Montpellier, she bought a small country house. There she could give full +rein to her desire. To the scandal of the occasional passerby she and +her lover would bathe in a stream that passed through the property, +and sport together on the grass. Indoors there were always books from +Vitalis' collection to stimulate their lascivious appetites. This life +of pastoral impropriety lasted until the middle of August, when Marie +Boyer came home from Lyons. + +Vitalis would have concealed from the young girl as long as he could the +nature of his relations with Madame Boyer, but his mistress by her own +deliberate conduct made all concealment impossible. Whether from the +utter recklessness of her passion for Vitalis, or a desire to kill in +her daughter's heart any attachment which she may have felt towards her +lover, the mother paraded openly before her daughter the intimacy of her +relations with Vitalis, and with the help of the literature with which +the young bookseller supplied her, set about corrupting her child's mind +to her own depraved level. The effect of her extraordinary conduct was, +however, the opposite to what she had intended. The mind of the young +girl was corrupted; she was familiarised with vice. But in her heart +she did not blame Vitalis for what she saw and suffered; she pitied, she +excused him. It was her mother whom she grew to hate, with a hate all +the more determined for the cold passionless exterior beneath which it +was concealed. + +Madame Boyer's deliberate display of her passion for Vitalis served only +to aggravate and intensify in Marie Boyer an unnatural jealousy that was +fast growing up between mother and daughter. + +Marie did not return to the school at Lyons. In the winter of 1875, +Madame Boyer gave up the country house and, with her daughter, settled +in one of the suburbs of Montpellier. In the January of 1876 a theft +occurred in her household which obliged Madame Boyer to communicate +with the police. Spendthrift and incompetent in the management of her +affairs, she was hoarding and suspicious about money itself. Cash and +bonds she would hide away in unexpected places, such as books, dresses, +even a soup tureen. One of her most ingenious hiding places was a +portrait of her late husband, behind which she concealed some bearer +bonds in landed security, amounting to about 11,000 francs. One day in +January these bonds disappeared. She suspected a theft, and informed +the police. Three days later she withdrew her complaint, and no more +was heard of the matter. As Marie and Vitalis were the only persons who +could have known her secret, the inference is obvious. When, later in +the year, Vitalis announced his intention of going to Paris on business, +his mistress expressed to him the hope that he would "have a good time" +with her bonds. Vitalis left for Paris. But there was now a distinct +understanding between Marie and himself. Vitalis had declared himself +her lover and asked her to marry him. The following letter, written to +him by Marie Boyer in the October of 1876, shows her attitude toward his +proposal: + + +"I thank you very sincerely for your letter, which has given me very +great pleasure, because it tells me that you are well. It sets my mind +at rest, for my feelings towards you are the same as ever. I don't say +they are those of love, for I don't know myself; I don't know what such +feelings are. But I feel a real affection for you which may well turn to +love. How should I not hold in affectionate remembrance one who has done +everything for me? But love does not come to order. So I can't and don't +wish to give any positive answer about our marriage--all depends on +circumstances. I don't want any promise from you, I want you to be as +free as I am. I am not fickle, you know me well enough for that. So +don't ask me to give you any promise. You may find my letter a little +cold. But I know too much of life to pledge myself lightly. I assure +you I think on it often. Sometimes I blush when I think what marriage +means." + + +Madame Boyer, displeased at the theft, had let her lover go without any +great reluctance. No sooner had he gone than she began to miss him. Life +seemed dull without him. Mother and daughter were united at least in +their common regret at the absence of the young bookseller. To vary the +monotony of existence, to find if possible a husband for her daughter, +Madame Boyer decided to leave Montpellier for Marseilles, and there +start some kind of business. The daughter, who foresaw greater amusement +and pleasure in the life of a large city, assented willingly. On October +6, 1876, they arrived at Marseilles, and soon after Madame bought at +a price considerably higher than their value, two shops adjoining one +another in the Rue de la Republique. One was a cheese shop, the other a +milliner's. + +The mother arranged that she should look after the cheese shop, while +her daughter presided over the milliner's. The two shops were next door +to one another. Behind the milliner's was a drawing-room, behind the +cheese shop a kitchen; these two rooms communicated with each other by +a large dark room at the back of the building. In the kitchen was a +trap-door leading to a cellar. The two women shared a bedroom in an +adjoining house. + +Vitalis had opposed the scheme of his mistress to start shop-keeping in +Marseilles. He knew how unfitted she was to undertake a business of +any kind. But neither mother nor daughter would relinquish the plan. It +remained therefore to make the best of it. Vitalis saw that he must get +the business into his own hands; and to do that, to obtain full control +of Madame Boyer's affairs, he must continue to play the lover to her. To +the satisfaction of the two women, he announced his intention of coming +to Marseilles in the New Year of 1877. It was arranged that he should +pass as a nephew of Madame Boyer, the cousin of Marie. He arrived at +Marseilles on January 1, and received a cordial welcome. Of the domestic +arrangements that ensued, it is sufficient to say that they were +calculated to whet the jealousy and inflame the hatred that Marie felt +towards her mother, who now persisted as before in parading before her +daughter the intimacy of her relations with Vitalis. + +In these circumstances Vitalis succeeded in extracting from his mistress +a power of attorney, giving him authority to deal with her affairs and +sell the two businesses, which were turning out unprofitable. This done, +he told Marie, whose growing attachment to him, strange as it may seem, +had turned to love, that now at last they could be free. He would sell +the two shops, and with the money released by the sale they could go +away to-gether. Suddenly Madame Boyer fell ill, and was confined to her +bed. Left to themselves, the growing passion of Marie Boyer for Vitalis +culminated in her surrender. But for the sick mother the happiness of +the lovers was complete. If only her illness were more serious, more +likely to be fatal in its result! "If only God would take her!" said +Vitalis. "Yes," replied her daughter, "she has caused us so much +suffering!" + +To Madame Boyer her illness had brought hours of torment, and at last +remorse. She realised the duplicity of her lover, she knew that he meant +to desert her for her daughter, she saw what wrong she had done that +daughter, she suspected even that Marie and Vitalis were poisoning her. +Irreligious till now, her thoughts turned to religion. As soon as she +could leave her bed she would go to Mass and make atonement for her sin; +she would recover her power of attorney, get rid of Vitalis for good +and all, and send her daughter back to a convent. But it was too late. +Nemesis was swift to overtake the hapless woman. Try as he might, +Vitalis had found it impossible to sell the shops at anything but a +worthless figure. He had no money of his own, with which to take Marie +away. He knew that her mother had resolved on his instant dismissal. + +As soon as Madame Boyer was recovered sufficiently to leave her bed, +she turned on her former lover, denounced his treachery, accused him +of robbing and swindling her, and bade him go without delay. To Vitalis +dismissal meant ruin, to Marie it meant the loss of her lover. During +her illness the two young people had wished Madame Boyer dead, but she +had recovered. Providence or Nature having refused to assist Vitalis, +he resolved to fall back on art. He gave up a whole night's rest to +the consideration of the question. As a result of his deliberations he +suggested to the girl of seventeen the murder of her mother. "This must +end," said Vitalis. "Yes, it must," replied Marie. Vitalis asked her if +she had any objection to such a crime. Marie hesitated, the victim was +her mother. Vitalis reminded her what sort of a mother she had been to +her. The girl said that she was terrified at the sight of blood; Vitalis +promised that her mother should be strangled. At length Marie consented. +That night on some slight pretext Madame Boyer broke out into violent +reproaches against her daughter. She little knew that every reproach +she uttered served only to harden in her daughter's heart her unnatural +resolve. + +On the morning of March 19 Madame Boyer rose early to go to Mass. + +Before she went out, she reminded Vitalis that this was his last day in +her service, that when she returned she would expect to find him gone. +It was after seven when she left the house. The lovers had no time to +lose; the deed must be done immediately on the mother's return. They +arranged that Vitalis should get rid of the shop-boy, and that, as soon +as he had gone, Marie should shut and lock the front doors of the +two shops. At one o'clock Madame Boyer came back. She expressed her +astonishment and disgust that Vitalis still lingered, and threatened to +send for the police to turn him out. Vitalis told the shop-boy that he +could go away for a few hours; they had some family affairs to settle. +The boy departed. Madame Boyer, tired after her long morning in the +town, was resting on a sofa in the sitting-room, at the back of the +milliner's shop. Vitalis entered the room, and after a few heated words, +struck her a violent blow in the chest. She fell back on the sofa, +calling to her daughter to come to her assistance. The daughter sought +to drown her mother's cries by banging the doors, and opening and +shutting drawers. Vitalis, who was now trying to throttle his victim, +called to Marie to shut the front doors of the two shops. + +To do so Marie had to pass through the sitting-room, and was a witness +to the unsuccessful efforts of Vitalis to strangle her mother. Having +closed the doors, she retired into the milliner's shop to await the +issue. After a few moments her lover called to her for the large cheese +knife; he had caught up a kitchen knife, but in his struggles it had +slipped from his grasp. Quickly Marie fetched the knife and returned to +the sitting-room. There a desperate struggle was taking place between +the man and woman. At one moment it seemed as if Madame Boyer would get +the better of Vitalis, whom nature had not endowed greatly for work of +this kind. Marie came to his aid. She kicked and beat her mother, until +at last the wretched creature released her hold and sank back exhausted. +With the cheese knife, which her daughter had fetched, Vitalis killed +Madame Boyer. + +They were murderers now, the young lovers. What to do with the body? The +boy would be coming back soon. The cellar under the kitchen seemed +the obvious place of concealment. With the help of a cord the body was +lowered into the cellar, and Marie washed the floor of the sitting-room. +The boy came back. He asked where Madame Boyer was. Vitalis told him +that she was getting ready to return to Montpellier the same evening, +and that he had arranged to go with her, but that he had no intention +of doing so; he would accompany her to the station, he said, and then at +the last moment, just as the train was starting, slip away and let +her go on her journey alone. To the boy, who knew enough of the inner +history of the household to enjoy the piquancy of the situation, such a +trick seemed quite amusing. He went away picturing in his mind the scene +at the railway station and its humorous possibilities. + +At seven o'clock Vitalis and Marie Boyer were alone once more with +the murdered woman. They had the whole night before them. Vitalis had +already considered the matter of the disposal of the body. He had bought +a pick and spade. He intended to bury his former mistress in the soil +under the cellar. After that had been done, he and Marie would sell the +business for what it would fetch, and go to Brussels--an admirable plan, +which two unforeseen circumstances defeated. The Rue de la Republique +was built on a rock, blasted out for the purpose. The shop-boy had gone +to the station that evening to enjoy the joke which, he believed, was to +be played on his mistress. + +When Vitalis tried to dig a grave into the ground beneath the cellar +he realised the full horror of the disappointment. What was to be done? +They must throw the body into the sea. But how to get it there? The +crime of Billoir, an old soldier, who the year before in Paris had +killed his mistress in a fit of anger and cut up her body, was fresh in +the recollection of Vitalis. The guilty couple decided to dismember +the body of Madame Boyer and so disfigure her face as to render it +unrecognisable. In the presence of Marie, Vitalis did this, and the two +lovers set out at midnight to discover some place convenient for the +reception of the remains. They found the harbour too busy for their +purpose, and decided to wait until the morrow, when they would go +farther afield. They returned home and retired for the night, occupying +the bed in which Madame Boyer had slept the night before. + +On the morning of the 20th the lovers rose early, and a curious +neighbour, looking through the keyhole, saw them counting joyously money +and valuables, as they took them from Madame Boyer's cashbox. When the +shop-boy arrived, he asked Vitalis for news of Madame Boyer. Vitalis +told him that he had gone with her to the station, that she had taken +the train to Montpellier, and that, in accordance with his plan, he had +given her the slip just as the train was starting. This the boy knew to +be false: he had been to the station himself to enjoy the fun, and had +seen neither Vitalis nor Madame Boyer. He began to suspect some mystery. +In the evening, when the shops had been closed, and he had been sent +about his business, he waited and watched. In a short time he saw +Vitalis and Marie Boyer leave the house, the former dragging a hand-cart +containing two large parcels, while Marie walked by his side. They +travelled some distance with their burden, leaving the city behind +them, hoping to find some deserted spot along the coast where they could +conceal the evidence of their crime. Their nerves were shaken by meeting +with a custom-house officer, who asked them what it was they had in +the cart. Vitalis answered that it was a traveller's luggage, and the +officer let them pass on. But soon after, afraid to risk another such +experience, the guilty couple turned out the parcels into a ditch, +covered them with stones and sand, and hurried home. + +The next day, the shop-boy and the inquisitive neighbour having +consulted together, went to the Commissary of Police and told him of +the mysterious disappearance of Madame Boyer. The Commissary promised to +investigate the matter, and had just dismissed his informants when word +was brought to him of the discovery, in a ditch outside Marseilles, of +two parcels containing human remains. He called back the boy and took +him to view the body at the Morgue. The boy was able, by the clothes, +to identify the body as that of his late mistress. The Commissary went +straight to the shops in the Rue de la Republique, where he found the +young lovers preparing for flight. At first they denied all knowledge of +the crime, and said that Madame Boyer had gone to Montpellier. They were +arrested, and it was not long before they both confessed their guilt to +the examining magistrate. + +Vitalis and Marie Boyer were tried before the Assize Court at Aix +on July 2, 1877. Vitalis is described as mean and insignificant in +appearance, thin, round-backed, of a bilious complexion; Marie Boyer +as a pretty, dark girl, her features cold in expression, dainty and +elegant. At her trial she seemed to be still so greatly under the +influence of Vitalis that during her interrogatory the President sent +him out of court. To the examining magistrate Marie Boyer, in describing +her mother's murder, had written, "I cannot think how I came to take +part in it. I, who wouldn't have stayed in the presence of a corpse for +all the money in the world." Vitalis was condemned to death, and was +executed on August 17. He died fearful and penitent, acknowledging +his miserable career to be a warning to misguided youth. Extenuating +circumstances were accorded to Marie Boyer, and she was sentenced to +penal servitude for life. Her conduct in prison was so repentant and +exemplary that she was released in 1892. + +M. Proal, a distinguished French judge, and the author of some important +works on crime, acted as the examining magistrate in the case of Vitalis +and Marie Boyer. He thus sums up his impression of the two criminals: +"Here is an instance of how greed and baseness on the one side, lust and +jealousy on the other, bring about by degrees a change in the +characters of criminals, and, after some hesitation, the suggestion and +accomplishment of parricide, Is it necessary to seek an explanation +of the crime in any psychic abnormality which is negatived to all +appearances by the antecedents of the guilty pair? Is it necessary to +ask it of anatomy or physiology? Is not the crime the result of moral +degradation gradually asserting itself in two individuals, whose moral +and intellectual faculties are the same as those of other men, but +who fall, step by step, into vice and crime? It is by a succession of +wrongful acts that a man first reaches the frontier of crime and then at +length crosses it." + + + + +The Fenayrou Case + + +There is an account of this case in Bataille "Causes Criminelles et +Mondaines" (1882), and in Mace's book, "Femmes Criminelles." It is +alluded to in "Souvenirs d'un President d'Assises," by Berard des +Glajeux. The murder of the chemist Aubert by Marin Fenayrou and his wife +Gabrielle was perpetrated near Paris in the year 1882. In its beginning +the story is commonplace enough. Fenayrou was the son of a small +chemist in the South of France, and had come to Paris from the Aveyron +Department to follow his father's vocation. He obtained a situation +as apprentice in the Rue de la Ferme des Mathurins in the shop of a M. +Gibon. On the death of M. Gibon his widow thought she saw in Fenayrou +a man capable of carrying on her late husband's business. She gave her +daughter in marriage to her apprentice, and installed him in the +shop. The ungrateful son-in-law, sure of his wife and his business and +contrary to his express promise, turned the old lady out of the house. +This occurred in the year 1870, Fenayrou being then thirty years of age, +his wife, Gabrielle, seventeen. + +They were an ill-assorted and unattractive couple. The man, a compound +of coarse brutality and shrewd cunning, was at heart lazy and selfish, +the woman a spoilt child, in whom a real want of feeling was supplied by +a shallow sentimentalism. Vain of the superior refinement conferred +on her by a good middle-class education, she despised and soon came to +loathe her coarse husband, and lapsed into a condition of disappointment +and discontent that was only relieved superficially by an extravagant +devotion to religious exercises. + +It was in 1875, when the disillusionment of Mme. Fenayrou was complete, +that her husband received into his shop a pupil, a youth of twenty-one, +Louis Aubert. He was the son of a Norman tradesman. The ambitious father +had wished his son to enter the church, but the son preferred to be a +chemist. He was a shrewd, hard-working fellow, with an eye to the main +chance and a taste for pleasures that cost him nothing, jovial, but +vulgar and self-satisfied, the kind of man who, having enjoyed the +favours of woman, treats her with arrogance and contempt, till from +loving she comes to loathe him--a characteristic example, according +to M. Bourget, of le faux homme a femmes. Such was Aubert, Fenayrou's +pupil. He was soon to become something more than pupil. + +Fenayrou as chemist had not answered to the expectations of his +mother-in-law. His innate laziness and love of coarse pleasures had +asserted themselves. At first his wife had shared in the enjoyments, but +as time went on and after the birth of their two children, things became +less prosperous. She was left at home while Fenayrou spent his time +in drinking bocks of beer, betting and attending race-meetings. It was +necessary, under these circumstances, that someone should attend to +the business of the shop. In Aubert Fenayrou found a ready and willing +assistant. + +From 1876 to 1880, save for an occasional absence for military service, +Aubert lived with the Fenayrous, managing the business and making love +to the bored and neglected wife, who after a few months became his +mistress. Did Fenayrou know of this intrigue or not? That is a crucial +question in the case. If he did not, it was not for want of warning from +certain of his friends and neighbours, to whom the intrigue was a matter +of common knowledge. Did he refuse to believe in his wife's guilt? or, +dependent as he was for his living on the exertions of his assistant, +did he deliberately ignore it, relying on his wife's attractions to +keep the assiduous Aubert at work in the shop? In any case Aubert's +arrogance, which had increased with the consciousness of his importance +to the husband and his conquest of the wife, led in August of 1880, to +a rupture. Aubert left the Fenayrous and bought a business of his own on +the Boulevard Malesherbes. + +Before his departure Aubert had tried to persuade Mme. Gibon to sell up +her son-in-law by claiming from him the unpaid purchase-money for her +husband's shop. He represented Fenayrou as an idle gambler, and hinted +that he would find her a new purchaser. Such an underhand proceeding was +likely to provoke resentment if it should come to the ears of Fenayrou. +During the two years that elapsed between his departure from Fenayrou's +house and his murder, Aubert had prospered in his shop on the Boulevard +Malesherbes, whilst the fortunes of the Fenayrous had steadily +deteriorated. + +At the end of the year 1881 Fenayrou sold his shop and went with +his family to live on one of the outer boulevards, that of +Gouvion-Saint-Cyr. He had obtained a post in a shady mining company, in +which he had persuaded his mother-in-law to invest 20,000 francs. He had +attempted also to make money by selling fradulent imitations of a +famous table-water. For this offence, at the beginning of 1882, he +was condemned by the Correctional Tribunal of Paris to three months' +imprisonment and 1,000 francs costs. + +In March of 1882 the situation of the Fenayrous was parlous, that of +Aubert still prosperous. + +Since Aubert's departure Mme. Fenayrou had entertained another lover, a +gentleman on the staff of a sporting newspaper, one of Fenayrou's turf +acquaintances. This gentleman had found her a cold mistress, preferring +the ideal to the real. As a murderess Madame Fenayrou overcame this +weakness. + +If we are to believe Fenayrou's story, the most critical day in his life +was March 22, 1882, for it was on that day, according to his account, +that he learnt for the first time of his wife's intrigue with Aubert. +Horrified and enraged at the discovery, he took from her her nuptial +wreath, her wedding-ring, her jewellery, removed from its frame her +picture in charcoal which hung in the drawing-room, and told her, +paralysed with terror, that the only means of saving her life was to +help him to murder her lover. + +Two months later, with her assistance, this outraged husband +accomplished his purpose with diabolical deliberation. He must have been +well aware that, had he acted on the natural impulse of the moment and +revenged himself then and there on Aubert, he would have committed what +is regarded by a French jury as the most venial of crimes, and would +have escaped with little or no punishment. He preferred, for reasons of +his own, to set about the commission of a deliberate and cold-blooded +murder that bears the stamp of a more sinister motive than the vengeance +of a wronged husband. + +The only step he took after the alleged confession of his wife on March +22 was to go to a commissary of police and ask him to recover from +Aubert certain letters of his wife's that were in his possession. This +the commissary refused to do. Mme. Gibon, the mother-in-law, was sent to +Aubert to try to recover the letters, but Aubert declined to give them +up, and wrote to Mme. Fenayrou: + + +"Madame, to my displeasure I have had a visit this morning from your +mother, who has come to my home and made a most unnecessary scene +and reproached me with facts so serious that I must beg you to see me +without delay. It concerns your honour and mine.... I have no fear of +being confronted with your husband and yourself. I am ready, when +you wish, to justify myself.... Please do all you can to prevent +a repetition of your mother's visit or I shall have to call in the +police." + + +It is clear that the Fenayrous attached the utmost importance to the +recovery of this correspondence, which disappeared with Aubert's death. +Was the prime motive of the murder the recovery and destruction of these +letters? Was Aubert possessed of some knowledge concerning the Fenayrous +that placed them at his mercy? + +It would seem so. To a friend who had warned him of the danger to which +his intimacy with Gabrielle Fenayrou exposed him, Aubert had replied, +"Bah! I've nothing to fear. I hold them in my power." The nature of +the hold which Aubert boasted that he possessed over these two persons +remains the unsolved mystery of the case, "that limit of investigation," +in the words of a French judge, "one finds in most great cases, beyond +which justice strays into the unknown." + +That such a hold existed, Aubert's own statement and the desperate +attempts made by the Fenayrous to get back these letters, would seem +to prove beyond question. Had Aubert consented to return them, would +he have saved his life? It seems probable. As it was, he was doomed. +Fenayrou hated him. They had had a row on a race-course, in the course +of which Aubert had humiliated his former master. More than this, Aubert +had boasted openly of his relations with Mme. Fenayrou, and the fact +had reached the ears of the husband. Fenayrou believed also, though +erroneously, that Aubert had informed against him in the matter of the +table-water fraud. Whether his knowledge of Aubert's relations with +his wife was recent or of long standing, he had other grounds of hate +against his former pupil. He himself had failed in life, but he saw his +rival prosperous, arrogant in his prosperity, threatening, dangerous +to his peace of mind; he envied and feared as well as hated him. +Cruel, cunning and sinister, Fenayrou spent the next two months in the +meditation of a revenge that was not only to remove the man he feared, +but was to give him a truly fiendish opportunity of satisfying his +ferocious hatred. + +And the wife what of her share in the business? Had she also come to +hate Aubert? Or did she seek to expiate her guilt by assisting her +husband in the punishment of her seducer? A witness at the trial +described Mme. Fenayrou as "a soft paste" that could be moulded equally +well to vice or virtue, a woman destitute of real feeling or strength of +will, who, under the direction of her husband, carried out implicitly, +precisely and carefully her part in an atrocious murder, whose only +effort to prevent the commission of such a deed was to slip away into a +church a few minutes before she was to meet the man she was decoying to +his death, and pray that his murder might be averted. + +Her religious sense, like the images in the hat of Louis XI., was a +source of comfort and consolation in the doing of evil, but powerless +to restrain her from the act itself, in the presence of a will stronger +than her own. At the time of his death Aubert contemplated marriage, and +had advertised for a wife. If Mme. Fenayrou was aware of this, it may +have served to stimulate her resentment against her lover, but there +seems little reason to doubt that, left to herself, she would never have +had the will or the energy to give that resentment practical expression. +It required the dictation of the vindictive and malevolent Fenayrou to +crystallise her hatred of Aubert into a deliberate participation in his +murder. + +Eight or nine miles north-west of Paris lies the small town of Chatou, a +pleasant country resort for tired Parisians. Here Madeleine Brohan, the +famous actress, had inhabited a small villa, a two-storied building. At +the beginning of 1882 it was to let. In the April of that year a person +of the name of "Hess" agreed to take it at a quarterly rent of 1,200 +francs, and paid 300 in advance. "Hess" was no other than Fenayrou--the +villa that had belonged to Madeleine Brohan the scene chosen for +Aubert's murder. Fenayrou was determined to spare no expense in the +execution of his design: it was to cost him some 3,000 francs before he +had finished with it. + +As to the actual manner of his betrayer's death, the outraged husband +found it difficult to make up his mind. It was not to be prompt, nor +was unnecessary suffering to be avoided. At first he favoured a pair of +"infernal" opera-glasses that concealed a couple of steel points which, +by means of a spring, would dart out into the eyes of anyone using them +and destroy their sight. This rather elaborate and uncertain machine was +abandoned later in favour of a trap for catching wolves. This was to be +placed under the table, and seize in its huge iron teeth the legs of the +victim. In the end simplicity, in the shape of a hammer and sword-stick, +won the day. An assistant was taken in the person of Lucien Fenayrou, a +brother of Marin. + +This humble and obliging individual, a maker of children's toys, +regarded his brother the chemist with something like veneration as the +gentleman and man of education of the family. Fifty francs must +have seemed to him an almost superfluous inducement to assist in the +execution of what appeared to be an act of legitimate vengeance, an +affair of family honour in which the wife and brother of the injured +husband were in duty bound to participate. Mme. Fenayrou, with +characteristic superstition, chose the day of her boy's first communion +to broach the subject of the murder to Lucien. By what was perhaps more +than coincidence, Ascension Day, May 18, was selected as the day for the +crime itself. There were practical reasons also. It was a Thursday and +a public holiday. On Thursdays the Fenayrou children spent the day with +their grandmother, and at holiday time there was a special midnight +train from Chatou to Paris that would enable the murderers to return to +town after the commission of their crime. A goat chaise and twenty-six +feet of gas piping had been purchased by Fenayrou and taken down to the +villa. + +Nothing remained but to secure the presence of the victim. At the +direction of her husband Mme. Fenayrou wrote to Aubert on May 14, a +letter in which she protested her undying love for him, and expressed +a desire to resume their previous relations. Aubert demurred at first, +but, as she became more pressing, yielded at length to her suggestion. +If it cost him nothing, Aubert was the last man to decline an invitation +of the kind. A trip to Chatou was arranged for Ascension Day, May 18, by +the train leaving Paris from the St. Lazare Station, at half-past eight +in the evening. + +On the afternoon of that day Fenayrou, his wife and his brother sent +the children to their grandmother and left Paris for Chatou at three +o'clock. Arrived there, they went to the villa, Fenayrou carrying +the twenty-six feet of gas-piping wound round him like some huge +hunting-horn. He spent the afternoon in beating out the piping till it +was flat, and in making a gag. He tried to take up the flooring in the +kitchen, but this plan for the concealment of the body was abandoned +in favour of the river. As soon as these preparations, in which he was +assisted by his two relatives, had been completed, Fenayrou placed a +candle, some matches and the sword-stick on the drawing-room table and +returned to Paris. + +The three conspirators dined together heartily in the Avenue de +Clichy--soup, fish, entree, sweet and cheese, washed down by a bottle +of claret and a pint of burgundy, coffee to follow, with a glass of +chartreuse for Madame. To the waiter the party seemed in the best of +spirits. Dinner ended, the two men returned to Chatou by the 7.35 train, +leaving Gabrielle to follow an hour later with Aubert. Fenayrou had +taken three second-class return tickets for his wife, his brother and +himself, and a single for their visitor. It was during the interval +between the departure of her husband and her meeting with Aubert that +Mme. Fenayrou went into the church of St. Louis d'Antin and prayed. + +At half-past eight she met Aubert at the St. Lazare Station, gave +him his ticket and the two set out for Chatou--a strange journey Mme. +Fenayrou was asked what they talked about in the railway carriage. "Mere +nothings," she replied. Aubert abused her mother; for her own part, she +was very agitated--tres emotionnee. It was about half-past nine when +they reached their destination. The sight of the little villa pleased +Aubert. + +"Ah!" he said, "this is good. I should like a house like this and +twenty thousand francs a year!" As he entered the hall, surprised at +the darkness, he exclaimed: "The devil! it's precious dark! 'tu sais, +Gabrielle, que je ne suis pas un heros d'aventure.'" The woman pushed +him into the drawing-room. He struck a match on his trousers. Fenayrou, +who had been lurking in the darkness in his shirt sleeves, made a blow +at him with the hammer, but it was ineffectual. A struggle ensued. The +room was plunged in darkness. Gabrielle waited outside. After a little, +her husband called for a light; she came in and lit a candle on the +mantelpiece. Fenayrou was getting the worst of the encounter. She ran +to his help, and dragged off his opponent. Fenayrou was free. He struck +again with the hammer. Aubert fell, and for some ten minutes Fenayrou +stood over the battered and bleeding man abusing and insulting +him, exulting in his vengeance. Then he stabbed him twice with the +sword-stick, and so ended the business. + +The murderers had to wait till past eleven to get rid of the body, as +the streets were full of holiday-makers. When all was quiet they put it +into the goat chaise, wrapped round with the gas-piping, and wheeled it +on to the Chatou bridge. To prevent noise they let the body down by a +rope into the water. It was heavier than they thought, and fell with a +loud splash into the river. "Hullo!" exclaimed a night-fisherman, who +was mending his tackle not far from the bridge, "there go those butchers +again, chucking their filth into the Seine!" + +As soon as they had taken the chaise back to the villa, the three +assassins hurried to the station to catch the last train. Arriving there +a little before their time, they went into a neighbouring cafe. Fenayrou +had three bocks, Lucien one, and Madame another glass of chartreuse. +So home to Paris. Lucien reached his house about two in the morning. +"Well," asked his wife, "did you have a good day?" "Splendid," was the +reply. + +Eleven days passed. Fenayrou paid a visit to the villa to clean it +and put it in order. Otherwise he went about his business as usual, +attending race meetings, indulging in a picnic and a visit to the Salon. +On May 27 a man named Bailly, who, by a strange coincidence, was +known by the nickname of "the Chemist," walking by the river, had his +attention called by a bargeman to a corpse that was floating on the +water. He fished it out. It was that of Aubert. In spite of a gag tired +over his mouth the water had got into the body, and, notwithstanding the +weight of the lead piping, it had risen to the surface. + +As soon as the police had been informed of the disappearance of Aubert, +their suspicions had fallen on the Fenayrous in consequence of the +request which Marin Fenayrou had made to the commissary of police to +aid him in the recovery from Aubert of his wife's letters. But there +had been nothing further in their conduct to provoke suspicion. When, +however, the body was discovered and at the same time an anonymous +letter received denouncing the Fenayrous as the murderers of Aubert, the +police decided on their arrest. On the morning of June 8 M. Mace, +then head of the Detective Department, called at their house. He found +Fenayrou in a dressing-gown. This righteous avenger of his wife's +seduction denied his guilt, like any common criminal, but M. Mace handed +him over to one of his men, to be taken immediately to Versailles. He +himself took charge of Madame, and, in the first-class carriage full of +people, in which they travelled together to Versailles, she whispered to +the detective a full confession of the crime. + +Mace has left us an account of this singular railway journey. It was two +o'clock in the afternoon. In the carriage were five ladies and a young +man who was reading La Vie Parisienne. Mme. Fenayrou was silent and +thoughtful. "You're thinking of your present position?" asked the +detective. "No, I'm thinking of my mother and my dear children." "They +don't seem to care much about their father," remarked Mace. "Perhaps +not." "Why?" asked M. Mace. "Because of his violent temper," was the +reply. After some further conversation and the departure at Courbevoie +of the young man with La Vie Parisienne, Mme. Fenayrou asked abruptly: +"Do you think my husband guilty?" "I'm sure of it." "So does Aubert's +sister." "Certainly," answered M. Mace; "she looks on the crime as one +of revenge." "But my brother-in-law," urged the woman, "could have had +no motive for vengeance against Aubert." Mace answered coldly that he +would have to explain how he had employed his time on Ascension Day. +"You see criminals everywhere," answered Madame. + +After the train had left St. Cloud, where the other occupants of the +carriage had alighted, the detective and his prisoner were alone, free +of interruption till Versailles should be reached. Hitherto they had +spoken in whispers; now Mace seized the opportunity to urge the woman to +unbosom herself to him, to reveal her part in the crime. She burst into +tears. There was an interval of silence; then she thanked Mace for the +kindness and consideration he had shown her. "You wish me," she asked, +"to betray my husband?" "Without any design or intention on your +part," discreetly answered the detective; "but by the sole force of +circumstances you are placed in such a position that you cannot help +betraying him." + +Whether convinced or not of this tyranny of circumstance, Mme. Fenayrou +obeyed her mentor, and calmly, coldly, without regret or remorse, told +him the story of the assassination. Towards the end of her narration she +softened a little. "I know I am a criminal," she exclaimed. "Since this +morning I have done nothing but lie. I am sick of it; it makes me +suffer too much. Don't tell my husband until this evening that I have +confessed; there's no need, for, after what I have told you, you can +easily expose his falsehoods and so get at the truth." + +That evening the three prisoners--Lucien had been arrested at the +same time as the other two--were brought to Chatou. Identified by +the gardener as the lessee of the villa, Fenayrou abandoned his +protestations of innocence and admitted his guilt. The crime was then +and there reconstituted in the presence of the examining magistrate. +With the help of a gendarme, who impersonated Aubert, Fenayrou repeated +the incidents of the murder. The goat-chaise was wheeled to the bridge, +and there in the presence of an indignant crowd, the murderer showed how +the body had been lowered into the river. + +After a magisterial investigation lasting two months, which failed +to shed any new light on the more mysterious elements in the case, +Fenayrou, his wife and brother were indicted on August 19 before the +Assize Court for the Seine-et-Oise Department, sitting at Versailles. + +The attitude of the three culprits was hardly such as to provoke the +sympathies of even a French jury. Fenayrou seemed to be giving a clumsy +and unconvincing performance of the role of the wronged husband; his +heavy figure clothed in an ill-fitting suit of "blue dittos," his +ill-kempt red beard and bock-stained moustache did not help him in his +impersonation. Mme. Fenayrou, pale, colourless, insignificant, was cold +and impenetrable. She described the murder of her lover "as if she were +giving her cook a household recipe for making apricot Jam." Lucien was +humble and lachrymose. + +In his interrogatory of the husband the President, M. Berard des +Glajeux, showed himself frankly sceptical as to the ingenuousness of +Fenayrou's motives in assassinating Aubert. "Now, what was the motive of +this horrible crime?" he asked. "Revenge," answered Fenayrou. + +President: But consider the care you took to hide the body and destroy +all trace of your guilt; that is not the way in which a husband sets out +to avenge his honour; these are the methods of the assassin! With your +wife's help you could have caught Aubert in flagrante delicto and killed +him on the spot, and the law would have absolved you. Instead of +which you decoy him into a hideous snare. Public opinion suggests that +jealousy of your former assistant's success, and mortification at your +own failure, were the real motives. Or was it not perhaps that you had +been in the habit of rendering somewhat dubious services to some of your +promiscuous clients? + +Fenayrou: Nothing of the kind, I swear it! + +President: Do not protest too much. Remember that among your +acquaintances you were suspected of cheating at cards. As a chemist you +had been convinced of fraud. Perhaps Aubert knew something against you. +Some act of poisoning, or abortion, in which you had been concerned? +Many witnesses have believed this. + +Your mother-in-law is said to have remarked, "My son-in-law will end in +jail." + +Fenayrou (bursting into tears): This is too dreadful. + +President: And Dr. Durand, an old friend of Aubert, remembers the +deceased saying to him, "One has nothing to fear from people one holds +in one's hands." + +Fenayrou: I don't know what he meant. + +President: Or, considering the cruelty, cowardice, the cold calculation +displayed in the commission of the crime, shall we say this was a +woman's not a man's revenge. You have said your wife acted as your +slave--was it not the other way about? + +Fenayrou: No; it was my revenge, mine alone. + +The view that regarded Mme. Fenayrou as a soft, malleable paste was not +the view of the President. + +"Why," he asked the woman, "did you commit this horrible murder, decoy +your lover to his death?" "Because I had repented," was the answer; "I +had wronged my husband, and since he had been condemned for fraud, +I loved him the more for being unfortunate. And then I feared for my +children." + +President: Is that really the case? + +Mme. Fenayrou: Certainly it is. + +President: Then your whole existence has been one of lies and hypocrisy. +Whilst you were deceiving your husband and teaching your children to +despise him you were covering him with caresses. + +You have played false to both husband and lover--to Aubert in decoying +him to his death, to your husband by denouncing him directly you were +arrested. You have betrayed everybody. The only person you have not +betrayed is yourself. What sort of a woman are you? As you and Aubert +went into the drawing-room on the evening of the murder you said loudly, +"This is the way," so that your husband, hearing your voice outside, +should not strike you by mistake in the darkness. If Lucien had not told +us that you attacked Aubert whilst he was struggling with your husband, +we should never have known it, for you would never have admitted it, and +your husband has all along refused to implicate you.... You have said +that you had ceased to care for your lover: he had ceased to care for +you. He was prosperous, happy, about to marry: you hated him, and you +showed your hate when, during the murder, you flung yourself upon him +and cried, "Wretch!" Is that the behaviour of a woman who represents +herself to have been the timid slave of her husband? No. This crime is +the revenge of a cowardly and pitiless woman, who writes down in her +account book the expenses of the trip to Chatou and, after the murder, +picnics merrily in the green fields. It was you who steeled your husband +to the task. + +How far the President was justified in thus inverting the parts played +by the husband and wife in the crime must be a matter of opinion. In his +volume of Souvenirs M. Berard des Glajeux modifies considerably the view +which he perhaps felt it his duty to express in his interrogatory of +Gabrielle Fenayrou. He describes her as soft and flexible by nature, the +repentant slave of her husband, seeking to atone for her wrong to him +by helping him in his revenge. The one feature in the character of +Mme. Fenayrou that seems most clearly demonstrated is its absolute +insensibility under any circumstances whatsoever. + +The submissive Lucien had little to say for himself, nor could any +motive for joining in the murder beyond a readiness to oblige his +brother be suggested. In his Souvenirs M. Berard des Glajeux states that +to-day it would seem to be clearly established that Lucien acted blindly +at the bidding of his sister-in-law, "qu'il avait beaucoup aimee et qui +n'avait pas ete cruelle a son egard." + +The evidence recapitulated for the most part the facts already set +out. The description of Mme. Fenayrou by the gentleman on the sporting +newspaper who had succeeded Aubert in her affections is, under the +circumstances, interesting: "She was sad, melancholy; I questioned +her, and she told me she was married to a coarse man who neglected her, +failed to understand her, and had never loved her. I became her lover +but, except on a few occasions, our relations were those of good +friends. She was a woman with few material wants, affectionate, +expansive, an idealist, one who had suffered much and sought from +without a happiness her marriage had never brought her. I believe her to +have been the blind tool of her husband." + +From motives of delicacy the evidence of this gentleman was read in +his presence; he was not examined orally. His eulogy of his mistress +is loyal. Against it may be set the words of the Procureur de la +Republique, M. Delegorgue: "Never has a more thorough-paced, a more +hideous monster been seated in the dock of an assize court. This woman +is the personification of falsehood, depravity, cowardice and treachery. +She is worthy of the supreme penalty." The jury were not of this +opinion. They preferred to regard Mme. Fenayrou as playing a secondary +part to that of her husband. They accorded in both her case and that +of Lucien extenuating circumstances. The woman was sentenced to penal +servitude for life, Lucien to seven years. Fenayrou, for whose conduct +the jury could find no extenuation, was condemned to death. + +It is the custom in certain assize towns for the President, after +pronouncing sentence, to visit a prisoner who had been ordered for +execution. M. Berard des Glajeux describes his visit to Fenayrou at +Versailles. He was already in prison dress, sobbing. + +His iron nature, which during five days had never flinched, had +broken down; but it was not for himself he wept, but for his wife, his +children, his brother; of his own fate he took no account. At the same +moment his wife was in the lodge of the courthouse waiting for the cab +that was to take her to her prison. Freed from the anxieties of the +trial, knowing her life to be spared, without so much as a thought for +the husband whom she had never loved, she had tidied herself up, and +now, with all the ease of a woman, whose misfortunes have not destroyed +her self-possession, was doing the honours of the jail. It was she who +received her judge. + +But Fenayrou was not to die. The Court of Cassation, to which he had +made the usual appeal after condemnation, decided that the proceedings +at Versailles had been vitiated by the fact that the evidence of +Gabrielle Fenayrou's second lover had not been taken ORALLY, within the +requirements of the criminal code; consequently a new trial was ordered +before the Paris Assize Court. This second trial, which commenced on +October 12, saved Fenayrou's head. The Parisian jury showed themselves +more lenient than their colleagues at Versailles. Not only was Fenayrou +accorded extenuating circumstances, but Lucien was acquitted altogether. +The only person to whom these new proceedings brought no benefit was +Mme. Fenayrou, whose sentence remained unaltered. + +Marin Fenayrou was sent to New Caledonia to serve his punishment. + +There he was allowed to open a dispensary, but, proving dishonest, he +lost his license and became a ferryman--a very Charon for terrestrial +passengers. He died in New Caledonia of cancer of the liver. + +Gabrielle Fenayrou made an exemplary prisoner, so exemplary that, owing +to her good conduct and a certain ascendancy she exercised over her +fellow-prisoners, she was made forewoman of one of the workshops. Whilst +holding this position she had the honour of receiving, among those +entrusted to her charge, another Gabrielle, murderess, Gabrielle +Bompard, the history of whose crime is next to be related. + + + + +Eyraud and Bompard + + +There are accounts of this case in Bataille "Causes Criminelles et +Mondaines," 1890, and in Volume X. of Fouquier "Causes Celebres." +"L'Affaire Gouffe" by Dr. Lacassagne, Lyons, 1891, and Goron "L'Amour +Criminel" may be consulted. + +ON July 27, in the year 1889, the Parisian police were informed of the +disappearance of one Gouffe, a bailiff. He had been last seen by two +friends on the Boulevard Montmartre at about ten minutes past seven on +the evening of the 26th, a Friday. Since then nothing had been heard of +him, either at his office in the Rue Montmartre, or at his private +house in the Rue Rougemont. This was surprising in the case of a man of +regular habits even in his irregularities, robust health, and cheerful +spirits. + +Gouffe was a widower, forty-two years of age. He had three daughters +who lived happily with him in the Rue Rougemont. He did a good trade as +bailiff and process-server, and at times had considerable sums of money +in his possession. These he would never leave behind him at his office, +but carry home at the end of the day's work, except on Fridays. Friday +nights Gouffe always spent away from home. As the society he sought +on these nights was of a promiscuous character, he was in the habit +of leaving at his office any large sum of money that had come into his +hands during the day. + +About nine o'clock on this particular Friday night, July 26, the +hall-porter at Gouffe's office in the Rue Montmartre heard someone, whom +he had taken at first to be the bailiff himself, enter the hall and go +upstairs to the office, where he remained a few minutes. As he descended +the stairs the porter came out of his lodge and, seeing it was a +stranger, accosted him. But the man hurried away without giving the +porter time to see his face. + +When the office was examined the next day everything was found in +perfect order, and a sum of 14,000 francs, hidden away behind some +papers, untouched. The safe had not been tampered with; there was, in +short, nothing unusual about the room except ten long matches that were +lying half burnt on the floor. + +On hearing of the bailiff's disappearance and the mysterious visitor +to his office, the police, who were convinced that Gouffe had been the +victim of some criminal design, inquired closely into his habits, his +friends, his associates, men and women. But the one man who could have +breathed the name that would have set the police on the track of the +real culprits was, for reasons of his own, silent. The police examined +many persons, but without arriving at any useful result. + +However, on August 15, in a thicket at the foot of a slope running down +from the road that passes through the district of Millery, about +ten miles from Lyons, a roadmender, attracted by a peculiar smell, +discovered the remains of what appeared to be a human body. They were +wrapped in a cloth, but so decomposed as to make identification almost +impossible. M. Goron, at that time head of the Parisian detective +police, believed them to be the remains of Gouffe, but a relative of the +missing man, whom he sent to Lyons, failed to identify them. Two days +after the discovery of the corpse, there were found near Millery the +broken fragments of a trunk, the lock of which fitted a key that had +been picked up near the body. A label on the trunk showed that it had +been dispatched from Paris to Lyons on July 27, 188--, but the final +figure of the date was obliterated. Reference to the books of the +railway company showed that on July 27, 1889, the day following the +disappearance of Gouffe, a trunk similar in size and weight to that +found near Millery had been sent from Paris to Lyons. + +The judicial authorities at Lyons scouted the idea that either the +corpse or the trunk found at Millery had any connection with the +disappearance of Gouffe. When M. Goron, bent on following up what he +believed to be important clues, went himself to Lyons he found that +the remains, after being photographed, had been interred in the common +burying-ground. The young doctor who had made the autopsy produced +triumphantly some hair taken from the head of the corpse and showed M. +Goron that whilst Gouffe's hair was admittedly auburn and cut short, +this was black, and had evidently been worn long. M. Goron, after +looking carefully at the hair, asked for some distilled water. He put +the lock of hair into it and, after a few minutes' immersion, cleansed +of the blood, grease and dust that had caked them together, the hairs +appeared clearly to be short and auburn. The doctor admitted his error. + +Fortified by this success, Goron was able to procure the exhumation of +the body. A fresh autopsy was performed by Dr. Lacassagne, the eminent +medical jurist of the Lyons School of Medicine. He was able to pronounce +with certainty that the remains were those of the bailiff, Gouffe. An +injury to the right ankle, a weakness of the right leg, the absence of +a particular tooth and other admitted peculiarities in Gouffe's physical +conformation, were present in the corpse, placing its identity beyond +question. This second post-mortem revealed furthermore an injury to the +thyroid cartilage of the larynx that had been inflicted beyond any doubt +whatever, declared Dr. Lacassagne, before death. + +There was little reason to doubt that Gouffe had been the victim of +murder by strangulation. + +But by whom had the crime been committed? It was now the end of +November. Four months had passed since the bailiff's murder, and the +police had no clue to its perpetrators. At one time a friend of Gouffe's +had been suspected and placed under arrest, but he was released for want +of evidence. + +One day toward the close of November, in the course of a conversation +with M. Goron, a witness who had known Gouffe surprised him by saying +abruptly, "There's another man who disappeared about the same time as +Gouffe." M. Goron pricked up his ears. The witness explained that he +had not mentioned the fact before, as he had not connected it with his +friend's disappearance; the man's name, he said, was Eyraud, Michel +Eyraud, M. Goron made some inquires as to this Michel Eyraud. He learnt +that he was a married man, forty-six years of age, once a distiller at +Sevres, recently commission-agent to a bankrupt firm, that he had left +France suddenly, about the time of the disappearance of Gouffe, and that +he had a mistress, one Gabrielle Bompard, who had disappeared with him. +Instinctively M. Goron connected this fugitive couple with the fate of +the murdered bailiff. + +Confirmation of his suspicions was to come from London. The remains of +the trunk found at Millery had been skilfully put together and exposed +at the Morgue in Paris, whilst the Gouffe family had offered a reward +of 500 francs to anybody who could in any way identify the trunk. Beyond +producing a large crop of anonymous letters, in one of which the crime +was attributed to General Boulanger, then in Jersey, these measures +seemed likely to prove fruitless. But one day in December, from the +keeper of a boarding-house in Gower Street, M. Goron received a letter +informing him that the writer believed that Eyraud and Gabrielle Bompard +had stayed recently at his house, and that on July 14 the woman, whom he +knew only as "Gabrielle," had left for France, crossing by Newhaven and +Dieppe, and taking with her a large and almost empty trunk, which +she had purchased in London. Inquires made by the French detectives +established the correctness of this correspondent's information. An +assistant at a trunk shop in the Euston Road was able to identify the +trunk--brought over from Paris for the purpose--as one purchased in his +shop on July 12 by a Frenchman answering to the description of Michel +Eyraud. The wife of the boarding-house keeper recollected having +expressed to Gabrielle her surprise that she should buy such an enormous +piece of luggage when she had only one dress to put into it. "Oh that's +all right," answered Gabrielle smilingly, "we shall have plenty to fill +it with in Paris!" Gabrielle had gone to Paris with the trunk on July +14, come back to London on the 17th, and on the 20th she and Eyraud +returned together to Paris From these facts it seemed more than probable +that these two were the assassins so eagerly sought for by the police, +and it seemed clear also that the murder had been done in Paris. But +what had become of this couple, in what street, in what house in Paris +had the crime been committed? These were questions the police were +powerless to answer. + +The year 1889 came to an end, the murderers were still at large. But +on January 21, 1890, M. Goron found lying on his table a large letter +bearing the New York postmark. He opened it, and to his astonishment +read at the end the signature "Michel Eyraud." It was a curious letter, +but undoubtedly genuine. In it Eyraud protested against the suspicions +directed against himself; they were, he wrote, merely unfortunate +coincidences. Gouffe had been his friend; he had had no share whatever +in his death; his only misfortune had been his association with "that +serpent, Gabrielle Bompard." He had certainly bought a large trunk for +her, but she told him that she had sold it. They had gone to America +together, he to avoid financial difficulties in which he had been +involved by the dishonesty of the Jews. There Gabrielle had deserted him +for another man. He concluded a very long letter by declaring his belief +in Gabrielle's innocence--"the great trouble with her is that she is +such a liar and also has a dozen lovers after her." He promised that, as +soon as he learnt that Gabrielle had returned to Paris, he would, of his +own free will, place himself in the hands of M. Goron. + +He was to have an early opportunity of redeeming his pledge, for on +the day following the receipt of his letter a short, well-made woman, +dressed neatly in black, with dyed hair, greyish-blue eyes, good teeth, +a disproportionately large head and a lively and intelligent expression +of face, presented herself at the Prefecture of Police and asked for an +interview with the Prefect. + +Requested to give her name, she replied, with a smile, "Gabrielle +Bompard." She was accompanied by a middle-aged gentleman, who appeared +to be devoted to her. Gabrielle Bompard and her friend were taken to the +private room of M. Loze, the Prefect of Police. There, in a half-amused +way, without the least concern, sitting at times on the edge of the +Prefect's writing-table, Gabrielle Bompard told how she had been the +unwilling accomplice of her lover, Eyraud, in the murder of the bailiff, +Gouffe. The crime, she stated, had been committed in No. 3 in the Rue +Tronson-Ducoudray, but she had not been present; she knew nothing of +it but what had been told her by Eyraud. After the murder she had +accompanied him to America; there they had met the middle-aged +gentleman, her companion. Eyraud had proposed that they should murder +and rob him, but she had divulged the plot to the gentleman and asked +him to take her away. It was acting on his advice that she had returned +to France, determined to give her evidence to the judicial authorities +in Paris. The middle-aged gentleman declared himself ready to vouch for +the truth of a great part of this interesting narrative. There they both +imagined apparently that the affair would be ended. They were extremely +surprised when the Prefect, after listening to their statements, sent +for a detective-inspector who showed Gabrielle Bompard a warrant for +her arrest. After an affecting parting, at least on the part of the +middle-aged gentleman, Gabrielle Bompard was taken to prison. There +she soon recovered her spirits, which had at no time been very gravely +depressed by her critical situation. + +According to Eyraud's letters, if anyone knew anything about Gouffe's +murder, it was Gabrielle Bompard; according to the woman's statement, +it was Eyraud, and Eyraud alone, who had committed it. As they were both +liars--the woman perhaps the greater liar of the two--their statements +are not to be taken as other than forlorn attempts to shift the blame on +to each other's shoulders. + +Before extracting from their various avowals, which grew more complete +as time went on, the story of the crime, let us follow Eyraud in his +flight from justice, which terminated in the May of 1890 by his arrest +in Havana. + +Immediately after the arrest of Gabrielle, two French detectives set out +for America to trace and run down if possible her deserted lover. For +more than a month they traversed Canada and the United States in search +of their prey. The track of the fugitive was marked from New York to San +Francisco by acts of thieving and swindling. At the former city he had +made the acquaintance of a wealthy Turk, from whom, under the pretence +of wishing to be photographed in it, he had borrowed a magnificent +oriental robe. The photograph was taken, but Eyraud forgot to return the +costly robe. + +At another time he was lodging in the same house as a young American +actor, called in the French accounts of the incident "Sir Stout." +To "Sir Stout" Eyraud would appear to have given a most convincing +performance of the betrayed husband; his wife, he said, had deserted him +for another man; he raved and stormed audibly in his bedroom, deploring +his fate and vowing vengeance. These noisy representations so impressed +"Sir Stout" that, on the outraged husband declaring himself to be a +Mexican for the moment without funds, the benevolent comedian lent him +eighty dollars, which, it is almost needless to add, he never saw +again. In narrating this incident to the French detectives, "Sir Stout" +describes Eyraud's performance as great, surpassing even those of +Coquelin. + +Similar stories of theft and debauchery met the detectives at every +turn, but, helped in a great measure by the publicity the American +newspapers gave to the movements of his pursuers, Eyraud was able to +elude them, and in March they returned to France to concert further +plans for his capture. + +Eyraud had gone to Mexico. From there he had written a letter to M. +Rochefort's newspaper, L'Intransigeant, in which he declared Gouffe +to have been murdered by Gabrielle and an unknown. But, when official +inquiries were made in Mexico as to his whereabouts, the bird had flown. + +At Havana, in Cuba, there lived a French dressmaker and clothes-merchant +named Puchen. In the month of February a stranger, ragged and unkempt, +but evidently a fellow-countryman, visited her shop and offered to sell +her a superb Turkish costume. The contrast between the wretchedness of +the vendor and the magnificence of his wares struck Madame Puchen at the +time. But her surprise was converted into suspicion when she read in +the American newspapers a description of the Turkish garment stolen by +Michel Eyraud, the reputed assassin of the bailiff Gouffe. It was one +morning in the middle of May that Mme. Puchen read the description of +the robe that had been offered her in February by her strange visitor. +To her astonishment, about two o'clock the same afternoon, she saw the +stranger standing before her door. She beckoned to him, and asked him +if he still had his Turkish robe with him; he seemed confused, and said +that he had sold it. The conversation drifted on to ordinary topics; +the stranger described some of his recent adventures in Mexico. "Oh!" +exclaimed the dressmaker, "they say Eyraud, the murderer, is in Mexico! +Did you come across him? Were you in Paris at the time of the murder?" +The stranger answered in the negative, but his face betrayed his +uneasiness. "Do you know you're rather like him?" said the woman, in +a half-joking way. The stranger laughed, and shortly after went out, +saying he would return. He did return on May 15, bringing with him +a number of the Republique Illustree that contained an almost +unrecognisable portrait of Eyraud. He said he had picked it up in a +cafe. "What a blackguard he looks!" he exclaimed as he threw the paper +on the table. But the dressmaker's suspicions were not allayed by the +stranger's uncomplimentary reference to the murderer. As soon as he had +gone, she went to the French Consul and told him her story. + +By one of those singular coincidences that are inadmissable in fiction +or drama, but occur at times in real life, there happened to be in +Havana, of all places, a man who had been employed by Eyraud at the time +that he had owned a distillery at Sevres. The Consul, on hearing the +statement of Mme. Puchen, sent for this man and told him that a person +believed to be Eyraud was in Havana. As the man left the Consulate, whom +should he meet in the street but Eyraud himself! The fugitive had been +watching the movements of Mme. Puchen; he had suspected, after the +interview, that the woman would denounce him to the authorities. He now +saw that disguise was useless. He greeted his ex-employe, took him into +a cafe, there admitted his identity and begged him not to betray him. +It was midnight when they left the cafe. Eyraud, repenting of his +confidence, and no doubt anxious to rid himself of a dangerous witness, +took his friend into an ill-lighted and deserted street; but the friend, +conscious of his delicate situation, hailed a passing cab and made off +as quickly as he could. + +Next day, the 20th, the search for Eyraud was set about in earnest. The +Spanish authorities, informed of his presence in Havana, directed the +police to spare no effort to lay hands on him. The Hotel Roma, at which +he had been staying, was visited; but Eyraud, scenting danger, had gone +to an hotel opposite the railway station. His things were packed ready +for flight on the following morning. How was he to pass the night? True +to his instincts, a house of ill-fame, at which he had been entertained +already, seemed the safest and most pleasant refuge; but, when, seedy +and shabby, he presented himself at the door, he was sent back into the +street. It was past one in the morning. The lonely murderer wandered +aimlessly in the streets, restless, nervous, a prey to apprehension, +not knowing where to go. Again the man from Sevres met him. "It's all +up with me!" said Eyraud, and disappeared in the darkness. At two in the +morning a police officer, who had been patrolling the town in search of +the criminal, saw, in the distance, a man walking to and fro, seemingly +uncertain which way to turn. Hearing footsteps the man turned round and +walked resolutely past the policeman, saying good-night in Spanish. +"Who are you? What's your address?" the officer asked abruptly. "Gorski, +Hotel Roma!" was the answer. This was enough for the officer. Eyraud was +know{sic} to have passed as "Gorski," the Hotel Roma had already been +searched as one of his hiding-places. To seize and handcuff "Gorski" +was the work of a moment. An examination of the luggage left by the +so-called Gorski at his last hotel and a determined attempt at suicide +made by their prisoner during the night proved conclusively that to the +Spanish police was the credit of having laid by the heels, ten months +after the commission of the crime, Michel Eyraud, one of the assassins +of the bailiff Gouffe. + +On June 16 Eyraud was delivered over to the French police. He reached +France on the 20th, and on July 1 made his first appearance before the +examining magistrate. + +It will be well at this point in the narrative to describe how Eyraud +and Gabrielle Bompard came to be associated together in crime. Gabrielle +Bompard was twenty-two years of age at the time of her arrest, the +fourth child of a merchant of Lille, a strong, hardworking, respectable +man. Her mother, a delicate woman, had died of lung disease when +Gabrielle was thirteen. Even as a child lying and vicious, thinking only +of men and clothes, Gabrielle, after being expelled as incorrigible from +four educational establishments, stayed at a fifth for some three years. +There she astonished those in authority over her by her precocious +propensity for vice, her treacherous and lying disposition, and a +lewdness of tongue rare in one of her age and comparative inexperience. +At eighteen she returned to her father's house, only to quit it for a +lover whom, she alleged, had hypnotised and then seduced her. Gabrielle +was singularly susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. Her father implored +the family doctor to endeavour to persuade her, while in the hypnotic +state, to reform her deplorable conduct. The doctor did his best but +with no success. He declared Gabrielle to be a neuropath, who had not +found in her home such influences as would have tended to overcome her +vicious instincts. Perhaps the doctor was inclined to sympathise rather +too readily with his patient, if we are to accept the report of those +distinguished medical gentlemen who, at a later date, examined carefully +into the mental and physical characteristics of Gabrielle Bompard. + +This girl of twenty had developed into a supreme instance of the +"unmoral" woman, the conscienceless egoist, morally colour-blind, vain, +lewd, the intelligence quick and alert but having no influence whatever +on conduct. One instance will suffice to show the sinister levity, the +utter absence of all moral sense in this strange creature. + +After the murder of Gouffe, Gabrielle spent the night alone with the +trunk containing the bailiff's corpse. Asked by M. Goron what were her +sensations during this ghastly vigil, she replied with a smile, "You'd +never guess what a funny idea come into my head! You see it was not very +pleasant for me being thus tete-a-tete with a corpse, I couldn't sleep. +So I thought what fun it would be to go into the street and pick up some +respectable gentleman from the provinces. I'd bring him up to the room, +and just as he was beginning to enjoy himself say, 'Would you like to +see a bailiff?' open the trunk suddenly and, before he could recover +from his horror, run out into the street and fetch the police. Just +think what a fool the respectable gentleman would have looked when the +officers came!" + +Such callousness is almost unsurpassed in the annals of criminal +insensibility. Nero fiddling over burning Rome, Thurtell fresh from the +murder of Weare, inviting Hunt, the singer and his accomplice, to "tip +them a stave" after supper, Edwards, the Camberwell murderer, reading +with gusto to friends the report of a fashionable divorce case, post +from the murder of a young married couple and their baby--even examples +such as these pale before the levity of the "little demon," as the +French detectives christened Gabrielle. + +Such was Gabrielle Bompard when, on July 26, exactly one year to a day +before the murder of Gouffe, she met in Paris Michel Eyraud. These two +were made for each other. If Gabrielle were unmoral, Eyraud was immoral. +Forty-six at the time of Gouffe's murder, he was sufficiently practised +in vice to appreciate and enjoy the flagrantly vicious propensities +of the young Gabrielle. All his life Eyraud had spent his substance in +debauchery. His passions were violent and at times uncontrollable, +but unlike many remarkable men of a similar temperament, this strong +animalism was not in his case accompanied by a capacity for vigorous +intellectual exertion or a great power of work. "Understand this," said +Eyraud to one of the detectives who brought him back to France, "I have +never done any work, and I never will do any work." To him work was +derogatory; better anything than that. Unfortunately it could not be +avoided altogether, but with Eyraud such work as he was compelled at +different times to endure was only a means for procuring money for +his degraded pleasures, and when honest work became too troublesome, +dishonesty served in its stead. When he met Gabrielle he was almost at +the end of his tether, bankrupt and discredited. At a pinch he might +squeeze a little money out of his wife, with whom he continued to live +in spite of his open infidelities. + +Save for such help as he could get from her small dowry, he was without +resources. A deserter from the army during the Mexican war in 1869, he +had since then engaged in various commercial enterprises, all of +which had failed, chiefly through his own extravagance, violence and +dishonesty. Gabrielle was quick to empty his pockets of what little +remained in them. The proceeds of her own immorality, which Eyraud +was quite ready to share, soon proved insufficient to replenish them. +Confronted with ruin, Eyraud and Gompard hit on a plan by which the +woman should decoy some would-be admirer to a convenient trysting-place. +There, dead or alive, the victim was to be made the means of supplying +their wants. + +On further reflection dead seemed more expedient than alive, extortion +from a living victim too risky an enterprise. Their plans were carefully +prepared. Gabrielle was to hire a ground-floor apartment, so that any +noise, such as footsteps or the fall of a body, would not be heard by +persons living underneath. + +At the beginning of July, 1889, Eyraud and Bompard were in London. There +they bought at a West End draper's a red and white silk girdle, and at +a shop in Gower Street a large travelling trunk. They bought, also in +London, about thirteen feet of cording, a pulley and, on returning to +Paris on July 20, some twenty feet of packing-cloth, which Gabrielle, +sitting at her window on the fine summer evenings, sewed up into a large +bag. + +The necessary ground-floor apartment had been found at No. 3 Rue +Tronson-Ducoudray. Here Gabrielle installed herself on July 24. The +bedroom was convenient for the assassins' purpose, the bed standing in +an alcove separated by curtains from the rest of the room. To the beam +forming the crosspiece at the entrance into the alcove Eyraud fixed a +pulley. Through the pulley ran a rope, having at one end of it a swivel, +so that a man, hiding behind the curtains could, by pulling the rope +strongly, haul up anything that might be attached to the swivel at the +other end. It was with the help of this simple piece of mechanism and a +good long pull from Eyraud that the impecunious couple hoped to refill +their pockets. + +The victim was chosen on the 25th. Eyraud had already known of Gouffe's +existence, but on that day, Thursday, in a conversation with a common +friend, Eyraud learnt that the bailiff Gouffe was rich, that he was in +the habit of having considerable sums of money in his care, and that on +Friday nights Gouffe made it his habit to sleep from home. There was no +time to lose. The next day Gabrielle accosted Gouffe as he was going to +his dejeuner and, after some little conversation agreed to meet him at +eight o'clock that evening. + +The afternoon was spent in preparing for the bailiff's reception in the +Rue Tronson-Ducoudray. A lounge-chair was so arranged that it stood with +its back to the alcove, within which the pulley and rope had been +fixed by Eyraud. Gouffe was to sit on the chair, Gabrielle on his knee. +Gabrielle was then playfully to slip round his neck, in the form of a +noose, the cord of her dressing gown and, unseen by him, attach one end +of it to the swivel of the rope held by Eyraud. Her accomplice had only +to give a strong pull and the bailiff's course was run.(17) + + + (17) One writer on the case has suggested that the story of the murder +by rope and pulley was invented by Eyraud and Bompard to mitigate the +full extent of their guilt, and that the bailiff was strangled while +in bed with the woman. But the purchase of the necessary materials in +London would seem to imply a more practical motive for the use of rope +and pulley. + + +At six o'clock Eyraud and Bompard dined together, after which Eyraud +returned to the apartment, whilst Bompard went to meet Gouffe near the +Madeline Church. What occurred afterwards at No. 3 Rue Tronson-Ducoudray +is best described in the statement made by Eyraud at his trial. + +"At a quarter past eight there was a ring at the bell. I hid myself +behind the curtain. Gouffe came in. 'You've a nice little nest here,' he +said. 'Yes, a fancy of mine,' replied Gabrielle, 'Eyraud knows nothing +about it.' 'Oh, you're tired of him,' asked Gouffe. 'Yes,' she replied, +'that's all over.' Gabrielle drew Gouffe down on to the chair. She +showed him the cord of her dressing-gown and said that a wealthy admirer +had given it to her. 'Very elegant,' said Gouffe, 'but I didn't come +here to see that.' + +"She then sat on his knee and, as if in play, slipped the cord round his +neck; then putting her hand behind him, she fixed the end of the cord +into the swivel, and said to him laughingly, 'What a nice necktie it +makes!' That was the signal. Eyraud pulled the cord vigorously and, in +two minutes, Gouffe had ceased to live." + +Eyraud took from the dead man his watch and ring, 150 francs and his +keys. With these he hurried to Gouffe's office and made a fevered search +for money. It was fruitless. In his trembling haste the murderer missed +a sum of 14,000 francs that was lying behind some papers, and returned, +baffled and despairing, to his mistress and the corpse. The crime had +been a ghastly failure. Fortified by brandy and champagne, and with the +help of the woman, Eyraud stripped the body, put it into the bag that +had been sewn by Gabrielle, and pushed the bag into the trunk. Leaving +his mistress to spend the night with their hateful luggage, Eyraud +returned home and, in his own words, "worn out by the excitement of the +day, slept heavily." + + +The next day Eyraud, after saying good-bye to his wife and daughter, +left with Gabrielle for Lyons. On the 28th they got rid at Millery of +the body of Gouffe and the trunk in which it had travelled; his boots +and clothes they threw into the sea at Marseilles. There Eyraud borrowed +500 francs from his brother. Gabrielle raised 2,000 francs in Paris, +where they spent August 18 and 19, after which they left for England, +and from England sailed for America. During their short stay in +Paris Eyraud had the audacity to call at the apartment in the Rue +Tronson-Ducoudray for his hat, which he had left behind; in the hurry of +the crime he had taken away Gouffe's by mistake. + + +Eyraud had been brought back to Paris from Cuba at the end of June, +1890. Soon after his return, in the room in which Gouffe had been done +to death and in the presence of the examining magistrate, M. Goron, and +some fifteen other persons, Eyraud was confronted with his accomplice. +Each denied vehemently, with hatred and passion, the other's story. +Neither denied the murder, but each tried to represent the other as the +more guilty of the two. Eyraud said that the suggestion and plan of the +crime had come from Gabrielle; that she had placed around Gouffe's neck +the cord that throttled him. Gabrielle attributed the inception of the +murder to Eyraud, and said that he had strangled the bailiff with his +own hands. + +Eyraud, since his return, had seemed indifferent to his own fate; +whatever it might be, he wished that his mistress should share it. He +had no objection to going to the guillotine as long as he was sure that +Gabrielle would accompany him. She sought to escape such a consummation +by representing herself as a mere instrument in Eyraud's hands. It was +even urged in her defence that, in committing the crime, she had +acted under the influence of hypnotic suggestion on the part of her +accomplice. Three doctors appointed by the examining magistrate to +report on her mental state came unanimously to the conclusion that, +though undoubtedly susceptible to hypnotic suggestion, there was no +ground for thinking that she had been acting under such influence when +she participated in the murder of Gouffe. Intellectually the medical +gentlemen found her alert and sane enough, but morally blind. + +The trial of Eyraud and Bompard took place before the Paris Assize Court +on December 16, 1890. It had been delayed owing to the proceedings of an +enterprising journalist. The names of the jurymen who were to be called +on to serve at the assize had been published. The journalist conceived +the brilliant idea of interviewing some of these gentlemen. + +He succeeded in seeing four of them, but in his article which appeared +in the Matin newspaper said that he had seen twenty-one. Nine of them, +he stated, had declared themselves in favour of Gabrielle Bompard, but +in some of these he had discerned a certain "eroticism of the pupil of +the eye" to which he attributed their leniency. A month's imprisonment +was the reward of these flights of journalistic imagination. + +A further scandal in connection with the trial was caused by the lavish +distribution of tickets of admission to all sorts and kinds of persons +by the presiding judge, M. Robert, whose occasional levities in the +course of the proceedings are melancholy reading. As a result of +his indulgence a circular was issued shortly after the trial by M. +Fallieres, then Minister of Justice, limiting the powers of presidents +of assize in admitting visitors into the reserved part of the court. + +The proceedings at the trial added little to the known facts of the +case. Both Eyraud and Bompard continued to endeavour to shift the blame +on to each other's shoulders. A curious feature of the trial was the +appearance for the defence of a M. Liegeois, a professor of law at +Nancy. To the dismay of the Court, he took advantage of a clause in +the Code of Criminal Instruction which permits a witness to give his +evidence without interruption, to deliver an address lasting four hours +on hypnotic suggestion. He undertook to prove that, not only Gabrielle +Bompard, but Troppmann, Madame Weiss, and Gabrielle Fenayrou also, had +committed murder under the influence of suggestion.(18) In replying +to this rather fantastic defence, the Procureur-General, M. Quesnay de +Beaurepaire, quoted a statement of Dr. Brouardel, the eminent medical +jurist who had been called for the prosecution, that "there exists no +instance of a crime, or attempted crime committed under the influence of +hypnotic suggestion." As to the influence of Eyraud over Bompard, M. de +Beaurepaire said: "The one outstanding fact that has been eternally true +for six thousand years is that the stronger will can possess the weaker: +that is no peculiar part of the history of hypnotism; it belongs to the +history of the world. Dr. Liegeois himself, in coming to this court +to-day, has fallen a victim to the suggestion of the young advocate who +has persuaded him to come here to air his theories." The Court wisely +declined to allow an attempt to be made to hypnotise the woman Bompard +in the presence of her judges, and M. Henri Robert, her advocate, in his +appeal to the jury, threw over altogether any idea of hypnotic +suggestion, resting his plea on the moral weakness and irresponsibility +of his client. + + + (18) Moll in his "Hypnotism" (London, 1909) states that, after Gabrielle +Bompard's release M. Liegeois succeeded in putting her into a hypnotic +state, in which she reacted the scene in which the crime was originally +suggested to her. The value of such experiments with a woman as +mischievous and untruthful as Gabrielle Bompard must be very doubtful. +No trustworthy instance seems to be recorded in which a crime has +been committed under, or brought about by, hypnotic or post-hypnotic +suggestion, though, according to Moll, "the possibility of such a crime +cannot be unconditionally denied." + + +In sheer wickedness there seems little enough to choose between Eyraud +and Bompard. But, in asking a verdict without extenuating circumstances +against the woman, the Procureur-General was by no means insistent. He +could not, he said, ask for less, his duty would not permit it: "But I +am ready to confess that my feelings as a man suffer by the duty imposed +on me as a magistrate. On one occasion, at the outset of my career, it +fell to my lot to ask from a jury the head of a woman. I felt then +the same kind of distress of mind I feel to-day. The jury rejected my +demand; they accorded extenuating circumstances; though defeated, I left +the court a happier man. What are you going to do to-day, gentlemen? It +rests with you. What I cannot ask of you, you have the right to accord. +But when the supreme moment comes to return your verdict, remember +that you have sworn to judge firmly and fearlessly." The jury accorded +extenuating circumstances to the woman, but refused them to the man. +After a trial lasting four days Eyraud was sentenced to death, Bompard +to twenty years penal servitude. + +At first Eyraud appeared to accept his fate with resignation. He wrote +to his daughter that he was tired of life, and that his death was the +best thing that could happen for her mother and herself. But, as time +went on and the efforts of his advocate to obtain a commutation of his +sentence held out some hope of reprieve, Eyraud became more reluctant to +quit the world. + +"There are grounds for a successful appeal," he wrote, "I am pretty +certain that my sentence will be commuted.... You ask me what I do? +Nothing much. I can't write; the pens are so bad. I read part of the +time, smoke pipes, and sleep a great deal. Sometimes I play cards, and +talk a little. I have a room as large as yours at Sevres. I walk up and +down it, thinking of you all." + +But his hopes were to be disappointed. The Court of Cassation rejected +his appeal. A petition was addressed to President Carnot, but, with a +firmness that has not characterised some of his successors in office, he +refused to commute the sentence. + +On the morning of February 3, 1891, Eyraud noticed that the warders, who +usually went off duty at six o'clock, remained at their posts. An hour +later the Governor of the Roquette prison entered his cell, and informed +him that the time had come for the execution of the sentence. Eyraud +received the intelligence quietly. The only excitement he betrayed was a +sudden outburst of violent animosity against M. Constans, then Minister +of the Interior. Eyraud had been a Boulangist, and so may have nourished +some resentment against the Minister who, by his adroitness, had helped +to bring about the General's ruin. Whatever his precise motive, he +suddenly exclaimed that M. Constans was his murderer: "It's he who is +having me guillotined; he's got what he wanted; I suppose now he'll +decorate Gabrielle!" He died with the name of the hated Minister on his +lips. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Book of Remarkable Criminals, by H. B. Irving + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF REMARKABLE CRIMINALS *** + +***** This file should be named 446.txt or 446.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/446/ + +Produced by Mike Lough + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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The spots are marked with ?? and a best guess +at missing words is in brackets. footnotes have been moved from +end of page to end of paragraph positions, sequentially numbered + +There are a number of lines ending with hyphens and a hard return +to an empty line-might have missed some. + + + +Scanned with OmniPage Professional OCR software +donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. +Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com> + + + + + +A BOOK OF +REMARKABLE +CRIMINALS + +BY +H.B. IRVING + + +TO MY FRIEND +E. V. LUCAS + + + +"For violence and hurt tangle every man in their toils, +and for the most part fall on the head of him from whom +they had their rise; nor is it easy for one who by his +act breaks the common pact of peace to lead a calm +and quiet life." + +Lucretius on the Nature of Things. + + + +Contents + +INTRODUCTION + +THE LIFE OF CHARLES PEACE: + +I. HIS EARLY YEARS +II. PEACE IN LONDON +III. HIS TRIAL AND EXECUTION + +THE CAREER OF ROBERT BUTLER: + +I. THE DUNEDIN MURDERS +II. THE TRIAL OF BUTLER +III. HIS DECLINE AND FALL + +M. DERUES: + +I. THE CLIMBING LITTLE GROCER +II. THE GAYE OF BLUFF + +DR. CASTAING: + +I. AN UNHAPPY COINCIDENCE +II. THE TRIAL OF DR. CASTAING + +PROFESSOR WEBSTER + + +THE MYSTERIOUS MR. HOLMES: + +I. HONOUR AMONGST THIEVES +II THE WANDERING ASSASSIN + +PARTNERSHIP IN CRIME: + +I. THE WIDOW GRAS + 1. THE CHARMER + 2. THE WOUNDED PIGEON +II. VITALIS AND MARIE BOYER +III. THE FENAYROU CASE +IV. EYRAUD AND BOMPARD + + + +A BOOK OF REMARKABLE CRIMINALS + + +A BOOK OF +REMARKABLE CRIMINALS + +Introduction + +"The silent workings, and still more the explosions, of human +passion which bring to light the darker elements of man's nature +present to the philosophical observer considerations of intrinsic +interest; while to the jurist, the study of human nature and +human character with its infinite varieties, especially as +affecting the connection between motive and action, between +irregular desire or evil disposition and crime itself, is equally +indispensable and difficult."--_Wills on Circumstantial +Evidence_. + +I REMEMBER my father telling me that sitting up late one night +talking with Tennyson, the latter remarked that he had not kept +such late hours since a recent visit of Jowett. On that occasion +the poet and the philosopher had talked together well into the +small hours of the morning. My father asked Tennyson what was +the subject of conversation that had so engrossed them. +"Murders," replied Tennyson. It would have been interesting to +have heard Tennyson and Jowett discussing such a theme. The fact +is a tribute to the interest that crime has for many men of +intellect and imagination. Indeed, how could it be otherwise? +Rob history and fiction of crime, how tame and colourless would +be the residue! We who are living and enduring in the presence +of one of the greatest crimes on record, must realise that trying +as this period of the world's history is to those who are passing +through it, in the hands of some great historian it may make +very good reading for posterity. Perhaps we may find some little +consolation in this fact, like the unhappy victims of famous +freebooters such as Jack Sheppard or Charley Peace. + +But do not let us flatter ourselves. Do not let us, in all the +pomp and circumstance of stately history, blind ourselves to the +fact that the crimes of Frederick, or Napoleon, or their +successors, are in essence no different from those of Sheppard or +Peace. We must not imagine that the bad man who happens to +offend against those particular laws which constitute the +criminal code belongs to a peculiar or atavistic type, that he is +a man set apart from the rest of his fellow-men by mental or +physical peculiarities. That comforting theory of the Lombroso +school has been exploded, and the ordinary inmates of our prisons +shown to be only in a very slight degree below the average in +mental and physical fitness of the normal man, a difference +easily explained by the environment and conditions in which the +ordinary criminal is bred. + +A certain English judge, asked as to the general characteristics +of the prisoners tried before him, said: "They are just like +other people; in fact, I often think that, but for different +opportunities and other accidents, the prisoner and I might very +well be in one another's places." "Greed, love of pleasure," +writes a French judge, "lust, idleness, anger, hatred, revenge, +these are the chief causes of crime. These passions and desires +are shared by rich and poor alike, by the educated and +uneducated. They are inherent in human nature; the germ is in +every man." + +Convicts represent those wrong-doers who have taken to a +particular form of wrong-doing punishable by law. Of the larger +army of bad men they represent a minority, who have been +found out in a peculiarly unsatisfactory kind of misconduct. +There are many men, some lying, unscrupulous, dishonest, others +cruel, selfish, vicious, who go through life without ever doing +anything that brings them within the scope of the criminal code, +for whose offences the laws of society provide no punishment. +And so it is with some of those heroes of history who have been +made the theme of fine writing by gifted historians. + +Mr. Basil Thomson, the present head of the Criminal Investigation +Department, has said recently that a great deal of crime is due +to a spirit of "perverse adventure" on the part of the criminal. +The same might be said with equal justice of the exploits of +Alexander the Great and half the monarchs and conquerors of the +world, whom we are taught in our childhood's days to look up to +as shining examples of all that a great man should be. Because +crimes are played on a great stage instead of a small, that is no +reason why our moral judgment should be suspended or silenced. +Class Machiavelli and Frederick the Great as a couple of rascals +fit to rank with Jonathan Wild, and we are getting nearer a +perception of what constitutes the real criminal. "If," said +Frederick the Great to his minister, Radziwill, "there is +anything to be gained by it, we will be honest; if deception is +necessary, let us be cheats." These are the very sentiments of +Jonathan Wild. + +Crime, broadly speaking, is the attempt by fraud or violence to +possess oneself of something belonging to another, and as such +the cases of it in history are as clear as those dealt with in +criminal courts. Germany to-day has been guilty of a perverse +and criminal adventure, the outcome of that false morality +applied to historical transactions, of which Carlyle's life of +Frederick is a monumental example. In that book we have a +man whose instincts in more ways than one were those of a +criminal, held up for our admiration, in the same way that the +same writer fell into dithyrambic praise over a villain called +Francia, a former President of Paraguay. A most interesting work +might be written on the great criminals of history, and might do +something towards restoring that balance of moral judgment in +historical transactions, for the perversion of which we are +suffering to-day. + +In the meantime we must be content to study in the microcosm of +ordinary crime those instincts, selfish, greedy, brutal which, +exploited often by bad men in the so-called cause of nations, +have wrought such havoc to the happiness of mankind. It is not +too much to say that in every man there dwell the seeds of crime; +whether they grow or are stifled in their growth by the good that +is in us is a chance mysteriously determined. As children of +nature we must not be surprised if our instincts are not all that +they should be. "In sober truth," writes John Stuart Mill, +"nearly all the things for which men are hanged or imprisoned for +doing to one another are nature's everyday performances," and in +another passage: "The course of natural phenomena being replete +with everything which when committed by human beings is most +worthy of abhorrence, anyone who endeavoured in his actions to +imitate the natural course of things would be universally seen +and acknowledged to be the wickedest of men." + +Here is explanation enough for the presence of evil in our +natures, that instinct to destroy which finds comparatively +harmless expression in certain forms of taking life, which is at +its worst when we fall to taking each other's. It is to check an +inconvenient form of the expression of this instinct that we +punish murderers with death. We must carry the definition of +murder a step farther before we can count on peace or +happiness??{in}??this world. We must concentrate all our +strength on?? fighting criminal nature, both in ourselves and in +the world around us. With the destructive forces of nature we +are waging a perpetual struggle for our very existence. Why +dissipate our strength by fighting among ourselves? By enlarging +our conception of crime we move towards that end. What is anti- +social, whether it be written in the pages of the historian or +those of the Newgate Calendar, must in the future be regarded +with equal abhorrence and subjected to equally sure punishment. +Every professor of history should now and then climb down from +the giddy heights of Thucydides and Gibbon and restore his moral +balance by comparing the acts of some of his puppets with those +of their less fortunate brethren who have dangled at the end of a +rope. If this war is to mean anything to posterity, the crime +against humanity must be judged in the future by the same rigid +standard as the crime against the person. + +The individual criminals whose careers are given in this book +have been chosen from among their fellows for their pre-eminence +in character or achievement. Some of the cases, such as Butler, +Castaing and Holmes, are new to most English readers. + +Charles Peace is the outstanding popular figure in nineteenth- +century crime. He is the type of the professional criminal who +makes crime a business and sets about it methodically and +persistently to the end. Here is a man, possessing many of those +qualities which go to make the successful man of action in all +walks of life, driven by circumstances to squander them on a +criminal career. Yet it is a curious circumstance that this +determined and ruthless burglar should have suffered for what +would be classed in France as a "crime passionel." There is more +than a possibility that a French jury would have ?? ing +circumstances in the murder of Dyson. ?? Peace is only another +instance of the wreck- ?? ong man's career by his passion for a +?? + +?? bert Butler we have the criminal by conviction, a conviction +which finds the ground ready prepared for its growth in the +natural laziness and idleness of the man's disposition. The +desire to acquire things by a short cut, without taking the +trouble to work for them honestly, is perhaps the most fruitful +of all sources of crime. Butler, a bit of a pedant, is pleased +to justify his conduct by reason and philosophy--he finds in the +acts of unscrupulous monarchs an analogy to his own attitude +towards life. What is good enough for Caesar Borgia is good +enough for Robert Butler. Like Borgia he comes to grief; +criminals succeed and criminals fail. In the case of historical +criminals their crimes are open; we can estimate the successes +and failures. With ordinary criminals, we know only those who +fail. The successful, the real geniuses in crime, those whose +guilt remains undiscovered, are for the most part unknown to us. +Occasionally in society a man or woman is pointed out as having +once murdered somebody or other, and at times, no doubt, with +truth. But the matter can only be referred to clandestinely; +they are gazed at with awe or curiosity, mute witnesses to their +own achievement. Some years ago James Payn, the novelist, +hazarded the reckoning that one person in every five hundred was +an undiscovered murderer. This gives us all a hope, almost a +certainty, that we may reckon one such person at least among our +acquaintances.[1] + + +[1] The author was one of three men discussing this subject in a +London club. They were able to name six persons of their various +acquaintance who were, or had been, suspected of being successful +murderers. + + +Derues is remarkable for the extent of his social ambition, +the daring and impudent character of his attempts to gratify it, +the skill, the consummate hypocrisy with which he played on the +credulity of honest folk, and his flagrant employment of that +weapon known and recognised to-day in the most exalted spheres by +the expressive name of "bluff." He is remarkable, too, for his +mirth and high spirits, his genial buffoonery; the merry murderer +is a rare bird. + +Professor Webster belongs to that order of criminal of which +Eugene Aram and the Rev. John Selby Watson are our English +examples, men of culture and studious habits who suddenly burst +on the astonished gaze of their fellowmen as murderers. The +exact process of mind by which these hitherto harmless citizens +are converted into assassins is to a great extent hidden from us. + +Perhaps Webster's case is the clearest of the three. Here we +have a selfish, self-indulgent and spendthrift gentleman who has +landed himself in serious financial embarrassment, seeking by +murder to escape from an importunate and relentless creditor. He +has not, apparently, the moral courage to face the consequences +of his own weakness. He forgets the happiness of his home, the +love of those dear to him, in the desire to free himself from a +disgrace insignificent{sic} in comparison with that entailed by +committing the highest of all crimes. One would wish to believe +that Webster's deed was unpremeditated, the result of a sudden +gust of passion caused by his victim's acrimonious pursuit of his +debtor. But there are circumstances in the case which tell +powerfully against such a view. The character of the murderer +seems curiously contradictory; both cunning and simplicity mark +his proceedings; he makes a determined attempt to escape from the +horrors of his situation and shows at the same time a curious +insensibility to its real gravity. Webster was a man of refined +tastes and seemingly gentle character, loved by those near to +him, well liked by his friends. + +The mystery that surrounds the real character of Eugene Aram is +greater, and we possess little or no means of solving it. From +what motive this silent, arrogant man, despising his ineffectual +wife, this reserved and moody scholar stooped to fraud and murder +the facts of the case help us little to determine. Was it the +hope of leaving the narrow surroundings of Knaresborough, his +tiresome belongings, his own poor way of life, and seeking a +wider field for the exercise of those gifts of scholarship which +he undoubtedly possessed that drove him to commit fraud in +company with Clark and Houseman, and then, with the help of the +latter, murder the unsuspecting Clark? The fact of his humble +origin makes his association with so low a ruffian as Houseman +the less remarkable. Vanity in all probability played a +considerable part in Aram's disposition. He would seem to have +thought himself a superior person, above the laws that bind +ordinary men. He showed at the end no consciousness of his +guilt. Being something of a philosopher, he had no doubt +constructed for himself a philosophy of life which served to +justify his own actions. He was a deist, believing in "one +almighty Being the God of Nature," to whom he recommended himself +at the last in the event of his "having done amiss." He +emphasised the fact that his life had been unpolluted and his +morals irreproachable. But his views as to the murder of Clark +he left unexpressed. He suggested as justification of it that +Clark had carried on an intrigue with his neglected wife, but he +never urged this circumstance in his defence, and beyond his own +statement there is no evidence of such a connection. + +The Revd. John Selby Watson, headmaster of the Stockwell Grammar +School, at the age of sixty-five killed his wife in his +library one Sunday afternoon. Things had been going badly with +the unfortunate man. After more than twenty-five years' service +as headmaster of the school at a meagre salary of L400 a year, +he was about to be dismissed; the number of scholars had been +declining steadily and a change in the headmastership thought +necessary; there was no suggestion of his receiving any kind of +pension. The future for a man of his years was dark enough. The +author of several learned books, painstaking, scholarly, dull, he +could hope to make but little money from literary work. Under a +cold, reserved and silent exterior, Selby Watson concealed a +violence of temper which he sought diligently to repress. His +wife's temper was none of the best. Worried, depressed, hopeless +of his future, he in all probability killed his wife in a sudden +access of rage, provoked by some taunt or reproach on her part, +and then, instead of calling in a policeman and telling him what +he had done, made clumsy and ineffectual efforts to conceal his +crime. Medical opinion was divided as to his mental condition. +Those doctors called for the prosecution could find no trace of +insanity about him, those called for the defence said that he was +suffering from melancholia. The unhappy man would appear hardly +to have realised the gravity of his situation. To a friend who +visited him in prison he said: "Here's a man who can write +Latin, which the Bishop of Winchester would commend, shut up in a +place like this." Coming from a man who had spent all his life +buried in books and knowing little of the world the remark is not +so greatly to be wondered at. Profound scholars are apt to be +impatient of mundane things. Professor Webster showed a similar +want of appreciation of the circumstances of a person charged +with wilful murder. Selby Watson was convicted of murder and +sentenced to death. The sentence was afterwards commuted to +one of penal servitude for life, the Home Secretary of the day +showing by his decision that, though not satisfied of the +prisoner's insanity, he recognised certain extenuating +circumstances in his guilt.[2] + + +[2] Selby Watson was tried at the Central Criminal Court January, +1872. + + +In Castaing much ingenuity is shown in the conception of the +crime, but the man is weak and timid; he is not the stuff of +which the great criminal is made; Holmes is cast in the true +mould of the instinctive murderer. Castaing is a man of +sensibility, capable of domestic affection; Holmes completely +insensible to all feelings of humanity. Taking life is a mere +incident in the accomplishment of his schemes; men, women and +children are sacrificed with equal mercilessness to the necessary +end. A consummate liar and hypocrite, he has that strange power +of fascination over others, women in particular, which is often +independent altogether of moral or even physical attractiveness. +We are accustomed to look for a certain vastness, grandeur of +scale in the achievements of America. A study of American crime +will show that it does not disappoint us in this expectation. +The extent and audacity of the crimes of Holmes are proof of it. + +To find a counterpart in imaginative literature to the complete +criminal of the Holmes type we must turn to the pages of +Shakespeare. In the number of his victims, the cruelty and +insensibility with which he attains his ends, his unblushing +hypocrisy, the fascination he can exercise at will over others, +the Richard III. of Shakespeare shows how clearly the poet +understood the instinctive criminal of real life. The Richard of +history was no doubt less instinctively and deliberately an +assassin than the Richard of Shakespeare. In the former we can +trace the gradual temptation to crime to which circumstances +provoke him. The murder of the Princes, if, as one writer +contends, it was not the work of Henry VII.--in which case that +monarch deserves to be hailed as one of the most consummate +criminals that ever breathed and the worthy father of a criminal +son--was no doubt forced to a certain extent on Richard by the +exigencies of his situation, one of those crimes to which bad men +are driven in order to secure the fruits of other crimes. But +the Richard of Shakespeare is no child of circumstance. He +espouses deliberately a career of crime, as deliberately as Peace +or Holmes or Butler; he sets out "determined to prove a villain," +to be "subtle, false and treacherous," to employ to gain his ends +"stern murder in the dir'st degree." The character is sometimes +criticised as being overdrawn and unreal. It may not be true to +the Richard of history, but it is very true to crime, and to the +historical criminal of the Borgian or Prussian type, in which +fraud and violence are made part of a deliberate system of so- +called statecraft. + +Shakespeare got nearer to what we may term the domestic as +opposed to the political criminal when he created Iago. In their +envy and dislike of their fellowmen, their contempt for humanity +in general, their callousness to the ordinary sympathies of human +nature, Robert Butler, Lacenaire, Ruloff are witnesses to the +poet's fidelity to criminal character in his drawing of the +Ancient. But there is a weakness in the character of Iago +regarded as a purely instinctive and malignant criminal; indeed +it is a weakness in the consistency of the play. On two +occasions Iago states explicitly that Othello is more than +suspected of having committed adultery with his wife, Emilia, and +that therefore he has a strong and justifiable motive for being +revenged on the Moor. The thought of it he describes as +"gnawing his inwards." Emilia's conversation with Desdemona +in the last act lends some colour to the correctness of Iago's +belief. If this belief be well-founded it must greatly modify +his character as a purely wanton and mischievous criminal, a +supreme villain, and lower correspondingly the character of +Othello as an honourable and high-minded man. If it be a morbid +suspicion, having no ground in fact, a mental obsession, then +Iago becomes abnormal and consequently more or less irre- + +sponsible. But this suggestion of Emilia's faithlessness made in +the early part of the play is never followed up by the dramatist, +and the spectator is left in complete uncertainty as to whether +there be any truth or not in Iago's suspicion. If Othello has +played his Ancient false, that is an extenuating circumstance in +the otherwise extraordinary guilt of Iago, and would no doubt be +accorded to him as such, were he on trial before a French jury. + +The most successful, and therefore perhaps the greatest, criminal +in Shakespeare is King Claudius of Denmark. His murder of his +brother by pouring a deadly poison into his ear while sleeping, +is so skilfully perpetrated as to leave no suspicion of foul +play. But for a supernatural intervention, a contingency against +which no murderer could be expected to have provided, the crime +of Claudius would never have been discovered. Smiling, jovial, +genial as M. Derues or Dr. Palmer, King Claudius might have gone +down to his grave in peace as the bluff hearty man of action, +while his introspective nephew would in all probability have +ended his days in the cloister, regarded with amiable contempt by +his bustling fellowmen. How Claudius got over the great dif- + +ficulty of all poisoners, that of procuring the necessary poison +without detection, we are not told; by what means he distilled +the "juice of cursed hebenon"; how the strange appearance of +the late King's body, which "an instant tetter" had barked about +with "vile and loathsome crust," was explained to the multitude +we are left to imagine. There is no real evidence to show that +Queen Gertrude was her lover's accomplice in her husband's +murder. If that had been so, she would no doubt have been of +considerable assistance to Claudius in the preparation of the +crime. But in the absence of more definite proof we must assume +Claudius' murder of his brother to have been a solitary +achievement, skilfully carried out by one whose genial good- +fellowship and convivial habits gave the lie to any suggestion of +criminality. Whatever may have been his inward feelings of +remorse or self-reproach, Claudius masked them successfully from +the eyes of all. Hamlet's instinctive dislike of his uncle was +not shared by the members of the Danish court. The "witchcraft +of his wit," his "traitorous gifts," were powerful aids to +Claudius, not only in the seduction of his sister-in-law, but the +perpetration of secret murder. + +The case of the murder of King Duncan of Scotland by Macbeth and +his wife belongs to a different class of crime. It is a striking +example of dual crime, four instances of which are given towards +the end of this book. An Italian advocate, Scipio Sighele, has +devoted a monograph to the subject of dual crime, in which he +examines a number of cases in which two persons have jointly +committed heinous crimes.[3] He finds that in couples of this +kind there is usually an incubus and a succubus, the one who +suggests the crime, the other on whom the suggestion works until +he or she becomes the accomplice or instrument of the stronger +will; "the one playing the Mephistophelian part of tempter, +preaching evil, urging to crime, the other allowing himself +to be overcome by his evil genius." In some cases these two +roles are clearly differentiated; it is easy, as in the case of +Iago and Othello, Cassius and Brutus, to say who prompted the +crime. In others the guilt seems equally divided and the +original suggestion of crime to spring from a mutual tendency +towards the adoption of such an expedient. In Macbeth and his +wife we have a perfect instance of the latter class. No sooner +have the witches prophesied that Macbeth shall be a king than the +"horrid image" of the suggestion to murder Duncan presents itself +to his mind, and, on returning to his wife, he answers her +question as to when Duncan is to leave their house by the +significant remark, "To-morrow--as he proposes." To Lady Macbeth +from the moment she has received her husband's letter telling of +the prophecy of the weird sisters, murder occurs as a means of +accomplishing their prediction. In the minds of Macbeth and his +wife the suggestion of murder is originally an auto-suggestion, +coming to them independently of each other as soon as they learn +from the witches that Macbeth is one day to be a king. To Banquo +a somewhat similar intimation is given, but no foul thought of +crime suggests itself for an instant to his loyal nature. What +Macbeth and his wife lack at first as thorough-going murderers is +that complete insensibility to taking human life that marks the +really ruthless assassin. Lady Macbeth has the stronger will of +the two for the commission of the deed. It is doubtful whether +without her help Macbeth would ever have undertaken it. But even +she, when her husband hesitates to strike, cannot bring herself +to murder the aged Duncan with her own hands because of his +resemblance as he sleeps to her father. It is only after a deal +of boggling and at serious risk of untimely interruption that the +two contrive to do the murder, and plaster with blood the +"surfeited grooms." In thus putting suspicion on the servants of +Duncan the assassins cunningly avert suspicion from themselves, +and Macbeth's killing of the unfortunate men in seeming indigna- +tion at the discovery of their crime is a master-stroke of +ingenuity. "Who," he asks in a splendid burst of feigned horror, +"can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, loyal and natural in +a moment?" At the same time Lady Macbeth affects to swoon away +in the presence of so awful a crime. For the time all suspicion +of guilt, except in the mind of Banquo, is averted from the real +murderers. But, like so many criminals, Macbeth finds it +impossible to rest on his first success in crime. His +sensibility grows dulled; he "forgets the taste of fear"; the +murder of Banquo and his son is diabolically planned, and that is +soon followed by the outrageous slaughter of the wife and +children of Macduff. Ferri, the Italian writer on crime, +describes the psychical condition favourable to the commission of +murder as an absence of both moral repugnance to the crime itself +and the fear of the consequences following it. In the murder of +Duncan, it is the first of these two states of mind to which +Macbeth and his wife have only partially attained. The moral +repugnance stronger in the man has not been wholly lost by the +woman. But as soon as the crime is successfully accomplished, +this repugnance begins to wear off until the King and Queen are +able calmly and deliberately to contemplate those further crimes +necessary to their peace of mind. But now Macbeth, at first the +more compunctious of the two, has become the more ruthless; the +germ of crime, developed by suggestion, has spread through his +whole being; he has begun to acquire that indifference to human +suffering with which Richard III. and Iago were gifted from the +first. In both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth the germ of crime +was latent; they wanted only favourable circumstances to convert +them into one of those criminal couples who are the more +dangerous for the fact that the temptation to crime has come to +each spontaneously and grown and been fostered by mutual +understanding, an elective affinity for evil. Such couples are +frequent in the history of crime. Eyraud and Bompard, Mr. and +Mrs. Manning, Burke and Hare, the Peltzer brothers, Barre and +Lebiez, are instances of those collaborations in crime which find +their counterpart in history, literature, drama and business. +Antoninus and Aurelius, Ferdinand and Isabella, the De Goncourt +brothers, Besant and Rice, Gilbert and Sullivan, Swan and Edgar +leap to the memory. + + +[3] "Le Crime a Deux," by Scipio Sighele (translated from the +Italian), Lyons, 1893. + +In the cases of Eyraud and Bompard, both man and woman are idle, +vicious criminals by instinct. They come together, lead an +abandoned life, sinking lower and lower in moral degradation. In +the hour of need, crime presents itself as a simple expedient for +which neither of them has any natural aversion. The repugnance +to evil, if they ever felt it, has long since disappeared from +their natures. The man is serious, the woman frivolous, but the +criminal tendency in both cases is the same; each performs his or +her part in the crime with characteristic aptitude. Mrs. Manning +was a creature of much firmer character than her husband, a woman +of strong passions, a redoubtable murderess. Without her +dominating force Manning might never have committed murder. But +he was a criminal before the crime, more than suspected as a +railway official of complicity in a considerable train robbery; +in his case the suggestion of murder involved only the taking of +a step farther in a criminal career. Manning suffered from +nerves almost as badly as Macbeth; after the deed he sought to +drown the prickings of terror and remorse by heavy drinking +Mrs. Manning was never troubled with any feelings of this kind; +after the murder of O'Connor the gratification of her sexual +passion seemed uppermost in her mind; and she met the +consequences of her crime fearlessly. Burke and Hare were a +couple of ruffians, tempted by what must have seemed almost +fabulous wealth to men of their wretched poverty to commit a +series of cruel murders. Hare, with his queer, Mephistophelian +countenance, was the wickeder of the two. Burke became haunted +as time went on and flew to drink to banish horror, but Hare +would seem to have been free from such "compunctious visitings of +Nature." He kept his head and turned King's evidence. + +In the case of the Peltzer brothers we have a man who is of good +social position, falling desperately in love with the wife of a +successful barrister. The wife, though unhappy in her domestic +life, refuses to become her lover's mistress; marriage is the +only way to secure her. So Armand Peltzer plots to murder the +husband. For this purpose he calls in the help of a brother, a +ne'er-do-well, who has left his native country under a cloud. He +sends for this dubious person to Europe, and there between them +they plan the murder of the inconvenient husband. Though the +idea of the crime comes from the one brother, the other receives +the idea without repugnance and enters wholeheartedly into the +commission of the murder. The ascendency of the one is evident, +but he knows his man, is sure that he will have no difficulty in +securing the other's co-operation in his felonious purpose. +Armand Peltzer should have lived in the Italy of the Renaissance. + +The crime was cunningly devised, and methodically and +successfully accomplished. Only an over-anxiety to secure the +fruits of it led to its detection. Barre and Lebiez are a +perfect criminal couple, both young men of good education, +trained to better things, but the one idle, greedy and vicious, +the other cynical, indifferent, inclined at best to a lazy +sentimentalism. Barre is a needy stockbroker at the end of +his tether, desperate to find an expedient for raising the wind, +Lebiez a medical student who writes morbid verses to a skull and +lectures on Darwinism. To Barre belongs the original +suggestion to murder an old woman who sells milk and is reputed +to have savings. But his friend and former schoolfellow, Lebiez, +accepts the suggestion placidly, and reconciles himself to the +murder of an unnecessary old woman by the same argument as that +used by Raskolnikoff in "Crime and Punishment" to justify the +killing of his victim. + +In all the cases here quoted the couples are essentially criminal +couples. From whichever of the two comes the first suggestion of +crime, it falls on soil already prepared to receive it; the +response to the suggestion is immediate. In degree of guilt +there is little or nothing to choose between them. But the more +interesting instances of dual crime are those in which one +innocent hitherto of crime, to whom it is morally repugnant, is +persuaded by another to the commission of a criminal act, as +Cassius persuades Brutus; Iago, Othello. Cassius is a criminal +by instinct. Placed in a social position which removes him from +the temptation to ordinary crime, circumstances combine in his +case to bring out the criminal tendency and give it free play in +the projected murder of Caesar. Sour, envious, unscrupulous, +the suggestion to kill Caesar under the guise of the public +weal is in reality a gratification to Cassius of his own ignoble +instincts, and the deliberate unscrupulousness with which he +seeks to corrupt the honourable metal, seduce the noble mind of +his friend, is typical of the man's innate dishonesty. Cassius +belongs to that particular type of the envious nature which +Shakespeare is fond of exemplifying with more or less degree +of villainy in such characters as Iago, Edmund, and Don John, of +which Robert Butler, whose career is given in this book, is a +living instance. Cassius on public grounds tempts Brutus to +crime as subtly as on private grounds Iago tempts Othello, and +with something of the same malicious satisfaction; the soliloquy +of Cassius at the end of the second scene of the first act is +that of a bad man and a false friend. Indeed, the quarrel +between Brutus and Cassius after the murder of Caesar loses +much of its sincerity and pathos unless we can forget for the +moment the real character of Cassius. But the interest in the +cases of Cassius and Brutus, Iago and Othello, lies not so much +in the nature of the prompter of the crime. The instances in +which an honest, honourable man is by force of another's +suggestion converted into a criminal are psychologically +remarkable. It is to be expected that we should look in the +annals of real crime for confirmation of the truth to life of +stories such as these, told in fiction or drama. + +The strongest influence, under which the naturally non-criminal +person may be tempted in violation of instinct and better nature +to the commission of a crime, is that of love or passion. +Examples of this kind are frequent in the annals of crime. There +is none more striking than that of the Widow Gras and Natalis +Gaudry. Here a man, brave, honest, of hitherto irreproachable +character, is tempted by a woman to commit the most cruel and +infamous of crimes. At first he repels the suggestion; at last, +when his senses have been excited, his passion inflamed by the +cunning of the woman, as the jealous passion of Othello is played +on and excited by Iago, the patriotism of Brutus artfully +exploited by Cassius, he yields to the repeated solicitation and +does a deed in every way repugnant to his normal character. +Nothing seems so blinding in its effect on the moral sense as +passion. It obscures all sense of humour, proportion, congruity; +the murder of the man or woman who stands in the way of its full +enjoyment becomes an act of inverted justice to the perpetrators; +they reconcile themselves to it by the most perverse reasoning +until they come to regard it as an act, in which they may +justifiably invoke the help of God; eroticism and religion are +often jumbled up together in this strange medley of conflicting +emotions. + +A woman, urging her lover to the murder of her husband, writes of +the roses that are to deck the path of the lovers as soon as the +crime is accomplished; she sends him flowers and in the same +letter asks if he has got the necessary cartridges. Her husband +has been ill; she hopes that it is God helping them to the +desired end; she burns a candle on the altar of a saint for the +success of their murderous plan.[4] A jealous husband setting +out to kill his wife carries in his pockets, beside a knife and a +service revolver, a rosary, a medal of the Virgin and a holy +image.[5] Marie Boyer in the blindness of her passion and +jealousy believes God to be helping her to get rid of her mother. + + +[4] Case of Garnier and the woman Aveline, 1884. +[5] Case of the Comte de Cornulier: "Un An de Justice," Henri +Varennes, 1901. + + +A lover persuades the wife to get rid of her husband. For a +whole year he instils the poison into her soul until she can +struggle no longer against the obsession; he offers to do the +deed, but she writes that she would rather suffer all the risks +and consequences herself. "How many times," she writes, "have I +wished to go away, leave home, but it meant leaving my children, +losing them for ever . . that made my lover jealous, he believed +that I could not bring myself to leave my husband. But if my +husband were out of the way then I would keep my children, and my +lover would see in my crime a striking proof of my devotion." A +curious farrago of slavish passion, motherly love and murder.[6] + + +[6] Case of Madame Weiss and the engineer Roques. If I may be +permitted the reference, there is an account of this case and +that of Barre and Lebiez in my book "French Criminals of the +Nineteenth Century." + + +There are some women such as Marie Boyer and Gabrielle Fenayrou, +who may be described as passively criminal, chameleon-like, +taking colour from their surroundings. By the force of a man's +influence they commit a dreadful crime, in the one instance it is +matricide, in the other the murder of a former lover, but neither +of the women is profoundly vicious or criminal in her instincts. +In prison they become exemplary, their crime a thing of the past. + +Gabrielle Fenayrou during her imprisonment, having won the +confidence of the religious sisters in charge of the convicts, is +appointed head of one of the workshops. Marie Boyer is so +contrite, exemplary in her behaviour that she is released after +fifteen years' imprisonment. In some ways, perhaps, these +malleable types of women, "soft paste" as one authority has +described them, "effacees" in the words of another, are the +most dangerous material of all for the commission of crime, their +obedience is so complete, so cold and relentless. + +There are cases into which no element of passion enters, in which +one will stronger than the other can so influence, so dominate +the weaker as to persuade the individual against his or her +better inclination to an act of crime, just as in the relations +of ordinary life we see a man or woman led and controlled for +good or ill by one stronger than themselves. There is no more +extraordinary instance of this than the case of Catherine +Hayes, immortalised by Thackeray, which occurred as long ago as +the year 1726. This singular woman by her artful insinuations, +by representing her husband as an atheist and a murderer, +persuaded a young man of the name of Wood, of hitherto exemplary +character, to assist her in murdering him. It was unquestionably +the sinister influence of Captain Cranstoun that later in the +same century persuaded the respectable Miss Mary Blandy to the +murder of her father. The assassin of an old woman in Paris +recounts thus the arguments used by his mistress to induce him to +commit the crime: "She began by telling me about the money and +jewellery in the old woman's possession which could no longer be +of any use to her"--the argument of Raskolnikoff--"I resisted, +but next day she began again, pointing out that one killed people +in war, which was not considered a crime, and therefore one +should not be afraid to kill a miserable old woman. I urged that +the old woman had done us no harm, and that I did not see why one +should kill her; she reproached me for my weakness and said that, +had she been strong enough, she would soon have done this +abominable deed herself. `God,' she added, `will forgive us +because He knows how poor we are.'" When he came to do the +murder, this determined woman plied her lover with brandy and put +rouge on his cheeks lest his pallor should betray him.[7] + + +[7] Case of Albert and the woman Lavoitte, Paris, 1877. + + +There are occasions when those feelings of compunction which +troubled Macbeth and his wife are wellnigh proof against the +utmost powers of suggestion, or, as in the case of Hubert and +Prince Arthur, compel the criminal to desist from his enterprise. + +A man desires to get rid of his father and mother-in-law. By +means of threats, reproaches and inducements he persuades another +man to commit the crime. Taking a gun, the latter sets out +to do the deed; but he realises the heinousness of it and turns +back. "The next day," he says, "at four o'clock in the morning I +started again. I passed the village church. At the sight of the +place where I had celebrated my first communion I was filled with +remorse. I knelt down and prayed to God to make me good. But +some unknown force urged me to the crime. I started again--ten +times I turned back, but the more I hesitated the stronger was +the desire to go on." At length the faltering assassin arrived +at the house, and in his painful anxiety of mind shot a servant +instead of the intended victims.[8] + + +[8] Case of Porcher and Hardouin cited in Despine. "Psychologie +Naturelle." + + +In a town in Austria there dwelt a happy and contented married +couple, poor and hard-working. A charming young lady, a rich +relation and an orphan, comes to live with them. She brings to +their modest home wealth and comfort. But as time goes on, it is +likely that the young lady will fall in love and marry. What +then? Her hosts will have to return to their original poverty. +The idea of how to secure to himself the advantages of his young +kinswoman's fortune takes possession of the husband's mind. He +revolves all manner of means, and gradually murder presents +itself as the only way. The horrid suggestion fixes itself in +his mind, and at last he communicates it to his wife. At first +she resists, then yields to the temptation. The plan is +ingenious. The wife is to disappear to America and be given out +as dead. The husband will then marry his attractive kinswoman, +persuade her to make a will in his favour, poison her and, the +fortune secured, rejoin his wife. As if to help this cruel plan, +the young lady has developed a sentimental affection for her +relative. The wife goes to America, the husband marries the +young lady. He commences to poison her, but, in the presence of +her youth, beauty and affection for him, relents, hesitates to +commit a possibly unnecessary crime. He decides to forget and +ignore utterly his wife who is waiting patiently in America. A +year passes. The expectant wife gets no sign of her husband's +existence. She comes back to Europe, visits under a false name +the town in which her faithless husband and his bride are living, +discovers the truth and divulges the intended crime to the +authorities. A sentence of penal servitude for life rewards this +perfidious criminal.[9] + + +[9] Case of the Scheffer couple at Linz, cited by Sighele. + + +Derues said to a man who was looking at a picture in the Palais +de Justice: "Why study copies of Nature when you can look at +such a remarkable original as I?" A judge once told the present +writer that he did not go often to the theatre because none of +the dramas which he saw on the stage, seemed to him equal in in- + +tensity to those of real life which came before him in the course +of his duties. The saying that truth is stranger than fiction +applies more forcibly to crime than to anything else. But the +ordinary man and woman prefer to take their crime romanticised, +as it is administered to them in novel or play. The true stories +told in this book represent the raw material from which works of +art have been and may be yet created. The murder of Mr. Arden of +Faversham inspired an Elizabethan tragedy attributed by some +critics to Shakespeare. The Peltzer trial helped to inspire Paul +Bourget's remarkable novel, "Andre Cornelis." To Italian crime +we owe Shelley's "Cenci" and Browning's "The Ring and the Book." +Mrs. Manning was the original of the maid Hortense in "Bleak +House." Jonathan Wild, Eugene Aram, Deacon Brodie, Thomas +Griffiths Wainewright have all been made the heroes of books or +plays of varying merit. But it is not only in its stories +that crime has served to inspire romance. In the investigation +of crime, especially on the broader lines of Continental +procedure, we can track to the source the springs of conduct and +character, and come near to solving as far as is humanly possible +the mystery of human motive. There is always and must be in +every crime a terra incognita which, unless we could enter into +the very soul of a man, we cannot hope to reach. Thus far may we +go, no farther. It is rarely indeed that a man lays bare his +whole soul, and even when he does we can never be quite sure that +he is telling us all the truth, that he is not keeping back some +vital secret. It is no doubt better so, and that it should be +left to the writer of imagination to picture for us a man's +inmost soul. The study of crime will help him to that end. It +will help us also in the ethical appreciation of good and evil in +individual conduct, about which our notions have been somewhat +obscured by too narrow a definition of what constitutes crime. +These themes, touched on but lightly and imperfectly in these +pages, are rich in human interest. + +And so it is hardly a matter for surprise that the poet and the +philosopher sat up late one night talking about murders. + + + + +The Life of Charles Peace + + +"Charles Peace, or the Adventures of a Notorious Burglar," a +large volume published at the time of his death, gives a full and +accurate account of the career of Peace side by side with a story +of the Family Herald type, of which he is made the hero. "The +Life and Trial of Charles Peace" (Sheffield, 1879), "The Romantic +Career of a Great Criminal" (by N. Kynaston Gaskell, London +1906), and "The Master Criminal," published recently in London +give useful information. I have also consulted some of the +newspapers of the time. There is a delightful sketch of Peace in +Mr. Charles Whibley's "Book of Scoundrels." + +I + +HIS EARLY YEARS + +Charles Peace told a clergyman who had an interview with him in +prison shortly before his execution that he hoped that, after he +was gone, he would be entirely forgotten by everybody and his +name never mentioned again. + +Posterity, in calling over its muster-roll of famous men, has +refused to fulfil this pious hope, and Charley Peace stands out +as the one great personality among English criminals of the +nineteenth century. In Charley Peace alone is revived that good- +humoured popularity which in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries fell to the lot of Claude Duval, Dick Turpin and Jack +Sheppard. But Peace has one grievance against posterity; he has +endured one humiliation which these heroes have been spared. His +name has been omitted from the pages of the "Dictionary of +National Biography." From Duval, in the seventeenth, down to +the Mannings, Palmer, Arthur Orton, Morgan and Kelly, the +bushrangers, in the nineteenth century, many a criminal, far less +notable or individual than Charley Peace, finds his or her place +in that great record of the past achievements of our countrymen. +Room has been denied to perhaps the greatest and most naturally +gifted criminal England has produced, one whose character is all +the more remarkable for its modesty, its entire freedom from that +vanity and vain-gloriousness so common among his class. + +The only possible reason that can be suggested for so singular an +omission is the fact that in the strict order of alphabetical +succession the biography of Charles Peace would have followed +immediately on that of George Peabody. It may have been thought +that the contrast was too glaring, that even the exigencies of +national biography had no right to make the philanthropist Pea- + +body rub shoulders with man's constant enemy, Peace. To the +memory of Peace these few pages can make but poor amends for the +supreme injustice, but, by giving a particular and authentic +account of his career, they may serve as material for the +correction of this grave omission should remorse overtake those +responsible for so undeserved a slur on one of the most unruly of +England's famous sons. + +From the literary point of view Peace was unfortunate even in the +hour of his notoriety. In the very year of his trial and +execution, the Annual Register, seized with a fit of +respectability from which it has never recovered, announced that +"the appetite for the strange and marvellous" having considerably +abated since the year 1757 when the Register was first +published, its "Chronicle," hitherto a rich mine of extraordinary +and sensational occurrences, would become henceforth a mere diary +of important events. Simultaneously with the curtailment of +its "Chronicle," it ceased to give those excellent summaries of +celebrated trials which for many years had been a feature of its +volumes. The question whether "the appetite for the strange and +marvellous" has abated in an appreciable degree with the passing +of time and is not perhaps keener than it ever was, is a +debatable one. But it is undeniable that the present volumes of +the Annual Register have fallen away dismally from the variety +and human interest of their predecessors. Of the trial and +execution of Peace the volume for 1879 gives but the barest +record. + +Charles Peace was not born of criminal parents. His father, John +Peace, began work as a collier at Burton-on-Trent. Losing his +leg in an accident, he joined Wombwell's wild beast show and soon +acquired some reputation for his remarkable powers as a tamer of +wild animals. About this time Peace married at Rotherham the +daughter of a surgeon in the Navy. On the death of a favourite +son to whom he had imparted successfully the secrets of his +wonderful control over wild beasts of every kind, Mr. Peace gave +up lion-taming and settled in Sheffield as a shoemaker. + +It was at Sheffield, in the county of Yorkshire, already famous +in the annals of crime as the county of John Nevison and Eugene +Aram, that Peace first saw the light. On May 14, 1832, there was +born to John Peace in Sheffield a son, Charles, the youngest of +his family of four. When he grew to boyhood Charles was sent to +two schools near Sheffield, where he soon made himself +remarkable, not as a scholar, but for his singular aptitude in a +variety of other employments such as making paper models, taming +cats, constructing a peep-show, and throwing up a heavy ball of +shot which he would catch in a leather socket fixed on to his +forehead. + +The course of many famous men's lives has been changed by +what appeared at the time to be an unhappy accident. Who knows +what may have been the effect on Charles Peace's subsequent +career of an accident he met with in 1846 at some rolling mills, +in which he was employed? A piece of red hot steel entered his +leg just below the knee, and after eighteen months spent in the +Sheffield Infirmary he left it a cripple for life. About this +time Peace's father died. Peace and his family were fond of +commemorating events of this kind in suitable verse; the death of +John Peace was celebrated in the following lines: + +"In peace he lived; + In peace he died; +Life was our desire, + But God denied." + + +Of the circumstances that first led Peace to the commission of +crime we know nothing. How far enforced idleness, bad +companionship, according to some accounts the influence of a +criminally disposed mother, how far his own daring and +adventurous temper provoked him to robbery, cannot be determined +accurately. His first exploit was the stealing of an old +gentleman's gold watch, but he soon passed to greater things. On +October 26, 1851, the house of a lady living in Sheffield was +broken into and a quantity of her property stolen. Some of it +was found in the possession of Peace, and he was arrested. Owing +no doubt to a good character for honesty given him by his late +employer Peace was let off lightly with a month's imprisonment. + +After his release Peace would seem to have devoted himself for a +time to music, for which he had always a genuine passion. He +taught himself to play tunes on a violin with one string, and at +entertainments which he attended was described as "the modern +Paganini." In later life when he had attained to wealth and +prosperity the violin and the harmonium were a constant source of +solace during long winter evenings in Greenwich and Peckham. But +playing a one-stringed violin at fairs and public-houses could +not be more than a relaxation to a man of Peace's active temper, +who had once tasted what many of those who have practised it, +describe as the fascination of that particular form of nocturnal +adventure known by the unsympathetic name of burglary. Among the +exponents of the art Peace was at this time known as a "portico- +thief," that is to say one who contrived to get himself on to the +portico of a house and from that point of vantage make his +entrance into the premises. During the year 1854 the houses of a +number of well-to-do residents in and about Sheffield were +entered after this fashion, and much valuable property stolen. +Peace was arrested, and with him a girl with whom he was keeping +company, and his sister, Mary Ann, at that time Mrs. Neil. On +October 20, 1854, Peace was sentenced at Doncaster Sessions to +four years' penal servitude, and the ladies who had been found in +possession of the stolen property to six months apiece. Mrs. +Neil did not long survive her misfortune. She would seem to have +been married to a brutal and drunken husband, whom Peace thrashed +on more than one occasion for ill-treating his sister. After one +of these punishments Neil set a bull-dog on to Peace; but Peace +caught the dog by the lower jaw and punched it into a state of +coma. The death in 1859 of the unhappy Mrs. Neil was lamented in +appropriate verse, probably the work of her brother: + +"I was so long with pain opprest + That wore my strength away; +It made me long for endless rest + Which never can decay." + + +On coming out of prison in 1858, Peace resumed his fiddling, but +it was now no more than a musical accompaniment to burglary. +This had become the serious business of Peace's life, to be +pursued, should necessity arise, even to the peril of men's +lives. His operations extended beyond the bounds of his native +town. The house of a lady living in Manchester was broken into +on the night of August 11, 1859, and a substantial booty carried +away. This was found the following day concealed in a hole in a +field. The police left it undisturbed and awaited the return of +the robber. When Peace and another man arrived to carry it away, +the officers sprang out on them. Peace, after nearly killing the +officer who was trying to arrest him, would have made his escape, +had not other policemen come to the rescue. For this crime Peace +was sentenced to six years' penal servitude, in spite of a loyal +act of perjury on the part of his aged mother, who came all the +way from Sheffield to swear that he had been with her there on +the night of the crime. + +He was released from prison again in 1864, and returned to +Sheffield. Things did not prosper with him there, and he went +back to Manchester. In 1866 he was caught in the act of burglary +at a house in Lower Broughton. He admitted that at the time he +was fuddled with whisky; otherwise his capture would have been +more difficult and dangerous. Usually a temperate man, Peace +realised on this occasion the value of sobriety even in burglary, +and never after allowed intemperance to interfere with his +success. A sentence of eight years' penal servitude at +Manchester Assizes on December 3, 1866, emphasised this wholesome +lesson. + +Whilst serving this sentence Peace emulated Jack Sheppard in a +daring attempt to escape from Wakefield prison. Being engaged on +some repairs, he smuggled a small ladder into his cell. With +the help of a saw made out of some tin, he cut a hole through the +ceiling of the cell, and was about to get out on to the roof when +a warder came in. As the latter attempted to seize the ladder +Peace knocked him down, ran along the wall of the prison, fell +off on the inside owing to the looseness of the bricks, slipped +into the governor's house where he changed his clothes, and +there, for an hour and a half, waited for an opportunity to +escape. This was denied him, and he was recaptured in the +governor's bedroom. The prisons at Millbank, Chatham and +Gibraltar were all visited by Peace before his final release in +1872. At Chatham he is said to have taken part in a mutiny and +been flogged for his pains. + +On his liberation from prison Peace rejoined his family in +Sheffield. He was now a husband and father. In 1859 he had +taken to wife a widow of the name of Hannah Ward. Mrs. Ward was +already the mother of a son, Willie. Shortly after her marriage +with Peace she gave birth to a daughter, and during his fourth +term of imprisonment presented him with a son. Peace never saw +this child, who died before his release. But, true to the family +custom, on his return from prison the untimely death of little +"John Charles" was commemorated by the printing of a funeral card +in his honour, bearing the following sanguine verses: + +"Farewell, my dear son, by us all beloved, +Thou art gone to dwell in the mansions above. +In the bosom of Jesus Who sits on the throne +Thou art anxiously waiting to welcome us home." + + +Whether from a desire not to disappoint little John Charles, for +some reason or other the next two or three years of Peace's +career would seem to have been spent in an endeavour to earn an +honest living by picture framing, a trade in which Peace, +with that skill he displayed in whatever he turned his hand to, +was remarkably proficient. In Sheffield his children attended +the Sunday School. Though he never went to church himself, he +was an avowed believer in both God and the devil. As he said, +however, that he feared neither, no great reliance could be +placed on the restraining force of such a belief to a man of +Peace's daring spirit. There was only too good reason to fear +that little John Charles' period of waiting would be a prolonged +one. + +In 1875 Peace moved from Sheffield itself to the suburb of +Darnall. Here Peace made the acquaintance--a fatal acquaintance, +as it turned out--of a Mr. and Mrs. Dyson. Dyson was a civil +engineer. He had spent some years in America, where, in 1866, he +married. + +Toward the end of 1873 or the beginning of 1874, he came to +England with his wife, and obtained a post on the North Eastern +Railway. He was a tall man, over six feet in height, extremely +thin, and gentlemanly in his bearing. His engagement with the +North Eastern Railway terminated abruptly owing to Dyson's +failing to appear at a station to which he had been sent on duty. + +It was believed at the time by those associated with Dyson that +this unlooked-for dereliction of duty had its cause in domestic +trouble. Since the year 1875, the year in which Peace came to +Darnall, the domestic peace of Mr. Dyson had been rudely +disturbed by this same ugly little picture-framer who lived a few +doors away from the Dysons' house. Peace had got to know the +Dysons, first as a tradesman, then as a friend. To what degree +of intimacy he attained with Mrs. Dyson it is difficult to +determine. In that lies the mystery of the case Mrs. Dyson is +described as an attractive woman, "buxom and blooming"; she was +dark-haired, and about twenty-five years of age. In an +interview with the Vicar of Darnall a few days before his +execution, Peace asserted positively that Mrs. Dyson had been his +mistress. Mrs. Dyson as strenuously denied the fact. There was +no question that on one occasion Peace and Mrs. Dyson had been +photographed together, that he had given her a ring, and that he +had been in the habit of going to music halls and public-houses +with Mrs. Dyson, who was a woman of intemperate habits. + +Peace had introduced Mrs. Dyson to his wife and daughter, and on +one occasion was said to have taken her to his mother's house, +much to the old lady's indignation. If there were not many +instances of ugly men who have been notably successful with +women, one might doubt the likelihood of Mrs. Dyson falling a +victim to the charms of Charles Peace. But Peace, for all his +ugliness, could be wonderfully ingratiating when he chose. +According to Mrs. Dyson, Peace was a demon, "beyond the power of +even a Shakespeare to paint," who persecuted her with his +attentions, and, when he found them rejected, devoted all his +malignant energies to making the lives of her husband and herself +unbearable. According to Peace's story he was a slighted lover +who had been treated by Mrs. Dyson with contumely and +ingratitude. + +Whether to put a stop to his wife's intimacy with Peace, or to +protect himself against the latter's wanton persecution, sometime +about the end of June, 1876, Dyson threw over into the garden of +Peace's house a card, on which was written: "Charles Peace is +requested not to interfere with my family." On July 1 Peace met +Mr. Dyson in the street, and tried to trip him up. The same +night he came up to Mrs. Dyson, who was talking with some +friends, and threatened in coarse and violent language to blow +out her brains and those of her husband. In consequence of +these incidents Mr. Dyson took out a summons against Peace, for +whose apprehension a warrant was issued. To avoid the +consequences of this last step Peace left Darnall for Hull, where +he opened an eating-shop, presided over by Mrs. Peace. + +But he himself was not idle. From Hull he went to Manchester on +business, and in Manchester he committed his first murder. +Entering the grounds of a gentleman's home at Whalley Range, +about midnight on August 1, he was seen by two policemen. One of +them, Constable Cock, intercepted him as he was trying to escape. + +Peace took out his revolver and warned Cock to stand back. The +policeman came on. Peace fired, but deliberately wide of him. +Cock, undismayed, drew out his truncheon, and made for the +burglar. Peace, desperate, determined not to be caught, fired +again, this time fatally. Cock's comrade heard the shots, but +before he could reach the side of the dying man, Peace had made +off. He returned to Hull, and there learned shortly after, to +his intense relief, that two brothers, John and William Habron, +living near the scene of the murder, had been arrested and +charged with the killing of Constable Cock. + +If the Dysons thought that they had seen the last of Peace, they +were soon to be convinced to the contrary. Peace had not +forgotten his friends at Darnall. By some means or other he was +kept informed of all their doings, and on one occasion was seen +by Mrs. Dyson lurking near her home. To get away from him the +Dysons determined to leave Darnall. They took a house at Banner +Cross, another suburb of Sheffield, and on October 29 moved into +their new home. One of the first persons Mrs. Dyson saw on +arriving at Banner Cross was Peace himself. "You see," he said, +"I am here to annoy you, and I'll annoy you wherever you go." +Later, Peace and a friend passed Mr. Dyson in the street. +Peace took out his revolver. "If he offers to come near me," +said he, "I will make him stand back." But Mr. Dyson took no +notice of Peace and passed on. He had another month to live. + +Whatever the other motives of Peace may have been--unreasoning +passion, spite, jealousy, or revenge it must not be forgotten +that Dyson, by procuring a warrant against Peace, had driven him +from his home in Sheffield. This Peace resented bitterly. +According to the statements of many witnesses, he was at this +time in a state of constant irritation and excitement on the +Dyson's account. He struck his daughter because she alluded in a +way he did not like to his relations with Mrs. Dyson. Peace +always believed in corporal chastisement as a means of keeping +order at home. Pleasant and entertaining as he could be, he was +feared. It was very dangerous to incur his resentment. "Be +sure," said his wife, "you do nothing to offend our Charley, or +you will suffer for it." Dyson beyond a doubt had offended "our +Charley." But for the moment Peace was interested more +immediately in the fate of John and William Habron, who were +about to stand their trial for the murder of Constable Cock at +Whalley Range. + +The trial commenced at the Manchester Assizes before Mr. Justice +(now Lord) Lindley on Monday, November 27. John Habron was +acquitted. + +The case against William Habron depended to a great extent on the +fact that he, as well as his brother, had been heard to threaten +to "do for" the murdered man, to shoot the "little bobby." Cock +was a zealous young officer of twenty-three years of age, rather +too eager perhaps in the discharge of his duty. In July of 1876 +he had taken out summonses against John and William Habron, young +fellows who had been several years in the employment of a +nurseryman in Whalley Range, for being drunk and disorderly. On +July 27 William was fined five shillings, and on August 1, the +day of Cock's murder, John had been fined half a sovereign. +Between these two dates the Habrons had been heard to threaten to +"do for" Cock if he were not more careful. Other facts relied +upon by the prosecution were that William Habron had inquired +from a gunsmith the price of some cartridges a day or two before +the murder; that two cartridge percussion caps had been found in +the pocket of a waistcoat given to William Habron by his +employer, who swore that they could not have been there while it +was in his possession; that the other constable on duty with Cock +stated that a man he had seen lurking near the house about twelve +o'clock on the night of the murder appeared to be William +Habron's age, height and complexion, and resembled him in general +appearance; and that the boot on Habron's left foot, which was +"wet and sludgy" at the time of his arrest, corresponded in +certain respects with the footprints of the murderer. The +prisoner did not help himself by an ineffective attempt to prove +an alibi. The Judge was clearly not impressed by the strength of +the case for the prosecution. He pointed out to the jury that +neither the evidence of identification nor that of the footprint +went very far. As to the latter, what evidence was there to show +that it had been made on the night of the murder? If it had been +made the day before, then the defence had proved that it could +not have been Habron's. He called their attention to the facts +that Habron bore a good character, that, when arrested on the +night of the murder, he was in bed, and that no firearms had been +traced to him. In spite, however, of the summing-up the jury +convicted William Habron, but recommended him to mercy. The +Judge without comment sentenced him to death. The +Manchester Guardian expressed its entire concurrence with the +verdict of the jury. "Few persons," it wrote, "will be found to +dispute the justice of the conclusions reached." However, a few +days later it opened its columns to a number of letters +protesting against the unsatisfactory nature of the conviction. +On December 6 a meeting of some forty gentlemen was held, at +which it was resolved to petition Mr. Cross, the Home Secretary, +to reconsider the sentence. Two days before the day of execution +Habron was granted a respite, and later his sentence commuted to +one of penal servitude for life. And so a tragic and irrevocable +miscarriage of justice was happily averted. + +Peace liked attending trials. The fact that in Habron's case he +was the real murderer would seem to have made him the more eager +not to miss so unique an experience. Accordingly he went from +Hull to Manchester, and was present in court during the two days +that the trial lasted. No sooner had he heard the innocent man +condemned to death than he left Manchester for Sheffield--now for +all he knew a double murderer. + +It is a question whether, on the night of November 28, Peace met +Mrs. Dyson at an inn in one of the suburbs of Sheffield. In any +case, the next morning, Wednesday, the 29th, to his mother's +surprise Peace walked into her house. He said that he had come +to Sheffield for the fair. The afternoon of that day Peace spent +in a public-house at Ecclesall, entertaining the customers by +playing tunes on a poker suspended from a piece of strong string, +from which he made music by beating it with a short stick. The +musician was rewarded by drinks. It took very little drink to +excite Peace. There was dancing, the fun grew fast and furious, +as the strange musician beat out tune after tune on his fantastic +instrument. + +At six o'clock the same evening a thin, grey-haired, +insignificant-looking man in an evident state of unusual +excitement called to see the Rev. Mr. Newman, Vicar of Ecclesall, +near Banner Cross. Some five weeks before, this insignificant- +looking man had visited Mr. Newman, and made certain statements +in regard to the character of a Mr. and Mrs. Dyson who had come +to live in the parish. The vicar had asked for proof of these +statements. These proofs his visitor now produced. They +consisted of a number of calling cards and photographs, some of +them alleged to be in the handwriting of Mrs. Dyson, and showing +her intimacy with Peace. The man made what purported to be a +confession to Mr. Newman. Dyson, he said, had become jealous of +him, whereupon Peace had suggested to Mrs. Dyson that they should +give her husband something to be jealous about. Out of this +proposal their intimacy had sprung. Peace spoke of Mrs. Dyson in +terms of forgiveness, but his wrath against Dyson was extreme. +He complained bitterly that by taking proceedings against him, +Dyson had driven him to break up his home and become a fugitive +in the land. He should follow the Dysons, he said, wherever they +might go; he believed that they were at that moment intending to +take further proceedings against him. As he left, Peace said +that he should not go and see the Dysons that night, but would +call on a friend of his, Gregory, who lived next door to them in +Banner Cross Terrace. It was now about a quarter to seven. + +Peace went to Gregory's house, but his friend was not at home. +The lure of the Dysons was irresistible. A little after eight +o'clock Peace was watching the house from a passage-way that led +up to the backs of the houses on the terrace. He saw Mrs. Dyson +come out of the back door, and go to an outhouse some few yards +distant. He waited. As soon as she opened the door to come +out, Mrs. Dyson found herself confronted by Peace, holding his +revolver in his hand. "Speak," he said, "or I'll fire." Mrs. +Dyson in terror went back. In the meantime Dyson, hearing the +disturbance, came quickly into the yard. Peace made for the +passage. Dyson followed him. Peace fired once, the shot +striking the lintel of the passage doorway. Dyson undaunted, +still pursued. Then Peace, according to his custom, fired a +second time, and Dyson fell, shot through the temple. Mrs. +Dyson, who had come into the yard again on hearing the first +shot, rushed to her husband's side, calling out: "Murder! You +villain! You have shot my husband." Two hours later Dyson was +dead. + +After firing the second shot Peace had hurried down; the passage +into the roadway. He stood there hesitating a moment, until the +cries of Mrs. Dyson warned him of his danger. He crossed the +road, climbed a wall, and made his way back to Sheffield. There +he saw his mother and brother, told them that he had shot Mr. +Dyson, and bade them a hasty good-bye. He then walked to At- + +tercliffe Railway Station, and took a ticket for Beverley. +Something suspicious in the manner of the booking-clerk made him +change his place of destination. Instead of going to Beverley +that night he got out of the train at Normanton and went on to +York. He spent the remainder of the night in the station yard. +He took the first train in the morning for Beverley, and from +there travelled via Collingham to Hull. He went straight to the +eating-house kept by his wife, and demanded some dinner. He had +hardly commenced to eat it when he heard two detectives come into +the front shop and ask his wife if a man called Charles Peace was +lodging with her. Mrs. Peace said that that was her husband's +name, but that she had not seen him for two months. The +detectives proposed to search the house. Some customers in +the shop told them that if they had any business with Mrs. +Peace, they ought to go round to the side door. The polite +susceptibility of these customers gave Peace time to slip up to a +back room, get out on to an adjoining roof, and hide behind a +chimney stack, where he remained until the detectives had +finished an exhaustive search. So importunate were the officers +in Hull that once again during the day Peace had to repeat this +experience. For some three weeks, however, he contrived to +remain in Hull. He shaved the grey beard he was wearing at the +time of Dyson's murder, dyed his hair, put on a pair of +spectacles, and for the first time made use of his singular power +of contorting his features in such a way as to change altogether +the character of his face. But the hue and cry after him was +unremitting. There was a price of L100 on his head, and the +following description of him was circulated by the police: + + +"Charles Peace wanted for murder on the night of the 29th inst. +He is thin and slightly built, from fifty-five to sixty years of +age. Five feet four inches or five feet high; grey (nearly +white) hair, beard and whiskers. He lacks use of three fingers +of left hand, walks with his legs rather wide apart, speaks some- + +what peculiarly as though his tongue were too large for his +mouth, and is a great boaster. He is a picture-frame maker. He +occasionally cleans and repairs clocks and watches and sometimes +deals in oleographs, engravings and pictures. He has been in +penal servitude for burglary in Manchester. He has lived in +Manchester, Salford, and Liverpool and Hull." + + +This description was altered later and Peace's age given as +forty-six. As a matter of fact he was only forty-four at this +time, but he looked very much older. Peace had lost one of +his fingers. He said that it had been shot off by a man with +whom he had quarrelled, but it was believed to be more likely +that he had himself shot it off accidentally in handling one of +his revolvers. It was to conceal this obvious means of +identification that Peace made himself the false arm which he was +in the habit of wearing. This was of gutta percha, with a hole +down the middle of it into which he passed his arm; at the end +was a steel plate to which was fixed a hook; by means of this +hook Peace could wield a fork and do other dexterous feats. + +Marked man as he was, Peace felt it dangerous to stay longer in +Hull than he could help. During the closing days of the year +1876 and the beginning of 1877, Peace was perpetually on the +move. He left Hull for Doncaster, and from there travelled to +London. On arriving at King's Cross he took the underground +railway to Paddington, and from there a train to Bristol. At the +beginning of January he left Bristol for Bath, and from Bath, in +the company of a sergeant of police, travelled by way of Didcot +to Oxford. The officer had in his custody a young woman charged +with stealing L40. Peace and the sergeant discussed the case +during the journey. "He seemed a smart chap," said Peace in re- + +lating the circumstances, "but not smart enough to know me." +From Oxford he went to Birmingham, where he stayed four or five +days, then a week in Derby, and on January 9th he arrived in +Nottingham. + +Here Peace found a convenient lodging at the house of one, Mrs. +Adamson, a lady who received stolen goods and on occasion +indicated or organised suitable opportunities for acquiring them. + +She lived in a low part of the town known as the Marsh. It was +at her house that Peace met the woman who was to become his +mistress and subsequently betray his identity to the police. +Her maiden name was Susan Gray. + +She was at this time about thirty-five years of age, described as +"taking" in appearance, of a fair complexion, and rather well +educated. She had led a somewhat chequered married life with a +gentleman named Bailey, from whom she continued in receipt of a +weekly allowance until she passed under the protection of Peace. +Her first meeting with her future lover took place on the +occasion of Peace inviting Mrs. Adamson to dispose of a box of +cigars for him, which that good woman did at a charge of +something like thirty per cent. At first Peace gave himself out +to Mrs. Bailey as a hawker, but before long he openly +acknowledged his real character as an accomplished burglar. With +characteristic insistence Peace declared his passion for Mrs. +Bailey by threatening to shoot her if she did not become his. +Anxious friends sent for her to soothe the distracted man. Peace +had been drowning care with the help of Irish whiskey. He asked +"his pet" if she were not glad to see him, to which the lady +replied with possible sarcasm: "Oh, particularly, very, I like +you so much." Next day Peace apologised for his rude behaviour +of the previous evening, and so melted the heart of Mrs. Bailey +that she consented to become his mistress, and from that moment +discarding the name of Bailey is known to history as Mrs. +Thompson. + +Life in Nottingham was varied pleasantly by burglaries carried +out with the help of information supplied by Mrs. Adamson. In +the June of 1877 Peace was nearly detected in stealing, at the +request of that worthy, some blankets, but by flourishing his +revolver he contrived to get away, and, soon after, returned for +a season to Hull. Here this hunted murderer, with L100 reward +on his head, took rooms for Mrs. Thompson and himself at the +house of a sergeant of police. One day Mrs. Peace, who was still +keeping her shop in Hull, received a pencilled note saying, "I am +waiting to see you just up Anlaby Road." She and her stepson, +Willie Ward, went to the appointed spot, and there to their +astonishment stood her husband, a distinguished figure in black +coat and trousers, top hat, velvet waistcoat, with stick, kid +gloves, and a pretty little fox terrier by his side. Peace told +them of his whereabouts in the town, but did not disclose to them +the fact that his mistress was there also. To the police +sergeant with whom he lodged, Peace described himself as an +agent. But a number of sensational and successful burglaries at +the houses of Town Councillors and other well-to-do citizens of +Hull revealed the presence in their midst of no ordinary robber. +Peace had some narrow escapes, but with the help of his revolver, +and on one occasion the pusillanimity of a policeman, he +succeeded in getting away in safety. The bills offering a reward +for his capture were still to be seen in the shop windows of +Hull, so after a brief but brilliant adventure Peace and Mrs. +Thompson returned to Nottingham. + +Here, as the result of further successful exploits, Peace found a +reward of L50 offered for his capture. On one occasion the +detectives came into the room where Peace and his mistress were +in bed. After politely expressing his surprise at seeing "Mrs. +Bailey" in such a situation, one of the officers asked Peace his +name. He gave it as John Ward, and described himself as a hawker +of spectacles. He refused to get up and dress in the presence of +the detectives who were obliging enough to go downstairs and wait +his convenience. Peace seized the opportunity to slip out of the +house and get away to another part of the town. From there he +sent a note to Mrs. Thompson insisting on her joining him. He +soon after left Nottingham, paid another brief visit to Hull, +but finding that his wife's shop was still frequented by the +police, whom he designated freely as "a lot of fools," determined +to quit the North for good and begin life afresh in the ampler +and safer field of London. + + +II + +PEACE IN LONDON + + +Peace's career in London extended over nearly two years, but they +were years of copious achievement. In that comparatively short +space of time, by the exercise of that art, to his natural gifts +for which he had now added the wholesome tonic of experience, +Peace passed from a poor and obscure lodging in a slum in Lambeth +to the state and opulence of a comfortable suburban residence in +Peckham. These were the halcyon days of Peace's enterprise in +life. From No. 25 Stangate Street, Lambeth, the dealer in +musical instruments, as Peace now described himself, sallied +forth night after night, and in Camberwell and other parts of +South London reaped the reward of skill and vigilance in entering +other people's houses and carrying off their property. Though in +the beginning there appeared to be but few musical instruments in +Stangate Street to justify his reputed business, "Mr. Thompson," +as he now called himself, explained that he was not wholly depen- + +dent on his business, as Mrs. Thompson "had money." + +So successful did the business prove that at the Christmas of +1877 Peace invited his daughter and her betrothed to come from +Hull and spend the festive season with him. This, in spite of +the presence of Mrs. Thompson, they consented to do. Peace, in a +top hat and grey ulster, showed them the sights of London, +always inquiring politely of a policeman if he found himself in +any difficulty. At the end of the visit Peace gave his consent +to his daughter's marriage with Mr. Bolsover, and before parting +gave the young couple some excellent advice. For more reasons +than one Peace was anxious to unite under the same roof Mrs. +Peace and Mrs. Thompson. Things still prospering, Peace found +himself able to remove from Lambeth to Crane Court, Greenwich, +and before long to take a couple of adjoining houses in +Billingsgate Street in the same district. These he furnished in +style. In one he lived with Mrs. Thompson, while Mrs. Peace and +her son, Willie, were persuaded after some difficulty to leave +Hull and come to London to dwell in the other. + +But Greenwich was not to the taste of Mrs. Thompson. To gratify +her wish, Peace, some time in May, 1877, removed the whole party +to a house, No. 5, East Terrace, Evelina Road, Peckham. He paid +thirty pounds a year for it, and obtained permission to build a +stable for his pony and trap. When asked for his references, +Peace replied by inviting the agent to dine with him at his house +in Greenwich, a proceeding that seems to have removed all doubt +from the agent's mind as to the desirability of the tenant. + +This now famous house in Peckham was of the ordinary type of +suburban villa, with basement, ground floor, and one above; there +were steps up to the front door, and a bow window to the front +sitting-room. A garden at the back of the house ran down to the +Chatham and Dover railway line. It was by an entrance at the +back that Peace drove his horse and trap into the stable which he +had erected in the garden. Though all living in the same house, +Mrs. Peace, who passed as Mrs. Ward, and her son, Willie, +inhabited the basement, while Peace and Mrs. Thompson +occupied the best rooms on the ground floor. The house was +fitted with Venetian blinds. In the drawing-room stood a good +walnut suite of furniture; a Turkey carpet, gilded mirrors, a +piano, an inlaid Spanish guitar, and, by the side of an elegant +table, the beaded slippers of the good master of the house +completed the elegance of the apartment. Everything confirmed +Mr. Thompson's description of himself as a gentleman of +independent means with a taste for scientific inventions. In +association with a person of the name of Brion, Peace did, as a +fact, patent an invention for raising sunken vessels, and it is +said that in pursuing their project, the two men had obtained an +interview with Mr. Plimsoll at the House of Commons. In any +case, the Patent Gazette records the following grant: + + +"2635 Henry Fersey Brion, 22 Philip Road, Peckham Rye, London, +S.E., and John Thompson, 5 East Terrace, Evelina Road, Peckham +Rye, London, S.E., for an invention for raising sunken vessels by +the displacement of water within the vessels by air and gases." + + +At the time of his final capture Peace was engaged on other +inventions, among them a smoke helmet for firemen, an improved +brush for washing railway carriages, and a form of hydraulic +tank. To the anxious policeman who, seeing a light in Mr. +Thompson's house in the small hours of the morning, rang the bell +to warn the old gentleman of the possible presence of burglars, +this business of scientific inventions was sufficient explana- +tion. + +Socially Mr. Thompson became quite a figure in the neighbourhood. +He attended regularly the Sunday evening services at the parish +church, and it must have been a matter of anxious concern to +dear Mr. Thompson that during his stay in Peckham the vicarage +was broken into by a burglar and an unsuccessful attempt made to +steal the communion plate which was kept there. + +Mr. Thompson was generous in giving and punctual in paying. He +had his eccentricities. His love of birds and animals was +remarkable. Cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea-pigs, canaries, parrots +and cockatoos all found hospitality under his roof. It was +certainly eccentricity in Mr. Thompson that he should wear +different coloured wigs; and that his dark complexion should +suggest the use of walnut juice. His love of music was evinced +by the number of violins, banjoes, guitars, and other musical +instruments that adorned his drawing-room. Tea and music formed +the staple of the evening entertainments which Mr. and Mrs. +Thompson would give occasionally to friendly neighbours. Not +that the pleasures of conversation were neglected wholly in +favour of art. The host was a voluble and animated talker, his +face and body illustrating by appropriate twists and turns the +force of his comments. The Russo-Turkish war, then raging, was a +favourite theme of Mr. Thompson's. He asked, as we are still +asking, what Christianity and civilisation mean by countenancing +the horrors of war. He considered the British Government in the +highest degree guilty in supporting the cruel Turks, a people +whose sobriety seemed to him to be their only virtue, against the +Christian Russians. He was confident that our Ministers would be +punished for opposing the only Power which had shown any sympathy +with suffering races. About ten o'clock Mr. Thompson, whose +health, he said, could not stand late hours, would bid his guests +good night, and by half-past ten the front door of No. 5, East +Terrace, Evelina Road, would be locked and bolted, and the house +plunged in darkness. + +Not that it must be supposed that family life at No. 5, East +Terrace, was without its jars. These were due chiefly to the +drunken habits of Mrs. Thompson. Peace was willing to overlook +his mistress' failing as long as it was confined to the house. +But Mrs. Thompson had an unfortunate habit of slipping out in an +intoxicated condition, and chattering with the neighbours. As +she was the repository of many a dangerous secret the +inconvenience of her habit was serious. Peace was not the man to +hesitate in the face of danger. On these occasions Mrs. Thompson +was followed by Peace or his wife, brought back home and soundly +beaten. To Hannah Peace there must have been some satisfaction +in spying on her successful rival, for, in her own words, Peace +never refused his mistress anything; he did not care what she +cost him in dress; "she could swim in gold if she liked." Mrs. +Thompson herself admitted that with the exception of such +punishment as she brought on herself by her inebriety, Peace was +always fond of her, and treated her with great kindness. It was +she to whom he would show with pride the proceeds of his nightly +labours, to whom he would look for a smile when he returned home +from his expeditions, haggard and exhausted + +Through all dangers and difficulties the master was busy in the +practice of his art. Night after night, with few intervals of +repose, he would sally forth on a plundering adventure. If the +job was a distant one, he would take his pony and trap. Peace +was devoted to his pony, Tommy, and great was his grief when at +the end of six months' devotion to duty Tommy died after a few +days' sickness, during which his master attended him with un- + +remitting care. Tommy had been bought in Greenwich for fourteen +guineas, part of a sum of two hundred and fifty pounds which +Peace netted from a rich haul of silver and bank-notes taken +from a house in Denmark Hill. Besides the pony and trap, Peace +would take with him on these expeditions a violin case containing +his tools; at other times they would be stuffed into odd pockets +made for the purpose in his trousers. These tools consisted of +ten in all--a skeleton key, two pick-locks, a centre-bit, gimlet, +gouge, chisel, vice jemmy and knife; a portable ladder, a +revolver and life preserver completed his equipment. + +The range of Peace's activities extended as far as Southampton, +Portsmouth and Southsea; but the bulk of his work was done in +Blackheath, Streatham, Denmark Hill, and other suburbs of South +London. Many dramatic stories are told of his exploits, but they +rest for the most part on slender foundation. On one occasion, +in getting on to a portico, he fell, and was impaled on some +railings, fortunately in no vital part. His career as a burglar +in London lasted from the beginning of the year 1877 until +October, 1878. During that time this wanted man, under the very +noses of the police, exercised with complete success his art as a +burglar, working alone, depending wholly on his own mental and +physical gifts, disposing in absolute secrecy of the proceeds of +his work, and living openly the life of a respectable and +industrious old gentleman. + +All the while the police were busily seeking Charles Peace, the +murderer of Mr. Dyson. Once or twice they came near to capturing +him. On one occasion a detective who had known Peace in +Yorkshire met him in Farringdon Road, and pursued him up the +steps of Holborn Viaduct, but just as the officer, at the top of +the steps, reached out and was on the point of grabbing his man, +Peace with lightning agility slipped through his fingers and +disappeared. The police never had a shadow of suspicion that Mr. +Thompson of Peckham was Charles Peace of Sheffield. They +knew the former only as a polite and chatty old gentleman of a +scientific turn of mind, who drove his own pony and trap, and had +a fondness for music and keeping pet animals. + +Peace made the mistake of outstaying his welcome in the +neighbourhood of South-East London. Perhaps he hardly realised +the extent to which his fame was spreading. During the last +three months of Peace's career, Blackheath was agog at the number +of successful burglaries committed in the very midst of its +peaceful residents. The vigilance of the local police was +aroused, the officers on night duty were only too anxious to ef- +fect the capture of the mysterious criminal. + +About two o'clock in the morning of October 10, 1878, a police +constable, Robinson by name, saw a light appear suddenly in a +window at the back of a house in St. John's Park, Blackheath, the +residence of a Mr. Burness. Had the looked-for opportunity +arrived? Was the mysterious visitor, the disturber of the peace +of Blackheath, at his burglarious employment? Without delay +Robinson summoned to his aid two of his colleagues. One of them +went round to the front of the house and rang the bell, the other +waited in the road outside, while Robinson stayed in the garden +at the back. No sooner had the bell rung than Robinson saw a man +come from the dining-room window which opened on to the garden, +and make quickly down the path. Robinson followed him. The man +turned; "Keep back!" he said, "or by God I'll shoot you!" +Robinson came on. The man fired three shots from a revolver, all +of which passed close to the officer's head. Robinson made +another rush for him, the man fired another shot. It missed its +mark. The constable closed with his would-be assassin, and +struck him in the face. "I'll settle you this time," cried the +man, and fired a fifth shot, which went through Robinson's +arm just above the elbow. But, in spite of his wound, the +valiant officer held his prisoner, succeeded in flinging him to +the ground, and catching hold of the revolver that hung round the +burglar's wrist, hit him on the head with it. Immediately after +the other two constables came to the help of their colleague, and +the struggling desperado was secured. + +Little did the police as they searched their battered and moaning +prisoner realise the importance of their capture. When next +morning Peace appeared before the magistrate at Greenwich Police +Court he was not described by name--he had refused to give any-- +but as a half-caste about sixty years of age, of repellant +aspect. He was remanded for a week. The first clue to the iden- + +tity of their prisoner was afforded by a letter which Peace, +unable apparently to endure the loneliness and suspense of prison +any longer, wrote to his co-inventor Mr. Brion. It is dated +November 2, and is signed "John Ward." Peace was disturbed at +the absence of all news from his family. Immediately after his +arrest, the home in Peckham had been broken up. Mrs. Thompson +and Mrs. Peace, taking with them some large boxes, had gone first +to the house of a sister of Mrs. Thompson's in Nottingham, and a +day or two later Mrs. Peace had left Nottingham for Sheffield. +There she went to a house in Hazel Road, occupied by her son-in- +law Bolsover, a working collier.[10] + + +[10] Later, Mrs. Peace was arrested and charged with being in +possession of stolen property. She was taken to London and tried +at the Old Bailey before Mr. Commissioner Kerr, but acquitted on +the ground of her having acted under the compulsion of her +husband. + + +It was no doubt to get news of his family that Peace wrote to +Brion. But the letters are sufficiently ingenious. Peace +represents himself as a truly penitent sinner who has got himself +into a most unfortunate and unexpected "mess" by giving way +to drink. The spelling of the letters is exaggeratedly +illiterate. He asks Mr. Brion to take pity on him and not +despise him as "his own famery has don," to write him a letter to +"hease his trobel hart," if possible to come and see him. Mr. +Brion complied with the request of the mysterious "John Ward," +and on arriving at Newgate where Peace was awaiting trial, found +himself in the presence of his friend and colleague, Mr. +Thompson. + +In the meantime the police were getting hot on the scent of the +identity of "John Ward" with the great criminal who in spite of +all their efforts had eluded them for two years. The honour and +profit of putting the police on the right scent were claimed by +Mrs. Thompson. To her Peace had contrived to get a letter +conveyed about the same time that he wrote to Mr. Brion. It is +addressed to his "dearly beloved wife." He asks pardon for the +"drunken madness" that has involved him in his present trouble, +and gives her the names of certain witnesses whom he would wish +to be called to prove his independent means and his dealings in +musical instruments. It is, he writes, his first offence, and as +he has "never been in prison before," begs her not to feel it a +disgrace to come and see him there. But Peace was leaning on a +broken reed. Loyalty does not appear to have been Susan +Thompson's strong point. In her own words she "was not of the +sentimental sort." The "traitress Sue," as she is called by +chroniclers of the time, had fallen a victim to the wiles of the +police. Since, after Peace's arrest, she had been in possession +of a certain amount of stolen property, it was easier no doubt to +persuade her to be frank. + +In any case, we find that on February 5, 1879, the day after +Peace had been sentenced to death for the murder of Dyson, Mrs. +Thompson appealed to the Treasury for the reward of L100 +offered for Peace's conviction. She based her application on +information which she said she had supplied to the police +officers in charge of the case on November 5 in the previous +year, the very day on which Peace had first written to her from +Newgate. In reply to her letter the Treasury referred "Mrs. S. +Bailey, alias Thompson," to the Home Office, but whether she +received from that office the price of blood history does not +relate. + +The police scouted the idea that any revelation of hers had +assisted them to identify "John Ward" with Charles Peace. They +said that it was information given them in Peckham, no doubt by +Mr. Brion, who, on learning the deplorable character of his +coadjutor, had placed himself unreservedly in their hands, which +first set them on the track. From Peckham they went to +Nottingham, where they no doubt came across Sue Thompson, and +thence to Sheffield, where on November 6 they visited the house +in Hazel Road, occupied by Mrs. Peace and her daughter, Mrs. +Bolsover. There they found two of the boxes which Mrs. Peace had +brought with her from Peckham. Besides stolen property, these +boxes contained evidence of the identity of Ward with Peace. A +constable who had known Peace well in Sheffield was sent to +Newgate, and taken into the yard where the prisoners awaiting +trial were exercising. As they passed round, the constable +pointed to the fifth man: "That's Peace," he said, "I'd know him +anywhere." The man left the ranks and, coming up to the +constable, asked earnestly, "What do you want me for?" but the +Governor ordered him to go on with his walk. + +It was as John Ward, alias Charles Peace, that Peace, on November +19, 1878, was put on his trial for burglary and the attempted +murder of Police Constable Robinson, at the Old Bailey before Mr. +Justice Hawkins. His age was given in the calendar as sixty, +though Peace was actually forty-six. The evidence against the +prisoner was clear enough. All Mr. Montagu Williams could urge +in his defence was that Peace had never intended to kill the +officer, merely to frighten him. The jury found Peace guilty of +attempted murder. Asked if he had anything to say why judgment +should not be passed upon him, he addressed the Judge. He +protested that he had not been fairly dealt with, that he never +intended to kill the prosecutor, that the pistol was one that +went off very easily, and that the last shot had been fired by +accident. "I really did not know," he said, "that the pistol was +loaded, and I hope, my lord, that you will have mercy on me. I +feel that I have disgraced myself, I am not fit either to live or +die. I am not prepared to meet my God, but still I feel that my +career has been made to appear much worse than it really is. Oh, +my lord, do have mercy on me; do give me one chance of repenting +and of preparing to meet my God. Do, my lord, have mercy on me; +and I assure you that you shall never repent it. As you hope for +mercy yourself at the hands of the great God, do have mercy on +me, and give me a chance of redeeming my character and preparing +myself to meet my God. I pray, and beseech you to have mercy +upon me." + +Peace's assumption of pitiable senility, sustained throughout the +trial, though it imposed on Sir Henry Hawkins, failed to melt his +heart. He told Peace that he did not believe his statement that +he had fired the pistol merely to frighten the constable; had not +Robinson guarded his head with his arm he would have been wounded +fatally, and Peace condemned to death. He did not consider it +necessary, he said, to make an inquiry into Peace's antecedents; +he was a desperate burglar, and there was an end of the matter. +Notwithstanding his age, Mr. Justice Hawkins felt it his duty +to sentence him to penal servitude for life. The severity of the +sentence was undoubtedly a painful surprise to Peace; to a man of +sixty years of age it would be no doubt less terrible, but to a +man of forty-six it was crushing. + +Not that Peace was fated to serve any great part of his sentence. + +With as little delay as possible he was to be called on to answer +to the murder of Arthur Dyson. The buxom widow of the murdered +man had been found in America, whither she had returned after her +husband's death. She was quite ready to come to England to give +evidence against her husband's murderer. On January 17, 1879, +Peace was taken from Pentonville prison, where he was serving his +sentence, and conveyed by an early morning train to Sheffield. +There at the Town Hall he appeared before the stipendiary +magistrate, and was charged with the murder of Arthur Dyson. +When he saw Mrs. Dyson enter the witness box and tell her story +of the crime, he must have realised that his case was desperate. +Her cross-examination was adjourned to the next hearing, and +Peace was taken back to London. On the 22nd, the day of the +second hearing in Sheffield, an enormous crowd had assembled +outside the Town Hall. Inside the court an anxious and expectant +audiience{sic}, among them Mrs. Dyson, in the words of a con- + +temporary reporter, "stylish and cheerful," awaited the +appearance of the protagonist. Great was the disappointment and +eager the excitement when the stipendiary came into the court +about a quarter past ten and stated that Peace had attempted to +escape that morning on the journey from London to Sheffield, and +that in consequence of his injuries the case would be adjourned +for eight days. + +What had happened was this. Peace had left King's Cross by the +5.15 train that morning, due to arrive at Sheffield at 8.45. +From the very commencement of the journey he had been wilful and +troublesome. He kept making excuses for leaving the carriage +whenever the train stopped. To obviate this nuisance the two +warders, in whose charge he was, had provided themselves with +little bags which Peace could use when he wished and then throw +out of the window. Just after the train passed Worksop, Peace +asked for one of the bags. When the window was lowered to allow +the bag to be thrown away, Peace with lightning agility took a +flying leap through it. One of the warders caught him by the +left foot. Peace, hanging from the carriage, grasped the +footboard with his hands and kept kicking the warder as hard as +he could with his right foot. The other warder, unable to get to +the window to help his colleague, was making vain efforts to stop +the train by pulling the communication cord. For two miles the +train ran on, Peace struggling desperately to escape. At last he +succeeded in kicking off his left shoe, and dropped on to the +line. The train ran on another mile until, with the assistance +of some gentlemen in other carriages, the warders were able to +get it pulled up. They immediately hurried back along the line, +and there, near a place called Kineton Park, they found their +prisoner lying in the footway, apparently unconscious and +bleeding from a severe wound in the scalp. A slow train from +Sheffield stopped to pick up the injured man. As he was lifted +into the guard's van, he asked them to cover him up as he was +cold. On arriving at Sheffield, Peace was taken to the Police +Station and there made as comfortable as possible in one of the +cells. Even then he had energy enough to be troublesome over +taking the brandy ordered for him by the surgeon, until one of +the officers told "Charley" they would have none of his hanky- +panky, and he had got to take it. "All right," said Peace, "give +me a minute," after which he swallowed contentedly a couple +of gills of the genial spirit. + +Peace's daring feat was not, according to his own account, a mere +attempt to escape from the clutches of the law; it was noble and +Roman in its purpose. This is what he told his stepson, Willie +Ward: "I saw from the way I was guarded all the way down from +London and all the way back, when I came for my first trial, that +I could not get away from the warders, and I knew I could not +jump from an express train without being killed. I took a look +at Darnall as I went down and as I went back, and after I was put +in my cell, I thought it all over. I felt that I could not get +away, and then I made up my mind to kill myself. I got two bits +of paper and pricked on them the words, `Bury me at Darnall. God +bless you all!' With a bit of black dirt that I found on the +floor of my cell I wrote the same words on another piece of +paper, and then I hid them in my clothes. My hope was that, when +I jumped from the train I should be cut to pieces under the +wheels. Then I should have been taken to the Duke of York (a +public-house at Darnall) and there would have been an inquest +over me. As soon as the inquest was over you would have claimed +my body, found the pieces of paper, and then you would have +buried me at Darnall." + +This statement of Peace is no doubt in the main correct. But it +is difficult to believe that there was not present to his mind +the sporting chance that he might not be killed in leaping from +the train, in which event he would no doubt have done his best to +get away, trusting to his considerable powers of ingenious +disguise to elude pursuit. But such a chance was remote. Peace +had faced boldly the possibility of a dreadful death. + +With that strain of domestic sentiment, which would appear to +have been a marked characteristic of his family, Peace was +the more ready to cheat the gallows in the hope of being by that +means buried decently at Darnall. It was at Darnall that he had +spent some months of comparative calm in his tempestuous career, +and it was at Darnall that he had first met Mrs. Dyson. Another +and more practical motive that may have urged Peace to attempt to +injure seriously, if not kill himself, was the hope of thereby +delaying his trial. If the magisterial investigation in +Sheffield were completed before the end of January, Peace could +be committed for trial to the ensuing Leeds Assizes which +commenced in the first week in February. If he were injured too +seriously, this would not be possible. Here again he was doomed +to disappointment. + +Peace recovered so well from the results of his adventure on the +railway that the doctor pronounced him fit to appear for his +second examination before the magistrate on January 30. To avoid +excitement, both on the part of the prisoner and the public, the +court sat in one of the corridors of the Town Hall. The scene is +described as dismal, dark and cheerless. The proceedings took +place by candlelight, and Peace, who was seated in an armchair, +complained frequently of the cold. At other times he moaned and +groaned and protested against the injustice with which he was +being treated. But the absence of any audience rather dashed the +effect of his laments. + +The most interesting part of the proceedings was the cross- +examination of Mrs. Dyson by Mr. Clegg, the prisoner's solicitor. + +Its purpose was to show that Mrs. Dyson had been on more intimate +terms with Peace than she was ready to admit, and that Dyson had +been shot by Peace in the course of a struggle, in which the +former had been the aggressor. + +In the first part of his task Mr. Clegg met with some +success. Mrs. Dyson, whose memory was certainly eccentric--she +could not, she said, remember the year in which she had been +married--was obliged to admit that she had been in the habit of +going to Peace's house, that she had been alone with him to +public-houses and places of entertainment, and that she and Peace +had been photographed together during the summer fair at +Sheffield. She could not "to her knowledge" recollect having +told the landlord of a public-house to charge her drink to Peace. + +A great deal of Mrs. Dyson's cross-examination turned on a bundle +of letters that had been found near the scene of Dyson's murder +on the morning following the crime. These letters consisted for +the most part of notes, written in pencil on scraps of paper, +purporting to have been sent from Mrs. Dyson to Peace. In many +of them she asks for money to get drink, others refer to oppor- + +tunities for their meetings in the absence of Dyson; there are +kind messages to members of Peace's family, his wife and +daughter, and urgent directions to Peace to hold his tongue and +not give ground for suspicion as to their relations. This bundle +of letters contained also the card which Dyson had thrown into +Peace's garden requesting him not to interfere with his family. +According to the theory of the defence, these letters had been +written by Mrs. Dyson to Peace, and went to prove the intimacy of +their relations. At the inquest after her husband's murder, Mrs. +Dyson had been questioned by the coroner about these letters. +She denied that she had ever written to Peace; in fact, she said, +she "never did write." It was stated that Dyson himself had seen +the letters, and declared them to be forgeries written by Peace +or members of his family for the purpose of annoyance. Neverthe- + +less, before the Sheffield magistrate Mr. Clegg thought it his +duty to cross-examine Mrs. Dyson closely as to their authorship. +He asked her to write out a passage from one of them: "You +can give me something as a keepsake if you like, but I don't like +to be covetous, and to take them from your wife and daughter. +Love to all!" Mrs. Dyson refused to admit any likeness between +what she had written and the handwriting of the letter in ques- + +tion. Another passage ran: "Will see you as soon as I possibly +can. I think it would be easier after you move; he won't watch +so. The r--g fits the little finger. Many thanks and love to-- +Jennie (Peace's daughter Jane). I will tell you what I thought +of when I see you about arranging matters. Excuse this +scribbling." In answer to Mr. Clegg, Mrs. Dyson admitted that +Peace had given her a ring, which she had worn for a short time +on her little finger. + +Another letter ran: "If you have a note for me, send now whilst +he is out; but you must not venture, for he is watching, and you +cannot be too careful. Hope your foot is better. I went to +Sheffield yesterday, but I could not see you anywhere. Were you +out? Love to Jane." Mrs. Dyson denied that she had known of an +accident which Peace had had to his foot at this time. In spite +of the ruling of the magistrate that Mr. Clegg had put forward +quite enough, if true, to damage Mrs. Dyson's credibility, he +continued to press her as to her authorship of these notes and +letters, but Mrs. Dyson was firm in her repudiation of them. She +was equally firm in denying that anything in the nature of a +struggle had taken place between Peace and her husband previous +to his murder. + +At the conclusion of Mrs. Dyson's evidence the prisoner was +committed to take his trial at the Leeds Assizes, which commenced +the week following. Peace, who had groaned and moaned and +constantly interrupted the proceedings, protested his innocence, +and complained that his witnesses had not been called. The +apprehension with which this daring malefactor was regarded by +the authorities is shown by this clandestine hearing of his +case in a cold corridor of the Town Hall, and the rapidity with +which his trial followed on his committal. There is an +appearance almost of precipitation in the haste with which Peace +was bustled to his doom. After his committal he was taken to +Wakefield Prison, and a few days later to Armley Jail, there to +await his trial. + +This began on February 4, and lasted one day. Mr. Justice Lopes, +who had tried vainly to persuade the Manchester Grand Jury to +throw out the bill in the case of the brothers Habron, was the +presiding judge. Mr. Campbell Foster, Q.C., led for the +prosecution. Peace was defended by Mr. Frank Lockwood, then +rising into that popular success at the bar which some fifteen +years later made him Solicitor-General, and but for his premature +death would have raised him to even higher honours in his +profession. + +In addressing the jury, both Mr. Campbell Foster and Mr. Lockwood +took occasion to protest against the recklessness with which the +press of the day, both high and low, had circulated stories and +rumours about the interesting convict. As early as November in +1878 one leading London daily newspaper had said that "it was now +established beyond doubt that the burglar captured by Police +Constable Robinson was one and the same as the Banner Cross +murderer." Since then, as the public excitement grew and the +facts of Peace's extraordinary career came to light, the press +had responded loyally to the demands of the greedy lovers of +sensation, and piled fiction on fact with generous profusion. +"Never," said Mr. Lockwood, "in the whole course of his +experience--and he defied any of his learned friends to quote an +experience--had there been such an attempt made on the part of +those who should be most careful of all others to preserve the +liberties of their fellowmen and to preserve the dignity of +the tribunals of justice to determine the guilt of a man." Peace +exclaimed "Hear, hear!" as Mr. Lockwood went on to say that "for +the sake of snatching paltry pence from the public, these persons +had wickedly sought to prejudice the prisoner's life." Allowing +for Mr. Lockwood's zeal as an advocate, there can be no question +that, had Peace chosen or been in a position to take proceedings, +more than one newspaper had at this time laid itself open to +prosecution for contempt of Court. The Times was not far wrong +in saying that, since Muller murdered Mr. Briggs on the North +London Railway and the poisonings of William Palmer, no criminal +case had created such excitement as that of Charles Peace. The +fact that property seemed to be no more sacred to him than life +aggravated in a singular degree the resentment of a commercial +people. + +The first witness called by the prosecution was Mrs. Dyson. She +described how on the night of November 29, 1876, she had come out +of the outhouse in the yard at the back of her house, and found +herself confronted by Peace holding a revolver; how he said: +"Speak, or I'll fire!" and the sequence of events already related +up to the moment when Dyson fell, shot in the temple. + +Mr. Lockwood commenced his cross-examination of Mrs. Dyson by +endeavouring to get from her an admission; the most important to +the defence, that Dyson had caught hold of Peace after the first +shot had been fired, and that in the struggle which ensued, the +revolver had gone off by accident. But he was not very +successful. He put it to Mrs. Dyson that before the magistrate +at Sheffield she had said: "I can't say my husband did not get +hold of the prisoner." "Put in the little word `try,' please," +answered Mrs. Dyson. In spite of Mr. Lockwood's questions, she +maintained that, though her husband may have attempted to get +hold of Peace, he did not succeed in doing so. As she was +the only witness to the shooting there was no one to contradict +her statement. + +Mr. Lockwood fared better when he came to deal with the relations +of Mrs. Dyson with Peace previous to the crime. Mrs. Dyson +admitted that in the spring of 1876 her husband had objected to +her friendship with Peace, and that nevertheless, in the +following summer, she and Peace had been photographed together at +the Sheffield fair. She made a vain attempt to escape from such +an admission by trying to shift the occasion of the summer fair +to the previous year, 1875, but Mr. Lockwood put it to her that +she had not come to Darnall, where she first met Peace, until the +end of that year. Finally he drove her to say that she could not +remember when she came to Darnall, whether in 1873, 1874, 1875, +or 1876. She admitted that she had accepted a ring from Peace, +but could not remember whether she had shown it to her husband. +She had been perhaps twice with Peace to the Marquis of Waterford +public-house, and once to the Star Music Hall. She could not +swear one way or the other whether she had charged to Peace's +account drink consumed by her at an inn in Darnall called the +Half-way House. Confronted with a little girl and a man, whom +Mr. Lockwood suggested she had employed to carry notes to Peace, +Mrs. Dyson said that these were merely receipts for pictures +which he had framed for her. On the day before her husband's +murder, Mrs. Dyson was at the Stag Hotel at Sharrow with a little +boy belonging to a neighbour. A man followed her in and sat +beside her, and afterwards followed her out. In answer to Mr. +Lockwood, Mrs. Dyson would "almost swear" the man was not Peace; +he had spoken to her, but she could not remember whether she had +spoken to him or not. She denied that this man had said to her +that he would come and see her the next night. As the result of +a parting shot Mr. Lockwood obtained from Mrs. Dyson a reluc- + +tant admission that she had been "slightly inebriated" at the +Half-way House in Darnall, but had not to her knowledge" been +turned out of the house on that account. "You may not have known +you were inebriated? suggested Mr. Lockwood. "I always know what +I am doing," was Mrs. Dyson's reply, to which an unfriendly +critic might have replied that she did not apparently know with +anything like certainty what she had been doing during the last +three or four years. In commenting on the trial the following +day, the Times stigmatised as "feeble" the prevarications by +which Mrs. Dyson tried to explain away her intimacy with Peace. +In this part of his cross-examination Mr. Lockwood had made it +appear at least highly probable that there had been a much closer +relationship between Mrs. Dyson and Peace than the former was +willing to acknowledge. + +The evidence of Mrs. Dyson was followed by that of five persons +who had either seen Peace in the neighbourhood of Banner Cross +Terrace on the night of the murder, or heard the screams and +shots that accompanied it. A woman, Mrs. Gregory, whose house +was between that of the Dysons and the passage in which Dyson was +shot, said that she had heard the noise of the clogs Mrs. Dyson +was wearing as she went across the yard. A minute later she +heard a scream. She opened her back door and saw Dyson standing +by his own. She told him to go to his wife. She then went back +into her house, and almost directly after heard two shots, +followed by another scream, but no sound as of any scuffling. + +Another witness was a labourer named Brassington. He was a +stranger to Peace, but stated that about eight o'clock on the +night of the murder a man came up to him outside the Banner Cross +Hotel, a few yards from Dyson's house. He was standing under a +gas lamp, and it was a bright moonlight night. The man asked +him if he knew of any strange people who had come to live in the +neighbourhood. Brassington answered that he did not. The man +then produced a bundle of letters which he asked Brassington to +read. But Brassington declined, as reading was not one of his +accomplishments. The man then said that "he would make it a warm +'un for those strange folks before morning--he would shoot both +of them," and went off in the direction of Dyson's house. +Brassington swore positively that Peace was the stranger who had +accosted him that night, and Mr. Lockwood failed to shake him in +his evidence. Nor could Mr. Lockwood persuade the surgeon who +was called to Dyson at the time of his death to admit that the +marks on the nose and chin of the dead man could have been caused +by a blow; they were merely abrasions of the skin caused by the +wounded man falling to the ground. + +Evidence was then given as to threats uttered by Peace against +the Dysons in the July of 1876, and as to his arrest at +Blackheath in the October of 1878. The revolver taken from Peace +that night was produced, and it was shown that the rifling of the +bullet extracted from Dyson's head was the same as that of the +bullet fired from the revolver carried by Peace at the time of +his capture. + +Mr. Campbell Foster wanted to put in as evidence the card that +Dyson had flung into Peace's garden at Darnall requesting him not +to interfere with his family. This card had been found among the +bundle of letters dropped by Peace near the scene of the murder. +Mr. Lockwood objected to the admission of the card unless all the +letters were admitted at the same time. The Judge ruled that +both the card and the letters were inadmissible, as irrelevant to +the issue; Mr. Lockwood had, he said, very properly cross- +examined Mrs. Dyson on these letters to test her credibility, but +he was bound by her answers and could not contradict her by +introducing them as evidence in the case. + +Mr. Lockwood in his address to the jury did his best to persuade +them that the death of Dyson was the accidental result of a +struggle between Peace and himself. He suggested that Mrs. Dyson +had left her house that night for the purpose of meeting Peace, +and that Dyson, who was jealous of his wife's intimacy with him, +had gone out to find her; that Dyson, seeing Peace, had caught +hold of him; and that the revolver had gone off accidentally as +Dyson tried to wrest it from his adversary. He repudiated the +suggestion of Mr. Foster that the persons he had confronted with +Mrs. Dyson in the course of his cross-examination had been hired +for a paltry sum to come into court and lie. + +Twice, both at the beginning and the end of his speech, Mr. +Lockwood urged as a reason for the jury being tender in taking +Peace's life that he was in such a state of wickedness as to be +quite unprepared to meet death. Both times that his counsel put +forward this curious plea, Peace raised his eyes to heaven and +exclaimed "I am not fit to die." + +Mr. Justice Lopes in summing up described as an "absolute +surmise" the theory of the accidental discharge of the pistol. +He asked the jury to take Peace's revolver in their hands and try +the trigger, so as to see for themselves whether it was likely to +go off accidentally or not. He pointed out that the pistol +produced might not have been the pistol used at Banner Cross; at +the same time the bullet fired in November, 1876, bore marks such +as would have been produced had it been fired from the pistol +taken from Peace at Blackheath in October, 1878. He said that +Mr. Lockwood had been perfectly justified in his attempt to +discredit the evidence of Mrs. Dyson, but the case did not rest +on her evidence alone. In her evidence as to the threats +uttered by Peace in July, 1876, Mrs. Dyson was corroborated by +three other witnesses. In the Judge's opinion it was clearly +proved that no struggle or scuffle had taken place before the +murder. If the defence, he concluded, rested on no solid founda- + +tion, then the jury must do their duty to the community at large +and by the oath they had sworn. + +It was a quarter past seven when the jury retired. Ten minutes +later they came back into court with a verdict of guilty. Asked +if he had anything to say, Peace in a faint voice replied, "It is +no use my saying anything." The Judge, declining very properly +to aggravate the prisoner's feelings by "a recapitulation of any +portion of the details of what I fear, I can only call your +criminal career," passed on him sentence of death. Peace +accepted his fate with composure. + +Before we proceed to describe the last days of Peace on earth, +let us finish with the two women who had succeeded Mrs. Peace in +his ardent affections. + +A few days after Peace's execution Mrs. Dyson left England for +America, but before going she left behind her a narrative +intended to contradict the imputations which she felt had been +made against her moral character. An Irishwoman by birth, she +said that she had gone to America when she was fifteen years old. + +There she met and married Dyson, a civil engineer on the Atlantic +and Great Western Railway. Theirs was a rough and arduous life. +But Mrs. Dyson was thoroughly happy in driving her husband about +in a buggy among bears and creeks. She did not know fear and +loved danger: "My husband loved me and I loved him, and in his +company and in driving him about in this wild kind of fashion I +derived much pleasure." However, Mr. Dyson's health broke down, +and he was obliged to return to England. It was at Darnall that +the fatal acquaintance with Peace began. Living next door +but one to the Dysons, Peace took the opportunity of introducing +himself, and Mr. Dyson "being a gentleman," took polite notice of +his advances. He became a constant visitor at the house. But +after a time Peace began to show that he was not the gentleman +Mr. Dyson was. He disgusted the latter by offering to show him +improper pictures and "the sights of the town" of Sheffield. + +The Dysons tried to shake off the unwelcome acquaintance, but +that was easier said than done. By this time Peace had set his +heart on making Mrs. Dyson leave her husband. He kept trying to +persuade her to go to Manchester with him, where he would take a +cigar or picture shop, to which Mrs. Dyson, in fine clothes and +jewelry, should lend the charm of her comely presence. He of- + +fered her a sealskin jacket, yards of silk, a gold watch. She +should, he said, live in Manchester like a lady, to which Mrs. +Dyson replied coldly that she had always lived like one and +should continue to do so quite independently of him. But Peace +would listen to no refusal, however decided its tone. Dyson +threw over the card into Peace's garden. This only served to +aggravate his determination to possess himself of the wife. He +would listen at keyholes, leer in at the window, and follow Mrs. +Dyson wherever she went. When she was photographed at the fair, +she found that Peace had stood behind her chair and by that means +got himself included in the picture. At times he had threatened +her with a revolver. On one occasion when he was more insulting +than usual, Mrs. Dyson forgot her fear of him and gave him a +thrashing. Peace threatened "to make her so that neither man nor +woman should look at her, and then he would have her all to +himself." It was with some purpose of this kind, Mrs. Dyson +suggested, that Peace stole a photograph of herself out of a +locket, intending to make some improper use of it. At last, +in desperation, the Dysons moved to Banner Cross. From the day +of their arrival there until the murder, Mrs. Dyson never saw +Peace. She denied altogether having been in his company the +night before the murder. The letters were "bare forgeries," +written by Peace or members of his family to get her into their +power. + +Against the advice of all her friends Mrs. Dyson had come back +from America to give evidence against Peace. To the detective +who saw her at Cleveland she said, "I will go back if I have to +walk on my head all the way"; and though she little knew what she +would have to go through in giving her evidence, she would do it +again under the circumstances. "My opinion is," she said, "that +Peace is a perfect demon--not a man. I am told that since he has +been sentenced to death he has become a changed character. That +I don't believe. The place to which the wicked go is not bad +enough for him. I think its occupants, bad as they might be, are +too good to be where he is. No matter where he goes, I am satis- + +fied that there will be hell. Not even a Shakespeare could +adequately paint such a man as he has been. My lifelong regret +will be that I ever knew him." + +With these few earnest words Mrs. Dyson quitted the shores of +England, hardly clearing up the mystery of her actual relations +with Peace. + +A woman with whom Mrs. Dyson very much resented finding herself +classed--inebriety would appear to have been their only common +weakness--was Mrs. Thompson, the "traitress Sue." In spite of +the fact that on February 5 Mrs. Thompson had applied to the +Treasury for L100, blood money due her for assisting the +police in the identification of Peace, she was at the same time +carrying on a friendly correspondence with her lover and making +attempts to see him. Peace had written to her before his +trial hoping she would not forsake him; "you have been my bosom +friend, and you have ofttimes said you loved me, that you would +die for me." He asked her to sell some goods which he had left +with her in order to raise money for his defence. The traitress +replied on January 27 that she had already sold everything and +shared the proceeds with Mrs. Peace. "You are doing me great +injustice," she wrote, "by saying that I have been out to `work' +with you. Do not die with such a base falsehood on your +conscience, for you know I am young and have my living and +character to redeem. I pity you and myself to think we should +have met." After his condemnation Mrs. Thompson made repeated +efforts to see Peace, coming to Leeds for the purpose. Peace +wrote a letter on February 9 to his "poor Sue," asking her to +come to the prison. But, partly at the wish of Peace's relatives +and for reasons of their own, a permission given Mrs. Thompson by +the authorities to visit the convict was suddenly withdrawn, and +she never saw him again. + + + +III + +HIS TRIAL AND EXECUTION + + +In the lives of those famous men who have perished on the +scaffold their behaviour during the interval between their +condemnation and their execution has always been the subject of +curiosity and interest. + +It may be said at once that nothing could have been more deeply +religious, more sincerely repentant, more Christian to all +appearances than Peace's conduct and demeanour in the last weeks +of his life. He threw himself into the work of atonement with +the same uncompromising zeal and energy that he had displayed as +a burglar. By his death a truly welcome and effective re- + +cruit was lost to the ranks of the contrite and converted +sinners. However powerless as a controlling force--and he +admitted it--his belief in God and the devil may have been in the +past, that belief was assured and confident, and in the presence +of death proclaimed itself with vigour, not in words merely, but +in deeds. + +In obedience to the wishes of his family, Peace had refrained +from seeing Sue Thompson. This was at some sacrifice, for he +wished very much to see her and to the last, though he knew that +she had betrayed him, sent her affectionate and forgiving +messages. These were transmitted to Sue by Mr. Brion. This +disingenuous gentleman was a fellow-applicant with Sue to the +Treasury for pecuinary recognition of his efforts in bringing +about the identification of Peace, and furnishing the police with +information as to the convict's disposal of his stolen property. +In his zeal he had even gone so far as to play the role of an +accomplice of Peace, and by this means discovered a place in +Petticoat Lane where the burglar got rid of some of his booty. + +After Peace's condemnation Mr. Brion visited him in Armley Jail. +His purpose in doing so was to wring from his co-inventor an +admission that the inventions which they had patented together +were his work alone. Peace denied this, but offered to sell his +share for L50. Brion refused the offer, and persisted in his +assertion that Peace had got his name attached to the patents by +undue influence, whatever that might mean. Peace, after wres- + +tling with the spirit, gave way. "Very well, my friend," he +said, "let it be as you say. I have not cheated you, Heaven +knows. But I also know that this infamy of mine has been the +cause of bringing harm to you, which is the last thing I should +have wished to have caused to my friend." A deed of gift was +drawn up, making over to Brion Peace's share in their +inventions; this Peace handed to Brion as the price of the +latter's precious forgiveness and a token of the sincerity of his +colleague's repentance. Thus, as has often happened in this sad +world, was disreputable genius exploited once again by smug +mediocrity. Mr. Brion, having got all he wanted, left the +prison, assuring the Governor that Peace's repentance was "all +bunkum," and advising, with commendable anxiety for the public +good, that the warders in the condemned cell should be doubled. + +Peace had one act of atonement to discharge more urgent than +displaying Christian forbearance towards ignoble associates. +That was the righting of William Habron, who was now serving the +third year of his life sentence for the murder of Constable Cock +at Whalley Range. Peace sent for the Governor of the jail a few +days before his execution and obtained from him the materials +necessary for drawing up a plan. Peace was quite an adept at +making plans; he had already made an excellent one of the scene +of Dyson's murder. He now drew a plan of the place where Cock +had been shot, gave a detailed account of how he came by his +death, and made a full confession of his own guilt. + +In the confession he described how, some days before the +burglary, he had, according to his custom, "spotted" the house at +Whalley Range. In order to do this he always dressed himself +respectably, because he had found that the police never suspected +anyone who wore good clothes. On the night of the crime he +passed two policemen on the road to the house. He had gone into +the grounds and was about to begin operations when he heard a +rustle behind him and saw a policeman, whom he recognised as one +of those he had met in the road, enter the garden. With his +well-known agility Peace climbed on to the wall, and dropped on +to the other side, only to find himself almost in the arms of +the second policeman. Peace warned the officer to stand back and +fired his revolver wide of him. But, as Peace said, "these +Manchester policemen are a very obstinate lot." The constable +took out his truncheon. Peace fired again and killed him. + +Soon after the murderer saw in the newspapers that two men had +been arrested for the crime. "This greatly interested me," said +Peace. "I always had a liking to be present at trials, as the +public no doubt know by this time." So he went to Manchester +Assizes and saw William Habron sentenced to death. "People will +say," he said, "that I was a hardened wretch for allowing an in- + +nocent man to suffer for the crime of which I was guilty but what +man would have given himself up under such circumstances, knowing +as I did that I should certainly be hanged?" Peace's view of the +question was a purely practical one: "Now that I am going to +forfeit my own life and feel that I have nothing to gain by +further secrecy, I think it is right in the sight of God and man +to clear this innocent young man." It would have been more right +in the sight of God and man to have done it before, but then +Peace admitted that during all his career he had allowed neither +God nor man to influence his actions. + +How many men in the situation of Peace at the time, with the +certainty of death before him if he confessed, would have +sacrificed themselves to save an innocent man? Cold-blooded +heroism of this kind is rare in the annals of crime. Nor did +Peace claim to have anything of the hero about him. + +"Lion-hearted I've lived, +And when my time comes +Lion-hearted I'll die." + +Though fond of repeating this piece of doggerel, Peace would have +been the last man to have attributed to himself all those +qualities associated symbolically with the lion. + +A few days before his execution Peace was visited in his prison +by Mr. Littlewood, the Vicar of Darnall. Mr. Littlewood had +known Peace a few years before, when he had been chaplain at +Wakefield Prison. "Well, my old friend Peace," he said as he +entered the cell, "how are you to-day?" "`I am very poorly, sir," +replied the convict, "but I am exceedingly pleased to see you." +Mr. Littlewood assured Peace that there was at any rate one +person in the world who had deep sympathy with him, and that was +himself. Peace burst into tears. He expressed a wish to +unburden himself to the vicar, but before doing so, asked for his +assurance that he believed in the truth and sincerity of what he +was about to say to him. He said that he preferred to be hanged +to lingering out his life in penal servitude, that he was grieved +and repentant for his past life. "If I could undo, or make +amends for anything I have done, I would suffer my body as I now +stand to be cut in pieces inch by inch. I feel, sir, that I am +too bad to live or die, and having this feeling I cannot think +that either you or anyone else would believe me, and that is the +reason why I ask you so much to try to be assured that you do not +think I am telling lies. I call my God to witness that all I am +saying and wish to say shall be the truth--the whole truth-- +nothing but the truth." Mr. Littlewood said that, after +carefully watching Peace and having regard to his experience of +some of the most hardened of criminals during his service in +Wakefield Prison, he felt convinced that Peace was in earnest and +as sincere as any man could be; he spoke rationally, coherently, +and without excitement. + +Peace was determined to test the extent of the reverend +gentleman's faith in his asseverations. "Now, sir," he said, "I +understand that you still have the impression that I stole the +clock from your day-schools." Mr. Littlewood admitted that such +was his impression. "I thought so," replied Peace, "and this has +caused me much grief and pain, for I can assure you I have so +much respect for you personally that I would rather have given +you a clock and much more besides than have taken it. At the +time your clock was stolen I had reason for suspecting that it +was taken by some colliers whom I knew." There was a pause. Mr. +Littlewood thought that Peace was going to give him the name of +the colliers. But that was not Peace's way. He said sharply: +"Do you now believe that I have spoken the truth in denying that +I took your clock, and will you leave me to-day fully believing +that I am innocent of doing that?" Mr. Littlewood looked at him +closely and appeared to be deliberating on his reply. Peace +watched him intently. At last Mr. Littlewood said, "Peace, I am +convinced that you did not take the clock. I cannot believe that +you dare deny it now in your position, if you really did." Once +more Peace burst into tears, and was unable for some time to +speak. + +Having recovered his self-possession, Peace turned to the serious +business of confession. He dealt first with the murder of Dyson. + +He maintained that his relations with Mrs. Dyson had been of an +intimate character. He wanted to see her on the night of the +crime in order to get her to induce her husband to withdraw the +warrant which he had procured against him; he was tired, he said, +of being hunted about from place to place. He intercepted Mrs. +Dyson as she crossed the yard. Instead of listening to him +quietly Mrs. Dyson became violent and threatening in her +language. Peace took out his revolver, and, holding it close +to her head, warned her that he was not to be trifled with. She +refused to be warned. Dyson, hearing the loud voices, came out +of his house. Peace tried to get away down the passage into +Banner Cross Road, but Dyson followed and caught hold of him. In +the struggle Peace fired one barrel of his revolver wide. Dyson +seized the hand in which Peace was holding the weapon. "Then I +knew," said Peace, "I had not a moment to spare. I made a +desperate effort, wrenched the arm from him and fired again. All +that was in my head at the time was to get away. I never did +intend, either there or anywhere else, to take a man's life; but +I was determined that I should not be caught at that time, as the +result, knowing what I had done before, would have been worse +even than had I stayed under the warrant." If he had intended to +murder Dyson, Peace pointed out that he would have set about it +in quite a different and more secret way; it was as unintentional +a thing as ever was done; Mrs. Dyson had committed the grossest +perjury in saying that no struggle had taken place between her +husband and himself. + +It is to be remembered that Peace and Mrs. Dyson were the sole +witnesses of what took place that night between the two men. In +point of credibility there may be little to choose between them, +but Peace can claim for his account that it was the statement of +a dying, and, to all appearances, sincerely repentant sinner. + +Peace then repeated to Mr. Littlewood his confession of the +killing of Constable Cock, and his desire that Habron should be +set free.[11] As to this part of his career Peace indulged in +some general reflections. "My great mistake, sir," he said, "and +I can see it now as my end approaches, has been this--in all my +career I have used ball cartridge. I can see now that in +using ball cartridge I did wrong I ought to have used blank +cartridge; then I would not have taken life." Peace said that he +hoped he would meet his death like a hero. "I do not say this in +any kind of bravado. I do not mean such a hero as some persons +will understand when they read this. I mean such a hero as my +God might wish me to be. I am deeply grieved for all I have +done, and would atone for it to the utmost of my power." To Mr. +Littlewood the moment seemed convenient to suggest that as a +practical means of atonement Peace should reveal to him the names +of the persons with whom he had disposed of the greater part of +his stolen property. But in spite of much attempted persuasion +by the reverend gentleman Peace explained that he was a man and +meant to be a man to the end. + + +[11] William Habron was subsequently given a free pardon and +L800 by way of compensation. + + +Earlier in their interview Peace had expressed to Mr. Littlewood +a hope that after his execution his name would never be mentioned +again, but before they parted he asked Mr. Littlewood, as a +favour, to preach a sermon on him after his death to the good +people of Darnall. He wished his career held up to them as a +beacon, in order that all who saw might avoid his example, and so +his death be of some service to society. + +Before Mr. Littlewood left, Peace asked him to hear him pray. +Having requested the warders to kneel down, Peace began a prayer +that lasted twenty minutes. He prayed for himself, his family, +his victims, Mr. Littlewood, society generally, and all classes +of the community. Mr. Littlewood described the prayer as +earnest, fervent and fluent. At the end Peace asked Mr. +Littlewood if he ought to see Mrs. Dyson and beg her forgiveness +for having killed her husband. Mr. Littlewood, believing er- + +roneously that Mrs. Dyson had already left the country, told +Peace that he should direct all his attention to asking +forgiveness of his Maker. At the close of their interview Peace +was lifted into bed and, turning his face to the wall, wept. + +Tuesday, February 25, was the day fixed for the, execution of +Peace. As the time drew near, the convict's confidence in +ultimate salvation increased. A Dr. Potter of Sheffield had +declared in a sermon that "all hope of Peace's salvation was gone +for ever." Peace replied curtly, "Well, Dr. Potter may think so, +but I don't." Though his health had improved, Peace was still +very feeble in body. But his soul was hopeful and undismayed. +On the Saturday before his death his brother and sister-in-law, a +nephew and niece visited him for the last time. He spoke with +some emotion of his approaching end. He said he should die about +eight o'clock, and that at four o'clock an inquest would be held +on his body; he would then be thrown into his grave without +service or sermon of any kind. He asked his relatives to plant a +flower on a certain grave in a cemetery in Sheffield on the day +of his execution. He was very weak, he said, but hoped he should +have strength enough to walk to the scaffold. He sent messages +to friends and warnings to avoid gambling and drinking. He +begged his brother to change his manner of life and "become +religious." His good counsel was not apparently very well +received. Peace's visitors took a depressing view of their +relative's condition. They found him "a poor, wretched, haggard +man," and, meeting Mrs. Thompson who was waiting outside the gaol +for news of "dear Jack," wondered how she could have taken up +with such a man. + +When, the day before his execution, Peace was visited for the +last time by his wife, his stepson, his daughter, Mrs. Bolsover, +and her husband, he was in much better spirits. He asked his +visitors to restrain themselves from displays of emotion, as he +felt very happy and did not wish to be disturbed. He advised +them to sell or exhibit for money certain works of art of his own +devising. Among them was a design in paper for a monument to be +placed over his grave. The design is elaborate but well and +ingeniously executed; in the opinion of Frith, the painter, it +showed "the true feeling of an artist." It is somewhat in the +style of the Albert Memorial, and figures of angels are prominent +in the scheme. The whole conception is typical of the artist's +sanguine and confident assurance of his ultimate destiny. A +model boat and a fiddle made out of a hollow bamboo cane he +wished also to be made the means of raising money. He was +describing with some detail the ceremony of his approaching death +and burial when he was interrupted by a sound of hammering. +Peace listened for a moment and then said, "That's a noise that +would make some men fall on the floor. They are working at my +own scaffold." A warder said that he was mistaken. "No, I am +not," answered Peace, "I have not worked so long with wood +without knowing the sound of deals; and they don't have deals +inside a prison for anything else than scaffolds." But the +noise, he said, did not disturb him in the least, as he was quite +prepared to meet his fate. He would like to have seen his grave +and coffin; he knew that his body would be treated with scant +ceremony after his death. But what of that? By that time his +soul would be in Heaven. He was pleased that one sinner who had +seen him on his way from Pentonville to Sheffield, had written to +tell him that the sight of the convict had brought home to him +the sins of his own past life, and by this means he had found +salvation. + +The time had come to say good-bye for the last time. Peace asked +his weeping relatives whether they had anything more that they +wished to ask him. Mrs. Peace reminded him that he had promised +to pray with them at the last. Peace, ever ready, knelt with +them and prayed for half an hour. He then shook hands with them, +prayed for and blessed each one singly, and himself gave way to +tears as they left his presence. To his wife as she departed +Peace gave a funeral card of his own designing. It ran: + +In +Memory +of +Charles Peace +Who was executed in +Armley Prison +Tuesday February 25th, +1879 Aged 47 + +For that I don but never +Intended. + + +The same day there arrived in the prison one who in his own trade +had something of the personality and assurance of the culprit he +was to execute. William Marwood--unlike his celebrated victim, +he has his place in the Dictionary of National Biography--is +perhaps the most remarkable of these persons who have held at +different times the office of public executioner. As the +inventor of the "long drop," he has done a lasting service to +humanity by enabling the death-sentence passed by the judge to be +carried out with the minimum of possible suffering. Marwood took +a lofty view of the office he held, and refused his assent to the +somewhat hypocritical loathing, with which those who sanction and +profit by his exertions are pleased to regard this servant of the +law. "I am doing God's work," said Marwood, "according to the +divine command and the law of the British Crown. I do it simply +as a matter of duty and as a Christian. I sleep as soundly as a +child and am never disturbed by phantoms. Where there is guilt +there is bad sleeping, but I am conscious that I try to live a +blameless life. Detesting idleness, I pass my vacant time in +business (he was a shoemaker at Horncastle, in Lincolnshire) and +work in my shoeshop near the church day after day until such time +as I am required elsewhere. It would have been better for those +I executed if they had preferred industry to idleness." + +Marwood had not the almost patriarchal air of benevolent +respectability which his predecessor Calcraft had acquired during +a short experience as a family butler; but as an executioner that +kindly old gentleman had been a sad bungler in his time compared +with the scientific and expeditious Marwood. The Horncastle +shoemaker was saving, businesslike, pious and thoughtful. Like +Peace, he had interests outside his ordinary profession. He had +at one time propounded a scheme for the abolition of the National +Debt, a man clearly determined to benefit his fellowmen in some +way or other. A predilection for gin would seem to have been his +only concession to the ordinary weakness of humanity. And now he +had arrived in Armley Jail to exercise his happy dispatch on the +greatest of the many criminals who passed through his hands, one +who, in his own words, "met death with greater firmness" than any +man on whom he had officiated during seven years of Crown +employment. + +The day of February the 25th broke bitterly cold. Like Charles +I. before him, Peace feared lest the extreme cold should make him +appear to tremble on the scaffold. He had slept calmly till six +o'clock in the morning. A great part of the two hours before the +coming of the hangman Peace spent in letter-writing. He wrote +two letters to his wife, in one of which he copied out some +verses he had written in Woking Prison on the death of their +little boy John. In the second he expressed his satisfaction +that he was to die now and not linger twenty years in prison. To +his daughter, step-son and son-in-law he wrote letters of +fervent, religious exhortation and sent them tracts and pictures +which he had secured from well-intentioned persons anxious about +his salvation. To an old friend, George Goodlad, a pianist, who +had apparently lived up to his name, he wrote: "You chose an +honest industrious way through life, but I chose the one of dis- + +honesty, villainy and sin"; let his fate, he said, be a warning. + +Peace ate a hearty breakfast and awaited the coming of the +executioner with calm. He had been troubled with an inconvenient +cough the night before. "I wonder," he said to one of his +warders, "if Marwood could cure this cough of mine." He had got +an idea into his head that Marwood would "punish" him when he +came to deal with him on the scaffold, and asked to see the hang- + +man a few minutes before the appointed hour. "I hope you will +not punish me. I hope you will do your work quickly," he said to +Marwood. "You shall not suffer pain from my hand," replied that +worthy. "God bless you," exclaimed Peace, "I hope to meet you +all in heaven. I am thankful to say my sins are all forgiven." +And so these two pious men--on the morning of an execution +Marwood always knelt down and asked God's blessing on the work he +had to do--shook hands together and set about their business. +Firmly and fearlessly Peace submitted himself to the necessary +preparations. For one moment he faltered as the gallows came in +sight, but recovered himself quickly. + +As Marwood was about to cover his face, Peace stopped him with +some irritation of manner and said that he wished to speak to the +gentlemen of the press who had been admitted to the ceremony. No +one gainsaid him, and he thus addressed the reporters: "You +gentlemen reporters, I wish you to notice the few words I am +going to say. You know what my life has been. It has been +base; but I wish you to notice, for the sake of others, how a man +can die, as I am about to die, in fear of the Lord. Gentlemen, +my heart says that I feel assured that my sins are forgiven me, +that I am going to the Kingdom of Heaven, or else to the place +prepared for those who rest until the great Judgment day. I do +not think I have any enemies, but if there are any who would be +so, I wish them well. Gentlemen, all and all, I wish them to +come to the Kingdom of Heaven when they die, as I am going to +die." He asked a blessing on the officials of the prison and, in +conclusion, sent his last wishes and respects to his dear +children and their mother. "I hope," he said, "no one will +disgrace them by taunting them or jeering them on my account, but +to have mercy upon them. God bless you, my dear children. Good- +bye, and Heaven bless you. Amen: Oh, my Lord God, have mercy +upon me!" + +After the cap had been placed over his head Peace asked twice +very sharply, as a man who expected to be obeyed, for a drink of +water. But this time his request was not compiled with. He died +instantaneously and was buried in Armley Jail. + +Had Peace flourished in 1914 instead of 1874, his end might have +been honourable instead of dishonourable. The war of to-day has +no doubt saved many a man from a criminal career by turning to +worthy account qualities which, dangerous in crime, are useful in +war. Absolute fearlessness, agility, resource, cunning and +determination; all these are admirable qualities in the soldier; +and all these Charles Peace possessed in a signal degree. But +fate denied him opportunity, he became a burglar and died on the +scaffold. Years of prison life failed, as they did in those +days, to make any impression for good on one resolute in whatever +way he chose to go. Peace was a born fighter. A detective who +knew him and had on one occasion come near capturing him in +London, said that he was a fair fighter, that he always gave +fair warning to those on whom he fired, and that, being a dead +shot, the many wide shots which he fired are to be reckoned +proofs of this. Peace maintained to the last that he had never +intended to kill Dyson. This statement ex-detective Parrock +believed, and that the fatal shot was fired over Peace's shoulder +as he was making off. Though habitually sober, Peace was made +intoxicated now and then by the drink, stood him by those whom he +used to amuse with his musical tricks and antics in public- +houses. At such times he would get fuddled and quarrelsome. He +was in such a frame of mind on the evening of Dyson's murder. +His visit to the Vicar of Ecclesall brought him little comfort or +consolation. It was in this unsatisfactory frame of mind that he +went to Dyson's house. This much the ex-detective would urge in +his favour. To his neighbours he was an awe-inspiring but kind +and sympathetic man. "If you want my true opinion of him," says +Detective Parrock, "he was a burglar to the backbone but not a +murderer at heart. He deserved the fate that came to him as +little as any who in modern times have met with a like one." +Those who are in the fighting line are always the most generous +about their adversaries. Parrock as a potential target for +Peace's revolver, may have erred on the side of generosity, but +there is some truth in what he says. + +As Peace himself admitted, his life had been base. He was well +aware that he had misused such gifts as nature had bestowed on +him. One must go back to mediaeval times to find the +counterpart of this daring ruffian who, believing in personal God +and devil, refuses until the end to allow either to interfere +with his business in life. In this respect Charles Peace reminds +us irresistibly of our Angevin kings. + +There is only one criminal who vies with Charley Peace in +that genial popular regard which makes Charles "Charley" and John +"Jack," and that is Jack Sheppard. What Jack was to the +eighteenth century, that Charley was to the nineteenth. And each +one is in a sense typical of his period. Lecky has said that the +eighteenth century is richer than any other in the romance of +crime. I think it may fairly be said that in the nineteenth +century the romance of crime ceased to be. In the eighteenth +century the scenery and dresses, all the stage setting of crime +make for romance; its literature is quaint and picturesque; there +is something gay and debonair about the whole business. + +Sheppard is typical of all this. There is a certain charm about +the rascal; his humour is undeniable; he is a philosopher, taking +all that comes with easy grace, even his betrayal by his brother +and others who should have been loyal to him. Jack Sheppard has +the good-humoured carelessness of that most engaging of all +eighteenth century malefactors, Deacon Brodie. It is quite +otherwise with Charley Peace. There is little enough gay or +debonair about him. Compared with Sheppard, Peace is as drab as +the surroundings of mid-Victorian crime are drab compared with +the picturesqueness of eighteenth century England. + +Crime in the nineteenth century becomes more scientific in its +methods and in its detection also. The revolver places a more +hasty, less decorous weapon than the old-fashioned pistol in the +hands of the determined burglar. The literature of crime, such +as it is, becomes vulgar and prosaic. Peace has no charm about +him, no gaiety, but he has the virtues of his defects. He, +unlike Sheppard, shuns company; he works alone, never depending +on accomplices; a "tight cock," as Sheppard would have phrased +it, and not relying on a like quality of tightness in his +fellows. Sheppard is a slave to his women, Edgeworth Bess and +Mrs. Maggot; Mrs. Peace and Sue Thompson are the slaves of +Peace. Sheppard loves to stroll openly about the London streets +in his fine suit of black, his ruffled shirt and his silver- +hilted sword. Peace lies concealed at Peckham beneath the homely +disguise of old Mr. Thompson. Sheppard is an imp, Peace a +goblin. But both have that gift of personality which, in their +own peculiar line, lifts them out from the ruck, and makes them +Jack and Charley to those who like to know famous people by +cheery nicknames. + +And so we must accept Charles Peace as a remarkable character, +whose unquestioned gifts as a man of action were squandered on a +criminal career; neither better nor worse than a great number of +other persons, whose good fortune it has been to develop similar +qualities under happier surroundings. There are many more +complete villains than the ordinary criminal, who contrive to go +through life without offending against the law. Close and +scientific investigation has shown that the average convicted +criminal differs intellectually from the normal person only in a +slightly lower level of intelligence, a condition that may well +be explained by the fact that the convicted criminal has been +found out. Crime has been happily defined by a recent and most +able investigator into the character of the criminal[12] as "an +unusual act committed by a perfectly normal person." At the same +time, according to the same authority, there is a type of normal +person who tends to be convicted of crime, and he is +differentiated from his fellows by defective physique and mental +capacity and an increased possession of antisocial qualities.[13] + + +[12] "The English Convict," a statistical study, by Charles +Goring, M.D. His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1913. + +[13] Murderers--at least those executed for their crimes--have +not for obvious reasons been made the subject of close scientific +observation. Their mental capacity would in all probability be +found to be rather higher than that of less ambitious +criminals. + + +How does Peace answer to the definition? Though short in +stature, his physical development left little to be desired: he +was active, agile, and enjoyed excellent health at all times. +For a man of forty-seven he had aged remarkably in appearance. +That is probably to be accounted for by mental worry. With two +murders on his conscience we know from Sue Thompson that all she +learnt of his secrets was what escaped from him in his troubled +dreams--Peace may well have shown traces of mental anxiety. But +in all other respects Charles Peace would seem to have been +physically fit. In intellectual capacity he was undoubtedly +above the average of the ordinary criminal. The facts of his +career, his natural gifts, speak for themselves. Of anti-social +proclivities he no doubt possessed his share at the beginning, +and these were aggravated, as in most cases they were in his day, +by prison life and discipline. + +Judged as scientifically as is possible where the human being is +concerned, Peace stands out physically and intellectually well +above the average of his class, perhaps the most naturally gifted +of all those who, without advantages of rank or education, have +tried their hands at crime. Ordinary crime for the most part +would appear to be little better than the last resort of the +intellectually defective, and a poor game at that. The only +interesting criminals are those worthy of something better. +Peace was one of these. If his life may be said to point a +moral, it is the very simple one that crime is no career for a +man of brains. + + + +The Career of Robert Butler + + +There is a report of Butler's trial published in Dunedin. It +gives in full the speeches and the cross-examination of the +witnesses, but not in all cases the evidence-in-chief. By the +kindness of a friend in New Zealand I obtained a copy of the +depositions taken before the magistrate; with this I have been +able to supplement the report of the trial. A collection of +newspaper cuttings furnished me with the details of the rest of +Butler's career. + +I + +THE DUNEDIN MURDERS + +On the evening of March 23, 1905, Mr. William Munday, a highly +respected citizen of the town of Tooringa, in Queensland, was +walking to the neighbouring town of Toowong to attend a masonic +gathering. It was about eight o'clock, the moon shining +brightly. Nearing Toowong, Mr. Munday saw a middle-aged man, +bearded and wearing a white overcoat, step out into the moonlight +from under the shadow of a tree. As Mr. Munday advanced, the man +in the white coat stood directly in his way. "Out with all you +have, and quick about it," he said. Instead of complying with +this peremptory summons, Mr. Munday attempted to close with him. +The man drew back quickly, whipped out a revolver, fired, and +made off as fast as he could. The bullet, after passing through +Mr. Munday's left arm, had lodged in the stomach. The +unfortunate gentleman was taken to a neighbouring hospital where, +within a few hours, he was dead. + +In the meantime a vigorous search was made for his assailant. +Late the same night Constable Hennessy, riding a bicycle, saw a +man in a white coat who seemed to answer to the description of +the assassin. He dismounted, walked up to him and asked him for +a match. The man put his hand inside his coat. "What have you +got there?" asked the constable. "I'll--soon show you," replied +the man in the white coat, producing suddenly a large revolver. +But Hennessy was too quick for him. Landing him one under the +jaw, he sent him to the ground and, after a sharp struggle, +secured him. Constable Hennessy little knew at the time that his +capture in Queensland of the man in the white coat was almost as +notable in the annals of crime as the affray at Blackheath on an +autumn night in 1878, when Constable Robinson grappled +successfully, wounded as he was, with Charles Peace. + +The man taken by Hennessy gave the name of James Wharton, and as +James Wharton he was hanged at Brisbane. But before his death it +was ascertained beyond doubt, though he never admitted it +himself, that Wharton was none other than one Robert Butler, +whose career as a criminal and natural wickedness may well rank +him with Charles Peace in the hierarchy of scoundrels. Like +Peace, Butler was, in the jargon of crime, a "hatter," a "lone +hand," a solitary who conceived and executed his nefarious +designs alone; like Peace, he supplemented an insignificant +physique by a liberal employment of the revolver; like Peace, he +was something of a musician, the day before his execution he +played hymns for half an hour on the prison organ; like Peace, he +knew when to whine when it suited his purpose; and like Peace, +though not with the same intensity, he could be an uncomfortably +persistent lover, when the fit was on him. Both men were cynics +in their way and viewed their fellow-men with a measure of +contempt. But here parallel ends. Butler was an +intellectual, inferior as a craftsman to Peace, the essentially +practical, unread, naturally gifted artist. Butler was a man of +books. He had been schoolmaster, journalist. He had studied the +lives of great men, and as a criminal, had devoted especial +attention to those of Frederick the Great and Napoleon. Butler's +defence in the Dunedin murder trial was a feat of skill quite +beyond the power of Peace. Peace was a religious man after the +fashion of the mediaeval tyrant, Butler an infidel. Peace, +dragged into the light of a court of justice, cut a sorry figure; +here Butler shone. Peace escaped a conviction for murder by +letting another suffer in his place; Butler escaped a similar +experience by the sheer ingenuity of his defence. Peace had the +modesty and reticence of the sincere artist; Butler the +loquacious vanity of the literary or forensic coxcomb. Lastly, +and it is the supreme difference, Butler was a murderer by +instinct and conviction, as Lacenaire or Ruloff; "a man's life," +he said, "was of no more importance than a dog's; nature respects +the one no more than the other, a volcanic eruption kills mice +and men with the one hand. The divine command, `kill, kill and +spare not,' was intended not only for Joshua, but for men of all +time; it is the example of our rulers, our Fredericks and +Napoleons." + +Butler was of the true Prussian mould. "In crime," he would say, +"as in war, no half measures. Let us follow the example of our +rulers whose orders in war run, `Kill, burn and sink,' and what +you cannot carry away, destroy.'" Here is the gospel of +frightfulness applied almost prophetically to crime. To Butler +murder is a principle of warfare; to Peace it was never more than +a desperate resort or an act the outcome of ungovernable passion. + +Ireland can claim the honour of Butler's birth. It took place at +Kilkenny about 1845. At an early age he left his native land +for Australia, and commenced his professional career by being +sentenced under the name of James Wilson--the same initials as +those of James Wharton of Queensland--to twelve months' +imprisonment for vagrancy. Of the sixteen years he passed in +Victoria he spent thirteen in prison, first for stealing, then in +steady progression for highway robbery and burglary. Side by +side with the practical and efficient education in crime +furnished by the Victorian prisons of that day, Butler availed +himself of the opportunity to educate his mind. It was during +this period that he found inspiration and encouragement in the +study of the lives of Frederick and Napoleon, besides acquiring a +knowledge of music and shorthand. + +When in 1876 Butler quitted Australia for New Zealand, he was +sufficiently accomplished to obtain employment as a schoolmaster. + +At Cromwell, Otago, under the name of "C. J. Donelly, Esq.," +Butler opened a "Commercial and Preparatory Academy," and in a +prospectus that recalls Mr. Squeers' famous advertisement of +Dotheboys Hall, announced that the programme of the Academy would +include "reading, taught as an art and upon the most approved +principles of elocution, writing, arithmetic, euclid, algebra, +mensuration, trigonometry, book-keeping, geography, grammar, +spelling and dictation) composition, logic and debate, French, +Latin, shorthand, history, music, and general lectures on +astronomy, natural philosophy, geology, and other subjects." The +simpler principles of these branches of learning were to be +"rendered intelligible, and a firm foundation laid for the +acquirement of future knowledge." Unfortunately a suspicion of +theft on Butler's part cut short the fulfilment of this really +splendid programme, and Butler left Cromwell hurriedly for the +ampler field of Dunedin. There, less than a fortnight after +his arrivel{sic}, he was sentenced to four years' hard labour for +several burglaries committed in and about that city. + +On the 18th of February, 1880, Butler was released from prison. +With that consummate hypocrisy which was part of the man, he had +contrived to enlist the sympathies of the Governor of the Dunedin +Jail, who gave him, on his departure, a suit of clothes and a +small sum of money. A detective of the name of Bain tried to +find him employment. Butler wished to adopt a literary career. +He acted as a reporter on the Dunedin Evening Star, and gave +satisfaction to the editor of that newspaper. An attempt to do +some original work, in the shape of "Prison Sketches," for +another newspaper, was less successful. Bain had arranged for +the publication of the articles in the Sunday Advertiser, but +when the time came to deliver his manuscript, Butler failed to +appear. Bain, whose duty it was to keep an eye on Butler, found +him in the street looking wild and haggard. He said that he had +found the work "too much for his head," that he had torn up what +he had written, that he had nowhere to go, and had been to the +end of the jetty with the intention of drowning himself. Bain +replied somewhat caustically that he thought it a pity he had not +done so, as nothing would have given him greater joy than going +to the end of the jetty and identifying his body. "You speak +very plainly," said Butler. "Yes, and what is more, I mean what +I say," replied Bain. Butler justified Bain's candour by saying +that if he broke out again, he would be worse than the most +savage tiger ever let loose on the community. As a means of +obviating such an outbreak, Butler suggested that, intellectual +employment having failed, some form of manual labour should be +found him. Bain complied with Butler's request, and got him a +job at levelling reclaimed ground in the neighbourhood of +Dunedin. On Wednesday, March 10, Butler started work, but after +three hours of it relinquished the effort. Bain saw Butler again +in Dunedin on the evening of Saturday, March 13, and made an +appointment to meet him at half-past eight that night. Butler +did not keep the appointment. Bain searched the town for him, +but he was nowhere to be found. + +About the same time Butler had some talk with another member of +the Dunedin police force, Inspector Mallard. They discussed the +crimes of Charles Peace and other notable artists of that kind. +Butler remarked to Mallard how easy it would be to destroy all +traces of a murder by fire, and asked the inspector whether if he +woke up one morning to find some brutal murder had been +committed, he would not put it down to him. "No, Butler," +replied the inspector, "the first thing I should do would be to +look for suspicious circumstances, and most undoubtedly, if they +pointed to you, you would be looked after." + +In the early morning of this Saturday, March 13, the house of a +Mr. Stamper, a solicitor of Dunedin, had been broken into, and +some articles of value, among them a pair of opera glasses, +stolen. The house had been set on fire, and burned to the +ground. On the morning of the following day, Sunday, the 14th, +Dunedin was horrified by the discovery of a far more terrible +crime, tigerish certainly in its apparent ferocity. In a house +in Cumberland Street, a young married couple and their little +baby were cruelly murdered and un{sic}{an??} unsuccessful attempt +made to fire the scene of the crime. + +About half-past six on Sunday morning a man of the name of Robb, +a carpenter, on getting out of bed, noticed smoke coming from the +house of a neighbor of his, Mr. J. M. Dewar, who occupied a small +one-floored cottage standing by itself in Cumberland Street, a +large and broad thoroughfare on the outskirts of the town. +Dewar was a butcher by trade, a young man, some eighteen +months married, and father of a baby girl. Robb, on seeing smoke +coming from Dewar's house, woke his son, who was a member of the +fire brigade. The latter got up, crossed the street, and going +round to the back door, which he found wide open, entered the +house. As he went along the passage that separated the two front +rooms, a bedroom and sitting-room, he called to the inmates to +get up. He received no answer, but as he neared the bedroom he +heard a "gurgling" sound. Crawling on his hands and knees he +reached the bedroom door, and two feet inside it his right hand +touched something. It was the body of a woman; she was still +alive, but in a dying condition. Robb dragged her across the +passage into the sitting-room. He got some water, and extin- +guished the fire in the bedroom. On the bed lay the body of +Dewar. To all appearances he had been killed in his sleep. By +his side was the body of the baby, suffocated by the smoke. Near +the bed was an axe belonging to Dewar, stained with blood. It +was with this weapon, apparently, that Mr. and Mrs. Dewar had +been attacked. Under the bed was a candlestick belonging also to +the Dewars, which had been used by the murderer in setting fire +to the bed. The front window of the sitting-room was open, there +were marks of boot nails on the sill, and on the grass in front +of the window a knife was found. An attempt had been made to +ransack a chest of drawers in the bedroom, but some articles of +jewellery lying in one of the drawers, and a ring on the +dressing-table had been left untouched. As far as was known, Mr. +and Mrs. Dewar were a perfectly happy and united couple. Dewar +had been last seen alive about ten o'clock on the Saturday night +getting off a car near his home. At eleven a neighbour had +noticed a light in the Dewars' house. About five o'clock on the +Sunday morning another neighbour had been aroused from his +sleep by the sound as of something falling heavily. It was a +wild and boisterous night. Thinking the noise might be the +slamming of his stable door, he got up and went out to see that +it was secure. He then noticed that a light was burning in the +bedroom window of the Dewars' cottage. + +Nothing more was known of what had occurred that morning until at +half-past six Robb saw the smoke coming from Dewars' house. Mrs. +Dewar, who alone could have told something, never recovered +consciousness and died on the day following the crime. Three +considerable wounds sufficient to cause death had been inflicted +on the unfortunate woman's head, and five of a similar character +on that of her husband. At the head of the bed, which stood in +the corner of the room, there was a large smear of blood on the +wall just above the door; there were spots of blood all over the +top of the bed, and some smaller ones that had to all appearances +spurted on to the panel of the door nearest to the bed. + +The investigation of this shocking crime was placed in the hands +of Detective Bain, whose duty it had been to keep an eye on +Robert Butler, but he did not at first associate his interesting +charge with the commission of the murder. About half-past six on +Sunday evening Bain happened to go to a place called the Scotia +Hotel, where the landlord informed him that one of his servants, +a girl named Sarah Gillespie, was very anxious to see him. Her +story was this: On the morning of Thursday, March 11, Robert +Butler had come to the hotel; he was wearing a dark lavender +check suit and carried a top coat and parcel. Butler had stayed +in the hotel all Thursday and slept there that night. He had not +slept in the hotel on the Friday night, and Sarah Gillespie had +not seen him again until he came into the house about five and +twenty minutes to seven on Sunday morning. The girl noticed +that he was pale and excited, seemed afraid and worried, as if +someone were coming after him. After giving her some money for +the landlord, he went upstairs, fetched his top coat, a muffler, +and his parcel. Before leaving he said he would have a pint of +beer, as he had not breakfasted. He then left, presumably to +catch an early train. + +Butler was next seen a few minutes later at a shop near the +hotel, where he bought five tins of salmon, and about the same +time a milk-boy saw him standing on the kerb in Cumberland Street +in a stooping position, his head turned in the direction of +Dewars' house. A little after ten the same night Butler entered +a hotel at a place called Blueskin, some twelve miles distant +from Dunedin. He was wearing an overcoat and a light muffler. +He sat down at a table in the dining-room and seemed weary and +sleepy. Someone standing at the bar said "What a shocking murder +that was in Cumberland Street!" Butler started up, looked +steadily from one to the other of the two men who happened to be +in the room, then sat down again and, taking up a book, appeared +to be reading. More than once he put down the book and kept +shifting uneasily in his chair. After having some supper he got +up, paid his reckoning, and left the hotel. + +At half-past three the following morning, about fifteen miles +from Dunedin, on the road to Waikouaiti, two constables met a man +whom they recognised as Butler from a description that had been +circulated by the police. The constables arrested and searched +him. They found on him a pair of opera glasses, the property of +Mr. Stamper, whose house had been burgled and burned down on the +morning of the 13th. Of this crime Butler acknowledged himself +to be the perpetrator. Besides the opera glasses the constables +took from Butler two tins of salmon, a purse containing four +shillings and sixpence, a pocket knife, a box of matches, a +piece of candle, and a revolver and cartridges. The prisoner was +carrying a top coat, and was dressed in a dark coat and grey +trousers, underneath which he was wearing a white shirt, an under +flannel and a Rob Roy Crimean shirt. One of the constables +noticed that there were marks of blood on his shirt. Another +singular feature in Butler's attire was the fact that the outer +soles of his boots had been recently removed. When last seen in +Dunedin Butler had been wearing a moustache; he was now clean +shaven. + +The same evening a remarkable interview took place in the lock-up +at Waikouaiti between Butler and Inspector Mallard. Mallard, who +had some reason for suspecting Butler, bearing in mind their +recent conversation, told the prisoner that he would be charged +with the murder in Cumberland Street. For a few seconds, +according to Mallard, the prisoner seemed terribly agitated and +appeared to be choking. Recovering himself somewhat, he said, +"If for that, you can get no evidence against me; and if I am +hanged for it, I shall be an innocent man, whatever other crimes +I may have committed." Mallard replied, "There is evidence to +convict you--the fire was put out." Butler than{sic} said that +he would ask Mallard a question, but, after a pause, decided not +to do so. Mallard, after examining Butler's clothes, told him +that those were not the clothes in which he had left the Scotia +Hotel. Butler admitted it, and said he had thrown those away in +the North East Valley. Mallard alluded to the disappearance of +the prisoner's moustache. Butler replied that he had cut it off +on the road. Mallard noticed then the backs of Butler's hands +were scratched, as if by contact with bushes. Butler seemed +often on the point of asking questions, but would then stop and +say "No, I won't ask you anything." To the constables who had +arrested him Butler remarked, "You ought to remember me, +because I could have shot you if I had wished." When Mallard +later in the evening visited Butler again, the prisoner who was +then lying down said, "I want to speak to you. I want to ask the +press not to publish my career. Give me fair play. I suppose I +shall be convicted and you will see I can die like a man." + +A few days after Butler's arrest a ranger on the Town Belt, a +hill overlooking Dunedin, found a coat, a hat and silk striped +cravat, and a few days later a pair of trousers folded up and +placed under a bush. These articles of clothing were identified +as those which Butler had been seen wearing on the Saturday and +Sunday morning. They were examined. There were a number of +bloodstains on them, not one of them larger in size than a pea, +some almost invisible. On the front of the trousers about the +level of the groin there were blood spots on both sides. There +was blood on the fold of the left breast of the coat and on the +lining of the cuff of the right arm. The shirt Butler was +wearing at the time of his arrest was examined also. There were +small spots of blood, about fourteen altogether, on the neck and +shoulder bands, the right armpit, the left sleeve, and on both +wristbands. Besides the clothes, a salmon tin was found on the +Town Belt, and behind a seat in the Botanical Gardens, from which +a partial view of the Dewars' house in Cumberland Street could be +obtained, two more salmon tins were found, all three similar to +the five purchased by Butler on the Sunday morning, two of which +had been in his possession at the time of his arrest. + +Such were the main facts of the case which Butler had to answer +when, a few weeks later, he was put on his trial before the +Supreme Court at Dunedin. The presiding judge was Mr. Justice +Williams, afterwards Sir Joshua Williams and a member of the +Privy Council. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr. Haggitt, conducted +the case for the Crown, and Butler defended himself. + + +II + +THE TRIAL OF BUTLER + + +To a man of Butler's egregious vanity his trial was a glorious +opportunity for displaying his intellectual gifts, such as they +were. One who had known him in prison about this time describes +him as a strange compound of vanity and envy, blind to his own +faults and envious of the material advantages enjoyed by others. +Self-willed and arrogant, he could bully or whine with equal +effect. Despising men, he believed that if a man did not possess +some requisite quality, he had only to ape it, as few would +distinguish between the real and the sham. + +But with all these advantages in the struggle for life, it is +certain that Butler's defence would have been far less effective +had be{sic} been denied all professional aid. As a matter of +fact, throughout his trial Butler was being advised by three +distinguished members of the New Zealand bar, now judges of the +Supreme Court, who though not appearing for him in court, gave +him the full benefit of their assistance outside it. At the same +time Butler carried off the thing well. Where imagination was +required, Butler broke down; he could not write sketches of life +in prison; that was too much for his pedestrian intellect. But +given the facts of a case, dealing with a transaction of which he +alone knew the real truth, and aided by the advice and guidance +of trained intellects, Butler was unquestionably clever and +shrewd enough to make the best use of such advantages in meeting +the case against him. + +Thus equipped for the coming struggle, this high-browed ruffian, +with his semi-intellectual cast of countenance, his jerky +restless posturing, his splay-footed waddle, "like a lame Muscovy +duck," in the graphic words of his gaol companion, stood up to +plead for his life before the Supreme Court at Dunedin. + +It may be said at the outset that Butler profited greatly by the +scrupulous fairness shown by the Crown Prosecutor. Mr. Haggitt +extended to the prisoner a degree of consideration and +forbearance, justified undoubtedly towards an undefended +prisoner. But, as we have seen, Butler was not in reality +undefended. At every moment of the trial he was in communication +with his legal advisers, and being instructed by them how to meet +the evidence given against him. Under these circumstances the +unfailing consideration shown him by the Crown Prosecutor seems +almost excessive. From the first moment of the trial Butler was +fully alive to the necessities of his situation. He refrained +from including in his challenges of the jury the gentleman who +was afterwards foreman; he knew he was all right, he said, +because he parted his hair in the middle, a "softy," in fact. He +did not know in all probability that one gentleman on the jury +had a rooted conviction that the murder of the Dewars was the +work of a criminal lunatic. There was certainly nothing in +Butler's demeanour or behaviour to suggest homicidal mania. + +The case against Butler rested on purely circumstantial evidence. + +No new facts of importance were adduced at the trial. The +stealing of Dewar's wages, which had been paid to him on the +Saturday, was the motive for the murder suggested by the Crown. +The chief facts pointing to Butler's guilt were: his conversation +with Mallard and Bain previous to the crime; his demeanour after +it; his departure from Dunedin; the removal of his moustache +and the soles of his boots; his change of clothes and the +bloodstains found upon them, added to which was his apparent +inability to account for his movements on the night in question. + +Such as the evidence was, Butler did little to shake it in cross- +examination. His questions were many of them skilful and +pointed, but on more than one occasion the judge intervened to +save him from the danger common to all amateur cross-examiners, +of not knowing when to stop. He was most successful in dealing +with the medical witnesses. Butler had explained the bloodstains +on his clothes as smears that had come from scratches on his +hands, caused by contact with bushes. This explanation the +medical gentlemen with good reason rejected. But they went +further, and said that these stains might well have been caused +by the spurting and spraying of blood on to the murderer as he +struck his victims. Butler was able to show by the position of +the bloodstains on the clothes that such an explanation was open +to considerable doubt. + +Butler's speech in his defence lasted six hours, and was a +creditable performance. Its arrangement is somewhat confused and +repetitious, some points are over-elaborated, but on the whole he +deals very successfully with most of the evidence given against +him and exposes the unquestionable weakness of the Crown case. +At the outset he declared that he had taken his innocence for his +defence. "I was not willing," he said, "to leave my life in the +hands of a stranger. I was willing to incur all the +disadvantages which the knowledge of the law might bring upon me. + +I was willing, also, to enter on this case without any experience +whatever of that peculiarly acquired art of cross-examination. I +fear I have done wrong. If I had had the assistance of able +counsel, much more light would have been thrown on this case +than has been." As we have seen, Butler enjoyed throughout his +trial the informal assistance of three of the most able counsel +in New Zealand, so that this heroic attitude of conscious +innocence braving all dangers loses most of its force. Without +such assistance his danger might have been very real. + +A great deal of the evidence as to his conduct and demeanour at +the time of the murder Butler met by acknowledging that it was he +who had broken into Mr. Stamper's house on the Saturday morning, +burgled it and set it on fire. His consciousness of guilt in +this respect was, he said, quite sufficient to account for +anything strange or furtive in his manner at that time. He was +already known to the police; meeting Bain on the Saturday night, +he felt more than ever sure that he was susspected{sic} of the +robbery at Mr. Stamper's; he therefore decided to leave Dunedin +as soon as possible. That night, he said, he spent wandering +about the streets half drunk, taking occasional shelter from the +pouring rain, until six o'clock on the Sunday morning, when he +went to the Scotia Hotel. A more detailed account of his +movements on the night of the Dewars' murder he did not, or would +not, give. + +When he comes to the facts of the murder and his theories as to +the nature and motive of the crime--theories which he developed +at rather unnecessary length for the purpose of his own defence-- +his speech is interesting. It will be recollected that on the +discovery of the murder, a knife was found on the grass outside +the house. This knife was not the property of the Dewars. In +Butler's speech he emphasised the opinion that this knife had +been brought there by the murderer: "Horrible though it may be, +my conclusion is that he brought it with the intention of cutting +the throats of his victims, and that, finding they lay in rather +an untoward position, he changed his mind, and, having +carried out the object with which he entered the house, left the +knife and, going back, brought the axe with which he effected his +purpose. What was the purpose of the murderer? Was it the +robbery of Dewar's paltry wages? Was it the act of a tiger +broken loose on the community? An act of pure wanton devilry? or +was there some more reasonable explanation of this most atrocious +crime?" + +Butler rejected altogether the theory of ordinary theft. No +thief of ambitious views, he said, would pitch upon the house of +a poor journeyman butcher. The killing of the family appeared to +him to be the motive: "an enemy hath done this." The murderer +seems to have had a knowledge of the premises; he enters the +house and does his work swiftly and promptly, and is gone. "We +cannot know," Butler continues, "all the passages in the lives of +the murdered man or woman. What can we know of the hundred +spites and jealousies or other causes of malice which might have +caused the crime? If you say some obscure quarrel, some spite or +jealousy is not likely to have been the cause of so dreadful a +murder, you cannot revert to the robbery theory without admitting +a motive much weaker in all its utter needlessness and vagueness. + +The prominent feature of the murder, indeed the only feature, is +its ruthless, unrelenting, determined vindictiveness. Every blow +seemed to say, `You shall die you shall not live.'" + +Whether Butler were the murderer of the Dewars or not, the theory +that represented them as having been killed for the purpose of +robbery has its weak side all the weaker if Butler, a practical +and ambitious criminal, were the guilty man. + +In 1882, two years after Butler's trial, there appeared in a New +Zealand newspaper, Society, published in Christchurch, a series +of Prison "Portraits," written evidently by one who had +himself undergone a term of imprisonment. One of the "Portraits" +was devoted to an account of Butler. The writer had known Butler +in prison. According to the story told him by Butler, the latter +had arrived in Dunedin with a quantity of jewellery he had stolen +in Australia. This jewellery he entrusted to a young woman for +safe keeping. After serving his first term of two years' +imprisonment in Dunedin, Butler found on his release that the +young woman had married a man of the name of Dewar. Butler went +to Mrs. Dewar and asked for the return of his jewellery; she +refused to give it up. On the night of the murder he called at +the house in Cumberland Street and made a last appeal to her, but +in vain. He determined on revenge. During his visit to Mrs. +Dewar he had had an opportunity of seeing the axe and observing +the best way to break into the house. He watched the husband's +return, and decided to kill him as well as his wife on the chance +of obtaining his week's wages. With the help of the knife which +he had found in the backyard of a hotel he opened the window. +The husband he killed in his sleep, the woman waked with the +first blow he struck her. He found the jewellery in a drawer +rolled up in a pair of stockings. He afterwards hid it in a +well-marked spot some half-hour before his arrest. + +A few years after its appearance in Society, this account of +Butler was reproduced in an Auckland newspaper. Bain, the +detective, wrote a letter questioning the truth of the writer's +statements. He pointed out that when Butler first came to +Dunedin he had been at liberty only a fortnight before serving +his first term of imprisonment, very little time in which to make +the acquaintance of a woman and dispose of the stolen jewellery. +He asked why, if Butler had hidden the jewellery just before his +arrest, he had not also hidden the opera-glasses which he +had stolen from Mr. Stamper's house. Neither of these comments +is very convincing. A fortnight seems time enough in which a man +of Butler's character might get to know a woman and dispose of +some jewellery; while, if Butler were the murderer of Mr. Dewar +as well as the burglar who had broken into Stamper's house, it +was part of his plan to acknowledge himself guilty of the latter +crime and use it to justify his movements before and after the +murder. Bain is more convincing when he states at the conclusion +of his letter that he had known Mrs. Dewar from childhood as a +"thoroughly good and true woman," who, as far as he knew, had +never in her life had any acquaintance with Butler. + +At the same time, the account given by Butler's fellow-prisoner, +in which the conduct of the murdered woman is represented as +constituting the provocation for the subsequent crime, explains +one peculiar circumstance in connection with the tragedy, the +selection of this journeyman butcher and his wife as the victims +of the murderer. It explains the theory, urged so persistently +by Butler in his speech to the jury, that the crime was the work +of an enemy of the Dewars, the outcome of some hidden spite, or +obscure quarrel; it explains the apparent ferocity of the murder, +and the improbability of a practical thief selecting such an +unprofitable couple as his prey. The rummaged chest of drawers +and the fact that some trifling articles of jewellery were left +untouched on the top of them, are consistent with an eager search +by the murderer for some particular object. Against this theory +of revenge is the fact that Butler was a malignant ruffian and +liar in any case, that, having realised very little in cash by +the burglary at Stamper's house, he would not be particular as to +where he might get a few shillings more, that he had threatened +to do a tigerish deed, and that it is characteristic of his +vanity to try to impute to his crime a higher motive than +mere greed or necessity. + +Butler showed himself not averse to speaking of the murder in +Cumberland Street to at least one of those, with whom he came in +contact in his later years. After he had left New Zealand and +returned to Australia, he was walking in a street in Melbourne +with a friend when they passed a lady dressed in black, carrying +a baby in her arms. The baby looked at the two men and laughed. +Butler frowned and walked rapidly away. His companion chaffed +him, and asked whether it was the widow or the baby that he was +afraid of. Butler was silent, but after a time asked his +companion to come into some gardens and sit down on one of the +seats, as he had something serious to say to him. For a while +Butler sat silent. Then he asked the other if he had ever been +in Dunedin. "Yes," was the reply. "Look here," said Butler, +"you are the only man I ever made any kind of confidant of. You +are a good scholar, though I could teach you a lot." After this +gracious compliment he went on: "I was once tried in Dunedin on +the charge of killing a man, woman and child, and although +innocent, the crime was nearly brought home to me. It was my own +ability that pulled me through. Had I employed a professional +advocate, I should not have been here to-day talking to you." +After describing the murder, Butler said: "Trying to fire the +house was unnecessary, and killing the baby was unnecessary and +cruel. I respect no man's life, for no man respects mine. A lot +of men I have never injured have tried to put a rope round my +neck more than once. I hate society in general, and one or two +individuals in particular. The man who did that murder in +Dunedin has, if anything, my sympathy, but it seems to me he need +not have killed that child." His companion was about to speak. +Butler stopped him. "Now, don't ever ask me such a silly +question as that," he said. "What?" asked his friend. "You were +about to ask me if I did that deed," replied Butler, "and you +know perfectly well that, guilty or innocent, that question would +only be answered in one way." "I was about to ask nothing of the +kind," said the other, "for you have already told me that you +were innocent." "Good!" said Butler, "then let that be the end +of the subject, and never refer to it again, except, perhaps, in +your own mind, when you can, if you like, remember that I said +the killing of the child was unnecessary and cruel." + +Having developed to the jury his theory of why the crime was +committed, Butler told them that, as far as he was concerned, +there were four points against him on which the Crown relied to +prove his guilt. Firstly, there was the fact of his being in the +neighbourhood of the crime on the Sunday morning; that, he said, +applied to scores of other people besides himself. Then there +was his alleged disturbed appearance and guilty demeanour. The +evidence of that was, he contended, doubtful in any case, and +referable to another cause; as also his leaving Dunedin in the +way and at the time he did. He scouted the idea that murderers +are compelled by some invisible force to betray their guilt. +"The doings of men," he urged, "and their success are regulated +by the amount of judgment that they possess, and, without +impugning or denying the existence of Providence, I say this is a +law that holds good in all cases, whether for evil or good. +Murderers, if they have the sense and ability and discretion to +cover up their crime, will escape, do escape, and have escaped. +Many people, when they have gravely shaken their heads and said +`Murder will out,' consider they have done a great deal and gone +a long way towards settling the question. Well, this, like many +other stock formulas of Old World wisdom, is not true. How +many murders are there that the world has never heard of, and +never will? How many a murdered man, for instance, lies among +the gum-trees of Victoria, or in the old abandoned mining-shafts +on the diggings, who is missed by nobody, perhaps, but a pining +wife at home, or helpless children, or an old mother? But who +were their murderers? Where are they? God knows, perhaps, but +nobody else, and nobody ever will." The fact, he said, that he +was alleged to have walked up Cumberland Street on the Sunday +morning and looked in the direction of the Dewars' house was, +unless the causes of superstition and a vague and incomplete +reasoning were to be accepted as proof, evidence rather of his +innocence than his guilt. He had removed the soles of his boots, +he said, in order to ease his feet in walking; the outer soles +had become worn and ragged, and in lumps under his feet. He +denied that he had told Bain, the detective, that he would break +out as a desperate tiger let loose on the community; what he had +said was that he was tired of living the life of a prairie dog or +a tiger in the jungle. + +Butler was more successful when he came to deal with the +bloodstains on his clothes. These, he said, were caused by the +blood from the scratches on his hands, which had been observed at +the time of his arrest. The doctors had rejected this theory, +and said that the spots of blood had been impelled from the axe +or from the heads of the victims as the murderer struck the fatal +blow. Butler put on the clothes in court, and was successful in +showing that the position and appearance of certain of the blood +spots was not compatible with such a theory. "I think," he said, +"I am fairly warranted in saying that the evidence of these +gentlemen is, not to put too fine a point on it, worth just +nothing at all." + +Butler's concluding words to the jury were brief but +emphatic: "I stand in a terrible position. So do you. See that +in your way of disposing of me you deliver yourselves of your +responsibilities." + +In the exercise of his forbearance towards an undefended +prisoner, Mr. Haggitt did not address the jury for the Crown. At +four o'clock the judge commenced his summingDup. Mr. Justice +Williams impressed on the jury that they must be satisfied, +before they could convict the prisoner, that the circumstances of +the crime and the prisoner's conduct were inconsistent with any +other reasonable hypothesis than his guilt. There was little or +no evidence that robbery was the motive of the crime. The +circumstance of the prisoner being out all Saturday night and in +the neighbourhood of the crime on Sunday morning only amounted to +the fact that he had an opportunity shared by a great number of +other persons of committing the murder. The evidence of his +agitation and demeanour at the time of his arrest must be +accepted with caution. The evidence of the blood spots was of +crucial importance; there was nothing save this to connect him +directly with the crime. The jury must be satisfied that the +blood on the clothes corresponded with the blood marks which, in +all probability, would be found on the person who committed the +murder. In regard to the medical testimony some caution must be +exercised. Where medical gentlemen had made observations, seen +with their own eyes, the direct inference might be highly +trustworthy, but, when they proceeded to draw further inferences, +they might be in danger of looking at facts through the +spectacles of theory; "we know that people do that in other +things besides science--politics, religion, and so forth." +Taking the Crown evidence, at its strongest, there was a missing +link; did the evidence of the bloodstains supply it? These +bloodstains were almost invisible. Could a person be reasonably +asked to explain how they came where they did? Could they +be accounted for in no other reasonable way than that the clothes +had been worn by the murderer of the Dewars? + +In spite of a summing-up distinctly favourable to the prisoner, +the jury were out three hours. According to one account of their +proceedings, told to the writer, there was at first a majority of +the jurymen in favour of conviction. But it was Saturday night; +if they could not come to a decision they were in danger of being +locked up over Sunday. For this reason the gentleman who held an +obstinate and unshaken belief that the crime was the work of a +homicidal maniac found an unexpected ally in a prominent member +of a church choir who was down to sing a solo in his church on +Sunday, and was anxious not to lose such an opportunity for +distinction. Whatever the cause, after three hours' deliberation +the jury returned a verdict of "Not Guilty." +Later in the Session Butler pleaded guilty to the burglary at Mr. +Stamper's house, and was sentenced to eighteen years' +imprisonment. The severity of this sentence was not, the judge +said, intended to mark the strong suspicion under which Butler +laboured of being a murderer as well as a burglar. + +The ends of justice had been served by Butler's acquittal. But +in the light of after events, it is perhaps unfortunate that the +jury did not stretch a point and so save the life of Mr. Munday +of Toowong. Butler underwent his term of imprisonment in +Littleton Jail. There his reputation was most unenviable. He is +described by a fellow prisoner as ill-tempered, malicious, +destructive, but cowardly and treacherous. He seems to have done +little or no work; he looked after the choir and the library, but +was not above breaking up the one and smashing the other, if the +fit seized him. + + + +III + +HIS DECLINE AND FALL + + +In 1896 Butler was released from prison. The news of his release +was described as falling like a bomb-shell among the peaceful +inhabitants of Dunedin. In the colony of Victoria, where Butler +had commenced his career, it was received with an apprehension +that was justified by subsequent events. It was believed that on +his release the New Zealand authorities had shipped Butler off to +Rio. But it was not long before he made his way once more to +Australia. From the moment of his arrival in Melbourne he was +shadowed by the police. One or two mysterious occurrences soon +led to his arrest. On June 5 he was sentenced to twelve months' +imprisonment under the Criminal Influx Act, which makes it a +penal offence for any convict to enter Victoria for three years +after his release from prison. Not content with this, the +authorities determined to put Butler on trial on two charges of +burglary and one of highway robbery, committed since his return +to the colony. To one charge of burglary, that of breaking into +a hairdresser's shop and stealing a wig, some razors and a little +money, Butler pleaded guilty. + +But the charge of highway robbery, which bore a singular +resemblance to the final catastrophe in Queensland, he resisted +to the utmost, and showed that his experience in the Supreme +Court at Dunedin had not been lost on him. At half-past six one +evening in a suburb of Melbourne an elderly gentleman found +himself confronted by a bearded man, wearing a long overcoat and +a boxer hat and flourishing a revolver, who told him abruptly to +"turn out his pockets." The old man did ashe was told. The +robber then asked for his watch and chain, saying "Business must +be done." The old gentleman mildly urged that this was a +dangerous business. On being assured that the watch was a gold +one, the robber appeared willing to risk the danger, and departed +thoroughly satisfied. The old gentleman afterwards identified +Butler as the man who had taken his watch. Another elderly man +swore that he had seen Butler at the time of the robbery in the +possession of a fine gold watch, which he said had been sent him +from home. But the watch had not been found in Butler's +possession. + +On June 18 Butler was put on his trial in the Melbourne Criminal +Court before Mr. Justice Holroyd, charged with robbery under +arms. His appearance in the dock aroused very considerable +interest. "It was the general verdict," wrote one newspaper, +"that his intellectual head and forehead compared not unfavour- + +ably with those of the judge." He was decently dressed and wore +pince-nez, which he used in the best professional manner as he +referred to the various documents that lay in front of him. He +went into the witness-box and stated that the evening of the +crime he had spent according to his custom in the Public Library. + +For an hour and a half he addressed the jury. He disputed the +possibility of his identification by his alleged victim. He was +"an old gentleman of sedentary pursuits and not cast in the +heroic mould." Such a man would be naturally alarmed and +confused at meeting suddenly an armed robber. Now, under these +circumstances, could his recognition of a man whose face was +hidden by a beard, his head by a boxer hat, and his body by a +long overcoat, be considered trustworthy? And such recognition +occurring in the course of a chance encounter in the darkness, +that fruitful mother of error? The elderly gentleman had +described his moustache as a slight one, but the jury could see +that it was full and overhanging. He complained that he had been +put up for identification singly, not with other men, according +to the usual custom; the police had said to the prosecutor: "We +have here a man that we think robbed you, and, if he is not the +man, we shall be disappointed," to which the prosecutor had +replied: "Yes, and if he is not the man, I shall be disappointed +too." For the elderly person who had stated that he had seen a +gold watch in Butler's possession the latter had nothing but +scorn. He was a "lean and slippered pantaloon in Shakespeare's +last stage"; and he, Butler, would have been a lunatic to have +confided in such a man. + +The jury acquitted Butler, adding as a rider to their verdict +that there was not sufficient evidence of identification. The +third charge against Butler was not proceeded with. He was put +up to receive sentence for the burglary at the hairdresser's +shop. Butler handed to the judge a written statement which Mr. +Justice Holroyd described as a narrative that might have been +taken from those sensational newspapers written for nursery- +maids, and from which, he said, he could not find that Butler had +ever done one good thing in the whole course of his life. Of +that life of fifty years Butler had spent thirty-five in prison. +The judge expressed his regret that a man of Butler's knowledge, +information, vanity, and utter recklessness of what evil will do, +could not be put away somewhere for the rest of his life, and +sentenced him to fifteen years' imprisonment with hard labour. +"An iniquitous and brutal sentence!" exclaimed the prisoner. +After a brief altercation with the judge, who said that he could +hardly express the scorn he felt for such a man, Butler was +removed. The judge subsequentty reduced the sentence to one +of ten years. Chance or destiny would seem implacable in their +pursuit of Mr. William Munday of Toowong. + +Butler after his trial admitted that it was he who had robbed the +old gentleman of his watch, and described to the police the house +in which it was hidden. When the police went there to search +they found that the house had been pulled down, but among the +debris they discovered a brown paper parcel containing the old +gentleman's gold watch and chain, a five-chambered revolver, a +keen-edged butcher's knife, and a mask. + +Butler served his term of imprisonment in Victoria, "an +unmitigated nuisance" to his custodians. On his release in 1904, +he made, as in Dunedin, an attempt to earn a living by his pen. +He contributed some articles to a Melbourne evening paper on the +inconveniences of prison discipline, but he was quite unfitted +for any sustained effort as a journalist. According to his own +account, with the little money he had left he made his way to +Sydney, thence to Brisbane. He was half-starved, bewildered, +despairing; in his own words, "if a psychological camera could +have been turned on me it would have shown me like a bird +fascinated by a serpent, fascinated and bewildered by the fate in +front, behind, and around me." Months of suffering and privation +passed, months of tramping hundreds of miles with occasional +breakdowns, months of hunger and sickness; "my actions had become +those of a fool; my mind and will had become a remnant guided or +misguided by unreasoning impulse." + +It was under the influence of such an impulse that on March 23 +Butler had met and shot Mr. Munday at Toowong. On May 24 he was +arraigned at Brisbane before the Supreme Court of Queensland. +But the Butler who stood in the dock of the Brisbane +Criminal Court was very different from the Butler who had +successfully defended himself at Dunedin and Melbourne. The +spirit had gone out of him; it was rather as a suppliant, +represented by counsel, that he faced the charge of murder. His +attitude was one of humble and appropriate penitence. In a weak +and nervous voice he told the story of his hardships since his +release from his Victorian prison; he would only urge that the +shooting of Mr. Munday was accidental, caused by Munday picking +up a stone and attacking him. When about to be sentenced to +death he expressed great sorrow and contrition for his crime, for +the poor wife and children of his unfortunate victim. His life, +he said, was a poor thing, but he would gladly give it fifty +times over. + +The sentence of death was confirmed by the Executive on June 30. +To a Freethought advocate who visited him shortly before his +execution, Butler wrote a final confession of faith: "I shall +have to find my way across the harbour bar without the aid of any +pilot. In these matters I have for many years carried an exempt +flag, and, as it has not been carried through caprice or igno- + +rance, I am compelled to carry it to the last. There is an +impassable bar of what I honestly believe to be the inexorable +logic of philosophy and facts, history and experience of the +nature of the world, the human race and myself, between me and +the views of the communion of any religious organisation. So +instead of the `depart Christian soul' of the priest, I only hope +for the comfort and satisfaction of the last friendly good-bye of +any who cares to give it." + +From this positive affirmation of unbelief Butler wilted somewhat +at the approach of death. The day before his execution he spent +half an hour playing hymns on the church organ in the +prison; and on the scaffold, where his agitation rendered him +almost speechless, he expressed his sorrow for what he had done, +and the hope that, if there were a heaven, mercy would be shown +him. + + + +M. Derues + + +The last word on Derues has been said by M. Georges Claretie in +his excellent monograph, "Derues L'Empoisonneur," Paris. 1907. +There is a full account of the case in Vol. V. of Fouquier, +"Causes Celebres." + +I + +THE CLIMBING LITTLE GROCER + +M. Etienne Saint-Faust de Lamotte, a provincial nobleman of +ancient lineage and moderate health, ex-equerry to the King, de- + +sired in the year 1774 to dispose of a property in the country, +the estate of Buisson-Souef near Villeneuve-le-Roi, which he had +purchased some ten years before out of money acquired by a +prudent marriage. + +With an eye to the main chance M. de Lamotte had in 1760 ran away +with the daughter of a wealthy citizen of Rheims, who was then +staying with her sister in Paris. They lived together in the +country for some time, and a son was born to them, whom the +father legitimised by subsequently marrying the mother. For a +few years M. and Mme. de Lamotte dwelt happily together at +Buisson-Souef. But as their boy grew up they became anxious to +leave the country and return to Paris, where M. de Lamotte hoped +to be able to obtain for his son some position about the Court of +Louis XVI. And so it was that in May, 1775, M. de Lamotte gave a +power of attorney to his wife in order that she might go to Paris +and negotiate for the sale of Buisson-Souef. The legal side +of the transaction was placed in the hands of one Jolly, a +proctor at the Chatelet in Paris. + +Now the proctor Jolly had a client with a great desire to acquire +a place in the country, M. Derues de Cyrano de Bury, lord of +Candeville, Herchies, and other places. Here was the very man to +comply with the requirements of the de Lamottes, and such a +pleasing, ready, accommodating gentleman into the bargain! Very +delicate to all appearances, strangely pale, slight, fragile in +build, with his beardless chin and feminine cast of feature, +there was something cat-like in the soft insinuating smile of +this seemingly most amiable, candid and pious of men. Always +cheerful and optimistic, it was quite a pleasure to do business +with M. Derues de Cyrano de Bury. The de Lamottes after one or +two interviews were delighted with their prospective purchaser. +Everything was speedily settled. M. Derues and his wife, a lady +belonging to the distinguished family of Nicolai, visited +Buisson-Souef. They were enchanted with what they saw, and their +hosts were hardly less enchanted with their visitors. By the end +of December, 1775, the purchase was concluded. M. Derues was to +give 130,000 livres (about L20,000) for the estate, the +payments to be made by instalments, the first of 12,000 livres to +be paid on the actual signing of the contract of sale, which, it +was agreed, was to be concluded not later than the first of June, +1776. In the meantime, as an earnest of good faith, M. Derues +gave Mme. de Lamotte a bill for 4,200 livres to fall due on April +1, 1776. + +What could be more satisfactory? That M. Derues was a +substantial person there could be no doubt. Through his wife he +was entitled to a sum of 250,000 livres as her share of the +property of a wealthy kinsman, one Despeignes-Duplessis, a +country gentleman, who some four years before had been found +murdered in his house under mysterious circumstances. The +liquidation of the Duplessis inheritance, as soon as the law's +delay could be overcome, would place the Derues in a position of +affluence fitting a Cyrano de Bury and a Nicolai. + +At this time M. Derues was in reality far from affluent. In +point of fact he was insolvent. Nor was his lineage, nor that of +his wife, in any way distinguished. He had no right to call +himself de Cyrano de Bury or Lord of Candeville. His wife's name +was Nicolais, not Nicolai--a very important difference from the +genealogical point of view. The Duplessis inheritance, though +certainly existent, would seem to have had little more chance of +realisation than the mythical Crawford millions of Madame +Humbert. And yet, crippled with debt, without a penny in the +world, this daring grocer of the Rue Beaubourg, for such was M. +Derues' present condition in life, could cheerfully and +confidently engage in a transaction as considerable as the +purchase of a large estate for 130,000 livres! The origin of so +enterprising a gentleman is worthy of attention. + +Antoine Francois Derues was born at Chartres in 1744; his +father was a corn merchant. His parents died when he was three +years old. For some time after his birth he was assumed to be a +girl; it was not until he was twelve years old that an operation +determined his sex to be masculine. Apprenticed by his relatives +to a grocer, Derues succeeded so well in the business that he was +able in 1770 to set up on his own account in Paris, and in 1772 +he married. Among the grocer's many friends and acquaintances +this marriage created something of a sensation, for Derues let it +be known that the lady of his choice was of noble birth and an +heiress. The first statement was untrue. The lady was one Marie +Louise Nicolais, daughter of a non-commissioned artillery +officer, turned coachbuilder. But by suppressing the S at +the end of her name, which Derues was careful also to erase in +his marriage contract, the ambitious grocer was able to describe +his wife as connected with the noble house of Nicolai, one of the +most distinguished of the great French families. + +There was more truth in the statement that Mme. Derues was an +heiress. A kinsman of her mother, Beraud by name, had become +the heir to a certain Marquis Desprez. Beraud was the son of +a small merchant. His mother had married a second time, the hus- + +band being the Marquis Desprez, and through her Beraud had +inherited the Marquis' property. According to the custom of the +time, Beraud, on coming into his inheritance, took a title +from one of his estates and called himself thenceforth the lord +of Despeignes-Duplessis. A rude, solitary, brutal man, devoted +to sport, he lived alone in his castle of Candeville, hated by +his neighbours, a terror to poachers. One day he was found lying +dead in his bedroom; he had been shot in the chest; the assassin +had escaped through an open window. + +The mystery of Beraud's murder was never solved. His estate +of 200,000 livres was divided among three cousins, of whom the +mother of Mme. Derues was one. Mme. Derues herself was entitled +to a third of his mother's share of the estate, that is, one- +ninth of the whole. But in 1775 Derues acquired the rest of the +mother's share on condition that he paid her an annual income of +1,200 livres. Thus on the liquidation of the Duplessis +inheritance Mme. Derues would be entitled nominally to some +66,500 livres, about L11,000 in English money. But five years +had passed since the death of Despeignes-Duplessis, and the +estate was still in the slow process of legal settlement. If +Derues were to receive the full third of the Duplessis +inheritance--a very unlikely supposition after four years of +liquidation--66,000 livres would not suffice to pay his +ordinary debts quite apart from the purchase money of Buisson- +Souef. His financial condition was in the last degree critical. +Not content with the modest calling of a grocer, Derues had +turned money-lender, a money-lender to spendthrift and +embarrassed noblemen. Derues dearly loved a lord; he wanted to +become one himself; it delighted him to receive dukes and +marquises at the Rue Beaubourg, even if they came there with the +avowed object of raising the wind. The smiling grocer, in his +everlasting bonnet and flowered dressing-gown a la J. J. +Rousseau, was ever ready to oblige the needy scion of a noble +house. What he borrowed at moderate interest from his creditors +he lent at enhanced interest to the quality. Duns and bailiffs +jostled the dukes and marquises whose presence at the Rue +Beaubourg so impressed the wondering neighbours of the facile +grocer. + +This aristocratic money-lending proved a hopeless trade; it only +plunged Derues deeper and deeper into the mire of financial +disaster. The noblemen either forgot to pay while they were +alive, or on their death were found to be insolvent. Derues was +driven to ordering goods and merchandise on credit, and selling +them at a lower price for ready money. Victims of this treatment +began to press him seriously for their money or their goods. +Desperately he continued to fence them off with the long expected +windfall of the Duplessis inheritance. + +Paris was getting too hot for him. Gay and irrepressible as he +was, the strain was severe. If he could only find some retreat +in the country where he might enjoy at once refuge from his +creditors and the rank and consequence of a country gentleman! +Nothing--no fear, no disappointment, no disaster--could check the +little grocer's ardent and overmastering desire to be a gentleman +indeed, a landed proprietor, a lord or something or other. +At the beginning of 1775 he had purchased a place near Rueil from +a retired coffeehouse-keeper, paying 1,000 livres on account, but +the non-payment of the rest of the purchase-money had resulted in +the annulment of the contract. Undefeated, Derues only deter- + +mined to fly the higher. Having failed to pay 9,000 livres for a +modest estate near Rueil, he had no hesitation in pledging +himself to pay 130,000 livres for the lordly domain of Buisson- +Souef. So great were his pride and joy on the conclusion of the +latter bargain that he amused himself by rehearsing on paper his +future style and title: "Antoine Francois de Cyrano Derues de +Bury, Seigneur de Buisson-Souef et Valle Profonde." He is worthy +of Thackeray's pen, this little grocer-snob, with his grand and +ruinous acquaintance with the noble and the great, his spurious +titles, his unwearied climbing of the social ladder. + +The confiding, if willing, dupe of aristocratic impecuniosity, +Derues was a past master of the art of duping others. From the +moment of the purchase of Buisson-Souef all his art was employed +in cajoling the trusting and simple de Lamottes. Legally +Buisson-Souef was his from the signing of the agreement in +December, 1775. His first payment was due in April, 1776. +Instead of making it, Derues went down to Buisson-Souef with his +little girl, and stayed there as the guests of the de Lamottes +for six months. His good humour and piety won all hearts. The +village priest especially derived great satisfaction from the +society of so devout a companion. He entertained his good +friends, the merry little man, by dressing up as a woman, a role +his smooth face and effeminate features well fitted him to play. +If business were alluded to, the merry gentleman railed at the +delay and chicanery of lawyers; it was that alone that postponed +the liquidation of the Duplessis inheritance; as soon as the +lawyers could be got rid of, the purchase-money of his new estate +would be promptly paid up. But as time went on and no payment +was forthcoming the de Lamottes began to feel a little uneasy. +As soon as Derues had departed in November M. de Lamotte decided +to send his wife to Paris to make further inquiries and, if +possible, bring their purchaser up to the scratch. Mme. de +Lamotte had developed into a stout, indolent woman, of the Mrs. +Bloss type, fond of staying in bed and taking heavy meals. Her +son, a fat, lethargic youth of fourteen, accompanied his mother. + +On hearing of Mme. de Lamotte's contemplated visit to Paris, +Derues was filled with alarm. If she were living free and +independent in Paris she might find out the truth about the real +state of his affairs, and then good-bye to Buisson-Souef and +landed gentility! No, if Mme. de Lamotte were to come to Paris, +she must come as the guest of the Derues, a pleasant return for +the hospitality accorded to the grocer at Buisson-Souef. The +invitation was given and readily accepted; M. de Lamotte still +had enough confidence in and liking for the Derues to be glad of +the opportunity of placing his wife under their roof. And so it +was that on December 16, 1776, Mme. de Lamotte arrived at Paris +and took up her abode at the house of the Derues in the Rue +Beaubourg Her son she placed at a private school in a +neighbouring street. + +To Derues there was now one pressing and immediate problem to be +solved--how to keep Buisson-Souef as his own without paying for +it? To one less sanguine, less daring, less impudent and +desperate in his need, the problem would have appeared insoluble. + +But that was by no means the view of the cheery and resourceful +grocer. He had a solution ready, well thought out and bearing to +his mind the stamp of probability. He would make a +fictitious payment of the purchase-money to Mme. de Lamotte. She +would then disappear, taking her son with her. Her indiscretion +in having been the mistress of de Lamotte before she became his +wife, would lend colour to his story that she had gone off with a +former lover, taking with her the money which Derues had paid her +for Buisson-Souef. He would then produce the necessary documents +proving the payment of the purchase-money, and Buisson-Souef +would be his for good and all. + +The prime necessity to the success of this plan was the +disappearance, willing or unwilling, of Mme. de Lamotte and her +son. The former had settled down quite comfortably beneath the +hospitable roof of the Derues, and under the soothing influence +of her host showed little vigour in pressing him for the money +due to herself and her husband. She had already spent a month in +quietly enjoying Paris and the society of her friends when, +towards the end of January, 1770, her health and that of her son +began to fail. Mme. de Lamotte was seized with sickness and +internal trouble. Though Derues wrote to her husband that his +wife was well and their business was on the point of conclusion, +by the 30th of January Mme. de Lamotte had taken to her bed, +nursed and physicked by the ready Derues. On the 31st the +servant at the Rue Beaubourg was told that she could go to her +home at Montrouge, whither Derues had previously sent his two +children. Mme. Derues, who was in an interesting condition, was +sent out for an hour by her husband to do some shopping. Derues +was alone with his patient. + +In the evening a friend, one Bertin, came to dine with Derues. +Bertin was a short, hustling, credulous, breathless gentleman, +always in a hurry, with a great belief in the abilities of M. +Derues. He found the little man in excellent spirits. +Bertin asked if he could see Mme. de Lamotte. Mme. Derues said +that that was impossible, but that her husband had given her some +medicine which was working splendidly. The young de Lamotte +called to see his mother. Derues took him into her room; in the +dim light the boy saw her sleeping, and crept out quietly for +fear of disturbing her. The Derues and their friends sat down to +dinner. Derues kept jumping up and running into the sick room, +from which a horrible smell began to pervade the house. But +Derues was radiant at the success of his medicine. "Was there +ever such a nurse as I am?" he exclaimed. Bertin remarked that +he thought it was a woman's and not a man's place to nurse a lady +under such distressing circumstances. Derues protested that it +was an occupation he had always liked. Next day, February 1, the +servant was still at Montrouge; Mme. Derues was again sent out +shopping; again Derues was alone with his patient. But she was a +patient no longer; she had become a corpse. The highly +successful medicine administered to the poor lady by her jolly +and assiduous nurse had indeed worked wonders. + +Derues had bought a large leather trunk. It is possible that to +Derues belongs the distinction of being the first murderer to put +that harmless and necessary article of travel to a criminal use. +He was engaged in his preparations for coffining Mme. de Lamotte, +when a female creditor knocked insistently at the door. She +would take no denial. Clad in his bonnet and gown, Derues was +compelled to admit her. She saw the large trunk, and suspected a +bolt on the part of her creditor. Derues reassured her; a lady, +he said, who had been stopping with them was returning to the +country. The creditor departed. Later in the day Derues came +out of the house and summoned some porters. With their help the +heavy trunk was taken to the house of a sculptor, a friend +of Derues, who agreed to keep it in his studio until Derues +could take it down to his place in the country. Bertin came in +to dinner again that evening, and also the young de Lamotte. +Derues was gayer than ever, laughing and joking with his guests. +He told the boy that his mother had quite recovered and gone to +Versailles to see about finding him some post at the Court. +"We'll go and see her there in a day or two," he said, "I'll let +you know when." + +On the following day a smartly dressed, dapper, but very pale +little gentleman, giving the name of Ducoudray, hired a vacant +cellar in a house in the Rue de la Mortellerie. He had, he said, +some Spanish wine he wanted to store there, and three or four +days later M. Ducoudray deposited in this cellar a large grey +trunk. A few days after he employed a man to dig a large hole in +the floor of the cellar, giving as his reason for such a +proceeding that "there was no way of keeping wine like burying +it." While the man worked at the job, his genial employer +beguiled his labours with merry quips and tales, which he +illustrated with delightful mimicry. The hole dug, the man was +sent about his business. "I will bury the wine myself," said his +employer, and on one or two occasions M. Ducoudray was seen by +persons living in the house going in and out of his cellar, a +lighted candle in his hand. One day the pale little gentleman +was observed leaving the cellar, accompanied by a porter carrying +a large trunk, and after that the dwellers in the Rue de la +Mortellerie saw the pale little gentleman no more. + +A few days later M. Derues sent down to his place at Buisson- +Souef a large trunk filled with china. It was received there by +M. de Lamotte. Little did the trusting gentleman guess that it +was in this very trunk that the body of his dear wife had been +conveyed to its last resting place in the cellar of M. +Ducoudray in the Rue de la Mortellerie. Nor had M. Mesvrel- +Desvergers, importunate creditor of M. Derues, guessed the +contents of the large trunk that he had met his debtor one day +early in February conveying through the streets of Paris. +Creditors were always interrupting Derues at inconvenient +moments. M. Mesvrel-Desvergers had tapped Derues on the +shoulder, reminded him forcibly of his liability towards him, and +spoken darkly of possible imprisonment. Derues pointed to the +trunk. It contained, he said, a sample of wine; he was going to +order some more of it, and he would then be in a position to pay +his debt. But the creditor, still doubting, had M. Derues +followed, and ascertained that he had deposited his sample of +wine at a house in the Rue de la Mortellerie. + +On Wednesday, February 12, a M. Beaupre of Commercy arrived at +Versailles with his nephew, a fat boy, in reality some fourteen +years of age, but given out as older. They hired a room at the +house of a cooper named Pecquet. M. Beaupre was a very pale +little gentleman, who seemed in excellent spirits, in spite of +the fact that his nephew was clearly anything but well. Indeed, +so sick and ailing did he appear to be that Mme. Pecquet +suggested that his uncle should call in a doctor. But M. +Beaupre said that that was quite unnecessary; he had no faith +in doctors; he would give the boy a good purge. His illness was +due, he said, to a venereal disorder and the drugs which he had +been taking in order to cure it; it was a priest the boy needed +rather than a doctor. On the Thursday and Friday the boy's +condition showed little improvement; the vomiting continued. But +on Saturday M. Beaupre declared himself as highly delighted +with the success of his medicine. The same night the boy was +dead. The priest, urgently sent for by his devout uncle, arrived +to find a corpse. On the following day "Louis Anotine +Beaupre, aged twenty-two and a half," was buried at +Versailles, his pious uncle leaving with the priest six livres to +pay for masses for the repose of his erring nephew's soul. + +The same evening M. Derues who, according to his own account, had +left Paris with the young de Lamotte in order to take the boy to +his mother in Versailles, returned home to the Rue Beaubourg. As +usual, Bertin dropped in to dinner. He found his host full of +merriment, singing in the lightness of his heart. Indeed, he had +reason to be pleased, for at last, he told his wife and his +friend, Buisson-Souef was his. He had seen Mme. de Lamotte at +Versailles and paid her the full purchase-money in good, sounding +gold. And, best joke of all, Mme. de Lamotte had no sooner +settled the business than she had gone off with a former lover, +her son and her money, and would in all probability never be +heard of again. The gay gentleman laughingly reminded his +hearers that such an escapade on the part of Mme. de Lamotte was +hardly to be wondered at, when they recollected that her son had +been born out of wedlock + +To all appearances Mme. de Lamotte had undoubtedly concluded the +sale of Buisson-Souef to Derues and received the price of it +before disappearing with her lover. Derues had in his possession +a deed of sale signed by Mme. de Lamotte and acknowledging the +payment to her by Derues of 100,000 livres, which he had borrowed +for that purpose from an advocate of the name of Duclos. As a +fact the loan from Duclos to Derues was fictitious. A legal +document proving the loan had been drawn up, but the cash which +the notary had demanded to see before executing the document had +been borrowed for a few hours. Duclos, a provincial advocate, +had acted in good faith, in having been represented to him that +such fictitious transactions were frequently used in Paris +for the purpose of getting over some temporary financial +difficulty. On the 15th of February the deed of the sale of +Buisson-Souef had been brought by a woman to the office of a +scrivener employed by Derues; it was already signed, but the +woman asked that certain blanks should be filled in and that the +document should be dated. She was told that the date should be +that of the day on which the parties had signed it. She gave it +as February 12. A few days later Derues called at the office and +was told of the lady's visit. "Ah!" he said, "it was Mme. de +Lamotte herself, the lady who sold me the estate." + +In the meantime Derues, through his bustling and ubiquitous +friend Bertin, took good care that the story of Mme. de Lamotte's +sale of Buisson-Souef and subsequent elopement should be spread +sedulously abroad. By Bertin it was told to M. Jolly, the +proctor in whose hands the de Lamottes had placed the sale of +Buisson-Souef. It was M. Jolly who had in the first instance +recommended to them his client Derues as a possible purchaser. +The proctor, who knew Mme. de Lamotte to be a woman devoted to +her husband and her home, was astonished to hear of her +infidelity, more especially as the story told by Derues +represented her as saying in very coarse terms how little she +cared for her husband's honour. He was surprised, too, that she +should not have consulted him about the conclusion of the +business with Derues, and that Derues himself should have been +able to find so considerable a sum of money as 100,000 livres. +But, said M. Jolly, if he were satisfied that Mme. de Lamotte had +taken away the money with her, then he would deliver up to Derues +the power of attorney which M. de Lamotte had left with him in +1775, giving his wife authority to carry out the sale of Buisson- +Souef. Mme. de Lamotte, being a married woman, the sale of +the property to Derues would be legally invalid if the husband's +power of attorney were not in the hands of the purchaser. + + + +II + +THE GAME OF BLUFF + + +To Derues, on the eve of victory, the statement of Jolly in +regard to the power of attorney was a serious reverse. He had +never thought of such an instrument, or he would have persuaded +Mme. de Lamotte to have gotten permission of it before her +disappearance. Now he must try to get it from Jolly himself. On +the 26th of February he once again raised from a friendly notary +a few thousand livres on the Duplessis inheritance, and deposited +the deed of sale of Buisson-Souef as further security. His +pocket full of gold, he went straight to the office of Jolly. To +the surprise of the proctor Derues announced that he had come to +pay him 200 livres which he owed him, and apologised for the +delay. Taking the gold coins from his pockets he filled his +three-cornered hat with considerably more than the sum due, and +held it out invitingly to M. Jolly. Then he proceeded to tell +him of his dealings with Mme. de Lamotte. She had offered, he +said, to get the power of attorney for him, but he, trusting in +her good faith, had said that there was no occasion for hurry; +and then, faithless, ungrateful woman that she was, she had gone +off with his money and left him in the lurch. "But," he added, +"I trust you absolutely, M. Jolly, you have all my business in +your hands, and I shall be a good client in the future. You have +the power of attorney--you will give it to me?" and he rattled +the coins in his hat. "I must have it," he went on, "I must have +it at any price at any price," and again the coins danced in +his hat, while his eyes looked knowingly at the proctor. M. +Jolly saw his meaning, and his surprise turned to indignation. +He told Derues bluntly that he did not believe his story, that +until he was convinced of its truth he would not part with the +power of attorney, and showed the confounded grocer the door. + +Derues hastened home filled with wrath, and took counsel with his +friend Bertin. Bertin knew something of legal process; they +would try whether the law could not be invoked to compel Jolly to +surrender the power of attorney. Bertin went off to the Civil +Lieutenant and applied for an order to oblige M. Jolly to give up +the document in question. An order was made that Jolly must +either surrender it into the hands of Derues or appear before a +referee and show cause why he should not comply with the order. +Jolly refused still to give it up or allow a copy of it to be +made, and agreed to appear before the referee to justify his +action. In the meantime Derues, greatly daring, had started for +Buisson-Souef to try what "bluff" could do in this serious crisis +in his adventure. + +At Buisson-Souef poor M. de Lamotte waited, puzzled and +distressed, for news from his wife. On Saturday, 17th, the day +after the return of Derues from Versailles, he heard from Mme. +Derues that his wife had left Paris and gone with her son to +Versailles. A second letter told him that she had completed the +sale of Buisson-Souef to Derues, and was still at Versailles +trying to obtain some post for the boy. On February 19 Mme. +Derues wrote again expressing surprise that M. de Lamotte had not +had any letter from his wife and asking if he had received some +oysters which the Derues had sent him. The distracted husband +was in no mood for oysters. "Do not send me oysters," he writes, +"I am too ill with worry. I thank you for all your kindness +to my son. I love him better than myself, and God grant he will +be good and grateful." The only reply he received from the +Derues was an assurance that he would see his wife again in a few +days. + +The days passed, but Mme. de Lamotte made no sign. About four +o'clock on the afternoon of February 28, Derues, accompanied by +the parish priest of Villeneuvele-Roi, presented himself before +M. de Lamotte at Buisson-Souef. For the moment M. de Lamotte was +rejoiced to see the little man; at last he would get news of his +wife. But he was disappointed. Derues could tell him only what +he had been told already, that his wife had sold their estate and +gone away with the money. + +M. de Lamotte was hardly convinced. How, he asked Derues, had he +found the 100,000 livres to buy Buisson-Souef, he who had not a +halfpenny a short time ago? Derues replied that he had borrowed +it from a friend; that there was no use in talking about it; the +place was his now, his alone, and M. de Lamotte had no longer a +right to be there; he was very sorry, poor dear gentleman, that +his wife had gone off and left him without a shilling, but +personally he would always be a friend to him and would allow him +3,000 livres a year for the rest of his life. In the meantime, +he said, he had already sold forty casks of the last year's +vintage, and would be obliged if M. de Lamotte would see to their +being sent off at once. + +By this time the anger and indignation of M. de Lamotte blazed +forth. He told Derues that his story was a pack of lies, that he +was still master at Buisson-Souef, and not a bottle of wine +should leave it. "You are torturing me," he exclaimed, "I know +something has happened to my wife and child. I am coming to +Paris myself, and if it is as I fear, you shall answer for it +with your head!" Derues, undismayed by this outburst, re- + +asserted his ownership and departed in defiant mood, leaving on +the premises a butcher of the neighbourhood to look after his +property. + +But things were going ill with Derues. M. de Lamotte meant to +show fight; he would have powerful friends to back him; class +against class, the little grocer would be no match for him. It +was immediate possession of Buisson-Souef that Derues wanted, not +lawsuits; they were expensive and the results uncertain. He +spoke freely to his friends of the difficulties of the situation. + +What could he do? The general opinion seemed to be that some +fresh news of Mme. de Lamotte--her reappearance, perhaps--would +be the only effective settlement of the dispute. He had made +Mme. de Lamotte disappear, why should he not make her reappear? +He was not the man to stick at trifles. His powers of female +impersonation, with which he had amused his good friends at +Buisson-Souef, could now be turned to practical account. On +March 5 he left Paris again. + +On the evening of March 7 a gentleman, M. Desportes of Paris, +hired a room at the Hotel Blanc in Lyons. On the following day +he went out early in the morning, leaving word that, should a +lady whom he was expecting, call to see him, she was to be shown +up to his room. The same morning a gentleman, resembling M. +Desportes of Paris, bought two lady's dresses at a shop in Lyons. + +The same afternoon a lady dressed in black silk, with a hood well +drawn over her eyes, called at the office of M. Pourra, a notary. + +The latter was not greatly attracted by his visitor, whose nose +struck him as large for a woman. She said that she had spent her +youth in Lyons, but her accent was distinctly Parisian. The lady +gave her name as Madame de Lamotte, and asked for a power of +attorney by which she could give her husband the interest +due to her on a sum of 30,000 livres, part of the purchase-money +of the estate of Buisson-Souef, which she had recently sold. As +Mme. de Lamotte represented herself as having been sent to M. +Pourra by a respectable merchant for whom he was in the habit of +doing business, he agreed to draw up the necessary document, +accepting her statement that she and her husband had separate +estates. Mme. de Lamotte said that she would not have time to +wait until the power of attorney was ready, and therefore asked +M. Pourra to send it to the parish priest at Villeneuvele-Roi; +this he promised to do. Mme. de-Lamotte had called twice during +the day at the Hotel Blanc and asked for M. Desportes of Paris, +but he was not at home. +While Derues, alias Desportes, alias Mme. de Lamotte, was +masquerading in Lyons, events had been moving swiftly and +unfavourably in Paris. Sick with misgiving and anxiety, M. de +Lamotte had come there to find, if possible, his wife and child. +By a strange coincidence he alighted at an inn in the Rue de la +Mortellerie, only a few yards from the wine-cellar in which the +corpse of his ill-fated wife lay buried. He lost no time in +putting his case before the Lieutenant of Police, who placed the +affair in the hands of one of the magistrates of the Chatelet, +then the criminal court of Paris. At first the magistrate +believed that the case was one of fraud and that Mme. de Lamotte +and her son were being kept somewhere in concealment by Derues. +But as he investigated the circumstances further, the evidence of +the illness of the mother and son, the date of the disappearance +of Mme. de Lamotte, and her reputed signature to the deed of sale +on February 12, led him to suspect that he was dealing with a +case of murder. + +When Derues returned to Paris from Lyons, on March 11, he found +that the police had already visited the house and questioned +his wife, and that he himself was under close surveillance. A +day or two later the advocate, Duclos, revealed to the magistrate +the fictitious character of the loan of 100,000 livres, which +Derues alleged that he had paid to Mme. de Lamotte as the price +of Buisson-Souef. When the new power of attorney purporting to +be signed by Mme. de Lamotte arrived from Lyons, and the +signature was compared with that on the deed of sale of Buisson- +Souef to Derues, both were pronounced to be forgeries. Derues +was arrested and lodged in the Prison of For l'Eveque. + +The approach of danger had not dashed the spirits of the little +man, nor was he without partisans in Paris. Opinion in the city +was divided as to the truth of his account of Mme. de Lamotte's +elopement. The nobility were on the side of the injured de +Lamotte, but the bourgeoisie accepted the grocer's story and made +merry over the deceived husband. Interrogated, however, by the +magistrate of the Chatelet, Derues' position became more +difficult. Under the stress of close questioning the flimsy +fabric of his financial statements fell to pieces like a house of +cards. He had to admit that he had never paid Mme. de Lamotte +100,000 livres; he had paid her only 25,000 livres in gold; +further pressed he said that the 25,000 livres had been made up +partly in gold, partly in bills; but where the gold had come +from, or on whom he had drawn the bills, he could not explain. +Still his position was not desperate; and he knew it. In the +absence of Mme. de Lamotte he could not be charged with fraud or +forgery; and until her body was discovered, it would be +impossible to charge him with murder. + +A month passed; Mme. Derues, who had made a belated attempt to +follow her husband's example by impersonating Mme. de Lamotte in +Paris, had been arrested and imprisoned in the Grand +Chatelet; when, on April 18, information was received by the +authorities which determined them to explore the wine-cellar in +the Rue de la Mortellerie. Whether the woman who had let the +cellar to Derues, or the creditor who had met him taking his cask +of wine there, had informed the investigating magistrate, seems +uncertain. In any case, the corpse of the unhappy lady was soon +brought to light and Derues confronted with it. At first he said +that he failed to recognise it as the remains of Mme. de Lamotte, +but he soon abandoned that rather impossible attitude. He +admitted that he had given some harmless medicine to Mme. de +Lamotte during her illness, and then, to his horror, one morning +had awakened to find her dead. A fear lest her husband would +accuse him of having caused her death had led him to conceal the +body, and also that of her son who, he now confessed, had died +and been buried by him at Versailles. On April 23 the body of +the young de Lamotte was exhumed. Both bodies were examined by +doctors, and they declared themselves satisfied that mother and +son had died "from a bitter and corrosive poison administered in +some kind of drink." What the poison was they did not venture to +state, but one of their number, in the light of subsequent +investigation, arrived at the conclusion that Derues had used in +both cases corrosive sublimate. How or where he had obtained the +poison was never discovered. + +Justice moved swiftly in Paris in those days. The preliminary +investigation in Derues' case was ended on April 28. Two days +later his trial commenced before the tribunal of the Chatelet. + +It lasted one day. The judges had before them the depositions +taken by the examining magistrate. Both Derues and his wife were +interrogated. He maintained that he had not poisoned either +Mme. de Lamotte or her son; his only crime, he said, lay in +having concealed their deaths. Mme; Derues said: "It is +Buisson-Souef that has ruined us! I always told my husband that +he was mad to buy these properties--I am sure my husband is not a +poisoner--I trusted my husband and believed every word he said." +The court condemned Derues to death, but deferred judgment in his +wife's case on the ground of her pregnancy. + +And now the frail, cat-like little man had to brace himself to +meet a cruel and protracted execution. But sanguine to the last, +he still hoped. An appeal lay from the Chatelet to the +Parliament of Paris. It was heard on March 5. Derues was +brought to the Palais de Justice. The room in which he waited +was filled with curious spectators, who marvelled at his coolness +and impudence. He recognised among them a Benedictine monk of +his acquaintance. "My case," he called out to him, "will soon be +over; we'll meet again yet and have a good time together." One +visitor, wishing not to appear too curious, pretended to be +looking at a picture. "Come, sir," said Derues, "you haven't +come here to see the pictures, but to see me. Have a good look +at me. Why study copies of nature when you can look at such a +remarkable original as I?" But there were to be no more days of +mirth and gaiety for the jesting grocer. His appeal was +rejected, and he was ordered for execution on the morrow. + +At six o'clock on the morning of May 6 Derues returned to the +Palais de Justice, there to submit to the superfluous torments of +the question ordinary and extraordinary. Though condemned to +death, torture was to be applied in the hope of wringing from the +prisoner some sort of confession. The doctors declared him too +delicate to undergo the torture of pouring cold water into him, +which his illustrious predecessor, Mme. de Brinvilliers, had +suffered; he was to endure the less severe torture of the "boot." + +His legs were tightly encased in wood, and wedges were then +hammered in until the flesh was crushed and the bones broken. +But never a word of confession was wrung from the suffering +creature. Four wedges constituting the ordinary torture he +endured; at the third of the extraordinary he fainted away. Put +in the front of a fire the warmth restored him. Again he was +questioned, again he asserted his wife's innocence and his own. + +At two o'clock in the afternoon Derues was recovered sufficiently +to be taken to Notre Dame. There, in front of the Cathedral, +candle in hand and rope round his neck, he made the amende +honorable. But as the sentence was read aloud to the people +Derues reiterated the assertion of his innocence. From Notre +Dame he was taken to the Hotel de Ville. A condemned man had the +right to stop there on his way to execution, to make his will and +last dying declarations. Derues availed himself of this +opportunity to protest solemnly and emphatically his wife's +absolute innocence of any complicity in whatever he had done. "I +want above all," he said, "to state that my wife is entirely +innocent. She knew nothing. I used fifty cunning devices to +hide everything from her. I am speaking nothing but the truth, +she is wholly innocent--as for me, I am about to die." His wife +was allowed to see him; he enjoined her to bring up their +children in the fear of God and love of duty, and to let them +know how he had died. Once again, as he took up the pen to sign +the record of his last words, he re-asserted her innocence. + +Of the last dreadful punishment the offending grocer was to be +spared nothing. For an aristocrat like Mme. de Brinvilliers +beheading was considered indignity enough. But Derues must go +through with it all; he must be broken on the wheel and +burnt alive and his ashes scattered to the four winds of heaven; +there was to be no retentum for him, a clause sometimes +inserted in the sentence permitting the executioner to strangle +the broken victim before casting him on to the fire. He must +endure all to the utmost agony the law could inflict. It was six +o'clock when Derues arrived at the Place de Greve, crowded to +its capacity, the square itself, the windows of the houses; +places had been bought at high prices, stools, ladders, anything +that would give a good view of the end of the now famous +poisoner. + +Pale but calm, Derues faced his audience. He was stripped of all +but his shirt; lying flat on the scaffold, his face looking up to +the sky, his head resting on a stone, his limbs were fastened to +the wheel. Then with a heavy bar of iron the executioner broke +them one after another, and each time he struck a fearful cry +came from the culprit. The customary three final blows on the +stomach were inflicted, but still the little man lived. Alive +and broken, he was thrown on to the fire. His burnt ashes, +scattered to the winds, were picked up eagerly by the mob, +reputed, as in England the pieces of the hangman's rope, +talismans. + +Some two months after the execution of her husband Mme. Derues +was delivered in the Conciergerie of a male child; it is hardly +surprising, in face of her experiences during her pregnancy, that +it was born an idiot. In January, 1778, the judges of the +Parliament, by a majority of one, decided that she should remain +a prisoner in the Conciergerie for another year, while judgment +in her case was reserved. In the following August she was +charged with having forged the signature of Mme. de Lamotte on +the deeds of sale. In February, 1779, the two experts in +handwriting to whom the question had been submitted decided +in her favour, and the charge was abandoned. + +But Mme. Derues had a far sterner, more implacable and, be it +added, more unscrupulous adversary than the law in M. de Lamotte. + +Not content with her husband's death, M. de Lamotte believed the +wife to have been his partner in guilt, and thirsted for revenge. + +To accomplish it he even stooped to suborn witnesses, but the +conspiracy was exposed, and so strong became the sympathy with +the accused woman that a young proctor of the Parliament +published a pamphlet in her defence, asking for an immediate +inquiry into the charges made against her, charges that had in no +instance been proved. + +At last, in March, 1779, the Parliament decided to finish with +the affair. In secret session the judges met, examined once more +all the documents in the case, listened to a report on it from +one of their number, interrogated the now weary, hopeless +prisoner, and, by a large majority, condemned her to a punishment +that fell only just short of the supreme penalty. On the grounds +that she had wilfully and knowingly participated with her husband +in the fraudulent attempt to become possessed of the estate of +Buisson-Souef, and was strongly suspected of having participated +with him in his greater crime, she was sentenced to be publicly +flogged, branded on both shoulders with the letter V (Voleuse) +and imprisoned for life in the Salpetriere Prison. On March +13, in front of the Conciergerie Mme. Derues underwent the first +part of her punishment. The same day her hair was cut short, and +she was dressed in the uniform of the prison in which she was to +pass the remainder of her days. + +Paris had just begun to forget Mme. Derues when a temporary +interest was-excited in her fortunes by the astonishing +intelligence that, two months after her condemnation, she +had been delivered of a child in her new prison. Its fatherhood +was never determined, and, taken from her mother, the child died +in fifteen days. Was its birth the result of some passing love +affair, or some act of drunken violence on the part of her +jailors, or had the wretched woman, fearing a sentence of death, +made an effort to avert once again the supreme penalty? History +does not relate. + +Ten years passed. A fellow prisoner in the Salpetriere +described Mme. Derues as "scheming, malicious, capable of +anything." She was accused of being violent, and of wishing to +revenge herself by setting fire to Paris. At length the +Revolution broke on France, the Bastille fell, and in that same +year an old uncle of Mme. Derues, an ex-soldier of Louis XV., +living in Brittany, petitioned for his niece's release. He +protested her innocence, and begged that he might take her to his +home and restore her to her children. For three years he +persisted vainly in his efforts. At last, in the year 1792, it +seemed as if they might be crowned with success. He was told +that the case would be re-examined; that it was possible that the +Parliament had judged unjustly. This good news came to him in +March. But in September of that year there took place those +shocking massacres in the Paris prisons, which rank high among +the atrocities of the Revolution. At four o'clock on the +afternoon of September 4, the slaughterers visited the +Salpetriere Prison, and fifth among their victims fell the +widow of Derues. + + + +Dr. Castaing + + +There are two reports of the trial of Castaing: "Proces Com- + +plet d'Edme Samuel Castaing," Paris, 1823; "Affaire Castaing," +Paris, 1823. + +I + +AN UNHAPPY COINCIDENCE + +Edme Castaing, born at Alencon in 1796, was the youngest of +the three sons of an Inspector-General in the department of Woods +and Forests. His elder brother had entered the same service as +his father, the other brother was a staff-captain of engineers. +Without being wealthy, the family, consisting of M. and Mme. +Castaing and four children, was in comfortable circumstances. +The young Edme was educated at the College of Angers--the Alma +Mater of Barre and Lebiez--where, intelligent and hard working, +he carried off many prizes. He decided to enter the medical +profession, and at the age of nineteen commenced his studies at +the School of Medicine in Paris. For two years he worked hard +and well, living within the modest allowance made him by his +father. At the end of that time this young man of two or three- +and-twenty formed a passionate attachment for a lady, the widow +of a judge, and the mother of three children. Of the genuine +depth and sincerity of this passion for a woman who must have +been considerably older than himself, there can be no doubt. +Henceforth the one object in life to Castaing was to make money +enough to relieve the comparative poverty of his adored +mistress, and place her and her children beyond the reach of +want. In 1821 Castaing became a duly qualified doctor, and by +that time had added to the responsibilities of his mistress and +himself by becoming the father of two children, whom she had +brought into the world. The lady was exigent, and Castaing found +it difficult to combine his work with a due regard to her claims +on his society. Nor was work plentiful or lucrative. To add to +his embarrassments Castaing, in 1818, had backed a bill for a +friend for 600 francs. To meet it when it fell due two years +later was impossible, and desperate were the efforts made by +Castaing and his mother to put off the day of reckoning. His +father, displeased with his son's conduct, would do nothing to +help him. But his mother spared no effort to extricate him from +his difficulties. She begged a highly placed official to plead +with the insistent creditor, but all in vain. There seemed no +hope of a further delay when suddenly, in the October of 1822, +Castaing became the possessor of 100,000 francs. How he became +possessed of this considerable sum of money forms part of a +strange and mysterious story. + +Among the friends of Castaing were two young men of about his own +age, Auguste and Hippolyte Ballet. Auguste, the elder, had the +misfortune a few days after his birth to incur his mother's +lasting dislike. The nurse had let the child fall from her arms +in the mother's presence, and the shock had endangered Mme. +Ballet's life. From that moment the mother took a strong aver- + +sion to her son; he was left to the charge of servants; his meals +were taken in the kitchen. As soon as he was five years old he +was put out to board elsewhere, while his brother Hippolyte and +his sister were well cared for at home. The effect of this +unjust neglect on the character of Auguste Ballet was, as may be +imagined, had; he became indolent and dissipated. His +brother Hippolyte, on the other hand, had justified the +affectionate care bestowed on his upbringing; he had grown into a +studious, intelligent youth of a refined and attractive +temperament. Unhappily, early in his life he had developed +consumption, a disease he inherited from his mother. As he grew +older his health grew steadily worse until, in 1822, his friends +were seriously alarmed at his condition. It became so much +graver that, in the August of that year, the doctors recommended +him to take the waters at Enghien. In September he returned to +Paris apparently much better, but on October 2 he was seized with +sudden illness, and three days later he was dead. + +A few years before the death of Hippolyte his father and mother +had died almost at the same time. M. Ballet had left to each of +his sons a fortune of some 260,000 francs. Though called to the +bar, both Auguste and Hippolyte Ballet were now men of +independent means. After the death of their parents, whatever +jealousy Auguste may have felt at the unfair preference which his +mother had shown for her younger son, had died down. At the time +of Hippolyte's death the brothers were on good terms, though the +more prudent Hippolyte disapproved of his elder brother's +extravagance. + +Of Hippolyte Ballet Dr. Castaing had become the fast friend. +Apart from his personal liking for Castaing, it was a source of +comfort to Hippolyte, in his critical state of health, to have as +his friend one whose medical knowledge was always at his service. + +About the middle of August, 1822, Hippolyte, on the advice of his +doctors, went to Enghien to take the waters. There Castaing paid +him frequent visits. He returned to Paris on September 22, and +seemed to have benefited greatly by the cure. On Tuesday, +October 1, he saw his sister, Mme. Martignon, and her husband; he +seemed well, but said that he was having leeches applied to +him by his friend Castaing. On the Wednesday evening his sister +saw him again, and found him well and with a good appetite. On +the Thursday, after a night disturbed by severe attacks of +vomiting, his condition seemed serious. His brother-in-law, who +visited him, found that he had taken to his bed, his face was +swollen, his eyes were red. His sister called in the evening, +but could not see him. The servants told her that her brother +was a little better but resting, and that he did not wish to be +disturbed; they said that Dr. Castaing had been with him all day. + +On Friday Castaing himself called on the Martignons, and told +them that Hippolyte had passed a shockingly bad night. Madame +Martignon insisted on going to nurse her brother herself, but +Castaing refused positively to let her see him; the sight of her, +he said, would be too agitating to the patient. Later in the day +Mme. Martignon went to her brother's house. In order to obey Dr. +Castaing's injunctions, she dressed herself in some of the +clothes of the servant Victoire, in the hope that if she went +into his bedroom thus disguised, Hippolyte would not recognise +her. But even this subterfuge was forbidden by Castaing, and +Mme. Martignon had to content herself with listening in an +adjoining room for the sound of her brother's voice. At eight +o'clock that evening the Martignons learnt that Hippolyte was +better, but at ten o'clock they received a message that he was +dying, and that his brother Auguste had been sent for. Mme. +Martignon was prostrated with grief, but her husband hastened to +his brother-in-law's house. There he found Castaing, who said +that the death agony of his friend was so dreadful that he had +not the strength to remain in the room with the dying man. +Another doctor was sent for, but at ten o'clock the +following morning, after protracted suffering, Hippolyte +Ballet passed away. + +A post-mortem was held on his body. It was made by Drs. Segalas +and Castaing. They stated that death was due to pleurisy +aggravated by the consumptive condition of the deceased, which, +however serious, was not of itself likely to have been so rapidly +fatal in its consequences. + +Hippolyte had died, leaving a fortune of some 240,000 francs. In +the previous September he had spoken to the notary Lebret, a +former clerk of his father's, of his intention of making a will. +He had seen that his brother Auguste was squandering his share of +their inheritance; he told Lebret that whatever he might leave to +Auguste should not be placed at his absolute disposal. To his +servant Victoire, during his last illness, Hippolyte had spoken +of a will he had made which he wished to destroy. If Hippolyte +had made such a will, did he destroy it before his death? In any +case, no trace of it was ever found after his death. He was +presumed to have died intestate, and his fortune was divided, +three-quarters of it going to his brother Auguste, the remaining +quarter to his sister, Mme. Martignon. + +On the day of Hippolyte's death Auguste Ballet wrote from his +brother's house to one Prignon: "With great grief I have to tell +you that I have just lost my brother; I write at the same time to +say that I must have 100,000 francs to-day if possible. I have +the greatest need of it. Destroy my letter, and reply at once. +M. Sandrie will, I am sure, accommodate me. I am at my poor +brother's house, from which I am writing." Prignon did as he was +asked, but it was two days before the stockbroker, Sandrie, could +raise the necessary sum. On October 7 he sold out sufficient of +Auguste's stock to realise 100,000 francs, and the following day +gave Prignon an order on the Bank of France for that amount. +The same day Prignon took the order to Auguste. Accompanied by +Castaing and Jean, Auguste's black servant, Auguste and Prignon +drove to the bank. There the order was cashed. Prignon's part +of the business was at an end. He said good-bye to Auguste +outside the bank. As the latter got into his cabriolet, carrying +the bundle of notes, Prignon heard him say to Castaing: "There +are the 100,000 francs." + +Why had Auguste Ballet, after his brother's death, such urgent +need of 100,000 francs? If the statements of Auguste made to +other persons are to be believed, he had paid the 100,000 francs +which he had raised through Prignon to Lebret, his father's +former clerk, who would seem to have acted as legal and financial +adviser to his old master's children. According to Auguste's +story, his sister, Mme. Martignon, had offered Lebret 80,000 +francs to preserve a copy of a will made by Hippolyte, leaving +her the bulk of his fortune. Castaing, however, had ascertained +that Lebret would be willing, if Auguste would outbid his sister +and pay 100,000 francs, to destroy the will so that, Hippolyte +dying intestate, Auguste would take the greater part of his +brother's fortune. Auguste agreed to accept Lebret's terms, +raised the necessary sum, and handed over the money to Castaing, +who, in turn, gave it to Lebret, who had thereupon destroyed the +copy of the will. Castaing, according to the evidence of +Auguste's mistress, an actress of the name of Percillie, had +spoken in her presence of having himself destroyed one copy of +Hippolyte's will before his death, and admitted having arranged +with Lebret after Hippolyte's death for the destruction of the +other copy. + +How far was the story told by Auguste, and repeated in somewhat +different shape by Castaing to other persons, true? There is no +doubt that after the visit to the Bank of France with +Prignon on October 8, Auguste and Castaing drove together to +Lebret's office. The negro servant said that on arriving there +one of them got out of the cab and went up to Lebret's house, but +which of the two he would not at first say positively. Later he +swore that it was Auguste Ballet. Whatever happened on that +visit to Lebret's--and it was the theory of the prosecution that +Castaing and not Auguste had gone up to the office--the same +afternoon Auguste Ballet showed his mistress the seals of the +copy of his brother's will which Lebret had destroyed, and told +her that Lebret, all through the business, had refused to deal +directly with him, and would only act through the intermediary of +Castaing. + +Did Lebret, as a fact, receive the 100,000 francs? A close +examination of his finances showed no trace of such a sum. +Castaing, on the other hand, on October 10, 1822, had given a +stockbroker a sum of 66,000 francs to invest in securities; on +the 11th of the same month he had lent his mother 30,000 francs; +and on the 14th had given his mistress 4,000 francs. Of how this +large sum of money had come to Castaing at a time when he was +practically insolvent he gave various accounts. His final +version was that in the will destroyed by Auguste, Hippolyte +Ballet had left him an income for life equivalent to a capital of +100,000 francs, and that Auguste had given him that sum out of +respect for his brother's wishes. If that explanation were true, +it was certainly strange that shortly after his brother's death +Auguste Ballet should have expressed surprise and suspicion to a +friend on hearing that Castaing had been buying stock to the +value of 8,000 francs. If he had given Castaing 100,000 francs +for himself, there was no occasion for surprise or suspicion at +his investing 8,000. That Auguste had paid out 100,000 francs to +some one in October the state of his finances at his death +clearly proved. According to the theory of the prosecution, +Auguste believed that he had paid that money to Lebret through +the intermediary of Castaing, and not to Castaing himself. Hence +his surprise at hearing that Castaing, whom he knew to be +impecunious, was investing such a sum as 8,000 francs. + +No money had ever reached Lebret. His honesty and good faith +were demonstrated beyond any shadow of a doubt; no copy of any +will of Hippolyte Ballet had ever been in his possession. But +Castaing had shown Auguste Ballet a copy of his brother's will, +the seals of which Auguste had shown to his mistress. In all +probability, and possibly at the instigation of Castaing, Hip- + +polyte Ballet had made a will, leaving the greater part of his +property to his sister. Somehow or other Castaing had got +possession of this will. On his death Castaing had invented the +story of Mme. Martignon's bribe to Lebret, and so persuaded +Auguste to outbid her. He had ingeniously kept Auguste and +Lebret apart by representing Lebret as refusing to deal direct +with Auguste, and by these means had secured to his own use the +sum of 100,000 francs, which Auguste believed was being paid to +Lebret as the price of his alleged destruction of his brother's +will. The plot was ingenious and successful. To Lebret and the +Martignons Castaing said that Hippolyte had made a will in Mme. +Martignon's favour, but had destroyed it himself some days before +his death. The Martignons expressed themselves as glad that Hip- + +polyte had done so, for they feared lest such a will should have +provoked resentment against them on the part of Auguste. By +keeping Auguste and Lebret apart, Castaing prevented awkward +explanations. The only possible danger of discovery lay in +Auguste's incautious admissions to his mistress and friends; but +even had the fact of the destruction of the will come to the +ears of the Martignons, it is unlikely that they would have taken +any steps involving the disgrace of Auguste. + +Castaing had enriched himself considerably by the opportune death +of his friend Hippolyte. It might be made a matter of unfriendly +comment that, on the first day of May preceding that sad event, +Castaing had purchased ten grains of acetate of morphia from a +chemist in Paris, and on September 18, less than a month before +Hippolyte's death, he had purchased another ten grains of acetate +of morphia from the same chemist. The subject of poisons had +always been a favourite branch of Castaing's medical studies, +especially vegetable poisons; morphia is a vegetable poison. + +Castaing's position relative to Auguste Ballet was now a strong +one. They were accomplices in the unlawful destruction of +Hippolyte's will. Auguste believed it to be in his friend's +power to ruin him at any time by revealing his dealings with +Lebret. But, more than that, to Auguste, who believed that his +100,000 francs had gone into Lebret's pocket, Castaing could +represent himself as so far unrewarded for his share in the +business; Lebret had taken all the money, while he had received +no recompense of any kind for the trouble he had taken and the +risk he was encountering on his friend's behalf. Whatever the +motive, from fear or gratitude, Auguste Ballet was persuaded to +make a will leaving Dr. Edme Samuel Castaing the whole of his +fortune, subject to a few trifling legacies. But Auguste's +feelings towards his sole legatee were no longer cordial. To one +or two of his friends he expressed his growing distaste for Cas- + +taing's society. + +Dr. Castaing can hardly have failed to observe this change. He +knew Auguste to be reckless and extravagant with his money; he +learnt that he had realised another 100,000 francs out of +his securities, and that he kept the money locked up in a drawer +in his desk. If Auguste's fortune were dissipated by +extravagance, or he revoked his will, Castaing stood to lose +heavily. As time went on Castaing felt less and less sure that +he could place much reliance on the favourable disposition or +thrift of Auguste. The latter had fallen in love with a new +mistress; he began to entertain expensively; even if he should +not change his mind and leave his money away from Castaing, there +might very soon be no money to leave. At the end of May, 1823, +Castaing consulted a cousin of his, Malassis, a notary's clerk, +as to the validity of a will made by a sick man in favour of his +medical attendant. He said that he had a patient gravely ill +who, not wishing to leave his money to his sister, whom he +disliked, intended to leave it to him. Malassis reassured him as +to the validity of such a will, and gave him the necessary +instructions for preparing it. On May 29 Castaing sent Malassis +the will of Auguste Ballet with the following note, "I send you +the will of M. Ballets examine it and keep it as his +representative." The will was dated December 1, 1822, and made +Castaing sole legatee. On the same day that the will was +deposited with Malassis, Castaing and Auguste Ballet started to- + +gether on a little two days' trip into the country. To his +friends Auguste seemed in the best of health and spirits; so much +so that his housekeeper remarked as he left how well he was +looking, and Castaing echoed her remark, saying that he looked +like a prince! + +During the afternoon the two friends visited Saint Germain, then +returned to Paris, and at seven o'clock in the evening arrived at +the Tete Noire Hotel at Saint Cloud, where they took a double- +bedded room, Castaing paying five francs in advance. They spent +the following day, Friday, May 30, in walking about the +neighbourhood, dined at the hotel at seven, went out again +and returned about nine o'clock. Soon after their return +Castaing ordered some warmed wine to be sent up to the bedroom. +It was taken up by one of the maid-servants. Two glasses were +mixed with lemon and sugar which Castaing had brought with him. +Both the young men drank of the beverage. Auguste complained +that it was sour, and thought that he had put too much lemon in +it. He gave his glass to the servant to taste, who also found +the drink sour. Shortly after she left the room and went +upstairs to the bedside of one of her fellow-servants who was +ill. Castaing, for no apparent reason, followed her up and +stayed in the room for about five minutes. Auguste spent a bad +night, suffering from internal pains, and in the morning his legs +were so swollen that he could not put on his boots. + +Castaing got up at four o'clock that morning and asked one of the +servants to let him out. Two hours later he drove up in a +cabriolet to the door of a chemist in Paris, and asked for twelve +grains of tartar emetic, which he wanted to mix in a wash +according to a prescription of Dr. Castaing. But he did not tell +the chemist that he was Dr. Castaing himself. An hour later Cas- +taing arrived at the shop of another chemist, Chevalier, with +whom he had already some acquaintance; he had bought acetate of +morphia from him some months before, and had discussed with him +then the effects of vegetable poisons. On this particular +morning he bought of his assistant thirty-six grains of acetate +of morphia, paying, as a medical man, three francs fifty centimes +for it instead of the usual price of four francs. Later in the +morning Castaing returned to Saint Cloud, a distance of ten miles +from Paris, and said that he had been out for a long walk. He +found Auguste ill in bed. Castaing asked for some cold milk, +which was taken up to the bedroom by one of the servants. +Shortly after this Castaing went out again. During his absence +Auguste was seized with violent pains and sickness. When +Castaing returned he found his friend in the care of the people +of the hotel. He told them to throw away the matter that had +been vomited, as the smell was offensive, and Auguste told them +to do as his friend directed. Castaing proposed to send for a +doctor from Paris, but Auguste insisted that a local doctor +should be called in at once. + +Accordingly Dr. Pigache of Saint Cloud was summoned. He arrived +at the hotel about eleven o'clock. Before seeing the patient +Castaing told the doctor that he believed him to be suffering +from cholera. Pigache asked to see the matter vomited but was +told that it had been thrown away. He prescribed a careful diet, +lemonade and a soothing draught. + +Dr. Pigache returned at three o'clock, when he found that the +patient had taken some lemonade, but, according to Castaing, had +refused to take the draught. He called again that afternoon. +Ballet was much better; he said that he would be quite well if he +could get some sleep, and expressed a wish to return to Paris. +Dr. Pigache dissuaded him from this and left, saying that he +would come again in the evening. Castaing said that that would +be unnecessary, and it was agreed that Pigache should see the +patient again at eight o'clock the next morning. During the +afternoon Castaing sent a letter to Paris to Jean, Auguste's +negro servant, telling him to take the two keys of his master's +desk to his cousin Malassis. But the negro distrusted Castaing. +He knew of the will which his master had made in the doctor's +favour. Rather than compromise himself by any injudicious act, +he brought the keys to Saint Cloud and there handed them over to +Castaing. + +When Jean arrived his master complained to him of feeling +very ill. Jean said that he hoped he would be well enough to go +back to Paris the following day, to which Auguste replied, "I +don't think so. But if I am lucky enough to get away to-morrow, +I shall leave fifty francs for the poor here." About eleven +o'clock that night Castaing, in Jean's presence, gave the sick +man a spoonful of the draught prescribed by Dr. Pigache. Four or +five minutes later Auguste was seized with terrible convulsions, +followed by unconsciousness. Dr. Pigache was sent for. He found +Ballet lying on his back unconscious, his throat strained, his +mouth shut and his eyes fixed; the pulse was weak, his body +covered with cold sweat; and every now and then he was seized +with strong convulsions. The doctor asked Castaing the cause of +the sudden change in Ballet's condition. Castaing replied that +it had commenced shortly after he had taken a spoonful of the +draught which the doctor had prescribed for him. Dr. Pigache +bled the patient and applied twenty leeches. He returned about +six; Ballet was sinking, and Castaing appeared to be greatly +upset. He told the doctor what an unhappy coincidence it was +that he should have been present at the deathbeds of both +Hippolyte and his brother Auguste; and that the position was the +more distressing for him as he was the sole heir to Auguste's +fortune. To M. Pelletan, a professor of medicine, who had been +sent for to St. Cloud in the early hours of Sunday morning, +Castaing appeared to be in a state of great grief and agitation; +he was shedding tears. Pelletan was from the first impressed by +the suspicious nature of the case, and pointed out to Castaing +the awkwardness of his situation as heir to the dying man. +"You're right," replied Castaing, "my position is dreadful, +horrible. In my great grief I had never thought of it till now, +but now you make me see it clearly. Do you think there will be +an investigation?" Pelletan answered that he should be +compelled to ask for a post-mortem. "Ah! You will be doing me +the greatest service," said Castaing, "I beg you to insist on a +post-mortem. You will be acting as a second father to me in +doing so." The parish priest was sent for to administer extreme +unction to the dying man. To the parish clerk who accompanied +the priest Castaing said, "I am losing a friend of my childhood," +and both priest and clerk went away greatly edified by the +sincere sorrow and pious demeanour of the young doctor. About +mid-day on Sunday, June 1, Auguste Ballet died. + +During the afternoon Castaing left the hotel for some hours, and +that same afternoon a young man about twenty-five years of age, +short and fair, left a letter at the house of Malassis. The +letter was from Castaing and said, "My dear friend, Ballet has +just died, but do nothing before to-morrow, Monday. I will see +you and tell you, yes or no, whether it is time to act. I expect +that his brother-in-law, M. Martignon, whose face is pock-marked +and who carries a decoration, will call and see you. I have said +that I did not know what dispositions Ballet may have made, but +that before his death he had told me to give you two little keys +which I am going to deliver to you myself to-morrow, Monday. I +have not said that we are cousins, but only that I had seen you +once or twice at Ballet's, with whom you were friendly. So say +nothing till I have seen you, but whatever you do, don't say you +are a relative of mine." When he returned to the hotel Castaing +found Martignon, Lebret, and one or two friends of Auguste +already assembled. It was only that morning that Martignon had +received from Castaing any intimation of his brother-in-law's +critical condition. From the first Castaing was regarded with +suspicion; the nature of the illness, the secrecy maintained +about it by Castaing, the coincidence of some of the +circumstances with those of the death of Hippolyte, all combined +to excite suspicion. Asked if Auguste had left a will Castaing +said no; but the next day he admitted its existence, and said +that it was in the hands of Malassis. + +Monday, June 2, was the day fixed for the post-mortem; it was +performed in the hotel at Saint Cloud. Castaing was still in the +hotel under provisional arrest. While the post-mortem was going +on his agitation was extreme; he kept opening the door of the +room in which he was confined, to hear if possible some news of +the result. At last M. Pelletan obtained permission to inform +him of the verdict of the doctors. It was favourable to +Castaing; no trace of death by violence or poison had been +discovered. + +The medical men declared death to be due to an inflammation of +the stomach, which could be attributed to natural causes; that +the inflammation had subsided; that it had been succeeded by +cerebral inflammation, which frequently follows inflammation of +the stomach, and may have been aggravated in this case by +exposure to the sun or by over-indulgence of any kind. + + +II + +THE TRIAL OF DR. CASTAING + + +Castaing expected, as a result of the doctors' report, immediate +release. In this he was disappointed; he was placed under +stricter arrest and taken to Paris, where a preliminary +investigation commenced, lasting five months. During the early +part of his imprisonment Castaing feigned insanity, going to +disgusting lengths in the hope of convincing those about him of +the reality of his madness. But after three days of futile +effort he gave up the attempt, and turned his attention to more +practical means of defence. In the prison at Versailles, whither +he had been removed from Paris, he got on friendly terms with a +prisoner, one Goupil, who was awaiting trial for some unimportant +offence. To Goupil Castaing described the cruelty of his +position and the causes that had led to his wrongful arrest. He +admitted his unfortunate possession of the poison, and said that +the 100,000 francs which he had invested he had inherited from an +uncle. Through Goupil he succeeded in communicating with his +mother in the hope that she would use her influence to stifle +some of the more serious evidence against him. Through other +prisoners he tried to get at the chemists from whom he had bought +acetate of morphia, and persuade them to say that the preparation +of morphia which he had purchased was harmless. + +The trial of Castaing commenced before the Paris Assize Court on +November 10, 1823. He was charged with the murder of Hippolyte +Ballet, the destruction of a document containing the final +dispositions of Hippolyte's property, and with the murder of +Auguste Ballet. The three charges were to be tried +simultaneously. The Act of Accusation in Castaing's case is a +remarkable document, covering a hundred closely-printed pages. +It is a well-reasoned, graphic and unfair statement of the case +for the prosecution. It tells the whole story of the crime, and +inserts everything that can possibly prejudice the prisoner in +the eyes of the jury. As an example, it quotes against Castaing +a letter of his mistress in which, in the course of some quarrel, +she had written to him saying that his mother had said some +"horrible things" (des horreurs) of him; but what those +"horrible things" were was not revealed, nor were they ever +alluded to again in the course of the trial, nor was his +mistress called as a witness, though payments of money by +Castaing to her formed an important part of the evidence against +him. Again, the evidence of Goupil, his fellow prisoner, as to +the incriminating statements made to him by Castaing is given in +the Act of Accusation, but Goupil himself was not called at the +trial. + +During the reading of the Act of Accusation by the Clerk of the +Court Castaing listened calmly. Only when some allusion was made +to his mistress and their children did he betray any sign of +emotion. As soon as the actual facts of the case were set out he +was all attention, making notes busily. He is described as +rather attractive in appearance, his face long, his features +regular, his forehead high, his hair, fair in colour, brushed +back from the brows; he wore rather large side-whiskers. One of +the witnesses at Saint Cloud said that Castaing looked more like +a priest than a doctor; his downcast eyes, gentle voice, quiet +and unassuming demeanour, lent him an air of patience and +humility. + +The interrogatory of Castaing by the presiding judge lasted all +the afternoon of the first day of the trial and the morning of +the second. The opening part of it dealt with the murder of +Hippolyte Ballet, and elicited little or nothing that was fresh. +Beyond the purchase of acetate of morphia previous to Hippolyte's +death, which Castaing reluctantly admitted, there was no serious +evidence against him, and before the end of the trial the +prosecution abandoned that part of the charge. + +Questioned by the President as to the destruction of Hippolyte +Ballet's will, Castaing admitted that he had seen a draft of a +will executed by Hippolyte in favour of his sister, but he denied +having told Auguste that Lebret had in his possession a copy +which he was prepared to destroy for 100,000 francs. Asked to +explain the assertion of Mlle. Percillie, Auguste's +mistress, that statements to this effect had been made in her +presence by both Auguste Ballet and himself, he said that it was +not true; that he had never been to her house. "What motive," he +was asked, "could Mlle. Percillie have for accusing you?" +"She hated me," was the reply, "because I had tried to separate +Auguste from her." Castaing denied that he had driven with +Auguste to Lebret's office on October 8. Asked to explain his +sudden possession of 100,000 francs at a moment when he was +apparently without a penny, he repeated his statement that +Auguste had given him the capital sum as an equivalent for an +income of 4,000 francs which his brother had intended to leave +him. "Why, when first asked if you had received anything from +Auguste, did you say you had received nothing?" was the question. + +"It was a thoughtless statement," was the answer. "Why," pursued +the President, "should you not have admitted at once a fact that +went to prove your own good faith? If, however, this fact be +true, it does not explain the mysterious way in which Auguste +asked Prignon to raise for him 100,000 francs; and unless those +100,000 francs were given to you, it is impossible to account for +them. It is important to your case that you should give the jury +a satisfactory explanation on this point." Castaing could only +repeat his previous explanations. + +The interrogatory was then directed to the death of Auguste +Ballet. Castaing said that Auguste Ballet had left him all his +fortune on account of a disagreement with his sister. Asked why, +after Auguste's death, he had at first denied all knowledge of +the will made in his favour and deposited by him with Malassis, +he could give no satisfactory reason. Coming to the facts of the +alleged poisoning of Auguste Ballet, the President asked Castaing +why, shortly after the warm wine was brought up on the night +of May 30, he went up to the room where one of the servants of +the hotel was lying sick. Castaing replied that he was sent for +by the wife of the hotel-keeper. This the woman denied; she said +that she did not even know that he was a doctor. "According to +the prosecution," said the judge, "you left the room in order to +avoid drinking your share of the wine." Castaing said that he +had drunk half a cupful of it. The judge reminded him that to +one of the witnesses Castaing had said that he had drunk only a +little. + +A ridiculous statement made by Castaing to explain the purchase +of morphia and antimony in Paris on May 31 was brought up against +him. Shortly after his arrest Castaing had said that the cats +and dogs about the hotel had made such a noise on the night of +May 30 that they had disturbed the rest of Auguste, who, in the +early morning, had asked Castaing to get some poison to kill +them. He had accordingly gone all the way, about ten miles, to +Paris at four in the morning to purchase antimony and morphia to +kill cats and dogs. All the people of the hotel denied that +there had been any such disturbance on the night in question. +Castaing now said that he had bought the poisons at Auguste's +request, partly to kill the noisy cats and dogs, and partly for +the purpose of their making experiments on animals. Asked why he +had not given this second reason before, he said that as Auguste +was not a medical man it would have been damaging to his +reputation to divulge the fact of his wishing to make +unauthorised experiments on animals. "Why go to Paris for the +poison?" asked the judge, "there was a chemist a few yards from +the hotel. And when in Paris, why go to two chemists?" To all +these questions Castaing's answers were such as to lead the +President to express a doubt as to whether they were likely to +convince the jury. Castaing was obliged to admit that he +had allowed, if not ordered, the evacuations of the sick man to +be thrown away. He stated that he had thrown away the morphia +and antimony, which he had bought in Paris, in the closets of the +hotel, because, owing to the concatenation of circumstances, he +thought that he would be suspected of murder. In reply to a +question from one of the jury, Castaing said that he had mixed +the acetate of morphia and tartar emetic together before reaching +Saint Cloud, but why he had done so he could not explain. + +The medical evidence at the trial was favourable to the accused. +Orfila, the famous chemist of that day, said that, though the +symptoms in Auguste Ballet's case might be attributed to +poisoning by acetate of morphia or some other vegetable poison, +at the same time they could be equally well attributed to sudden +illness of a natural kind. The liquids, taken from the stomach +of Ballet, had yielded on analysis no trace of poison of any +sort. The convulsive symptoms present in Ballet's case were un- + +doubtedly a characteristic result of a severe dose of acetate of +morphia.[14] Castaing said that he had mixed the acetate of +morphia and tartar emetic together, but in any case no trace of +either poison was found in Auguste's body, and his illness might, +from all appearances, have been occasioned by natural causes. +Some attempt was made by the prosecution to prove that the +apoplexy to which Hippolyte Ballet had finally succumbed, might +be attributed to a vegetable poison; one of the doctors expressed +an opinion favourable to that conclusion "as a man but not as a +physician." But the evidence did not go further. + + +[14] It was asserted some years later by one medical authority in +Palmer's case that it might have been morphia and not strychnine +that had caused the tetanic symptoms which preceded Cook's death. + + +To the young priest-like doctor the ordeal of his trial was +a severe one. It lasted eight days. It was only at midday on +the sixth day that the evidence was concluded. Not only was +Castaing compelled to submit to a long interrogatory by the +President, but, after each witness had given his or her evidence, +the prisoner was called on to refute or explain any points +unfavourable to him. This he did briefly, with varying success; +as the trial went on, with increasing embarrassment. A great +deal of the evidence given against Castaing was hearsay, and +would have been inadmissible in an English court of justice. +Statements made by Auguste to other persons about Castaing were +freely admitted. But more serious was the evidence of Mlle. +Percillie, Auguste's mistress. She swore that on one occasion +in her presence Castaing had reproached Auguste with ingratitude; +he had complained that he had destroyed one copy of Hippolyte +Ballet's will, and for Auguste's sake had procured the +destruction of the other, and that yet, in spite of all this, +Auguste hesitated to entrust him with 100,000 francs. Asked what +he had to say to this statement Castaing denied its truth. He +had, he said, only been in Mlle. Percillie's house once, and +then not with Auguste Ballet. Mlle. Percillie adhered to the +truth of her evidence, and the President left it to the jury to +decide between them. + +A Mme. Durand, a patient of Castaing, gave some curious evidence +as to a story told her by the young doctor. He said that a +friend of his, suffering from lung disease, had been persuaded +into making a will in his sister's favour. The sister had +offered a bribe of 80,000 francs to her brother's lawyer to +persuade him to make such a will, and paid one of his clerks +3,000 francs for drawing it up. Castaing, in his friend's +interest, and in order to expose the fraud, invited the clerk to +come and see him. His friend, hidden in an alcove in the room, +overheard the conversation between Castaing and the clerk, +and so learnt the details of his sister's intrigue. He at once +destroyed the will and became reconciled with his brother, whom +he had been about to disinherit. After his death the brother, +out of gratitude, had given Castaing 100,000 francs. + +President: Castaing, did you tell this story to Mme. Durand? + +Castaing: I don't recollect. + +Avocat-General: But Mme. Durand says that you did. + +Castaing: I don't recollect. + +President: You always say that you don't recollect; that is no +answer. Have you, yes or no, made such a statement to Mme. +Durand? + +Castaing: I don't recollect; if I had said it, I should +recollect it. + +Another lady whom Castaing had attended free of charge swore, +with a good deal of reluctance, that Castaing had told her a +somewhat similar story as accounting for his possession of +100,000 francs. + +Witnesses were called for the defence who spoke to the diligence +and good conduct of Castaing as a medical student; and eighteen, +whom he had treated free of expense, testified to his kindness +and generosity. "All these witnesses," said the President, +"speak to your generosity; but, for that very reason, you must +have made little profit out of your profession, and had little +opportunity for saving anything," to which Castaing replied: +"These are not the only patients I attended; I have not called +those who paid me for my services." At the same time Castaing +found it impossible to prove that he had ever made a substantial +living by the exercise of his profession. + +One of the medical witnesses called for the defence, M. +Chaussier, had volunteered the remark that the absence of any +trace of poison in the portions of Auguste Ballet's body +submitted to analysis, constituted an absence of the corpus +delicti. To this the President replied that that was a question +of criminal law, and no concern of his. But in his speech for +the prosecution the Avocat-General dealt with the point +raised at some length--a point which, if it had held good as a +principle of English law, would have secured the acquittal of so +wicked a poisoner as Palmer. He quoted from the famous French +lawyer d'Aguesseau: "The corpus delicti is no other thing than +the delictum itself; but the proofs of the delictum are +infinitely variable according to the nature of things; they may +be general or special, principal or accessory, direct or +indirect; in a word, they form that general effect (ensemble) +which goes to determine the conviction of an honest man." If +such a contention as M. Chaussier's were correct, said the +Avocat-General, then it would be impossible in a case of +poisoning to convict a prisoner after his victim's death, or, if +his victim survived, to convict him of the attempt to poison. He +reminded the jury of that paragraph in the Code of Criminal +Procedure which instructed them as to their duties: "The Law +does not ask you to give the reasons that have convinced you; it +lays down no rules by which you are to decide as to the fullness +or sufficiency of proof . . . it only asks you one question: +`Have you an inward conviction?'" "If," he said, "the actual +traces of poison are a material proof of murder by poison, then a +new paragraph must be added to the Criminal Code--`Since, +however, vegetable poisons leave no trace, poisoning by such +means may be committed with impunity.'" To poisoners he would +say in future: "Bunglers that you are, don't use arsenic or any +mineral poison; they leave traces; you will be found out. Use +vegetable poisons; poison your fathers, poison your mothers, +poison all your families, and their inheritance will be yours-- +fear nothing; you will go unpunished! You have committed +murder by poisoning, it is true; but the corpus delicti will +not be there because it can't be there!" This was a case, he +urged, of circumstantial evidence. "We have," he said, "gone +through a large number of facts. Of these there is not one that +does not go directly to the proof of poisoning, and that can only +be explained on the supposition of poisoning; whereas, if the +theory of the defence be admitted, all these facts, from the +first to the last, become meaningless and absurd. They can only +be refuted by arguments or explanations that are childish and +ridiculous." + +Castaing was defended by two advocates--Roussel, a schoolfellow +of his, and the famous Berryer, reckoned by some the greatest +French orator since Mirabeau. Both advocates were allowed to +address the jury. Roussel insisted on the importance of the +corpus delicti. "The delictum," he said, "is the effect, the +guilty man merely the cause; it is useless to deal with the cause +if the effect is uncertain," and he cited a case in which a woman +had been sent for trial, charged with murdering her husband; the +moral proof of her guilt seemed conclusive, when suddenly her +husband appeared in court alive and well. The advocate made a +good deal of the fact that the remains of the draught prescribed +by Dr. Pigache, a spoonful of which Castaing had given to Auguste +Ballet, had been analysed and showed no trace of poison. Against +this the prosecution set the evidence of the chemist at Saint +Cloud, who had made up the prescription. He said that the same +day he had made up a second prescription similar to that of Dr. +Pigache, but not made out for Auguste Ballet, which contained, in +addition to the other ingredients, acetate of morphia. The +original of this prescription he had given to a friend of +Castaing, who had come to his shop and asked him for it a +few days after Ballet's death. It would seem therefore that +there had been two bottles of medicine, one of which containing +morphia had disappeared. + +M. Roussel combatted the suggestion that the family of Castaing +were in a state of indigence. He showed that his father had an +income of 10,000 francs, while his two brothers were holding good +positions, one as an officer in the army, the other as a +government official. The mistress of Castaing he represented as +enjoying an income of 5,000 francs. He protested against the +quantity of hearsay evidence that had been admitted into the +case. "In England," he said, "when a witness is called, he is +asked `What have you seen?' If he can only testify to mere talk, +and hearsay, he is not heard." He quoted the concluding +paragraph of the will of Auguste Ballet as showing his friendly +feeling towards Castaing: "It is only after careful reflection +that I have made this final disposition of my property, in order +to mark the sincere friendship which I have never for one moment +ceased to feel for MM. Castaing, Briant and Leuchere, in order +to recognise the faithful loyalty of my servants, and deprive M. +and Mme. Martignon, my brother-in-law and sister, of all rights +to which they might be legally entitled on my death, fully +persuaded in soul and conscience that, in doing so, I am giving +to each their just and proper due." "Is this," asked M. Roussel, +"a document wrested by surprise from a weak man, extorted by +trickery? Is he not acting in the full exercise of his +faculties? He forgets no one, and justifies his conduct." + +When M. Roussel came to the incident of the noisy cats and dogs +at Saint Cloud, he was as ingenious as the circumstances +permitted: "A serious charge engrosses public attention; men's +minds are concentrated on the large, broad aspects of the case; +they are in a state of unnatural excitement. They see only the +greatness, the solemnity of the accusation, and then, +suddenly, in the midst of all that is of such tragic and +surpassing interest, comes this trivial fact about cats and dogs. + +It makes an unfavourable impression, because it is dramatically +out of keeping with the tragedy of the story. But we are not +here to construct a drama. No, gentlemen, look at it merely as a +trivial incident of ordinary, everyday life, and you will see it +in its proper light." M. Roussel concluded by saying that +Castaing's most eloquent advocate, if he could have been present, +would have been Auguste Ballet. "If Providence had permitted him +to enter this court, he would cry out to you, `Save my friend's +life! His heart is undefiled! He is innocent!'" + +M. Roussel concluded his speech at ten o'clock on Sunday night, +November 16. The next morning Berryer addressed the jury. His +speech in defence of Castaing is not considered one of his most +successful efforts. He gave personal testimony as to the taste +of acetate of morphia. He said that with the help of his own +chemist he had put a quarter of a grain of the acetate into a +large spoonful of milk, and had found it so insupportably bitter +to the taste that he could not keep it in his mouth. If, he +contended, Ballet had been poisoned by tartar emetic, then twelve +grains given in milk would have given it an insipid taste, and +vomiting immediately after would have got rid of the poison. +Later investigations have shown that, in cases of antimonial +poisoning, vomiting does not necessarily get rid of all the +poison, and the convulsions in which Auguste Ballet died are +symptomatic of poisoning either by morphia or antimony. In +conclusion, Berryer quoted the words addressed by one of the +Kings of France to his judges: "When God has not vouchsafed +clear proof of a crime, it is a sign that He does not wish that +man should determine it, but leaves its judgment to a higher +tribunal." + +The Avocat-General, in reply, made a telling answer to M. +Roussel's attempt to minimise the importance of the cats and +dogs: "He has spoken of the drama of life, and of its ordinary +everyday incidents. If there is drama in this case, it is of +Castaing's making. As to the ordinary incidents of everyday +life, a man buys poison, brings it to the bedside of his sick +friend, saying it is for experiments on cats and dogs, the friend +dies, the other, his sole heir, after foretelling his death, +takes possession of his keys, and proceeds to gather up the +spoils--are these ordinary incidents of every-day life?" + +It was nine o'clock at night when the jury retired to consider +their verdict. They returned into court after two hours' +deliberation. They found the prisoner "Not Guilty" of the murder +of Hippolyte Ballet, "Guilty" of destroying his will, and +"Guilty" by seven votes to five of the murder of Auguste Ballet. +Asked if he had anything to say before judgment was given, +Castaing, in a very loud voice, said "No; but I shall know how to +die, though I am the victim of ill-fortune, of fatal circum- + +stance. I shall go to meet my two friends. I am accused of +having treacherously murdered them. There is a Providence above +us! If there is such a thing as an immortal soul, I shall see +Hippolyte and Auguste Ballet again. This is no empty +declamation; I don't ask for human pity" (raising his hands to +heaven), "I look to God's mercy, and shall go joyfully to the +scaffold. My conscience is clear. It will not reproach me even +when I feel" (putting his hands to his neck). "Alas! It is +easier to feel what I am feeling than to express what I dare not +express." (In a feeble voice): "You have desired my death; you +have it!" The judges retired to consider the sentence. The +candles were guttering, the light of the lamps was beginning to +fade; the aspect of the court grim and terrible. M. Roussel +broke down and burst into tears. Castaing leant over to his +old schoolfellow: "Courage, Roussel," he said; "you have always +believed me innocent, and I am innocent. Embrace for me my +father, my mother, my brothers, my child." He turned to a group +of young advocates standing near: "And you, young people, who +have listened to my trial, attend also my execution; I shall be +as firm then as I am now. All I ask is to die soon. I should be +ashamed to plead for mercy." The judges returned. Castaing was +condemned to death, and ordered to pay 100,000 francs damages to +the family of Auguste Ballet. + +Castaing was not ashamed to appeal to the Court of Cassation for +a revision of his trial, but on December 4 his appeal was +rejected. Two days later he was executed. He had attempted +suicide by means of poison, which one of his friends had brought +to him in prison, concealed inside a watch. His courage failed +him at the last, and he met his death in a state of collapse. + +It is not often, happily, that a young man of gentle birth and +good education is a double murderer at twenty-six. And such a +soft, humble, insinuating young man too!--good to his mother, +good to his mistress, fond of his children, kind to his patients. + +Yet this gentle creature can deliberately poison his two friends. + +Was ever such a contradictory fellow? + + + +Professor Webster + + +The best report of Webster's trial is that edited by Bemis. The +following tracts in the British Museum have been consulted by the +writer: "Appendix to the Webster Trial," Boston, 1850: +"Thoughts on the Conviction of Webster"; "The Boston Tragedy," by +W. E. Bigelow. + + +It is not often that the gaunt spectre of murder invades the +cloistered calm of academic life. Yet such a strange and +unwonted tragedy befell Harvard University in the year 1849, when +John W. Webster, Professor of Chemistry, took the life of Dr. +George Parkman, a distinguished citizen of Boston. The scene of +the crime, the old Medical School, now a Dental Hospital, is +still standing, or was when the present writer visited Boston in +1907. It is a large and rather dreary red-brick, three-storied +building, situated in the lower part of the city, flanked on its +west side by the mud flats leading down to the Charles River. +The first floor consists of two large rooms, separated from each +other by the main entrance hall, which is approached by a flight +of steps leading up from the street level. Of these two rooms, +the left, as you face the building, is fitted up as a lecture- +room. In the year 1849 it was the lecture-room of Professor +Webster. Behind the lecture-room is a laboratory, known as the +upper laboratory, communicating by a private staircase with the +lower laboratory, which occupies the left wing of the ground +floor. A small passage, entered by a door on the left-hand side +of the front of the building, separated this lower laboratory +from the dissecting-room, an out-house built on to the west +wall of the college, but now demolished. From this description +it will be seen that any person, provided with the necessary +keys, could enter the college by the side-door near the +dissecting room on the ground floor, and pass up through the +lower and upper laboratory into Professor Webster's lecture-room +without entering any other part of the building. The Professor +of Chemistry, by locking the doors of his lecture-rooms and the +lower laboratory, could, if he wished, make himself perfectly +secure against intrusion, and come and go by the side-door +without attracting much attention. These rooms are little +altered at the present time from their arrangement in 1849. The +lecture-room and laboratory are used for the same purposes to- +day; the lower laboratory, a dismal chamber, now disused and +somewhat rearranged, is still recognisable as the scene of the +Professor's chemical experiments. + +On the second floor of the hospital is a museum, once anatomical, +now dental. One of the principal objects of interest in this +museum is a plaster cast of the jaws of Dr. George Parkman, made +by a well-known dentist of Boston, Dr. Keep, in the year 1846. +In that year the new medical college was formally opened. Dr. +Parkman, a wealthy and public-spirited citizen of Boston, had +given the piece of land, on which the college had been erected. +He had been invited to be present at the opening ceremony. In +anticipation of being asked to make a speech on this occasion Dr. +Parkman, whose teeth were few and far between, had himself fitted +by Dr. Keep with a complete set of false teeth. Oliver Wendell +Holmes, then Professor of Anatomy at Harvard, who was present at +the opening of the college, noticed how very nice and white the +doctor's teeth appeared to be. It was the discovery of the +remains of these same admirable teeth three years later in the +furnace in Professor Webster's lower laboratory that led to +the conviction of Dr. Parkman's murderer. By a strange +coincidence the doctor met his death in the very college which +his generosity had helped to build. Though to-day the state of +the college has declined from the medical to the dental, his +memory still lives within its walls by the cast of his jaws +preserved in the dental museum as a relic of a case, in which the +art of dentistry did signal service to the cause of justice. + +In his lifetime Dr. Parkman was a well-known figure in the +streets of Boston. His peculiar personal appearance and +eccentric habits combined to make him something of a character. +As he walked through the streets he presented a remarkable +appearance. He was exceptionally tall, longer in the body than +the legs; his lower jaw protruded some half an inch beyond the +upper; he carried his body bent forward from the small of his +back. He seemed to be always in a hurry; so impetuous was he +that, if his horse did not travel fast enough to please him, he +would get off its back, and, leaving the steed in the middle of +the street, hasten on his way on foot. A just and generous man, +he was extremely punctilious in matters of business, and uncom- + +promising in his resentment of any form of falsehood or deceit. +It was the force of his resentment in such a case that cost him +his life. + +The doctor was unfailingly punctual in taking his meals. Dr. +Kingsley, during the fourteen years he had acted as his agent, +had always been able to make sure of finding him at home at his +dinner hour, half-past two o'clock. But on Friday, November 23, +1849, to his surprise and that of his family, Dr. Parkman did not +come home to dinner; and their anxiety was increased when the day +passed, and there was still no sign of the doctor's return. +Inquiries were made. From these it appeared that Dr. +Parkman had been last seen alive between one and two o'clock on +the Friday afternoon. About half-past one he had visited a +grocer's shop in Bridge Street, made some purchases, and left +behind him a paper bag containing a lettuce, which, he said, he +would call for on his way home. Shortly before two o'clock he +was seen by a workman, at a distance of forty or fifty feet from +the Medical College, going in that direction. From that moment +all certain trace of him was lost. His family knew that he had +made an appointment for half-past one that day, but where and +with whom they did not know. As a matter of fact, Professor John +W. Webster had appointed that hour to receive Dr. Parkman in his +lecture-room in the Medical College. + +John W. Webster was at this time Professor of Chemistry and +Mineralogy in Harvard University, a Doctor of Medicine and a +Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the London +Geological Society and the St. Petersburg Mineralogical Society. +He was the author of several works on geology and chemistry, a +man now close on sixty years of age. His countenance was genial, +his manner mild and unassuming; he was clean shaven, wore +spectacles, and looked younger than his years. + +Professor Webster was popular with a large circle of friends. To +those who liked him he was a man of pleasing and attractive +manners, artistic in his tastes--he was especially fond of +music--not a very profound or remarkable chemist, but a pleasant +social companion. His temper was hasty and irritable. Spoilt in +his boyhood as an only child, he was self-willed and self- +indulgent. His wife and daughters were better liked than he. By +unfriendly criticics{sic} the Professor was thought to be +selfish, fonder of the good things of the table and a good +cigar than was consistent with his duty to his family or the +smallness of his income. His father, a successful apothecary at +Boston, had died in 1833, leaving John, his only son, a fortune +of some L10,000. In rather less than ten years Webster had +run through the whole of his inheritance. He had built himself a +costly mansion in Cambridge, spent a large sum of money in +collecting minerals, and delighted to exercise lavish +hospitality. By living consistently beyond his means he found +himself at length entirely dependent on his professional +earnings. These were small. His salary as Professor was fixed +at L240 a year;[15] the rest of his income he derived from the +sale of tickets for his lectures at the Medical College. That +income was insufficient to meet his wants. + + +[15] I have given these sums of money in their English +equivalents in order to give the reader an idea of the smallness +of the sum which brought about the tragedy. + + +As early as 1842 he had borrowed L80 from his friend Dr. +Parkman. It was to Parkman's good offices that he owed his +appointment as a Professor at Harvard; they had entered the +University as under-graduates in the same year. Up to 1847 +Webster had repaid Parkman twenty pounds of his debt; but, in +that year he found it necessary to raise a further loan of +L490, which was subscribed by a few friends, among them +Parkman himself. As a security for the repayment of this loan, +the professor executed a mortgage on his valuable collection of +minerals in favour of Parkman. In the April of 1848 the +Professor's financial difficulties became so serious that he was +threatened with an execution in his house. In this predicament +he went to a Mr. Shaw, Dr. Parkman's brother-in-law, and begged a +loan of L240, offering him as security a bill of sale on the +collection of minerals, which he had already mortgaged to +Parkman. Shaw accepted the security, and lent the money. +Shaw would seem to have had a good deal of sympathy with +Webster's embarrassments; he considered the Professor's income +very inadequate to his position, and showed himself quite ready +at a later period to waive his debt altogether. + +Dr. Parkman was a less easy-going creditor. Forbearing and +patient as long as he was dealt with fairly, he was merciless +where he thought he detected trickery or evasion. His +forbearance and his patience were utterly exhausted, his anger +and indignation strongly aroused, when he learnt from Shaw that +Webster had given him as security for his debt a bill of sale on +the collection of minerals, already mortgaged to himself. From +the moment of the discovery of this act of dishonesty on the part +of Webster, Parkman pursued his debtor with unrelenting severity. + +He threatened him with an action at law; he said openly that he +was neither an honourable, honest, nor upright man; he tried to +appropriate to the payment of his debt the fees for lectures +which Mr. Pettee, Webster's agent, collected on the Professor's +behalf. He even visited Webster in his lecture-room and sat +glaring at him in the front row of seats, while the Professor was +striving under these somewhat unfavourable conditions to impart +instruction to his pupils--a proceeding which the Doctor's odd +cast of features must have aggravated in no small degree. + +It was early in November that Parkman adopted these aggressive +tactics. On the 19th of that month Webster and the janitor of +the College, Ephraim Littlefield, were working in the upper +laboratory. It was dark; they had lit candles. Webster was +reading a chemical book. As he looked up from the book he saw +Parkman standing in the doorway leading from the lecture-room. +"Dr. Webster, are you ready for me to-night?" asked Parkman. +"No," replied the other, "I am not ready to-night." After a +little further conversation in regard to the mortgage, Parkman +departed with the ominous remark, "Doctor, something must be done +to-morrow." + +Unfortunately the Professor was not in a position to do anything. + +He had no means sufficient to meet his creditor's demands; and +that creditor was unrelenting. On the 22nd Parkman rode into +Cambridge, where Webster lived, to press him further, but failed +to find him. Webster's patience, none too great at any time, was +being sorely tried. To whom could he turn? What further +resource was open to him? There was none. He determined to see +his creditor once more. At 8 o'clock on the morning of Friday +the 23rd, Webster called at Dr. Parkman's house and made the +appointment for their meeting at the Medical College at half-past +one, to which the Doctor had been seen hastening just before his +disappearance. At nine o'clock the same morning Pettee, the +agent, had called on the Professor at the College and paid him by +cheque a balance of L28 due on his lecture tickets, informing +him at the same time that, owing to the trouble with Dr. Parkman, +he must decline to receive any further sums of money on his +behalf. Webster replied that Parkman was a nervous, excitable +man, subject to mental aberrations, but he added, "You will have +no further trouble with Dr. Parkman, for I have settled with +him." It is difficult to see how the Professor could have +settled, or proposed to settle, with his creditor on that day. A +balance of L28 at his bank, and the L18 which Mr. Pettee +had paid to him that morning, represented the sum of Professor +Webster's fortune on Friday, November 23, 1849. + +Since the afternoon of that day the search for the missing +Parkman had been unremitting. On the Saturday his friends +communicated with the police. On Sunday hand-bills were issued +stating the fact of the Doctor's disappearance, and on +Monday, the 26th, a description and the offer of a considerable +reward for the discovery of his body were circulated both in and +out of the city. Two days later a further reward was offered. +But these efforts were fruitless. The only person who gave any +information beyond that afforded by those who had seen the Doctor +in the streets on the morning of his disappearance, was Professor +Webster. About four o'clock on the Sunday afternoon the +Professor called at the house of the Revd. Francis Parkman, the +Doctor's brother. They were intimate friends. Webster had for a +time attended Parkman's chapel; and Mr. Parkman had baptised the +Professor's grand-daughter. On this Sunday afternoon Mr. Parkman +could not help remarking Webster's peculiar manner. With a bare +greeting and no expression of condolence with the family's +distress, his visitor entered abruptly and nervously on the +object of his errand. He had called, he said, to tell Mr. +Parkman that he had seen his brother at the Medical College on +Friday afternoon, that he had paid him L90 which he owed him, +and that the Doctor had in the course of their interview taken +out a paper and dashed his pen through it, presumably as an +acknowledgment of the liquidation of the Professor's debt. +Having communicated this intelligence to the somewhat astonished +gentleman, Webster left him as abruptly as he had come. + +Another relative of Dr. Parkman, his nephew, Mr. Parkman Blake, +in the course of inquiries as to his uncle's fate, thought it +right to see Webster. Accordingly he went to the college on +Monday, the 26th, about eleven o'clock in the morning. Though +not one of his lecture days, the janitor Littlefield informed him +that the Professor was in his room. The door of the lecture-- + +room, however, was found to be locked, and it was only after +considerable delay that Mr. Blake gained admittance. As he +descended the steps to the floor of the lecture-room Webster, +dressed in a working suit of blue overalls and wearing on his +head a smoking cap, came in from the back door. Instead of +advancing to greet his visitor, he stood fixed to the spot, and +waited, as if defensively, for Mr. Blake to speak. In answer to +Mr. Blake's questions Webster described his interview with Dr. +Parkman on the Friday afternoon. He gave a very similar account +of it to that he had already given to Mr. Francis Parkman. He +added that at the end of their interview he had asked the Doctor +for the return of the mortgage, to which the latter had replied, +"I haven't it with me, but I will see it is properly cancelled." +Mr. Blake asked Webster if he could recollect in what form of +money it was that he had paid Dr. Parkman. Webster answered that +he could only recollect a bill of L20 on the New Zealand Bank: +pressed on this point, he seemed to rather avoid any further +inquiries. Mr. Blake left him, dissatisfied with the result of +his visit. + +One particular in Webster's statement was unquestionably strange, +if not incredible. He had, he said, paid Parkman a sum of +L90, which he had given him personally, and represented the +Doctor as having at their interview promised to cancel the +mortgage on the collection of minerals which Webster had given as +security for the loan of L490 that had been subscribed by +Parkman and four of his friends. Now L120 of this loan was +still owing. If Webster's statement were true, Parkman had a +perfect right to cancel Webster's personal debt to himself; but +he had no right to cancel entirely the mortgage on the minerals, +so long as money due to others on that mortgage was yet unpaid. +Was it conceivable that one so strict and scrupulous in all +monetary transactions as Parkman would have settled his own +personal claim, and then sacrificed in so discreditable a +manner the claims of others, for the satisfaction of which he had +made himself responsible? + +There was yet another singular circumstance. On Saturday, the +24th, the day after his settlement with Parkman, Webster paid +into his own account at the Charles River Bank the cheque for +L18, lecture fees, handed over to him by the agent Pettee just +before Dr. Parkman's visit on the Friday. This sum had not ap- + +parently gone towards the making up of the L90, which Webster +said that he had paid to Parkman that day. The means by which +Webster had been enabled to settle this debt became more +mysterious than ever. + +On Tuesday, November 27, the Professor received three other +visitors in his lecture-room. These were police officers who, in +the course of their search for the missing man, felt it their +duty to examine, however perfunctorily, the Medical College. +With apologies to the Professor, they passed through his lecture +room to the laboratory at the back, and from thence, down the +private stairs, past a privy, into the lower laboratory. As they +passed the privy one of the officers asked what place it was. +"Dr. Webster's private lavatory," replied the janitor, who was +conducting them. At that moment Webster's voice called them away +to examine the store-room in the lower laboratory, and after a +cursory examination the officers departed. + +The janitor, Ephraim Littlefield, did not take the opportunity +afforded him by the visit of the police officers to impart to +them the feelings of uneasiness; which the conduct of Professor +Webster during the last three days had excited in his breast. +There were circumstances in the Professor's behaviour which could +not fail to attract the attention of a man, whose business +throughout the day was to dust and sweep the College, light the +fires and overlook generally the order and cleanliness of +the building. + +Littlefield, it will be remembered, had seen Dr. Parkman on the +Monday before his disappearance, when he visited Webster at the +College, and been present at the interview, in the course of +which the Doctor told Webster that "something must be done." +That Monday morning Webster asked Littlefield a number of +questions about the dissecting-room vault, which was situated +just outside the door of the lower laboratory. He asked how it +was built, whether a light could be put into it, and how it was +reached for the purpose of repair. On the following Thursday, +the day before Parkman's disappearance, the Professor told +Littlefield to get him a pint of blood from the Massachusetts +Hospital; he said that he wanted it for an experiment. On the +morning of Friday, the day of Parkman's disappearance, +Littlefield informed the Professor that he had been unsuccessful +in his efforts to get the blood, as they had not been bleeding +anyone lately at the hospital. The same morning Littlefield +found to his surprise a sledge-hammer behind the door of the +Professor's back room; he presumed that it had been left there by +masons, and took it down to the lower laboratory. This sledge- +hammer Littlefield never saw again. About a quarter to two that +afternoon Littlefield, standing at the front door, after his +dinner, saw Dr. Parkman coming towards the College. At two +o'clock Littlefield went up to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes' room, +immediately above Professor Webster's, to help the Doctor to +clear his table after his lecture, which was the last delivered +that day. About a quarter of an hour later he let Dr. Holmes +out, locked the front door and began to clear out the stoves in +the other lecture-rooms. When he reached Webster's he was +surprised to find that both doors, that of the lecture room and +that of the lower laboratory, were either locked or bolted. +He could hear nothing but the running of water in one of the +sinks. About half-past five Littlefield saw the Professor coming +down the back stairs with a lighted candle in his hand. Webster +blew out the candle and left the building. Late that night +Littlefield again tried the Professor's doors; they were still +fastened. The janitor was surprised at this, as he had never +known such a thing to happen before. + +On Saturday, the 24th, though not lecturing that day, the +Professor came to the College in the morning. He told +Littlefield to light the stove in the lower laboratory. When +Littlefield made to pass from the lecture-room into the +Professor's private room at the back, and so down by the private +stairs to the lower laboratory, the Professor stopped him and +told him to go round by the door in front of the building. The +whole of that day and Sunday, the Professor's doors remained +fast. On Sunday evening at sunset Littlefield, who was talking +with a friend in North Grove Street, the street that faces the +College, was accosted by Webster. The Professor asked him if he +recollected Parkman's visit to the College on Friday, the 23rd, +and, on his replying in the affirmative, the Professor described +to him their interview and the repayment of his debt. +Littlefield was struck during their conversation by the +uneasiness of the Professor's bearing; contrary to his habit he +seemed unable to look him in the face, his manner was confused, +his face pale. + +During the whole of Monday, except for a visit from Mr. Parkman +Blake, Professor Webster was again locked alone in his +laboratory. Neither that night, nor early Tuesday morning, could +Littlefield get into the Professor's rooms to perform his +customary duties. On Tuesday the Professor lectured at twelve +o'clock, and later received the visit of the police officers that +has been described already. At four o'clock that afternoon, +the Professor's bell rang. Littlefield answered it. The Pro- + +fessor asked the janitor whether he had bought his turkey for +Thanksgiving Day, which was on the following Thursday. +Littlefield said that he had not done so yet. Webster then +handed him an order on his provision dealer. "Take that," he +said, "and get a nice turkey; perhaps I shall want you to do some +odd jobs for me." Littlefield thanked him, and said that he +would be glad to do anything for him that he could. The janitor +was the more surprised at Webster's generosity on this occasion, +as this turkey was the first present he had received at the +Professor's hands during the seven years he had worked in the +College. Littlefield saw the Professor again about half-past six +that evening as the latter was leaving the College. The janitor +asked him if he wanted any more fires lighted in his rooms, +because owing to the holidays there were to be no further +lectures that week. Webster said that he did not, and asked Lit- + +tlefield whether he were a freemason. The janitor said "Yes," +and with that they parted. + +Littlefield was curious. The mysterious activity of the +Professor of Chemistry seemed to him more than unusual. His +perplexity was increased on the following day. Though on account +of the holidays all work had been suspended at the College for +the remainder of the week, Webster was again busy in his room +early Wednesday morning. Littlefield could hear him moving +about. In vain did the janitor look through the keyhole, bore a +hole in the door, peep under it; all he could get was a sight of +the Professor's feet moving about the laboratory. Perplexity +gave way to apprehension when in the course of the afternoon +Littlefield discovered that the outer wall of the lower +laboratory was so hot that he could hardly bear to place his hand +on it. On the outer side of this wall was a furnace +sometimes used by the Professor in his chemical experiments. How +came it to be so heated? The Professor had told Littlefield on +Tuesday that he should not be requiring any fires during the +remainder of the week. + +The janitor determined to resolve his suspicions. He climbed up +to the back windows of the lower laboratory, found one of them +unfastened, and let himself in. But, beyond evidences of the +considerable fires that had been kept burning during the last few +days, Littlefield saw nothing to excite peculiar attention. +Still he was uneasy. Those he met in the street kept on telling +him that Dr. Parkman would be found in the Medical College. He +felt that he himself was beginning to be suspected of having some +share in the mystery, whilst in his own mind he became more +certain every day that the real solution lay within the walls of +Professor Webster's laboratory. His attention had fixed itself +particularly on the lavatory at the foot of the stairs connecting +the upper and lower laboratories. This room he found to be +locked and the key, a large one, had disappeared. He recollected +that when the police officers had paid their visit to the col- + +lege, the Professor had diverted their attention as they were +about to inspect this room. The only method by which, unknown to +the Professor and without breaking open the door, Littlefield +could examine the vault of this retiring room was by going down +to the basement floor of the college and digging a hole through +the wall into the vault itself. This he determined to do. + +On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, Littlefield commenced operations +with a hatchet and a chisel. Progress was slow, as that evening +he had been invited to attend a festal gathering. On Friday the +janitor, before resuming work, acquainted two of the Professors +of the college with his proposed investigation, and received +their sanction. As Webster, however, was going constantly +in and out of his rooms, he could make little further progress +that day. The Professor had come into town early in the morning. + +Before going to the college he purchased some fish-hooks and gave +orders for the making of a strong tin box with firm handles, a +foot and a half square and a little more than a foot in depth; +during the rest of the day he had been busy in his rooms until he +left the college about four o'clock. Not till then was the +watchful janitor able to resume his labours. Armed with a crow- + +bar, he worked vigorously until he succeeded in penetrating the +wall sufficiently to admit a light into the vault of the +lavatory. The first objects which the light revealed to his +eyes, were the pelvis of a man and two parts of a human leg. + +Leaving his wife in charge of the remains, Littlefield went +immediately to the house of Professor Bigelow, and informed him +of the result of his search. They returned to the college some +twenty minutes later, accompanied by the City Marshal. The human +remains--a pelvis, a thigh and a leg--were taken out of the +vault, and on a further search some pieces of bone were removed +from one of the furnaces in the lower laboratory. The City +Marshal at once dispatched three of his officers to Cambridge, to +the house of Professor Webster. + +To his immediate circle of friends and relations the conduct of +the Professor during this eventful week had betrayed no unwonted +discomposure or disturbance of mind. His evenings had been spent +either at the house of friends, or at his own, playing whist, or +reading Milton's "Allegro" and "Penseroso" to his wife and daugh- + +ters. On Friday evening, about eight o'clock, as the Professor +was saying good-bye to a friend on the steps of his house at +Cambridge, the three police officers drove up to the door and +asked him to accompany them to the Medical College. It was +proposed, they said, to make a further search there that evening, +and his presence was considered advisable. Webster assented +immediately, put on his boots, his hat and coat, and got into the +hired coach. As they drove towards the city, Webster spoke to +the officers of Parkman's disappearance, and suggested that they +should stop at the house of a lady who, he said, could give them +some peculiar information on that subject. As they entered +Boston, he remarked that they were taking the wrong direction for +reaching the college. One of the officers replied that the +driver might be "green," but that he would find his way to the +college in time. At length the coach stopped. One of the offi- + +cers alighted, and invited his companions to follow him into the +office of the Leverett Street Jail. They obeyed. The Professor +asked what it all meant; he was informed that he must consider +himself in custody, charged with the murder of Dr. George +Parkman. Webster, somewhat taken aback, desired that word should +be sent to his family, but was dissuaded from his purpose for the +time being. He was searched, and among other articles taken from +him was a key some four or five inches long; it was the missing +lavatory key. Whilst one of the officers withdrew to make out a +mittimus, the Professor asked one of the others if they had found +Dr. Parkman. The officer begged him not to question him. "You +might tell me something about it," pleaded Webster. "Where did +they find him? Did they find the whole body? Oh, my children! +What will they do? What will they think of me? Where did you +get the information?" The officers asked him if anybody had +access to his apartments but himself. "Nobody," he replied, "but +the porter who makes the fire." Then, after a pause, he ex- + +claimed: "That villain! I am a ruined man." He was walking up +and down wringing his hands, when one of the officers saw +him put one hand into his waistcoat pocket, and raise it to his +lips. A few moments later the unhappy man was seized with +violent spasms. He was unable to stand, and was laid down in one +of the cells. From this distressing state he was roused shortly +before eleven, to be taken to the college. He was quite +incapable of walking, and had to be supported by two of the +officers. He was present there while his rooms were searched; +but his state was painful in the extreme. He asked for water, +but trembled so convulsively that he could only snap at the +tumbler like a dog; his limbs were rigid; tears and sweat poured +down his cheeks. On the way back to the jail, one of the +officers, moved by his condition, expressed his pity for him. +"Do you pity me? Are you sorry for me? What for?" asked +Webster. "To see you so excited," replied the officer. "Oh! +that's it," said the Professor. + +The whole night through the prisoner lay without moving, and not +until the following afternoon were his limbs relaxed sufficiently +to allow of his sitting up. As his condition improved, he grew +more confident. "That is no more Dr. Parkman's body," he said, +"than mine. How in the world it came there I don't know," and he +added: "I never liked the looks of Littlefield the janitor; I +opposed his coming there all I could." + +In the meantime a further examination of the Professor's rooms on +Saturday had resulted in the discovery, in a tea-chest in the +lower laboratory, of a thorax, the left thigh of a leg, and a +hunting knife embedded in tan and covered over with minerals; +some portions of bone and teeth were found mixed with the slag +and cinders of one of the furnaces; also some fish-hooks and a +quantity of twine, the latter identical with a piece of twine +that had been tied round the thigh found in the chest. + +Two days later the Professor furnished unwittingly some +additional evidence against himself. On the Monday evening after +his arrest he wrote from prison to one of his daughters the +following letter: + + +"MY DEAREST MARIANNE,--I wrote Mama yesterday; I had a good sleep +last night, and dreamt of you all. I got my clothes off, for the +first time, and awoke in the morning quite hungry. It was a long +time before my first breakfast from Parker's came; and it was +relished, I can assure you. At one o'clock I was notified that I +must appear at the court room. All was arranged with great +regard to my comfort, and went off better than I had anticipated. + +On my return I had a bit of turkey and rice from Parker's. They +send much more than I can eat, and I have directed the steward to +distribute the surplus to any poor ones here. + +"If you will send me a small canister of tea, I can make my own. +A little pepper I may want some day. I would send the dirty +clothes, but they were taken to dry. Tell Mama NOT TO OPEN +the little bundle I gave her the other day, but to keep it just +as she received it. With many kisses to you all. Good night!-- +From your affectionate + +"FATHER." + +"P.S.--My tongue troubles me yet very much, and I must have +bitten it in my distress the other night; it is painful and +swollen, affecting my speech. Had Mama better send for Nancy? I +think so; or Aunt Amelia." + +"Couple of coloured neck handkerchiefs, one Madras." + + +This letter, which shows an anxiety about his personal comfort +singular in one so tragically situated, passed through the hands +of the keeper of the jail. He was struck by the words +underlined," NOT TO OPEN," in regard to the small bundle +confided to Mrs. Webster. He called the attention of the police +to this phrase. They sent immediately an officer armed with a +search warrant to the Professor's house. He received from Mrs. +Webster among other papers a package which, on being opened, was +found to contain the two notes given by Webster to Parkman as +acknowledgments of his indebtedness to him in 1842 and 1847, and +a paper showing the amount of his debts to Parkman in 1847. +There were daubs and erasures made across these documents, and +across one was written twice over the word "paid." All these +evidences of payments and cancellations appeared on examination +to be in the handwriting of the Professor. + +After an inquest lasting nine days the coroner's jury declared +the remains found in the college to be those of Dr. George +Parkman, and that the deceased had met his death at the hands of +Professor J. W. Webster. The prisoner waived his right to a +magisterial investigation, and on January 26, 1850, the Grand +Jury returned a true bill. But it was not until March 17 that +the Professor's trial opened before the Supreme Court of +Massachusetts. The proceedings were conducted with that dignity +and propriety which we look for in the courts of that State. The +principal features in the defence were an attempt to impugn the +testimony of the janitor Littlefield, and to question the +possibility of the identification of the remains of Parkman's +teeth. There was a further attempt to prove that the deceased +had been seen by a number of persons in the streets of Boston on +the Friday afternoon, after his visit to the Medical College. +The witness Littlefield was unshaken by a severe cross- +examination. The very reluctance with which Dr. Keep gave his +fatal evidence, and the support given to his conclusions by +distinguished testimony told strongly in favour of the absolute +trustworthiness of his statements. The evidence called to +prove that the murdered man had been seen alive late on Friday +afternoon was highly inconclusive. + +Contrary to the advice of his counsel, Webster addressed the jury +himself. He complained of the conduct of his case, and +enumerated various points that his counsel had omitted to make, +which he conceived to be in his favour. The value of his +statements may be judged by the fact that he called God to +witness that he had not written any one of the anonymous letters, +purporting to give a true account of the doctor's fate, which had +been received by the police at the time of Parkman's disap- + +pearance. After his condemnation Webster confessed to the +authorship of at least one of them. + +The jury retired at eight o'clock on the eleventh day of the +trial. They would seem to have approached their duty in a most +solemn and devout spirit, and it was with the greatest reluctance +and after some searching of heart that they brought themselves to +find the prisoner guilty of wilful murder. On hearing their +verdict, the Professor sank into a seat, and, dropping his head, +rubbed his eyes behind his spectacles as if wiping away tears. +On the following morning the Chief Justice sentenced him to death +after a well-meaning speech of quite unnecessary length and +elaboration, at the conclusion of which the condemned man wept +freely. + +A petition for a writ of error having been dismissed, the +Professor in July addressed a petition for clemency to the +Council of the State. Dr. Putnam, who had been attending Webster +in the jail, read to the Council a confession which he had +persuaded the prisoner to make. According to this statement +Webster had, on the Friday afternoon, struck Parkman on the head +with a heavy wooden stick in a wild moment of rage, induced by +the violent taunts and threats of his creditor. Appalled by his +deed, he had in panic locked himself in his room, and +proceeded with desperate haste to dismember the body; he had +placed it for that purpose in the sink in his back room, through +which was running a constant stream of water that carried away +the blood. Some portions of the body he had burnt in the +furnace; those in the lavatory and the tea-chest he had concealed +there, until he should have had an opportunity of getting rid of +them. + +In this statement Professor Webster denied all premeditation. +Dr. Putnam asked him solemnly whether he had not, immediately +before the crime, meditated at any time on the advantages that +would accrue to him from Parkman's death. Webster replied +"Never, before God!" He had, he protested, no idea of doing +Parkman an injury until the bitter tongue of the latter provoked +him. "I am irritable and violent," he said, "a quickness and +brief violence of temper has been the besetting sin of my life. +I was an only child, much indulged, and I have never secured the +control over my passions that I ought to have acquired early; and +the consequence is--all this!" He denied having told Parkman +that he was going to settle with him that afternoon, and said +that he had asked him to come to the college with the sole object +of pleading with him for further indulgence. He explained his +convulsive seizure at the time of his arrest by his having taken +a dose of strychnine, which he had carried in his pocket since +the crime. In spite of these statements and the prayers of the +unfortunate man's wife and daughters, who, until his confession +to Dr. Putnam, had believed implicity in his innocence, the +Council decided that the law must take its course, and fixed +August 30 as the day of execution. + +The Professor resigned himself to his fate. He sent for +Littlefield and his wife, and expressed his regret for any +injustice he had done them: "All you said was true. You have +misrepresented nothing." Asked by the sheriff whether he +was to understand from some of his expressions that he +contemplated an attempt at suicide, "Why should I?" he replied, +"all the proceedings in my case have been just . . . and it is +just that I should die upon the scaffold in accordance with that +sentence." "Everybody is right," he said to the keeper of the +jail, "and I am wrong. And I feel that, if the yielding up of my +life to the injured law will atone, even in part, for the crime I +have committed, that is a consolation." + +In a letter to the Reverend Francis Parkman he expressed deep +contrition for his guilt. He added one sentence which may +perhaps fairly express the measure of premeditation that +accompanied his crime. "I had never," he wrote, "until the two +or three last interviews with your brother, felt towards him +anything but gratitude for his many acts of kindness and +friendship." + +Professor Webster met his death with fortitude and resignation. +That he deserved his fate few will be inclined to deny. The +attempt to procure blood, the questions about the dissecting-room +vault, the appointment made with Parkman at the college, the +statement to Pettee, all point to some degree of premeditation, +or at least would make it appear that the murder of Parkman had +been considered by him as a possible eventuality. His accusation +of Littlefield deprives him of a good deal of sympathy. On the +other hand, the age and position of Webster, the aggravating +persistency of Parkman, his threats and denunciations, coupled +with his own shortness of temper, make it conceivable that he may +have killed his victim on a sudden and overmastering provocation, +in which case he had better at once have acknowledged his crime +instead of making a repulsive attempt to conceal it. But for the +evidence of Dr. Keep he would possibly have escaped punishment +altogether. Save for the portions of his false teeth, there was +not sufficient evidence to identify the remains found in the +college as those of Parkman. Without these teeth the proof of +the corpus delicti would have been incomplete, and so afforded +Webster a fair chance of acquittal. + + + +The Mysterious Mr. Holmes + + +"The Holmes-Pitezel Case," by F. B. Geyer, 1896; "Holmes' Own +Story," Philadelphia, 1895; and "Celebrated Criminal Cases of +America," by T. S. Duke, San Francisco, are the authorities for +this account of the case. + + + +I + +HONOUR AMONGST THIEVES + +In the year 1894 Mr. Smith, a carpenter, of Philadelphia, had +patented a new saw-set. Wishing to make some money out of his +invention, Mr. Smith was attracted by the sign: + +B. F. PERRY +PATENTS BOUGHT AND SOLD + +which he saw stretched across the window of a two-storied house, +1,316 Callowhill Street. He entered the house and made the +acquaintance of Mr. Perry, a tall, dark, bony man, to whom he +explained the merits of his invention. Perry listened with +interest, and asked for a model. In the meantime he suggested +that Smith should do some carpenter's work for him in the house. +Smith agreed, and on August 22, while at work there saw a man +enter the house and go up with Perry to a room on the second +story. + +A few days later Smith called at Callowhill Street to ask Perry +about the sale of the patent. He waited half an hour in the shop +below, called out to Perry who, he thought, might be in the +rooms above, received no answer and went away. Next day, +September 4, Smith returned, found the place just as he had left +it the day before; called Perry again, but again got no answer. +Surprised, he went upstairs, and in the back room of the second +story the morning sunshine, streaming through the window, showed +him the dead body of a man, his face charred beyond recognition, +lying with his feet to the window and his head to the door. +There was evidence of some sort of explosion: a broken bottle +that had contained an inflammable substance, a broken pipe filled +with tobacco, and a burnt match lay by the side of the body. + +The general appearance of the dead man answered to that of B. F. +Perry. A medical examination of the body showed that death had +been sudden, that there had been paralysis of the involuntary +muscles, and that the stomach, besides showing symptoms of +alcoholic irritation, emitted a strong odour of chloroform. An +inquest was held, and a verdict returned that B. F. Perry had +died of congestion of the lungs caused by the inhalation of flame +or chloroform. After lying in the mortuary for eleven days the +body was buried. + +In the meantime the Philadelphia branch of the Fidelity Mutual +Life Association had received a letter from one Jephtha D. Howe, +an attorney at St. Louis, stating that the deceased B. F. Perry +was Benjamin F. Pitezel of that city, who had been insured in +their office for a sum of ten thousand dollars. The insurance +had been effected in Chicago in the November of 1893. Mr. Howe +proposed to come to Philadelphia with some members of the Pitezel +family to identify the remains. Referring to their Chicago +branch, the insurance company found that the only person who +would seem to have known Pitezel when in that city, was a certain +H. H. Holmes, living at Wilmette, Illinois. They got into +communication with Mr. Holmes, and forwarded to him a cutting +from a newspaper, which stated erroneously that the death of B. +F. Perry had taken place in Chicago. + +On September 18 they received a letter from Mr. Holmes, in which +he offered what assistance he could toward the identification of +B. F. Perry as B. F. Pitezel. He gave the name of a dentist in +Chicago who would be able to recognise teeth which he had made +for Pitezel, and himself furnished a description of the man, +especially of a malformation of the knee and a warty growth on +the back of the neck by which he could be further identified. +Mr. Holmes offered, if his expenses were paid, to come to Chicago +to view the body. Two days later he wrote again saying that he +had seen by other papers that Perry's death had taken place in +Philadelphia and not in Chicago, and that as he had to be in +Baltimore in a day or two, he would run over to Philadelphia and +visit the office of the Fidelity Life Association. + +On September 20 the assiduous Mr. Holmes called at the office of +the Association in Philadelphia, inquired anxiously about the +nature and cause of Perry's death, gave again a description of +him and, on learning that Mr. Howe, the attorney from St. Louis, +was about to come to Philadelphia to represent the widow, Mrs. +Pitezel, and complete the identification, said that he would +return to give the company any further help he could in the +matter. The following day Mr. Jephtha D. Howe, attorney of St. +Louis, arrived in Philadelphia, accompanied by Alice Pitezel, a +daughter of the deceased. Howe explained that Pitezel had taken +the name of Perry owing to financial difficulties. The company +said that they accepted the fact that Perry and Pitezel were one +and the same man, but were not convinced that the body was +Pitezel's body. The visit of Holmes was mentioned. Howe +said that he did not know Mr. Holmes, but would be willing to +meet him. At this moment Holmes arrived at the office. He was +introduced to Howe as a stranger, and recognised as a friend by +Alice Pitezel, a shy, awkward girl of fourteen or fifteen years +of age. It was then arranged that all the parties should meet +again next day to identify, if possible, the body, which had been +disinterred for that purpose. + +The unpleasant duty of identifying the rapidly decomposing +remains was greatly curtailed by the readiness of Mr. Holmes. +When the party met on the 22nd at the Potter's Field, where the +body had been disinterred and laid out, the doctor present was +unable to find the distinctive marks which would show Perry and +Pitezel to have been the same man. Holmes at once stepped into +the breach, took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, put on the +rubber gloves, and taking a surgeon's knife from his pocket, cut +off the wart at the back of the neck, showed the injury to the +leg, and revealed also a bruised thumb-nail which had been +another distinctive mark of Pitezel. The body was then covered +up all but the teeth; the girl Alice was brought in, and she said +that the teeth appeared to be like those of her father. The +insurance company declared themselves satisfied, and handed to +Mr. Howe a cheque for 9,175 dollars, and to Mr. Holmes ten +dollars for his expenses. Smith, the carpenter, had been present +at the proceedings at the Potter's Field. For a moment he +thought he detected a likeness in Mr. Holmes to the man who had +visited Perry at Callowhill Street on August 22 and gone upstairs +with him, but he did not feel sure enough of the fact to make any +mention of it. + +In the prison at St. Louis there languished in the year 1894 one +Marion Hedgspeth, serving a sentence of twenty years' +imprisonment for an audacious train robbery. On the night +of November 30, 1891, the "'Friscow express from St. Louis had +been boarded by four ruffians, the express car blown open with +dynamite, and 10,000 dollars carried off. Hedgspeth and another +man were tried for the robbery, and sentenced to twenty years' +imprisonment. On October 9, 1894, Hegspeth{sic} made a statement +to the Governor of the St. Louis prison, which he said he wished +to be communicated to the Fidelity Mutual Life Association. In +the previous July Hedgspeth said that he had met in the prison a +man of the name of H. M. Howard, who was charged with fraud, but +had been released on bail later in the month. While in prison +Howard told Hedgspeth that he had devised a scheme for swindling +an insurance company of 10,000 dollars, and promised Hedgspeth +that, if he would recommend him a lawyer suitable for such an +enterprise, he should have 500 dollars as his share of the +proceeds. Hedgspeth recommended Jephtha D. Howe. The latter +entered with enthusiasm into the scheme, and told Hedgspeth that +he thought Mr. Howard "one of the smoothest and slickest" men he +had ever known. A corpse was to be found answering to Pitezel's +description, and to be so treated as to appear to have been the +victim of an accidental explosion, while Pitezel himself would +disappear to Germany. From Howe Hedgspeth learnt that the +swindle had been carried out successfully, but he had never +received from Howard the 500 dollars promised him. Consequently, +he had but little compunction in divulging the plot to the +authorities. + +It was realised at once that H. M. Howard and H. H. Holmes were +the same person, and that Jephtha D. Howe and Mr. Holmes were not +the strangers to each other that they had affected to be when +they met in Philadelphia. Though somewhat doubtful of the truth +of Hedgspeth's statement, the insurance company decided to +set Pinkerton's detectives on the track of Mr. H. H. Holmes. +After more than a month's search he was traced to his father's +house at Gilmanton, N. H., and arrested in Boston on November 17. + +Inquiry showed that, early in 1894, Holmes and Pitezel had +acquired some real property at Fort Worth in Texas and commenced +building operations, but had soon after left Texas under a cloud, +arising from the theft of a horse and other dubious transactions. + +Holmes had obtained the property at Fort Worth from a Miss Minnie +Williams, and transferred it to Pitezel. Pitezel was a drunken +"crook," of mean intelligence, a mesmeric subject entirely under +the influence of Holmes, who claimed to have considerable +hypnotic powers. Pitezel had a wife living at St. Louis and five +children, three girls--Dessie, Alice, and Nellie--a boy, Howard, +and a baby in arms. At the time of Holmes' arrest Mrs. Pitezel, +with her eldest daughter, Dessie, and her little baby, was living +at a house rented by Holmes at Burlington, Vermont. She also was +arrested on a charge of complicity in the insurance fraud and +brought to Boston. + +Two days after his arrest Holmes, who dreaded being sent back to +Texas on a charge of horse-stealing, for which in that State the +punishment is apt to be rough and ready, made a statement to the +police, in which he acknowledged the fraud practised by him and +Pitezel on the insurance company. The body substituted for +Pitezel had been obtained, said Holmes, from a doctor in New +York, packed in a trunk and sent to Philadelphia, but he declined +for the present to give the doctor's name. Pitezel, he said, had +gone with three of his children--Alice, Nellie and Howard--to +South America. This fact, however, Holmes had not communicated +to Mrs. Pitezel. When she arrived at Boston, the poor woman was +in great distress of mind. Questioned by the officers, she +attempted to deny any complicity in the fraud, but her real +anxiety was to get news of her husband and her three children. +Alice she had not seen since the girl had gone to Philadelphia to +identify the supposed remains of her father. Shortly after this +Holmes had come to Mrs. Pitezel at St. Louis, and taken away +Nellie and Howard to join Alice, who, he said, was in the care of +a widow lady at Ovington, Kentucky. Since then Mrs. Pitezel had +seen nothing of the children or her husband. At Holmes' +direction she had gone to Detroit, Toronto, Ogdensberg and, +lastly, to Burlington in the hope of meeting either Pitezel or +the children, but in vain. She believed that her husband had +deserted her; her only desire was to recover her children. + +On November 20 Holmes and Mrs. Pitezel were transferred from +Boston to Philadelphia, and there, along with Benjamin Pitezel +and Jephtha D. Howe, were charged with defrauding the Fidelity +Life Association of 10,000 dollars. Soon after his arrival in +Philadelphia Holmes, who was never averse to talking, was asked +by an inspector of the insurance company who it was that had +helped him to double up the body sent from New York and pack it +into the trunk. He replied that he had done it alone, having +learned the trick when studying medicine in Michigan. The +inspector recollected that the body when removed from Callowhill +Street had been straight and rigid. He asked Holmes what trick +he had learnt in the course of his medical studies by which it +was possible to re-stiffen a body once the rigor mortis had +been broken. To this Holmes made no reply. But he realised his +mistake, and a few weeks later volunteered a second statement. +He now said that Pitezel, in a fit of depression, aggravated by +his drinking habits, had committed suicide on the third story of +the house in Callowhill Street. There Holmes had found his +body,carried it down on to the floor below, and arranged it +in the manner agreed upon for deceiving the insurance company. +Pitezel, he said, had taken his life by lying on the floor and +allowing chloroform to run slowly into his mouth through a rubber +tube placed on a chair. The three children, Holmes now stated, +had gone to England with a friend of his, Miss Minnie Williams. + +Miss Minnie Williams was the lady, from whom Holmes was said to +have acquired the property in Texas which he and Pitezel had set +about developing. There was quite a tragedy, according to +Holmes, connected with the life of Miss Williams. She had come +to Holmes in 1893, as secretary, at a drug store which he was +then keeping in Chicago. Their relations had become more +intimate, and later in the year Miss Williams wrote to her +sister, Nannie, saying that she was going to be married, and +inviting her to the wedding. Nannie arrived, but unfortunately a +violent quarrel broke out between the two sisters, and Holmes +came home to find that Minnie in her rage had killed her sister. +He had helped her out of the trouble by dropping Nannie's body +into the Chicago lake. After such a distressing occurrence Miss +Williams was only too glad of the opportunity of leaving America +with the Pitezel children. In the meantime Holmes, under the +name of Bond, and Pitezel, under that of Lyman, had proceeded to +deal with Miss Williams' property in Texas. + +For women Holmes would always appear to have possessed some power +of attraction, a power of which he availed himself generously. +Holmes, whose real name was Herman W. Mudgett, was thirty-four +years of age at the time of his arrest. As a boy he had spent +his life farming in Vermont, after which he had taken up medicine +and acquired some kind of medical degree. In the course of his +training Holmes and a fellow student, finding a body that +bore a striking resemblance to the latter; obtained 1,000 dollars +from an insurance company by a fraud similar to that in which +Holmes had engaged subsequently with Pitezel. After spending +some time on the staff of a lunatic asylum in Pennsylvania, +Holmes set up as a druggist in Chicago. His affairs in this city +prospered, and he was enabled to erect, at the corner of Wallace +and Sixty-Third Streets, the four-storied building known later as +"Holmes Castle." It was a singular structure. The lower part +consisted of a shop and offices. Holmes occupied the second +floor, and had a laboratory on the third. In his office was a +vault, air proof and sound proof. In the bathroom a trap-door, +covered by a rug, opened on to a secret staircase leading down to +the cellar, and a similar staircase connected the cellar with the +laboratory. In the cellar was a large grate. To this building +Miss Minnie Williams had invited her sister to come for her +wedding with Holmes, and it was in this building, according to +Holmes, that the tragedy of Nannie's untimely death occurred. + +In hoping to become Holmes' wife, Miss Minnie Williams was not to +enjoy an exclusive privilege. At the time of his arrest Holmes +had three wives, each ignorant of the others' existence. He had +married the first in 1878, under the name of Mudgett, and was +visiting her at Burlington, Vermont, when the Pinkerton +detectives first got on his track. The second he had married at +Chicago, under the name of Howard, and the third at Denver as +recently as January, 1894, under the name of Holmes. The third +Mrs. Holmes had been with him when he came to Philadelphia to +identify Pitezel's body. The appearance of Holmes was +commonplace, but he was a man of plausible and ingratiating +address, apparent candour, and able in case of necessity to "let +loose," as he phrased it, "the fount of emotion." + +The year 1895 opened to find the much enduring Holmes still a +prisoner in Philadelphia. The authorities seemed in no haste to +indict him for fraud; their interest was concentrated rather in +endeavouring to find the whereabouts of Miss Williams and her +children, and of one Edward Hatch, whom Holmes had described as +helping him in arranging for their departure. The "great +humiliation" of being a prisoner was very distressing to Holmes. + +"I only know the sky has lost its blue, +The days are weary and the night is drear." + +These struck him as two beautiful lines very appropriate to his +situation. He made a New Year's resolve to give up meat during +his close confinement. The visits of his third wife brought him +some comfort. He was "agreeably surprised" to find that, as an +unconvicted prisoner, he could order in his own meals and receive +newspapers and periodicals. But he was hurt at an unfriendly +suggestion on the part of the authorities that Pitezel had not +died by his own hand, and that Edward Hatch was but a figment of +his rich imagination. He would like to have been released on +bail, but in the same unfriendly spirit was informed that, if he +were, he would be detained on a charge of murder. And so the +months dragged on. Holmes, studious, patient, injured, the +authorities puzzled, suspicions, baffled--still no news of Miss +Williams or the three children. It was not until June 3 that +Holmes was put on his trial for fraud, and the following day +pleaded guilty. Sentence was postponed. + +The same day Holmes was sent for to the office of the District +Attorney, who thus addressed him: "It is strongly suspected, +Holmes, that you have not only murdered Pitezel, but that you +have killed the children. The best way to remove this +suspicion is to produce the children at once. Now, where are +they?" Unfriendly as was this approach, Holmes met it calmly, +reiterated his previous statement that the children had gone with +Miss Williams to England, and gave her address in London, 80 +Veder or Vadar Street, where, he said, Miss Williams had opened a +massage establishment. He offered to draw up and insert a cipher +advertisement in the New York Herald, by means of which, he +said, Miss Williams and he had agreed to communicate, and almost +tearfully he added, "Why should I kill innocent children?" + +Asked to give the name of any person who had seen Miss Williams +and the children in the course of their journeyings in America, +he resented the disbelief implied in such a question, and strong +was his manly indignation when one of the gentlemen present +expressed his opinion that the story was a lie from beginning to +end. This rude estimate of Holmes' veracity was, however, in +some degree confirmed when a cipher advertisement published in +the New York Herald according to Holmes' directions, produced +no reply from Miss Williams, and inquiry showed that no such +street as Veder or Vadar Street was to be found in London. + +In spite of these disappointments, Holmes' quiet confidence in +his own good faith continued unshaken. When the hapless Mrs. +Pitezel was released, he wrote her a long letter. "Knowing me as +you do," he said, "can you imagine me killing little and innocent +children, especially without any motive?" But even Mrs. Pitezel +was not wholly reassured. She recollected how Holmes had taken +her just before his arrest to a house he had rented at +Burlington, Vermont, how he had written asking her to carry a +package of nitro-glycerine from the bottom to the top of the +house, and how one day she had found him busily removing the +boards in the cellar. + + +II +THE WANDERING ASSASSIN + + +The District Attorney and the Insurance Company were not in +agreement as to the fate of the Pitezel children. The former +still inclined to the hope and belief that they were in England +with Miss Williams, but the insurance company took a more +sinister view. No trace of them existed except a tin box found +among Holmes' effects, containing letters they had written to +their mother and grandparents from Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and +Detroit, which had been given to Holmes to dispatch but had never +reached their destination. The box contained letters from Mrs. +Pitezel to her children, which Holmes had presumably intercepted. + +It was decided to make a final attempt to resolve all doubts by +sending an experienced detective over the route taken by the +children in America. He was to make exhaustive inquiries in each +city with a view to tracing the visits of Holmes or the three +children. For this purpose a detective of the name of Geyer was +chosen. The record of his search is a remarkable story of +patient and persistent investigation. + +Alice Pitezel had not seen her mother since she had gone with +Holmes to identify her father's remains in Philadelphia. From +there Holmes had taken her to Indianapolis. In the meantime he +had visited Mrs. Pitezel at St. Louis, and taken away with him +the girl, Nellie, and the boy, Howard, alleging as his reason for +doing so that they and Alice were to join their father, whose +temporary effacement was necessary to carry out successfully the +fraud on the insurance company, to which Mrs. Pitezel had been +from the first an unwilling party. Holmes, Nellie and Howard had +joined Alice at Indianapolis, and from there all four were +believed to have gone to Cincinnati. It was here, accordingly, +on June 27, 1895, that Geyer commenced his search. + +After calling at a number of hotels, Geyer found that on Friday, +September 28, 1894, a man, giving the name of Alexander E. Cook, +and three children had stayed at a hotel called the Atlantic +House. Geyer recollected that Holmes, when later on he had sent +Mrs. Pitezel to the house in Burlington, had described her as +Mrs. A. E. Cook and, though not positive, the hotel clerk thought +that he recognised in the photographs of Holmes and he three +children, which Geyer showed him, the four visitors to the hotel. + +They had left the Atlantic House the next day, and on that same +day, the 29th, Geyer found that Mr. A. E. Cook and three children +had registered at the Bristol Hotel, where they had stayed until +Sunday the 30th. + +Knowing Holmes' habit of renting houses, Geyer did not confine +his enquiries to the hotels. He visited a number of estate +agents and learnt that a man and a boy, identified as Holmes and +Howard Pitezel, had occupied a house No. 305 Poplar Street. The +man had given the name of A. C. Hayes. He had taken the house on +Friday the 28th, and on the 29th had driven up to it with the boy +in a furniture wagon. A curious neighbour, interested in the +advent of a newcomer, saw the wagon arrive, and was somewhat +astonished to observe that the only furniture taken into the +house was a large iron cylinder stove. She was still further +surprised when, on the following day, Mr. Hayes told her that he +was not going after all to occupy the house, and made her a pres- + +ent of the cylinder stove. + +From Cincinnati Geyer went to Indianapolis. Here inquiry showed +that on September 30 three children had been brought by a man +identified as Holmes to the Hotel English, and registered in +the name of Canning. This was the maiden name of Mrs. Pitezel. +The children had stayed at the hotel one night. After that Geyer +seemed to lose track of them until he was reminded of a hotel +then closed, called the Circle House. With some difficulty he +got a sight of the books of the hotel, and found that the three +Canning children had arrived there on October 1 and stayed until +the 10th. From the former proprietor of the hotel he learnt that +Holmes had described himself as the children's uncle, and had +said that Howard was a bad boy, whom he was trying to place in +some institution. The children seldom went out; they would sit +in their room drawing or writing, often they were found crying; +they seemed homesick and unhappy. + +There are letters of the children written from Indianapolis to +their mothers, letters found in Holmes' possession, which had +never reached her. In these letters they ask their mother why +she does not write to them. She had written, but her letters +were in Holmes' possession. Alice writes that she is reading +"Uncle Tom's Cabin." She has read so much that her eyes hurt; +they have bought a crystal pen for five cents which gives them +some amusement; they had been to the Zoo in Cincinnati the Sunday +before: "I expect this Sunday will pass away slower than I don't +know--Howard is two (sic) dirty to be seen out on the street +to-day." Sometimes they go and watch a man who paints "genuine +oil paintings" in a shoe store, which are given away with every +dollar purchase of shoes--"he can paint a picture in one and a +half minutes, ain't that quick!" Howard was getting a little +troublesome. "I don't like to tell you," writes Alice, "but you +ask me, so I will have to. Howard won't mind me at all. He +wanted a book and I got `Life of General Sheridan,' and it is +awful nice, but now he don't read it at all hardly." Poor +Howard! One morning, says Alice, Mr. Holmes told him to +stay in and wait for him, as he was coming to take him out, but +Howard was disobedient, and when Mr. Holmes arrived he had gone +out. Better for Howard had he never returned! "We have written +two or three letters to you," Alice tells her mother, "and I +guess you will begin to get them now. She will not get them. +Mr. Holmes is so very particular that the insurance company shall +get no clue to the whereabouts of any member of the Pitezel +family. + +Geyer knew that from Indianapolis Holmes had gone to Detroit. He +ascertained that two girls, "Etta and Nellie Canning," had +registered on October 12 at the New Western Hotel in that city, +and from there had moved on the 15th to a boarding-house in +Congress Street. From Detroit Alice had written to her +grandparents. It was cold and wet, she wrote; she and Etta had +colds and chapped hands: "We have to stay in all the time. All +that Nell and I can do is to draw, and I get so tired sitting +that I could get up and fly almost. I wish I could see you all. +I am getting so homesick that I don't know what to do. I suppose +Wharton (their baby brother) walks by this time, don't he? I +would like to have him here, he would pass away the time a good +deal." As a fact little Wharton, his mother and sister Dessie, +were at this very moment in Detroit, within ten minutes' walk of +the hotel at which Holmes had registered "Etta and Nellie +Canning." + +On October 14 there had arrived in that city a weary, anxious- +looking woman, with a girl and a little baby. They took a room +at Geis's Hotel, registering as Mrs. Adams and daughter. Mrs. +Adams seemed in great distress of mind, and never left her room. + +The housekeeper, being shown their photographs, identified the +woman and the girl as Mrs. Pitezel and her eldest daughter +Dessie. As the same time there had been staying at another +hotel in Detroit a Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, whose photographs showed +them to be the Mr. Holmes in question and his third wife. These +three parties--the two children, Mrs. Pitezel and her baby, and +the third Mrs. Holmes--were all ignorant of each other's presence +in Detroit; and under the secret guidance of Mr. Holmes the three +parties (still unaware of their proximity to each other, left +Detroit for Canada, arriving in Toronto on or about October 18, +and registering at three separate hotels. The only one who had +not to all appearances reached Toronto was the boy Howard. + +In Toronto "Alice and Nellie Canning" stayed at the Albion Hotel. + +They arrived there on October 19, and left on the 25th. During +their stay a man, identified as Holmes, had called every morning +for the two children, and taken them out; but they had come back +alone, usually in time for supper. On the 25th he had called and +taken them out, but they had not returned to supper. After that +date Geyer could find no trace of them. Bearing in mind Holmes' +custom of renting houses, he compiled a list of all the house +agents in Toronto, and laboriously applied to each one for +information. The process was a slow one, and the result seemed +likely to be disappointing. + +To aid his search Geyer decided to call in the assistance of the +Press. The newspapers readily published long accounts of the +case and portraits of Holmes and the children. At last, after +eight days of patient and untiring investigation, after following +up more than one false clue, Geyer received a report that there +was a house--No. 16 St. Vincent Street--which had been rented in +the previous October by a man answering to the description of +Holmes. The information came from an old Scottish gentleman +living next door. Geyer hastened to see him. The old gentleman +said that the man who had occupied No. 16 in October had +told him that he had taken the house for his widowed sister, and +he recognised the photograph of Alice Pitezel as one of the two +girls accompanying him. The only furniture the man had taken +into the house was a bed, a mattress and a trunk. During his +stay at No. 16 this man had called on his neighbour about four +o'clock one afternoon and borrowed a spade, saying that he wanted +to dig a place in the cellar where his widowed sister could keep +potatoes; he had returned the spade the following morning. The +lady to whom the house belonged recognised Holmes' portrait as +that of the man to whom she had let No. 16. + +At last Geyer seemed to be on the right track. He hurried back +to St. Vincent Street, borrowed from the old gentleman at No. 18 +the very spade which he had lent to Holmes in the previous +October, and got the permission of the present occupier of No. 16 +to make a search. In the centre of the kitchen Geyer found a +trap-door leading down into a small cellar. In one corner of the +cellar he saw that the earth had been recently dug up. With the +help of the spade the loose earth was removed, and at a depth of +some three feet, in a state of advanced decomposition, lay the +remains of what appeared to be two children. A little toy wooden +egg with a snake inside it, belonging to the Pitezel children, +had been found by the tenant who had taken the house after +Holmes; a later tenant had found stuffed into the chimney, but +not burnt, some clothing that answered the description of that +worn by Alice and Etta Pitezel; and by the teeth and hair of the +two corpses Mrs. Pitezel was able to identify them as those of +her two daughters. The very day that Alice and Etta had met +their deaths at St. Vincent Street, their mother had been staying +near them at a hotel in the same city, and later on the same day +Holmes had persuaded her to leave Toronto for Ogdensburg. He +said that they were being watched by detectives, and so it +would be impossible for her husband to come to see her there. + +But the problem was not yet wholly solved. What had become of +Howard? So far Geyer's search had shown that Holmes had rented +three houses, one in Cincinnati, one in Detroit, and one in +Toronto. Howard had been with his sisters at the hotels in +Indianapolis, and in Detroit the house agents had said that, when +Holmes had rented a house there, he had been accompanied by a +boy. Yet an exhaustive search of that house had revealed no +trace of him. Geyer returned to Detroit and again questioned the +house agents; on being pressed their recollection of the boy who +had accompanied Holmes seemed very vague and uncertain. This +served only to justify a conclusion at which Geyer had already +arrived, that Howard had never reached Detroit, but had +disappeared in Indianapolis. Alice's letters, written from +there, had described how Holmes had wanted to take Howard out one +day and how the boy had refused to stay in and wait for him. In +the same way Holmes had called for the two girls at the Albion +Hotel in Toronto on October 25 and taken them out with him, after +which they had never been seen alive except by the old gentleman +at No. 18 St. Vincent Street. + +If Geyer could discover that Holmes had not departed in +Indianapolis from his usual custom of renting houses, he might be +on the high way to solving the mystery of Howard's fate. +Accordingly he returned to Indianapolis. + +In the meantime, Holmes, in his prison at Philadelphia, learnt of +the discovery at Toronto. "On the morning of the 16th of July," +he writes in his journal, "my newspaper was delivered to me about +8.30 a.m., and I had hardly opened it before I saw in large +headlines the announcement of the finding of the children in +Toronto. For the moment it seemed so impossible that I was +inclined to think it was one of the frequent newspaper +excitements that had attended the earlier part of the case, but, +in attempting to gain some accurate comprehension of what was +stated in the article, I became convinced that at least certain +bodies had been found there, and upon comparing the date when the +house was hired I knew it to be the same as when the children had +been in Toronto; and thus being forced to realise the awfulness +of what had probably happened, I gave up trying to read the +article, and saw instead the two little faces as they had looked +when I hurriedly left them--felt the innocent child's kiss so +timidly given, and heard again their earnest words of farewell, +and realised that I had received another burden to carry to my +grave with me, equal, if not worse, than the horrors of Nannie +Williams' death." + +Questioned by the district attorney, Holmes met this fresh +evidence by evoking once again the mythical Edward Hatch and +suggesting that Miss Minnie Williams, in a "hellish wish for +vengeance" because of Holmes' fancied desertion, and in order to +make it appear probable that he, and not she, had murdered her +sister, had prompted Hatch to commit the horrid deed. Holmes +asked to be allowed to go to Toronto that he might collect any +evidence which he could find there in his favour. The district +attorney refused his request; he had determined to try Holmes in +Philadelphia. "What more could, be said?" writes Holmes. +Indeed, under the circumstances, and in the unaccountable absence +of Edward Hatch and Minnie Williams, there was little more to be +said. + +Detective Geyer reopened his search in Indianapolis by obtaining +a list of advertisements of houses to let in the city in 1894. +Nine hundred of these were followed up in vain. He then turned +his attention to the small towns lying around Indianapolis +with no happier result. Geyer wrote in something of despair to +his superiors: "By Monday we will have searched every outlying +town except Irvington. After Irvington, I scarcely know where we +shall go." Thither he went on August 27, exactly two months from +the day on which his quest had begun. As he entered the town he +noticed the advertisement of an estate agent. He called at the +office and found a "pleasant-faced old gentleman," who greeted +him amiably. Once again Geyer opened his now soiled and ragged +packet of photographs, and asked the gentleman if in October, +1894, he had let a house to a man who said that he wanted one for +a widowed sister. He showed him the portrait of Holmes. + +The old man put on his glasses and looked at the photograph for +some time. Yes, he said, he did remember that he had given the +keys of a cottage in October, 1894, to a man of Holmes' +appearance, and he recollected the man the more distinctly for +the uncivil abruptness with which he had asked for the keys; "I +felt," he said, "he should have had more respect for my grey +hairs." + +From the old gentleman's office Geyer hastened to the cottage, +and made at once for the cellar. There he could find no sign of +recent disturbance. But beneath the floor of a piazza adjoining +the house he found the remains of a trunk, answering to the +description of that which the Pitezel children had had with them, +and in an outhouse he discovered the inevitable stove, Holmes' +one indispensable piece of furniture. It was stained with blood +on the top. A neighbour had seen Holmes in the same October +drive up to the house in the furniture wagon accompanied by a +boy, and later in the day Holmes had asked him to come over to +the cottage and help him to put up a stove. The neighbour asked +him why he did not use gas; Holmes replied that he did not +think gas was healthy for children. While the two men were +putting up the stove, the little boy stood by and watched them. +After further search there were discovered in the cellar chimney +some bones, teeth, a pelvis and the baked remains of a stomach, +liver and spleen. + +Medical examination showed them to be the remains of a child +between seven and ten years of age. A spinning top, a scarf-pin, +a pair of shoes and some articles of clothing that had belonged +to the little Pitezels, had been found in the house at different +times, and were handed over to Geyer. + +His search was ended. On September 1 he returned to +Philadelphia. + +Holmes was put on his trial on October 28, 1895, before the Court +of Oyer and Terminer in Philadelphia, charged with the murder of +Benjamin Pitezel. In the course of the trial the district +attorney offered to put in evidence showing that Holmes had also +murdered the three children of Pitezel, contending that such +evidence was admissible on the ground that the murders of the +children and their father were parts of the same transaction. +The judge refused to admit the evidence, though expressing a +doubt as to its inadmissibility. The defence did not dispute the +identity of the body found in Callowhill Street, but contended +that Pitezel had committed suicide. The medical evidence +negatived such a theory. The position of the body, its condition +when discovered, were entirely inconsistent with self- +destruction, and the absence of irritation in the stomach showed +that the chloroform found there must have been poured into it +after death. In all probability, Holmes had chloroformed Pitezel +when he was drunk or asleep. He had taken the chloroform to +Callowhill Street as a proposed ingredient in a solution for +cleaning clothes, which he and Pitezel were to patent. It +was no doubt with the help of the same drug that he had done to +death the little children, and failing the nitro-glycerine, with +that drug he had intended to put Mrs. Pitezel and her two +remaining children out of the way at the house in Burlington; for +after his trial there was found there, hidden away in the cellar, +a bottle containing eight or ten ounces of chloroform. + +Though assisted by counsel, Holmes took an active part in his +defence. He betrayed no feeling at the sight of Mrs. Pitezel, +the greater part of whose family he had destroyed, but the +appearance of his third wife as a witness he made an opportunity +for "letting loose the fount of emotion," taking care to inform +his counsel beforehand that he intended to perform this touching +feat. He was convicted and sentenced to death on November 2. + +Previous to the trial of Holmes the police had made an exhaustive +investigation of the mysterious building in Chicago known as +"Holmes' Castle." The result was sufficiently sinister. In the +stove in the cellar charred human bones were found, and in the +middle of the room stood a large dissecting table stained with +blood. On digging up the cellar floor some human ribs, sections +of vertebrae and teeth were discovered buried in quicklime, and +in other parts of the "castle" the police found more charred +bones, some metal buttons, a trunk, and a piece of a watch chain. + +The trunk and piece of watch chain were identified as having +belonged to Miss Minnie Williams. + +Inquiry showed that Miss Williams had entered Holmes' employment +as a typist in 1893, and had lived with him at the castle. In +the latter part of the year she had invited her sister, Nannie, +to be present at her wedding with Holmes. Nannie had come to +Chicago for that purpose, and since then the two sisters had +never been seen alive. In February in the following year +Pitezel, under the name of Lyman, had deposited at Fort Worth, +Texas, a deed according to which a man named Bond had transferred +to him property in that city which had belonged to Miss Williams, +and shortly after, Holmes, under the name of Pratt, joined him at +Fort Worth, whereupon the two commenced building on Miss +Williams' land. + +Other mysterious cases besides those of the Williams sisters +revealed the Bluebeard-like character of this latterday castle of +Mr. Holmes. In 1887 a man of the name of Connor entered Holmes' +employment. He brought with him to the castle a handsome, +intelligent wife and a little girl of eight or nine years of age. + +After a short time Connor quarrelled with his wife and went away, +leaving Mrs. Connor and the little girl with Holmes. After 1892 +Mrs. Connor and her daughter had disappeared, but in August, +1895, the police found in the castle some clothes identified as +theirs, and the janitor, Quinlan, admitted having seen the dead +body of Mrs. Connor in the castle. Holmes, questioned in his +prison in Philadelphia, said that Mrs. Connor had died under an +operation, but that he did not know what had become of the little +girl. + +In the year of Mrs. Connor's disappearance, a typist named Emily +Cigrand, who had been employed in a hospital in which Benjamin +Pitezel had been a patient, was recommended by the latter to +Holmes. She entered his employment, and she and Holmes soon +became intimate, passing as "Mr. and Mrs. Gordon." Emily Cigrand +had been in the habit of writing regularly to her parents in +Indiana, but after December 6, 1892, they had never heard from +her again, nor could any further trace of her be found. + +A man who worked for Holmes as a handy man at the castle +stated to the police that in 1892 Holmes had given him a skeleton +of a man to mount, and in January, 1893, showed him in the +laboratory another male skeleton with some flesh still on it, +which also he asked him to mount. As there was a set of surgical +instruments in the laboratory and also a tank filled with a fluid +preparation for removing flesh, the handy man thought that Holmes +was engaged in some kind of surgical work. + +About a month before his execution, when Holmes' appeals from his +sentence had failed and death appeared imminent, he sold to the +newspapers for 7,500 dollars a confession in which he claimed to +have committed twenty-seven murders in the course of his career. +The day after it appeared he declared the whole confession to be +a "fake." He was tired, he said, of being accused by the +newspapers of having committed every mysterious murder that had +occurred during the last ten years. When it was pointed out to +him that the account given in his confession of the murder of the +Pitezel children was clearly untrue, he replied, "Of course, it +is not true, but the newspapers wanted a sensation and they have +got it." The confession was certainly sensational enough to +satisfy the most exacting of penny-a-liners, and a lasting +tribute to Holmes' undoubted power of extravagant romancing. + +According to his story, some of his twenty-seven victims had met +their death by poison, some by more violent methods, some had +died a lingering death in the air-tight and sound-proof vault of +the castle. Most of these he mentioned by name, but some of +these were proved afterwards to be alive. Holmes had actually +perpetrated, in all probability, about ten murders. But, given +further time and opportunity, there is no reason why this peri- + +patetic assassin should not have attained to the +considerable figure with which he credited himself in his +bogus confession. + +Holmes was executed in Philadelphia on May 7, 1896. He seemed to +meet his fate with indifference. + +The motive of Holmes in murdering Pitezel and three of his +children and in planning to murder his wife and remaining +children, originated in all probability in a quarrel that +occurred between Pitezel and himself in the July of 1894. +Pitezel had tired apparently of Holmes and his doings, and wanted +to break off the connection. But he must have known enough of +Holmes' past to make him a dangerous enemy. It was Pitezel who +had introduced to Holmes Emily Cigrand, the typist, who had +disappeared so mysteriously in the castle; Pitezel had been his +partner in the fraudulent appropriation of Miss Minnie Williams' +property in Texas; it is more than likely, therefore, that +Pitezel knew something of the fate of Miss Williams and her +sister. By reviving, with Pitezel's help, his old plan for +defrauding insurance companies, Holmes saw the opportunity of +making 10,000 dollars, which he needed sorely, and at the same +time removing his inconvenient and now lukewarm associate. +Having killed Pitezel and received the insurance money, Holmes +appropriated to his own use the greater part of the 10,000 +dollars, giving Mrs. Pitezel in return for her share of the +plunder a bogus bill for 5,000 dollars. Having robbed Mrs. +Pitezel of both her husband and her money, to this thoroughgoing +criminal there seemed only one satisfactory way of escaping +detection, and that was to exterminate her and the whole of her +family. + +Had Holmes not confided his scheme of the insurance fraud to +Hedgspeth in St. Louis prison and then broken faith with him, +there is no reason why the fraud should ever have been +discovered. The subsequent murders had been so cunningly +contrived that, had the Insurance Company not put the +Pinkerton detectives on his track, Holmes would in all +probability have ended by successfully disposing of Mrs. Pitezel, +Dessie, and the baby at the house in Burlington, Vermont, and the +entire Pitezel family would have disappeared as completely as his +other victims. + +Holmes admitted afterwards that his one mistake had been his +confiding to Hedgspeth his plans for defrauding an insurance +company--a mistake, the unfortunate results of which might have +been avoided, if he had kept faith with the train robber and +given him the 500 dollars which he had promised. + +The case of Holmes illustrates the practical as well as the +purely ethical value of "honour among thieves," and shows how a +comparatively insignificant misdeed may ruin a great and +comprehensive plan of crime. To dare to attempt the +extermination of a family of seven persons, and to succeed so +nearly in effecting it, could be the work of no tyro, no beginner +like J. B. Troppmann. It was the act of one who having already +succeeded in putting out of the way a number of other persons un- + +detected, might well and justifiably believe that he was born for +greater and more compendious achievements in robbery and murder +than any who had gone before him. One can almost subscribe to +America's claim that Holmes is the "greatest criminal" of a +century boasting no mean record in such persons. + +In the remarkable character of his achievements as an assassin we +are apt to lose sight of Holmes' singular skill and daring as a +liar and a bigamist. As an instance of the former may be cited +his audacious explanation to his family, when they heard of his +having married a second time. He said that he had met with a +serious accident to his head, and that when he left the hospital, +found that he had entirely lost his memory; that, while in +this state of oblivion, he had married again and then, when +his memory returned, realised to his horror his unfortunate +position. Plausibility would seem to have been one of Holmes' +most useful gifts; men and women alike--particularly the latter-- +he seems to have deceived with ease. His appearance was +commonplace, in no way suggesting the conventional criminal, his +manner courteous, ingratiating and seemingly candid, and like so +many scoundrels, he could play consummately the man of sentiment. + +The weak spot in Holmes' armour as an enemy of society was a +dangerous tendency to loquacity, the defect no doubt of his +qualities of plausible and insinuating address and ever ready +mendacity. + + + +The Widow Gras + + +Report of the trial of the woman Gras and Gaudry in the Gazette +des Tribunaux. The case is dealt with also by Mace in his +"Femmes Criminelles." + +I + +THE CHARMER + +Jenny Amenaide Brecourt was born in Paris in the year 1837. +Her father was a printer, her mother sold vegetables. The +parents neglected the child, but a lady of title took pity on +her, and when she was five years old adopted her. Even as a +little girl she was haughty and imperious. At the age of eight +she refused to play with another child on the ground of her +companion's social inferiority. "The daughter of a Baroness," +she said, "cannot play with the daughter of a wine-merchant." +When she was eleven years old, her parents took her away from her +protectress and sent her into the streets to sell gingerbread--a +dangerous experience for a child of tender years. After six +years of street life, Amenaide sought out her benefactress and +begged her to take her back. The Baroness consented, and found +her employment in a silk manufactory. One day the girl, now +eighteen years old, attended the wedding of one of her companions +in the factory. She returned home after the ceremony thoughtful. + +She said that she wanted to get married. The Baroness did not +take her statement seriously, and on the grocer calling one +day, said in jest to Amenaide, "You want a husband, there's one." + +But Amenaide was in earnest. She accepted the suggestion and, to +the Baroness' surprise, insisted on taking the grocer as her +husband. Reluctantly the good lady gave her consent, and in 1855 +Amenaide Brecourt became the wife of the grocer Gras. + +A union, so hasty and ill-considered, was not likely to be of +long duration. With the help of the worthy Baroness the newly +married couple started a grocery business. But Amenaide was too +economical for her husband and mother-in-law. Quarrels ensued, +recriminations. In a spirit of unamiable prophecy husband and +wife foretold each other's future. "You will die in a hospital," +said the wife. "You will land your carcase in prison," retorted +the husband. In both instances they were correct in their +anticipations. One day the husband disappeared. For a short +time Amenaide returned to her long-suffering protectress, and +then she too disappeared. + +When she is heard of again, Amenaide Brecourt has become +Jeanne de la Cour. Jeanne de la Cour is a courtesan. She has +tried commerce, acting, literature, journalism, and failed at +them all. Henceforth men are to make her fortune for her. Such +charms as she may possess, such allurements as she can offer, she +is ready to employ without heart or feeling to accomplish her +end. Without real passion, she has an almost abnormal, erotic +sensibility, which serves in its stead. She cares only for one +person, her sister. To her Jeanne de la Cour unfolded her +philosophy of life. While pretending to love men, she is going +to make them suffer. They are to be her playthings, she knows +how to snare them: "All is dust and lies. So much the worse for +the men who get in my way. Men are mere stepping-stones to me. +As soon as they begin to fail or are played out, I put them +scornfully aside. Society is a vast chess-board, men the +pawns, some white, some black; I move them as I please, and break +them when they bore me." + +The early years of Jeanne de la Cour's career as a Phryne were +hardly more successful than her attempts at literature, acting +and journalism. True to her philosophy, she had driven one +lover, a German, to suicide, and brought another to his death by +over-doses of cantharides. On learning of the death of the +first, she reflected patriotically, "One German the less in +Paris!" That of the second elicited the matter-of-fact comment, +"It was bound to happen; he had no moderation." A third admirer, +who died in a hospital, was dismissed as "a fool who, in spite of +all, still respects women." But, in ruining her lovers, she had +ruined her own health. In 1865 she was compelled to enter a +private asylum. There she is described as "dark in complexion, +with dark expressive eyes, very pale, and of a nervous +temperament, agreeable, and pretty." She was suffering at the +time of her admission from hysterical seizures, accompanied by +insane exaltation, convulsions and loss of speech. In speaking +of her humble parents she said, "I don't know such people"; her +manner was bombastic, and she was fond of posing as a fine lady. + +After a few months Jeanne de la Cour was discharged from the +asylum as cured, and on the advice of her doctors went to Vittel. + +There she assumed the rank of Baroness and recommenced her +career, but this time in a more reasonable and businesslike +manner. Her comments, written to her sister, on her fellow +guests at the hotel are caustic. She mocks at some respectable +married women who are trying to convert her to Catholicism. To +others who refuse her recognition, she makes herself so +mischievous and objectionable that in self-defence they are +frightened into acknowledging her. Admirers among men she has +many, ex-ministers, prefects. It was at Vittel that +occurred the incident of the wounded pigeon. There had been some +pigeon-shooting. One of the wounded birds flew into the room of +the Baroness de la Cour. She took pity on it, tended it, taught +it not to be afraid of her and to stay in her room. So touching +was her conduct considered by some of those who heard it, that +she was nicknamed "the Charmer." But she is well aware, she +writes to her sister, that with the true ingratitude of the male, +the pigeon will leave her as soon as it needs her help no longer. + +However, for the moment, "disfigured as it is, beautiful or +ugly," she loves it. "Don't forget," she writes, "that a woman +who is practical and foreseeing, she too enjoys her pigeon +shooting, but the birds are her lovers." + +Shortly after she left Vittel an event occurred which afforded +Jeanne de la Cour the prospect of acquiring that settled position +in life which, "practical and foreseeing," she now regarded as +indispensable to her future welfare. Her husband, Gras, died, as +she had foretold, in the Charity Hospital. The widow was free. +If she could bring down her bird, it was now in her power to make +it hers for life. Henceforth all her efforts were directed to +that end. She was reaching her fortieth year, her hair was +turning grey, her charms were waning. Poverty, degradation, a +miserable old age, a return to the wretched surroundings of her +childhood, such she knew to be the fate of many of her kind. +There was nothing to be hoped for from the generosity of men. +Her lovers were leaving her. Blackmail, speculation on the +Bourse, even the desperate expedient of a supposititious child, +all these she tried as means of acquiring a competence. But for- + +tune was shy of the widow. There was need for dispatch. The +time was drawing near when it might be man's unkind privilege to +put her scornfully aside as a thing spent and done with. She +must bring down her bird, and that quickly. It was at this +critical point in the widow's career, in the year 1873, that she +met at a public ball for the first time Georges de Saint +Pierre.[16] + + +[16] For obvious reasons I have suppressed the real name of the +widow's lover. + + +Georges de Saint Pierre was twenty years of age when he made the +acquaintance of the Widow Gras. He had lost his mother at an +early age, and since then lived with relatives in the country. +He was a young man of independent means, idle, of a simple, +confiding and affectionate disposition. Four months after his +first meeting with the widow they met again. The end of the year +1873 saw the commencement of an intimacy, which to all +appearances was characterised by a more lasting and sincere +affection than is usually associated with unions of this kind. +There can be no doubt that during the three years the Widow Gras +was the mistress of Georges de Saint Pierre, she had succeeded in +subjugating entirely the senses and the affection of her young +lover. In spite of the twenty years between them, Georges de +Saint Pierre idolised his middle-aged mistress. She was astute +enough to play not only the lover, but the mother to this +motherless youth. After three years of intimacy he writes to +her: "It is enough for me that you love me, because I don't +weary you, and I, I love you with all my heart. I cannot bear to +leave you. We will live happily together. You will always love +me truly, and as for me, my loving care will ever protect you. I +don't know what would become of me if I did not feel that your +love watched over me." The confidence of Georges in the widow +was absolute. When, in 1876, he spent six months in Egypt, he +made her free of his rooms in Paris, she was at liberty to go +there when she liked; he trusted her entirely, idolised her. +Whatever her faults, he was blind to them. "Your form," he +writes, "is ever before my eyes; I wish I could enshrine +your pure heart in gold and crystal." + +The widow's conquest, to all appearances, was complete. But +Georges was very young. He had a family anxious for his future; +they knew of his liaison; they would be hopeful, no doubt, of +one day breaking it off and of marrying him to some desirable +young person. From the widow's point of view the situation +lacked finality. How was that to be secured? + +One day, toward the end of the year 1876, after the return of +Georges from Egypt, the widow happened to be at the house of a +friend, a ballet dancer. She saw her friend lead into the room a +young man; he was sightless, and her friend with tender care +guided him to a seat on the sofa. The widow was touched by the +spectacle. When they were alone, she inquired of her friend the +reason of her solicitude for the young man. "I love this victim +of nature," she replied, "and look after him with every care. He +is young, rich, without family, and is going to marry me. Like +you, I am just on forty; my hair is turning grey, my youth +vanishing. I shall soon be cast adrift on the sea, a wreck. +This boy is the providential spar to which I am going to cling +that I may reach land in safety." "You mean, then," said the +widow, "that you will soon be beyond the reach of want?" "Yes," +answered the friend, "I needn't worry any more about the future." + +"I congratulate you," said the widow, "and what is more, your +lover will never see you grow old." + +To be cast adrift on the sea and to have found a providential +spar! The widow was greatly impressed by her friend's rare good +fortune. Indeed, her experience gave the widow furiously to +think, as she revolved in her brain various expedients by which +Georges de Saint Pierre might become the "providential spar" in +her own impending wreck. The picture of the blind young man +tenderly cared for, dependent utterly on the ministrations of his +devoted wife, fixed itself in the widow's mind; there was +something inexpressibly pathetic in the picture, whilst its +practical significance had its sinister appeal to one in her +situation. + +At this point in the story there appears on the scene a character +as remarkable in his way as the widow herself, remarkable at +least for his share in the drama that is to follow. Nathalis +Gaudry, of humble parentage, rude and uncultivated, had been a +playmate of the widow when she was a child in her parents' house. + +They had grown up together, but, after Gaudry entered the army, +had lost sight of each other. Gaudry served through the Italian +war of 1859, gaining a medal for valour. In 1864 he had married. + +Eleven years later his wife died, leaving him with two children. +He came to Paris and obtained employment in an oil refinery at +Saint Denis. His character was excellent; he was a good workman, +honest, hard-working, his record unblemished. When he returned +to Paris, Gaudry renewed his friendship with the companion of his +youth. But Jeanne Brecourt was now Jeanne de la Cour, living +in refinement and some luxury, moving in a sphere altogether +remote from and unapproachable by the humble workman in an oil +refinery. He could do no more than worship from afar this +strange being, to him wonderfully seductive in her charm and +distinction. + +On her side the widow was quite friendly toward her homely +admirer. She refused to marry him, as he would have wished, but +she did her best without success to marry him to others of her +acquaintance. Neither a sempstress nor an inferior actress could +she persuade, for all her zeal, to unite themselves with a hand +in an oil mill, a widower with two children. It is typical +of the widow's nervous energy that she should have +undertaken so hopeless a task. In the meantime she made use of +her admirer. On Sundays he helped her in her apartment, carried +coals, bottled wine, scrubbed the floors, and made himself +generally useful. He was supposed by those about the house to be +her brother. Occasionally, in the absence of a maid, the widow +allowed him to attend on her personally, even to assist her in +her toilette and perform for her such offices as one woman would +perform for another. The man soon came to be madly in love with +the woman; his passion, excited but not gratified, enslaved and +consumed him. To some of his fellow-workmen who saw him moody +and pre-occupied, he confessed that he ardently desired to marry +a friend of his childhood, not a working woman but a lady. + +Such was the situation and state of mind of Nathalis Gaudry when, +in November, 1876, he received a letter from the widow, in which +she wrote, "Come at once. I want you on a matter of business. +Tell your employer it is a family affair; I will make up your +wages." In obedience to this message Gaudry was absent from the +distillery from the 17th to the 23rd of November. + +The "matter of business" about which the widow wished to consult +with Gaudry turned out to be a scheme of revenge. She told him +that she had been basely defrauded by a man to whom she had +entrusted money. She desired to be revenged on him, and could +think of no better way than to strike at his dearest affections +by seriously injuring his son. This she proposed to do with the +help of a knuckle-duster, which she produced and gave to Gaudry. +Armed with this formidable weapon, Gaudry was to strike her +enemy's son so forcibly in the pit of the stomach as to disable +him for life. The widow offered to point out to Gaudry the young +man whom he was to attack. She took him outside the young man's +club and showed him his victim. He was Georges de Saint +Pierre. + +The good fortune of her friend, the ballet-dancer, had proved a +veritable toxin in the intellectual system of the Widow Gras. The +poison of envy, disappointment, suspicion, apprehension had +entered into her soul. Of what use to her was a lover, however +generous and faithful, who was free to take her up and lay her +aside at will? But such was her situation relative to Georges de +Saint Pierre. She remembered that the wounded pigeon, as long as +it was dependent on her kind offices, had been-compelled to stay +by her side; recovered, it had flown away. Only a pigeon, maimed +beyond hope of recovery, could she be sure of compelling to be +hers for all time, tied to her by its helpless infirmity, too +suffering and disfigured to be lured from its captivity. And so, +in accordance with her philosophy of life, the widow, by a blow +in the pit of the stomach with a knuckle-duster, was to bring +down her bird which henceforth would be tended and cared for by +"the Charmer" to her own satisfaction and the admiration of all +beholders. + +For some reason, the natural reluctance of Gaudry, or perhaps a +feeling of compunction in the heart of the widow, this plan was +not put into immediate execution. Possibly she hesitated before +adopting a plan more cruel, more efficacious. Her hesitation did +not last long. + +With the dawn of the year 1877 the vigilant apprehension of the +widow was roused by the tone of M. de Saint Pierre's letters. He +wrote from his home in the country, "I cannot bear leaving you, +and I don't mean to. We will live together." But he adds that +he is depressed by difficulties with his family, "not about money +or business but of a kind he can only communicate to her +verbally." To the widow it was clear that these difficulties +must relate to the subject of marriage. The character of Georges +was not a strong one; sooner or later he might yield to the +importunities of his family; her reign would be ended, a modest +and insufficient pension the utmost she could hope for. She had +passed the meridian of her life as a charmer of men, her health +was giving way, she was greedy, ambitious, acquisitive. In +January she asked her nephew, who worked as a gilder, to get her +some vitriol for cleaning her copper. He complied with her +request. + +During Jeanne de la Cour's brief and unsuccessful appearance as +an actress she had taken part in a play with the rather cumbrous +title, Who Puts out the Eyes must Pay for Them. The widow may +have forgotten this event; its occurrence so many years before +may have been merely a sinister coincidence. But the incident of +the ballet-dancer and her sightless lover was fresh in her mind. + +Early in January the widow wrote to Georges, who was in the +country, and asked him to take her to the masked ball at the +Opera on the 13th. Her lover was rather surprised at her +request, nor did he wish to appear with her at so public a +gathering. "I don't understand," he writes, "why you are so +anxious to go to the Opera. I can't see any real reason for your +wanting to tire yourself out at such a disreputable gathering. +However, if you are happy and well, and promise to be careful, I +will take you. I would be the last person, my dear little wife, +to deny you anything that would give you pleasure." But for some +reason Georges was unhappy, depressed. Some undefined +presentiment of evil seems to have oppressed him. His brother +noticed his pre-occupation. + +He himself alludes to it in writing to his mistress: "I am +depressed this evening. For a very little I could break down +altogether and give way to tears. You can't imagine what horrid +thoughts possess me. If I felt your love close to me, I should +be less sad." Against his better inclination Georges promised to +take the widow to the ball on the 13th. He was to come to +Paris on the night of the 12th. + + + +II + +THE WOUNDED PIGEON + + +On the afternoon of January 11, Gaudry called to see the widow. +There had been an accident at the distillery that morning, and +work was suspended for three days. The widow showed Gaudry the +bottle containing the vitriol which her nephew had procured for +her use. She was ill, suffering, she said; the only thing that +could make her well again would be the execution of her revenge +on the son of the man who had defrauded her so wickedly: "Make +him suffer, here are the means, and I swear I will be yours." +She dropped a little of the vitriol on to the floor to show its +virulent effect. At first Gaudry was shocked, horrified. He +protested that he was a soldier, that he could not do such a +deed; he suggested that he should provoke the young man to a duel +and kill him. "That is no use," said the widow, always sensitive +to social distinctions; "he is not of your class, he would refuse +to fight with you." Mad with desire for the woman, his senses +irritated and excited, the ultimate gratification of his passion +held alluringly before him, the honest soldier consented to play +the cowardly ruffian. The trick was done. The widow explained +to her accomplice his method of proceeding. The building in the +Rue de Boulogne, in which the widow had her apartment, stood at +the end of a drive some twenty-seven and a half yards long and +five and a half yards wide. About half-way up the drive, on +either side, there were two small houses, or pavilions, standing +by themselves and occupied by single gentlemen. The whole was +shut off from the street by a large gate, generally kept +closed, in which a smaller gate served to admit persons going in +or out. According to the widow's plan, the young man, her +enemy's son, was to take her to the ball at the Opera on the +night of January 13. Gaudry was to wait in her apartment until +their return. When he heard the bell ring, which communicated +with the outer gate, he was to come down, take his place in the +shadow of one of the pavilions on either side of the drive, and +from the cover of this position fling in the face of the young +man the vitriol which she had given him. The widow herself, +under the pretence of closing the smaller gate, would be well +behind the victim, and take care to leave the gate open so that +Gaudry could make his escape. + +In spite of his reluctance, his sense of foreboding, Georges de +Saint Pierre came to Paris on the night of the 12th, which he +spent at the widow's apartment. He went to his own rooms on the +morning of the 13th. + +This eventful day, which, to quote Iago, was either to "make or +fordo quite" the widow, found her as calm, cool and deliberate in +the execution of her purpose as the Ancient himself. Gaudry came +to her apartment about five o'clock in the afternoon. The widow +showed him the vitriol and gave him final directions. She would, +she said, return from the ball about three o'clock in the +morning. Gaudry was then sent away till ten o'clock, as Georges +was dining with her. He returned at half-past ten and found the +widow dressing, arraying herself in a pink domino and a blonde +wig. She was in excellent spirits. When Georges came to fetch +her, she put Gaudry into an alcove in the drawing-room which was +curtained off from the rest of the room. Always thoughtful, she +had placed a stool there that he might rest himself. Gaudry +could hear her laughing and joking with her lover. She +reproached him playfully with hindering her in her dressing. +To keep him quiet, she gave him a book to read, Montaigne's +"Essays." Georges opened it and read the thirty-fifth chapter of +the second book, the essay on "Three Good Women," which tells how +three brave women of antiquity endured death or suffering in +order to share their husbands' fate. Curiously enough, the essay +concludes with these words, almost prophetic for the unhappy +reader: "I am enforced to live, and sometimes to live is +magnanimity." Whilst Georges went to fetch a cab, the widow +released Gaudry from his place of concealment, exhorted him to +have courage, and promised him, if he succeeded, the +accomplishment of his desire. And so the gay couple departed for +the ball. There the widow's high spirits, her complete +enjoyment, were remarked by more than one of her acquaintances; +she danced one dance with her lover, and with another young man +made an engagement for the following week. + +Meanwhile, at the Rue de Boulogne, Gaudry sat and waited in the +widow's bedroom. From the window he could see the gate and the +lights of the cab that was to bring the revellers home. The +hours passed slowly. He tried to read the volume of Montaigne +where Georges had left it open, but the words conveyed little to +him, and he fell asleep. Between two and three o'clock in the +morning he was waked by the noise of wheels. They had returned. +He hurried downstairs and took up his position in the shadow of +one of the pavilions. As Georges de Saint Pierre walked up the +drive alone, for the widow had stayed behind to fasten the gate, +he thought he saw the figure of a man in the darkness. The next +moment he was blinded by the burning liquid flung in his face. +The widow had brought down her pigeon. + +At first she would seem to have succeeded perfectly in her +attempt. Georges was injured for life, the sight of one eye +gone, that of the other threatened, his face sadly +disfigured. Neither he nor anyone else suspected the real author +of the crime. It was believed that the unfortunate man had been +mistaken for some other person, and made by accident the victim +of an act of vengeance directed against another. Georges was +indeed all the widow's now, lodged in her own house to nurse and +care for. She undertook the duty with every appearance of +affectionate devotion. The unhappy patient was consumed with +gratitude for her untiring solicitude; thirty nights she spent by +his bedside. His belief in her was absolute. It was his own +wish that she alone should nurse him. His family were kept away, +any attempts his relatives or friends made to see or communicate +with him frustrated by the zealous widow. + +It was this uncompromising attitude on her part toward the +friends of Georges, and a rumour which reached the ears of one of +them that she intended as soon as possible to take her patient +away to Italy, that sounded the first note of danger to her peace +of mind. This friend happened to be acquainted with the son of +one of the Deputy Public Prosecutors in Paris. To that official +he confided his belief that there were suspicious circumstances +in the case of Georges de Saint Pierre. The judicial authorities +were informed and the case placed in the hands of an examining +magistrate. On February 2, nearly a month after the crime, the +magistrate, accompanied by Mace, then a commissary of police, +afterwards head of the Detective Department, paid a visit to the +Rue de Boulogne. Their reception was not cordial. It was only +after they had made known their official character that they got +audience of the widow. She entered the room, carrying in her +hand a surgical spray, with which she played nervously while the +men of the law asked to see her charge. She replied that it was +impossible. Mace placed himself in front of the door by which +she had entered, and told her that her attitude was not +seemly. "Leave that spray alone," he said; "it might shoot over +us, and then perhaps we should be sprinkled as M. de Saint Pierre +was." From that moment, writes Mace, issue was joined between +the widow and himself. + +The magistrate insisted on seeing the patient. He sat by his +bedside. M. de Saint Pierre told him that, having no enemies, he +was sure he had been the victim of some mistake, and that, as he +claimed no damages for his injuries, he did not wish his +misfortune to be made public. He wanted to be left alone with +his brave and devoted nurse, and to be spared the nervous +excitement of a meeting with his family. He intended, he added, +to leave Paris shortly for change of scene and air. The widow +cut short the interview on the ground that her patient was tired. + +It was inhuman, she said, to make him suffer so. The magistrate, +before leaving, asked her whither she intended taking her +patient. She replied, "To Italy." That, said the magistrate, +would be impossible until his inquiry was closed. In the +meantime she might take him to any place within the Department of +the Seine; but she must be prepared to be under the surveillance +of M. Mace, who would have the right to enter her house +whenever he should think it expedient. With this disconcerting +intelligence the men of the law took leave of the widow. + +She was no longer to be left in undisturbed possession of her +prize. Her movements were watched by two detectives. She was +seen to go to the bachelor lodgings of Georges and take away a +portable desk, which contained money and correspondence. More +mysterious, however, was a visit she paid to the Charonne +Cemetery, where she had an interview with an unknown, who was +dressed in the clothes of a workman. She left the cemetery +alone, and the detectives lost track of her companion. This +meeting took place on February 11. Shortly after the widow left +Paris with Georges de Saint Pierre for the suburb of Courbevoie. + +Mace had elicited certain facts from the porter at the Rue de +Boulogne and other witnesses, which confirmed his suspicion that +the widow had played a sinister part in her lover's misfortune. +Her insistence that he should take her to the ball on January 13; +the fact that, contrary to the ordinary politeness of a +gentleman, he was walking in front of her at the time of the +attack; and that someone must have been holding the gate open to +enable the assailant to escape it was a heavy gate, which, if +left to itself after being opened, would swing too quickly on its +hinges and shut of its own accord--these facts were sufficient to +excite suspicion. The disappearance, too, of the man calling +himself her brother, who had been seen at her apartment on the +afternoon of the 13th, coupled with the mysterious interview in +the cemetery, suggested the possibility of a crime in which the +widow had had the help of an accomplice. To facilitate +investigation it was necessary to separate the widow from her +lover. The examining magistrate, having ascertained from a +medical report that such a separation would not be hurtful to the +patient, ordered the widow to be sent back to Paris, and the +family of M. de Saint Pierre to take her place. The change was +made on March 6. On leaving Courbevoie the widow was taken to +the office of Mace. There the commissary informed her that +she must consider herself under provisional arrest. "But who," +she asked indignantly, "is to look after my Georges?" "His +family," was the curt reply. The widow, walking up and down the +room like a panther, stormed and threatened. When she had in +some degree recovered herself, Mace asked her certain +questions. Why had she insisted on her lover going to the ball? +She had done nothing of the kind. How was it his assailant +had got away so quickly by the open gate? She did not know. +What was the name and address of her reputed brother? She was +not going to deliver an honest father of a family into the +clutches of the police. What was the meaning of her visit to the +Charonne Cemetery? She went there to pray, not to keep +assignations. "And if you want to know," she exclaimed, "I have +had typhoid fever, which makes me often forget things. So I +shall say nothing more--nothing--nothing." + +Taken before the examining magistrate, her attitude continued to +be defiant and arrogant. "Your cleverest policemen," she told +the magistrate, "will never find any evidence against me. Think +well before you send me to prison. I am not the woman to live +long among thieves and prostitutes." Before deciding finally +whether the widow should be thrown into such uncongenial society, +the magistrate ordered Mace to search her apartment in the Rue +de Boulogne. + +On entering the apartment the widow asked that all the windows +should be opened. "Let in the air," she said; "the police are +coming in; they make a nasty smell." She was invited to sit-down +while the officers made their search. Her letters and papers +were carefully examined; they presented a strange mixture of +order and disorder. Carefully kept account books of her personal +expenses were mixed up with billets dous, paints and pomades, +moneylenders' circulars, bella-donna and cantharides. But most +astounding of all were the contents of the widows' prie-Dieu. +In this devotional article of furniture were stored all the +inmost secrets of her profligate career. Affectionate letters +from the elderly gentleman on whom she had imposed a +supposititious child lay side by side with a black-edged card, on +which was written the last message of a young lover who had +killed himself on her account. "Jeanne, in the flush of my youth +I die because of you, but I forgive you.--M." With these genuine +outpourings of misplaced affection were mingled the indecent +verses of a more vulgar admirer, and little jars of hashish. The +widow, unmoved by this rude exposure of her way of life, only +broke her silence to ask Mace the current prices on the Stock +Exchange. + +One discovery, however, disturbed her equanimity. In the drawer +of a cupboard, hidden under some linen, Mace found a leather +case containing a sheaf of partially-burnt letters. As he was +about to open it the widow protested that it was the property of +M. de Saint Pierre. Regardless of her protest, Mace opened +the case, and, looking through the letters, saw that they were +addressed to M. de Saint Pierre and were plainly of an intimate +character. "I found them on the floor near the stove in the +dining-room," said the widow, "and I kept them. I admit it was a +wrong thing to do, but Georges will forgive me when he knows why +I did it." From his better acquaintance with her character +Mace surmised that an action admitted by the widow to be +"wrong" was in all probability something worse. Without delay he +took the prisoner back to his office, and himself left for +Courbevoie, there to enlighten, if possible, her unhappy victim +as to the real character of his enchantress. + +The interview was a painful one. The lover refused to hear a +word against his mistress. "Jeanne is my Antigone," he said. +"She has lavished on me all her care, her tenderness, her love, +and she believes in God." Mace told him of her past, of the +revelations contained in the prie-Dieu of this true believer, +but he could make no impression. "I forgive her past, I accept +her present, and please understand me, no one has the power to +separate me from her." It was only when Mace placed in +his hands the bundle of burnt letters, that he might feel what he +could not see, and read him some passages from them, that the +unhappy man realised the full extent of his mistress' treachery. +Feeling himself dangerously ill, dying perhaps, M. de Saint +Pierre had told the widow to bring from his rooms to the Rue de +Boulogne the contents of his private desk. It contained some +letters compromising to a woman's honour. These he was anxious +to destroy before it was too late. As he went through the +papers, his eyes bandaged, he gave them to the widow to throw +into the stove. He could hear the fire burning and feel its +warmth. He heard the widow take up the tongs. He asked her why +she did so. She answered that it was to keep the burning papers +inside the stove. Now from Mace he learnt the real truth. +She had used the tongs to take out some of the letters half +burnt, letters which in her possession might be one day useful +instruments for levying blackmail on her lover. "To blind me," +exclaimed M. de Saint Pierre, "to torture me, and then profit by +my condition to lie to me, to betray me--it's infamous-- +infamous!" His dream was shattered. Mace had succeeded in +his task; the disenchantment of M. de Saint Pierre was complete. +That night the fastidious widow joined the thieves and +prostitutes in the St. Lazare Prison. + +It was all very well to imprison the widow, but her participation +in the outrage on M. de Saint Pierre was by no means established. + +The reputed brother, who had been in the habit of attending on +her at the Rue de Boulogne, still eluded the searches of the +police. In silence lay the widow's only hope of baffling her +enemies. Unfortunately for the widow, confinement told on her +nerves. She became anxious, excited. Her very ignorance of what +was going on around her, her lover's silence made her +apprehensive; she began to fear the worst. At length--the widow +always had an itch for writing--she determined to communicate at +all costs with Gaudry and invoke his aid. She wrote appealing to +him to come forward and admit that he was the man the police were +seeking, for sheltering whom she had been thrown into prison. +She drew a harrowing picture of her sufferings in jail. She had +refused food and been forcibly fed; she would like to dash her +head against the walls. If any misfortune overtake Gaudry, she +promises to adopt his son and leave him a third of her property. +She persuaded a fellow-prisoner; an Italian dancer undergoing six +months' imprisonment for theft, who was on the point of being +released, to take the letter and promise to deliver it to Gaudry +at Saint Denis. On her release the dancer told her lover of her +promise. He refused to allow her to mix herself up in such a +case, and destroyed the letter. Then the dancer blabbed to +others, until her story reached the ears of the police. Mace +sent for her. At first she could remember only that the name +Nathalis occurred in the letter, but after visiting accidentally +the Cathedral at Saint Denis, she recollected that this Nathalis +lived there, and worked in an oil factory. It was easy after +this for the police to trace Gaudry. He was arrested. At his +house, letters from the widow were found, warning him not to come +to her apartment, and appointing to meet him in Charonne +Cemetery. Gaudry made a full confession. It was his passion for +the widow, and a promise on her part to marry him, which, he +said, had induced him to perpetrate so abominable a crime. He +was sent to the Mazas Prison. + +In the meantime the Widow Gras was getting more and more +desperate. Her complete ignorance tormented her. At last she +gave up all hope, and twice attempted suicide with powdered glass +and verdigris. On May 12 the examining magistrate +confronted her with Gaudry. The man told his story, the widow +feigned surprise that the "friend of her childhood" should malign +her so cruelly. But to her desperate appeals Gaudry would only +reply, "It is too late!" They were sent for trial. + +The trial of the widow and her accomplice opened before the Paris +Assize Court on July 23, 1877, and lasted three days. The widow +was defended by Lachaud, one of the greatest criminal advocates +of France, the defender of Madame Lafarge, La Pommerais, Tropp- + +mann, and Marshal Bazaine. M. Demange (famous later for his +defence of Dreyfus) appeared for Gaudry. The case had aroused +considerable interest. Among those present at the trial were +Halevy, the dramatist, and Mounet-Sully and Coquelin, from the +Comedie Francaise. Fernand Rodays thus described the widow +in the Figaro: "She looks more than her age, of moderate +height, well made, neither blatant nor ill at ease, with nothing +of the air of a woman of the town. Her hands are small. Her +bust is flat, and her back round, her hair quite white. Beneath +her brows glitter two jet-black eyes--the eyes of a tigress, that +seem to breathe hatred and revenge." + +Gaudry was interrogated first. Asked by the President the motive +of his crime, he answered, "I was mad for Madame Gras; I would +have done anything she told me. I had known her as a child, I +had been brought up with her. Then I saw her again. I loved +her, I was mad for her, I couldn't resist it. Her wish was law +to me." + +Asked if Gaudry had spoken the truth, the widow said that he +lied. The President asked what could be his motive for accusing +her unjustly. The widow was silent. Lachaud begged her to +answer. "I cannot," she faltered. The President invited her to +sit down. After a pause the widow seemed to recover her +nerve. + +President: Was Gaudry at your house while you were at the +ball? + +Widow: No, no! He daren't look me in the face and say so. + +President: But he is looking at you now. + +Widow: No, he daren't! (She fixes her eyes on Gaudry, who +lowers his head.) + +President: I, whose duty it is to interrogate you, look you in +the face and repeat my question: Was Gaudry at your house at +half-past ten that night? + +Widow: No. + +President: You hear her, Gaudry? + +Gaudry: Yes, Monsieur, but I was there. + +Widow: It is absolutely impossible! Can anyone believe me +guilty of such a thing. + +President: Woman Gras, you prefer to feign indignation and +deny everything. You have the right. I will read your +examination before the examining magistrate. I see M. Lachaud +makes a gesture, but I must beg the counsel for the defence not +to impart unnecessary passion into these proceedings. + +Lachaud: My gesture was merely meant to express that the woman +Gras is on her trial, and that under the circumstances her +indignation is natural. + +President: Very good. + +The appearance in the witness box of the widow's unhappy victim +evoked sympathy. He gave his evidence quietly, without +resentment or indignation. As he told his story the widow, whose +eyes were fixed on him all the time, murmured: "Georges! +Georges! Defend me! Defend me!" "I state the facts," he +replied. + +The prisoners could only defend themselves by trying to throw on +each other the guilt of the crime. M. Demange represented Gaudry +as acting under the influence of his passion for the Widow Gras. +Lachaud, on the other hand, attributed the crime solely to +Gaudry's jealousy of the widow's lover, and contended that he was +the sole author of the outrage. + +The jury by their verdict assigned to the widow the greater share +of responsibility. She was found guilty in the full degree, but +to Gaudry were accorded extenuating circumstances. The widow was +condemned to fifteen years' penal servitude, her accomplice to +five years' imprisonment. + +It is dreadful to think how very near the Widow Gras came to +accomplishing successfully her diabolical crime. A little less +percipitancy on her part, and she might have secured the fruits +of her cruelty. Her undoubted powers of fascination, in spite of +the fiendishness of her real character, are doubly proved by the +devotion of her lover and the guilt of her accomplice. At the +same time, with that strange contradiction inherent in human +nature, the Jekyll and Hyde elements which, in varying degree, +are present in all men and women, the Widow Gras had a genuine +love for her young sister. Her hatred of men was reasoned, +deliberate, merciless and implacable. There is something almost +sadic in the combination in her character of erotic sensibility +with extreme cruelty. + + + +Vitalis and Marie Boyer + + +I found the story of this case in a brochure published in Paris +as one of a series of modern causes celebres. I have +compared it with the reports of the trial in the Gazette des +Tribunaux. + +I +In the May of 1874, in the town of Montpellier, M. Boyer, a +retired merchant, some forty-six years of age, lay dying. For +some months previous to his death he had been confined to his +bed, crippled by rheumatic gout. As the hour of his death drew +near, M. Boyer was filled with a great longing to see his +daughter, Marie, a girl of fifteen, and embrace her for the last +time. The girl was being educated in a convent at Marseilles. +One of M. Boyer's friends offered to go there to fetch her. On +arriving at the convent, he was told that Marie had become +greatly attracted by the prospect of a religious life. "You are +happy," the Mother Superior had written to her mother, "very +happy never to have allowed the impure breath of the world to +have soiled this little flower. She loves you and her father +more than one can say." Her father's friend found the girl +dressed in the costume of a novice, and was told that she had +expressed her desire to take, one day, her final vows. He +informed Marie of her father's dying state, of his earnest wish +to see her for the last time, and told her that he had come to +take her to his bedside. "Take me away from here?" she +exclaimed. The Mother Superior, surprised at her apparent +reluctance to go, impressed on her the duty of acceding to +her father's wish. To the astonishment of both, Marie refused to +leave the convent. If she could save her father's life, she +said, she would go, but, as that was impossible and she dreaded +going out into the world again, she would stay and pray for her +father in the chapel of the convent, where her prayers would be +quite as effective as by his bedside. In vain the friend and the +Mother Superior tried to bend her resolution. + +Happily M. Boyer died before he could learn of his daughter's +singular refusal. But it had made an unfavourable impression on +the friend's mind. He looked on Marie as a girl without real +feeling, an egoist, her religion purely superficial, hiding a +cold and selfish disposition; he felt some doubt as to the future +development of her character. + +M. Boyer left a widow, a dark handsome woman, forty years of age. + +Some twenty years before his death, Marie Salat had come to live +with M. Boyer as a domestic servant. He fell in love with her, +she became his mistress, and a few months before the birth of +Marie, M. Boyer made her his wife. Madame Boyer was at heart a +woman of ardent and voluptuous passions that only wanted +opportunity to become careless in their gratification. Her +husband's long illness gave her such an opportunity. At the time +of his death she was carrying on an intrigue with a bookseller's +assistant, Leon Vitalis, a young man of twenty-one. Her bed- +ridden husband, ignorant of her infidelity, accepted gratefully +the help of Vitalis, whom his wife described as a relative, in +the regulation of his affairs. At length the unsuspecting Boyer +died. The night of his death Madame Boyer spent with her lover. + +The mother had never felt any great affection for her only child. + +During her husband's lifetime she was glad to have Marie out +of the way at the convent. But the death of M. Boyer changed the +situation. He had left almost the whole of his fortune, about +100,000 francs, to his daughter, appointing her mother her legal +guardian with a right to the enjoyment of the income on the cap- + +ital until Marie should come of age. Madame Boyer had not +hitherto taken her daughter's religious devotion very seriously. +But now that the greater part of her husband's fortune was left +to Marie, she realised that, should her daughter persist in her +intention of taking the veil, that fortune would in a very few +years pass into the hands of the sisterhood. Without delay +Madame Boyer exercised her authority, and withdrew Marie from the +convent. The girl quitted it with every demonstration of genuine +regret. + +Marie Boyer when she left the convent was growing into a tall and +attractive woman, her figure slight and elegant, her hair and +eyes dark, dainty and charming in her manner. Removed from the +influences of convent life, her religious devotion became a thing +of the past. In her new surroundings she gave herself up to the +enjoyments of music and the theatre. She realised that she was a +pretty girl, whose beauty well repaid the hours she now spent in +the adornment of her person. The charms of Marie were not lost +on Leon Vitalis. Mean and significant in appearance, Vitalis +would seem to have been one of those men who, without any great +physical recommendation, have the knack of making themselves +attractive to women. After her husband's death Madame Boyer had +yielded herself completely to his influence and her own undoubted +passion for him. She had given him the money with which to +purchase a business of his own as a second-hand bookseller. This +trade the enterprising and greedy young man combined with money- +lending and he clandestine sale of improper books and +photographs. To such a man the coming of Marie Boyer was a +significant event. She was younger, more attractive than her +mother; in a very few years the whole of her father's fortune +would be hers. Slowly Vitalis set himself to win the girl's +affections. The mother's suspicions were aroused; her jealousy +was excited. She sent Marie to complete her education at a +convent school in Lyons. This was in the April of 1875. By this +time Marie and Vitalis had become friendly enough to arrange to +correspond clandestinely during the girl's absence from home. +Marie was so far ignorant of the relations of Vitalis with her +mother. + +Her daughter sent away, Madame Boyer surrendered herself with +complete abandonment to her passion for her lover. At Castelnau, +close to Montpellier, she bought a small country house. There +she could give full rein to her desire. To the scandal of the +occasional passer-by she and her lover would bathe in a stream +that passed through the property, and sport together on the +grass. Indoors there were always books from Vitalis' collection +to stimulate their lascivious appetites. This life of pastoral +impropriety lasted until the middle of August, when Marie Boyer +came home from Lyons. + +Vitalis would have concealed from the young girl as long as he +could the nature of his relations with Madame Boyer, but his +mistress by her own deliberate conduct made all concealment +impossible. Whether from the utter recklessness of her passion +for Vitalis, or a desire to kill in her daughter's heart any +attachment which she may have felt towards her lover, the mother +paraded openly before her daughter the intimacy of her relations +with Vitalis, and with the help of the literature with which the +young bookseller supplied her, set about corrupting her child's +mind to her own depraved level. The effect of her extraordinary +conduct was, however, the opposite to what she had intended. +The mind of the young girl was corrupted; she was familiarised +with vice. But in her heart she did not blame Vitalis for what +she saw and suffered; she pitied, she excused him. It was her +mother whom she grew to hate, with a hate all the more determined +for the cold passionless exterior beneath which it was concealed. + +Madame Boyer's deliberate display of her passion for Vitalis +served only to aggravate and intensify in Marie Boyer an +unnatural jealousy that was fast growing up between mother and +daughter. + +Marie did not return to the school at Lyons. In the winter of +1875, Madame Boyer gave up the country house and, with her +daughter, settled in one of the suburbs of Montpellier. In the +January of 1876 a theft occurred in her household which obliged +Madame Boyer to communicate with the police. Spendthrift and +incompetent in the management of her affairs, she was hoarding +and suspicious about money itself. Cash and bonds she would hide +away in unexpected places, such as books, dresses, even a soup +tureen. One of her most ingenious hiding places was a portrait +of her late husband, behind which she concealed some bearer bonds +in landed security, amounting to about 11,000 francs. One day in +January these bonds disappeared. She suspected a theft, and +informed the police. Three days later she withdrew her +complaint, and no more was heard of the matter. As Marie and +Vitalis were the only persons who could have known her secret, +the inference is obvious. When, later in the year, Vitalis +announced his intention of going to Paris on business, his +mistress expressed to him the hope that he would "have a good +time" with her bonds. Vitalis left for Paris. But there was now +a distinct understanding between Marie and himself. Vitalis had +declared himself her lover and asked her to marry him. The +following letter, written to him by Marie Boyer in the +October of 1876, shows her attitude toward his proposal: + + +"I thank you very sincerely for your letter, which has given me +very great-pleasure, because it tells me that you are well. It +sets my mind at rest, for my feelings towards you are the same as +ever. I don't say they are those of love, for I don't know +myself; I don't know what such feelings are. But I feel a real +affection for you which may well turn to love. How should I not +hold in affectionate remembrance one who has done everything for +me? But love does not come to order. So I can't and don't wish +to give any positive answer about our marriage--all depends on +circumstances. I don't want any promise from you, I want you to +be as free as I am. I am not fickle, you know me well enough for +that. So don't ask me to give you any promise. You may find my +letter a little cold. But I know too much of life to pledge +myself lightly. I assure you I think on it often. Sometimes I +blush when I think what marriage means." + + +Madame Boyer, displeased at the theft, had let her lover go +without any great reluctance. No sooner had he gone than she +began to miss him. Life seemed dull without him. Mother and +daughter were united at least in their common regret at the +absence of the young bookseller. To vary the monotony of +existence, to find if possible a husband for her daughter, Madame +Boyer decided to leave Montpellier for Marseilles, and there +start some kind of business. The daughter, who foresaw greater +amusement and pleasure in the life of a large city, assented +willingly. On October 6, 1876, they arrived at Marseilles, and +soon after Madame bought at a price considerably higher than +their value, two shops adjoining one another in the Rue de +la Republique. One was a cheese shop, the other a milliner's. + +The mother arranged that she should look after the cheese shop, +while her daughter presided over the milliner's. The two shops +were next door to one another. Behind the milliner's was a +drawing-room, behind the cheese shop a kitchen; these two rooms +communicated with each other by a large dark room at the back of +the building. In the kitchen was a trap-door leading to a +cellar. The two women shared a bedroom in an adjoining house. + +Vitalis had opposed the scheme of his mistress to start shop- +keeping in Marseilles. He knew how unfitted she was to undertake +a business of any kind. But neither mother nor daughter would +relinquish the plan. It remained therefore to make the best of +it. Vitalis saw that he must get the business into his own +hands; and to do that, to obtain full control of Madame Boyer's +affairs, he must continue to play the lover to her. To the +satisfaction of the two women, he announced his intention of +coming to Marseilles in the New Year of 1877. It was arranged +that he should pass as a nephew of Madame Boyer, the cousin of +Marie. He arrived at Marseilles on January 1, and received a +cordial welcome. Of the domestic arrangements that ensued, it is +sufficient to say that they were calculated to whet the jealousy +and inflame the hatred that Marie felt towards her mother, who +now persisted as before in parading before her daughter the +intimacy of her relations with Vitalis. + +In these circumstances Vitalis succeeded in extracting from his +mistress a power of attorney, giving him authority to deal with +her affairs and sell the two businesses, which were turning out +unprofitable. This done, he told Marie, whose growing attachment +to him, strange as it may seem, had turned to love, that now at +last they could be free. He would sell the two shops, and +with the money released by the sale they could go away to- + +gether. Suddenly Madame Boyer fell ill, and was confined to her +bed. Left to themselves, the growing passion of Marie Boyer for +Vitalis culminated in her surrender. But for the sick mother the +happiness of the lovers was complete. If only her illness were +more serious, more likely to be fatal in its result! "If only +God would take her!" said Vitalis. "Yes," replied her daughter, +"she has caused us so much suffering!" + +To Madame Boyer her illness had brought hours of torment, and at +last remorse. She realised the duplicity of her lover, she knew +that he meant to desert her for her daughter, she saw what wrong +she had done that daughter, she suspected even that Marie and +Vitalis were poisoning her. Irreligious till now, her thoughts +turned to religion. As soon as she could leave her bed she would +go to Mass and make atonement for her sin; she would recover her +power of attorney, get rid of Vitalis for good and all, and send +her daughter back to a convent. But it was too late. Nemesis +was swift to overtake the hapless woman. Try as he might, +Vitalis had found it impossible to sell the shops at anything but +a worthless figure. He had no money of his own, with which to +take Marie away. He knew that her mother had resolved on his +instant dismissal. + +As soon as Madame Boyer was recovered sufficiently to leave her +bed, she turned on her former lover, denounced his treachery, +accused him of robbing and swindling her, and bade him go without +delay. To Vitalis dismissal meant ruin, to Marie it meant the +loss of her lover. During her illness the two young people had +wished Madame Boyer dead, but she had recovered. Providence or +Nature having refused to assist Vitalis, he resolved to fall back +on art. He gave up a whole night's rest to the consideration of +the question. As a result of his deliberations he suggested +to the girl of seventeen the murder of her mother. "This must +end," said Vitalis. "Yes, it must," replied Marie. Vitalis +asked her if she had any objection to such a crime. Marie +hesitated, the victim was her mother. Vitalis reminded her what +sort of a mother she had been to her. The girl said that she was +terrified at the sight of blood; Vitalis promised that her mother +should be strangled. At length Marie consented. That night on +some slight pretext Madame Boyer broke out into violent +reproaches against her daughter. She little knew that every +reproach she uttered served only to harden in her daughter's +heart her unnatural resolve. + +On the morning of March 19 Madame Boyer rose early to go to Mass. + +Before she went out, she reminded Vitalis that this was his last +day in her service, that when she returned she would expect to +find him gone. It was after seven when she left the house. The +lovers had no time to lose; the deed must be done immediately on +the mother's return. They arranged that Vitalis should get rid +of the shop-boy, and that, as soon as he had gone, Marie should +shut and lock the front doors of the two shops. At one o'clock +Madame Boyer came back. She expressed her astonishment and +disgust that Vitalis still lingered, and threatened to send for +the police to turn him out. Vitalis told the shop-boy that he +could go away for a few hours; they had some family affairs to +settle. The boy departed. Madame Boyer, tired after her long +morning in the town, was resting on a sofa in the sitting-room, +at the back of the milliner's shop. Vitalis entered the room, +and after a few heated words, struck her a violent blow in the +chest. She fell back on the sofa, calling to her daughter to +come to her assistance. The daughter sought to drown her +mother's cries by banging the doors, and opening and shutting +drawers. Vitalis, who was now trying to throttle his +victim, called to Marie to shut the front doors of the two shops. + +To do so Marie had to pass through the sitting-room, and was a +witness to the unsuccessful efforts of Vitalis to strangle her +mother. Having closed the doors, she retired into the milliner's +shop to await the issue. After a few moments her lover called to +her for the large cheese knife; he had caught up a kitchen knife, +but in his struggles it had slipped from his grasp. Quickly +Marie fetched the knife and returned to the sitting-room. There +a desperate struggle was taking place between the man and woman. +At one moment it seemed as if Madame Boyer would get the better +of Vitalis, whom nature had not endowed greatly for work of this +kind. Marie came to his aid. She kicked and beat her mother, +until at last the wretched creature released her hold and sank +back exhausted. With the cheese knife, which her daughter had +fetched, Vitalis killed Madame Boyer. + +They were murderers now, the young lovers. What to do with the +body? The boy would be coming back soon. The cellar under the +kitchen seemed the obvious place of concealment. With the help +of a cord the body was lowered into the cellar, and Marie washed +the floor of the sitting-room. The boy came back. He asked +where Madame Boyer was. Vitalis told him that she was getting +ready to return to Montpellier the same evening, and that he had +arranged to go with her, but that he had no intention of doing +so; he would accompany her to the station, he said, and then at +the last moment, just as the train was starting, slip away and +let her go on her journey alone. To the boy, who knew enough of +the inner history of the household to enjoy the piquancy of the +situation, such a trick seemed quite amusing. He went away +picturing in his mind the scene at the railway station and its +humorous possibilities. + +At seven o'clock Vitalis and Marie Boyer were alone once more +with the murdered woman. They had the whole night before them. +Vitalis had already considered the matter of the disposal of the +body. He had bought a pick and spade. He intended to bury his +former mistress in the soil under the cellar. After that had +been done, he and Marie would sell the business for what it would +fetch, and go to Brussels--an admirable plan, which two +unforeseen circumstances defeated. The Rue de la Republique +was built on a rock, blasted out for the purpose. The shop-boy +had gone to the station that evening to enjoy the joke which, he +believed, was to be played on his mistress. + +When Vitalis tried to dig a grave into the ground beneath the +cellar he realised the full horror of the disappointment. What +was to be done? They must throw the body into the sea. But how +to get it there? The crime of Billoir, an old soldier, who the +year before in Paris had killed his mistress in a fit of anger +and cut up her body, was fresh in the recollection of Vitalis. +The guilty couple decided to dismember the body of Madame Boyer +and so disfigure her face as to render it unrecognisable. In the +presence of Marie, Vitalis did this, and the two lovers set out +at midnight to discover some place convenient for the reception +of the remains. They found the harbour too busy for their +purpose, and decided to wait until the morrow, when they would go +farther afield. They returned home and retired for the night, +occupying the bed in which Madame Boyer had slept the night +before. + +On the morning of the 20th the lovers rose early, and a curious +neighbour, looking through the keyhole, saw them counting +joyously money and valuables, as they took them from Madame +Boyer's cash-box. When the shop-boy arrived, he asked Vitalis +for news of Madame Boyer. Vitalis told him that he had gone +with her to the station, that she had taken the train to +Montpellier, and that, in accordance with his plan, he had given +her the slip just as the train was starting. This the boy knew +to be false: he had been to the station himself to enjoy the fun, +and had seen neither Vitalis nor Madame Boyer. He began to +suspect some mystery. In the evening, when the shops had been +closed, and he had been sent about his business, he waited and +watched. In a short time he saw Vitalis and Marie Boyer leave +the house, the former dragging a hand-cart containing two large +parcels, while Marie walked by his side. They travelled some +distance with their burden, leaving the city behind them, hoping +to find some deserted spot along the coast where they could +conceal the evidence of their crime. Their nerves were shaken by +meeting with a custom-house officer, who asked them what it was +they had in the cart. Vitalis answered that it was a traveller's +luggage, and the officer let them pass on. But soon after, +afraid to risk another such experience, the guilty couple turned +out the parcels into a ditch, covered them with stones and sand, +and hurried home. + +The next day, the shop-boy and the inquisitive neighbour having +consulted together, went to the Commissary of Police and told him +of the mysterious disappearance of Madame Boyer. The Commissary +promised to investigate the matter, and had just dismissed his +informants when word was brought to him of the discovery, in a +ditch outside Marseilles, of two parcels containing human +remains. He called back the boy and took him to view the body at +the Morgue. The boy was able, by the clothes, to identify the +body as that of his late mistress. The Commissary went straight +to the shops in the Rue de la Republique, where he found the +young lovers preparing for flight. At first they denied all +knowledge of the crime, and said that Madame Boyer had gone to +Montpellier. They were arrested, and it was not long before they +both confessed their guilt to the examining magistrate. + +Vitalis and Marie Boyer were tried before the Assize Court at Aix +on July 2, 1877. Vitalis is described as mean and insignificant +in appearance, thin, round-backed, of a bilious complexion; Marie +Boyer as a pretty, dark girl, her features cold in expression, +dainty and elegant. At her trial she seemed to be still so +greatly under the influence of Vitalis that during her +interrogatory the President sent him out of court. To the +examining magistrate Marie Boyer, in describing her mother's mur- +der, had written, "I cannot think how I came to take part in it. +I, who wouldn't have stayed in the presence of a corpse for all +the money in the world." Vitalis was condemned to death, and was +executed on August 17. He died fearful and penitent, +acknowledging his miserable career to be a warning to misguided +youth. Extenuating circumstances were accorded to Marie Boyer, +and she was sentenced to penal servitude for life. Her conduct +in prison was so repentant and exemplary that she was released in +1892. + +M. Proal, a distinguished French judge, and the author of some +important works on crime, acted as the examining magistrate in +the case of Vitalis and Marie Boyer. He thus sums up his +impression of the two criminals: "Here is an instance of how +greed and baseness on the one side, lust and jealousy on the +other, bring about by degrees a change in the characters of +criminals, and, after some hesitation, the suggestion and +accomplishment of parricide, Is it necessary to seek an +explanation of the crime in any psychic abnormality which is +negatived to all appearances by the antecedents of the guilty +pair? Is it necessary to ask it of anatomy or physiology? +Is not the crime the result of moral degradation gradually +asserting itself in two individuals, whose moral and intellectual +faculties are the same as those of other men, but who fall, step +by step, into vice and crime? It is by a succession of wrongful +acts that a man first reaches the frontier of crime and then at +length crosses it." + + + +The Fenayrou Case + + +There is an account of this case in Bataille "Causes Criminelles +et Mondaines" (1882), and in Mace's book, "Femmes +Criminelles." It is alluded to in "Souvenirs d'un President +d'Assises," by Berard des Glajeux. +The murder of the chemist Aubert by Marin Fenayrou and his wife +Gabrielle was perpetrated near Paris in the year 1882. In its +beginning the story is commonplace enough. Fenayrou was the son +of a small chemist in the South of France, and had come to Paris +from the Aveyron Department to follow his father's vocation. He +obtained a situation as apprentice in the Rue de la Ferme des +Mathurins in the shop of a M. Gibon. On the death of M. Gibon +his widow thought she saw in Fenayrou a man capable of carrying +on her late husband's business. She gave her daughter in +marriage to her apprentice, and installed him in the shop. The +ungrateful son-in-law, sure of his wife and his business and +contrary to his express promise, turned the old lady out of the +house. This occurred in the year 1870, Fenayrou being then +thirty years of age, his wife, Gabrielle, seventeen. + +They were an ill-assorted and unattractive couple. The man, a +compound of coarse brutality and shrewd cunning, was at heart +lazy and selfish, the woman a spoilt child, in whom a real want +of feeling was supplied by a shallow sentimentalism. Vain of the +superior refinement conferred on her by a good middle-class +education, she despised and soon came to loathe her coarse +husband, and lapsed into a condition of disappointment and +discontent that was only relieved superficially by an +extravagant devotion to religious exercises. + +It was in 1875, when the disillusionment of Mme. Fenayrou was +complete, that her husband received into his shop a pupil, a +youth of twenty-one, Louis Aubert. He was the son of a Norman +tradesman. The ambitious father had wished his son to enter the +church, but the son preferred to be a chemist. He was a shrewd, +hard-working fellow, with an eye to the main chance and a taste +for pleasures that cost him nothing, jovial, but vulgar and self- +satisfied, the kind of man who, having enjoyed the favours of +woman, treats her with arrogance and contempt, till from loving +she comes to loathe him--a characteristic example, according to +M. Bourget, of le faux homme a femmes. Such was Aubert, +Fenayrou's pupil. He was soon to become something more than +pupil. + +Fenayrou as chemist had not answered to the expectations of his +mother-in-law. His innate laziness and love of coarse pleasures +had asserted themselves. At first his wife had shared in the +enjoyments, but as time went on and after the birth of their two +children, things became less prosperous. She was left at home +while Fenayrou spent his time in drinking bocks of beer, betting +and attending race-meetings. It was necessary, under these +circumstances, that someone should attend to the business of the +shop. In Aubert Fenayrou found a ready and willing assistant. + +From 1876 to 1880, save for an occasional absence for military +service, Aubert lived with the Fenayrous, managing the business +and making love to the bored and neglected wife, who after a few +months became his mistress. Did Fenayrou know of this intrigue +or not? That is a crucial question in the case. If he did not, +it was not for want of warning from certain of his friends +and neighbours, to whom the intrigue was a matter of common +knowledge. Did he refuse to believe in his wife's guilt? or, +dependent as he was for his living on the exertions of his +assistant, did he deliberately ignore it, relying on his wife's +attractions to keep the assiduous Aubert at work in the shop? In +any case Aubert's arrogance, which had increased with the +consciousness of his importance to the husband and his conquest +of the wife, led in August of 1880, to a rupture. Aubert left +the Fenayrous and bought a business of his own on the Boulevard +Malesherbes. + +Before his departure Aubert had tried to persuade Mme. Gibon to +sell up her son-in-law by claiming from him the unpaid purchase- +money for her husband's shop. He represented Fenayrou as an idle +gambler, and hinted that he would find her a new purchaser. Such +an underhand proceeding was likely to provoke resentment if it +should come to the ears of Fenayrou. During the two years that +elapsed between his departure from Fenayrou's house and his +murder, Aubert had prospered in his shop on the Boulevard +Malesherbes, whilst the fortunes of the Fenayrous had steadily +deteriorated. + +At the end of the year 1881 Fenayrou sold his shop and went with +his family to live on one of the outer boulevards, that of +Gouvion-Saint-Cyr. He had obtained a post in a shady mining +company, in which he had persuaded his mother-in-law to invest +20,000 francs. He had attempted also to make money by selling +fradulent imitations of a famous table-water. For this offence, +at the beginning of 1882, he was condemned by the Correctional +Tribunal of Paris to three months' imprisonment and 1,000 francs +costs. + +In March of 1882 the situation of the Fenayrous was parlous, that +of Aubert still prosperous. + +Since Aubert's departure Mme. Fenayrou had entertained +another lover, a gentleman on the staff of a sporting newspaper, +one of Fenayrou's turf acquaintances. This gentleman had found +her a cold mistress, preferring the ideal to the real. As a +murderess Madame Fenayrou overcame this weakness. + +If we are to believe Fenayrou's story, the most critical day in +his life was March 22, 1882, for it was on that day, according to +his account, that he learnt for the first time of his wife's +intrigue with Aubert. Horrified and enraged at the discovery, he +took from her her nuptial wreath, her wedding-ring, her +jewellery, removed from its frame her picture in charcoal which +hung in the drawing-room, and told her, paralysed with terror, +that the only means of saving her life was to help him to murder +her lover. + +Two months later, with her assistance, this outraged husband +accomplished his purpose with diabolical deliberation. He must +have been well aware that, had he acted on the natural impulse of +the moment and revenged himself then and there on Aubert, he +would have committed what is regarded by a French jury as the +most venial of crimes, and would have escaped with little or no +punishment. He preferred, for reasons of his own, to set about +the commission of a deliberate and cold-blooded murder that bears +the stamp of a more sinister motive than the vengeance of a +wronged husband. + +The only step he took after the alleged confession of his wife on +March 22 was to go to a commissary of police and ask him to +recover from Aubert certain letters of his wife's that were in +his possession. This the commissary refused to do. Mme. Gibon, +the mother-in-law, was sent to Aubert to try to recover the +letters, but Aubert declined to give them up, and wrote to Mme. +Fenayrou: + + +"Madame, to my displeasure I have had a visit this morning from +your mother, who has come to my home and made a most unnecessary +scene and reproached me with facts so serious that I must beg you +to see me without delay. It concerns your honour and +mine. . . . I have no fear of being confronted with your husband +and yourself. I am ready, when you wish, to justify +myself. . . . Please do all you can to prevent a repetition of +your mother's visit or I shall have to call in the police." + + +It is clear that the Fenayrous attached the utmost importance to +the recovery of this correspondence, which disappeared with +Aubert's death. Was the prime motive of the murder the recovery +and destruction of these letters? Was Aubert possessed of some +knowledge concerning the Fenayrous that placed them at his mercy? + +It would seem so. To a friend who had warned him of the danger +to which his intimacy with Gabrielle Fenayrou exposed him, Aubert +had replied, "Bah! I've nothing to fear. I hold them in my +power." The nature of the hold which Aubert boasted that he +possessed over these two persons remains the unsolved mystery of +the case, "that limit of investigation," in the words of a French +judge, "one finds in most great cases, beyond which justice +strays into the unknown." + +That such a hold existed, Aubert's own statement and the +desperate attempts made by the Fenayrous to get back these +letters, would seem to prove beyond question. Had Aubert +consented to return them, would he have saved his life? It seems +probable. As it was, he was doomed. Fenayrou hated him. They +had had a row on a race-course, in the course of which Aubert had +humiliated his former master. More than this, Aubert had boasted +openly of his relations with Mme. Fenayrou, and the fact had +reached the ears of the husband. Fenayrou believed also, though +erroneously, that Aubert had informed against him in the matter +of the table-water fraud. Whether his knowledge of Aubert's +relations with his wife was recent or of long standing, he had +other grounds of hate against his former pupil. He himself had +failed in life, but he saw his rival prosperous, arrogant in his +prosperity, threatening, dangerous to his peace of mind; he +envied and feared as well as hated him. Cruel, cunning and +sinister, Fenayrou spent the next two months in the meditation of +a revenge that was not only to remove the man he feared, but was +to give him a truly fiendish opportunity of satisfying his +ferocious hatred. + +And the wife what of her share in the business? Had she also +come to hate Aubert? Or did she seek to expiate her guilt by +assisting her husband in the punishment of her seducer? A +witness at the trial described Mme. Fenayrou as "a soft paste" +that could be moulded equally well to vice or virtue, a woman +destitute of real feeling or strength of will, who, under the +direction of her husband, carried out implicitly, precisely and +carefully her part in an atrocious murder, whose only effort to +prevent the commission of such a deed was to slip away into a +church a few minutes before she was to meet the man she was +decoying to his death, and pray that his murder might be averted. + +Her religious sense, like the images in the hat of Louis XI., was +a source of comfort and consolation in the doing of evil, but +powerless to restrain her from the act itself, in the presence of +a will stronger than her own. At the time of his death Aubert +contemplated marriage, and had advertised for a wife. If Mme. +Fenayrou was aware of this, it may have served to stimulate her +resentment against her lover, but there seems little reason to +doubt that, left to herself, she would never have had the will or +the energy to give that resentment practical expression. It +required the dictation of the vindictive and malevolent Fenayrou +to crystallise her hatred of Aubert into a deliberate +participation in his murder. + +Eight or nine miles north-west of Paris lies the small town of +Chatou, a pleasant country resort for tired Parisians. Here +Madeleine Brohan, the famous actress, had inhabited a small +villa, a two-storied building. At the beginning of 1882 it was +to let. In the April of that year a person of the name of "Hess" +agreed to take it at a quarterly rent of 1,200 francs, and paid +300 in advance. "Hess" was no other than Fenayrou--the villa +that had belonged to Madeleine Brohan the scene chosen for +Aubert's murder. Fenayrou was determined to spare no expense in +the execution of his design: it was to cost him some 3,000 francs +before he had finished with it. + +As to the actual manner of his betrayer's death, the outraged +husband found it difficult to make up his mind. It was not to be +prompt, nor was unnecessary suffering to be avoided. At first he +favoured a pair of "infernal" opera-glasses that concealed a +couple of steel points which, by means of a spring, would dart +out into the eyes of anyone using them and destroy their sight. +This rather elaborate and uncertain machine was abandoned later +in favour of a trap for catching wolves. This was to be placed +under the table, and seize in its huge iron teeth the legs of the +victim. In the end simplicity, in the shape of a hammer and +sword-stick, won the day. An assistant was taken in the person +of Lucien Fenayrou, a brother of Marin. + +This humble and obliging individual, a maker of children's toys, +regarded his brother the chemist with something like veneration +as the gentleman and man of education of the family. Fifty +francs must have seemed to him an almost superfluous inducement +to assist in the execution of what appeared to be an act of +legitimate vengeance, an affair of family honour in which the +wife and brother of the injured husband were in duty bound to +participate. Mme. Fenayrou, with characteristic superstition, +chose the day of her boy's first communion to broach the subject +of the murder to Lucien. By what was perhaps more than +coincidence, Ascension Day, May 18, was selected as the day for +the crime itself. There were practical reasons also. It was a +Thursday and a public holiday. On Thursdays the Fenayrou +children spent the day with their grandmother, and at holiday +time there was a special midnight train from Chatou to Paris that +would enable the murderers to return to town after the commission +of their crime. A goat chaise and twenty-six feet of gas piping +had been purchased by Fenayrou and taken down to the villa. + +Nothing remained but to secure the presence of the victim. At +the direction of her husband Mme. Fenayrou wrote to Aubert on May +14, a letter in which she protested her undying love for him, and +expressed a desire to resume their previous relations. Aubert +demurred at first, but, as she became more pressing, yielded at +length to her suggestion. If it cost him nothing, Aubert was the +last man to decline an invitation of the kind. A trip to Chatou +was arranged for Ascension Day, May 18, by the train leaving +Paris from the St. Lazare Station, at half-past eight in the +evening. + +On the afternoon of that day Fenayrou, his wife and his brother +sent the children to their grandmother and left Paris for Chatou +at three o'clock. Arrived there, they went to the villa, +Fenayrou carrying the twenty-six feet of gas-piping wound round +him like some huge hunting-horn. He spent the afternoon in +beating out the piping till it was flat, and in making a gag. He +tried to take up the flooring in the kitchen, but this plan for +the concealment of the body was abandoned in favour of the +river. As soon as these preparations, in which he was assisted +by his two relatives, had been completed, Fenayrou placed a +candle, some matches and the sword-stick on the drawing-room +table and returned to Paris. + +The three conspirators dined together heartily in the Avenue de +Clichy--soup, fish, entree, sweet and cheese, washed down by a +bottle of claret and a pint of burgundy, coffee to follow, with a +glass of chartreuse for Madame. To the waiter the party seemed +in the best of spirits. Dinner ended, the two men returned to +Chatou by the 7.35 train, leaving Gabrielle to follow an hour +later with Aubert. Fenayrou had taken three second-class return +tickets for his wife, his brother and himself, and a single for +their visitor. It was during the interval between the departure +of her husband and her meeting with Aubert that Mme. Fenayrou +went into the church of St. Louis d'Antin and prayed. + +At half-past eight she met Aubert at the St. Lazare Station, gave +him his ticket and the two set out for Chatou--a strange journey +Mme. Fenayrou was asked what they talked about in the railway +carriage. "Mere nothings," she replied. Aubert abused her +mother; for her own part, she was very agitated--tres +emotionnee. It was about half-past nine when they reached +their destination. The sight of the little villa pleased Aubert. + +"Ah!" he said, "this is good. I should like a house like this +and twenty thousand francs a year!" As he entered the hall, +surprised at the darkness, he exclaimed: "The devil! it's +precious dark! `tu sais, Gabrielle, que je ne suis pas un +heros d'aventure.'" The woman pushed him into the drawing- +room. He struck a match on his trousers. Fenayrou, who had been +lurking in the darkness in his shirt sleeves, made a blow at him +with the hammer, but it was ineffectual. A struggle ensued. The +room was plunged in darkness. Gabrielle waited outside. +After a little, her husband called for a light; she came in and +lit a candle on the mantelpiece. Fenayrou was getting the worst +of the encounter. She ran to his help, and dragged off his +opponent. Fenayrou was free. He struck again with the hammer. +Aubert fell, and for some ten minutes Fenayrou stood over the +battered and bleeding man abusing and insulting him, exulting in +his vengeance. Then he stabbed him twice with the sword-stick, +and so ended the business. + +The murderers had to wait till past eleven to get rid of the +body, as the streets were full of holiday-makers. When all was +quiet they put it into the goat chaise, wrapped round with the +gas-piping, and wheeled it on to the Chatou bridge. To prevent +noise they let the body down by a rope into the water. It was +heavier than they thought, and fell with a loud splash into the +river. "Hullo!" exclaimed a night-fisherman, who was mending his +tackle not far from the bridge, "there go those butchers again, +chucking their filth into the Seine!" + +As soon as they had taken the chaise back to the villa, the three +assassins hurried to the station to catch the last train. +Arriving there a little before their time, they went into a +neighbouring cafe. Fenayrou had three bocks, Lucien one, and +Madame another glass of chartreuse. So home to Paris. Lucien +reached his house about two in the morning. "Well," asked his +wife, "did you have a good day?" "Splendid," was the reply. + +Eleven days passed. Fenayrou paid a visit to the villa to clean +it and put it in order. Otherwise he went about his business as +usual, attending race meetings, indulging in a picnic and a visit +to the Salon. On May 27 a man named Bailly, who, by a strange +coincidence, was known by the nickname of "the Chemist," walking +by the river, had his attention called by a bargeman to a corpse +that was floating on the water. He fished it out. It was +that of Aubert. In spite of a gag tired over his mouth the water +had got into the body, and, notwithstanding the weight of the +lead piping, it had risen to the surface. + +As soon as the police had been informed of the disappearance of +Aubert, their suspicions had fallen on the Fenayrous in +consequence of the request which Marin Fenayrou had made to the +commissary of police to aid him in the recovery from Aubert of +his wife's letters. But there had been nothing further in their +conduct to provoke suspicion. When, however, the body was dis- + +covered and at the same time an anonymous letter received +denouncing the Fenayrous as the murderers of Aubert, the police +decided on their arrest. On the morning of June 8 M. Mace, +then head of the Detective Department, called at their house. He +found Fenayrou in a dressing-gown. This righteous avenger of his +wife's seduction denied his guilt, like any common criminal, but +M. Mace handed him over to one of his men, to be taken +immediately to Versailles. He himself took charge of Madame, +and, in the first-class carriage full of people, in which they +travelled together to Versailles, she whispered to the detective +a full confession of the crime. + +Mace has left us an account of this singular railway journey. +It was two o'clock in the afternoon. In the carriage were five +ladies and a young man who was reading La Vie Parisienne. Mme. +Fenayrou was silent and thoughtful. "You're thinking of your +present position?" asked the detective. "No, I'm thinking of my +mother and my dear children." "They don't seem to care much +about their father," remarked Mace. "Perhaps not." "Why?" +asked M. Mace. "Because of his violent temper," was the +reply. After some further conversation and the departure at +Courbevoie of the young man with La Vie Parisienne, Mme. +Fenayrou asked abruptly: "Do you think my husband guilty?" +"I'm sure of it." "So does Aubert's sister." "Certainly," an- + +swered M. Mace; "she looks on the crime as one of revenge." +"But my brother-in-law," urged the woman, "could have had no +motive for vengeance against Aubert." Mace answered coldly +that he would have to explain how he had employed his time on +Ascension Day. "You see criminals everywhere," answered Madame. + +After the train had left St. Cloud, where the other occupants of +the carriage had alighted, the detective and his prisoner were +alone, free of interruption till Versailles should be reached. +Hitherto they had spoken in whispers; now Mace seized the +opportunity to urge the woman to unbosom herself to him, to +reveal her part in the crime. She burst into tears. There was +an interval of silence; then she thanked Mace for the kindness +and consideration he had shown her. "You wish me," she asked, +"to betray my husband?" "Without any design or intention on your +part," discreetly answered the detective; "but by the sole force +of circumstances you are placed in such a position that you +cannot help betraying him." + +Whether convinced or not of this tyranny of circumstance, Mme. +Fenayrou obeyed her mentor, and calmly, coldly, without regret or +remorse, told him the story of the assassination. Towards the +end of her narration she softened a little. "I know I am a +criminal," she exclaimed. "Since this morning I have done +nothing but lie. I am sick of it; it makes me suffer too much. +Don't tell my husband until this evening that I have confessed; +there's no need, for, after what I have told you, you can easily +expose his falsehoods and so get at the truth." + +That evening the three prisoners--Lucien had been arrested at the +same time as the other two--were brought to Chatou. Identified +by the gardener as the lessee of the villa, Fenayrou +abandoned his protestations of innocence and admitted his guilt. +The crime was then and there reconstituted in the presence of the +examining magistrate. With the help of a gendarme, who imper- + +sonated Aubert, Fenayrou repeated the incidents of the murder. +The goat-chaise was wheeled to the bridge, and there in the +presence of an indignant crowd, the murderer showed how the body +had been lowered into the river. + +After a magisterial investigation lasting two months, which +failed to shed any new light on the more mysterious elements in +the case, Fenayrou, his wife and brother were indicted on August +19 before the Assize Court for the Seine-et-Oise Department, +sitting at Versailles. + +The attitude of the three culprits was hardly such as to provoke +the sympathies of even a French jury. Fenayrou seemed to be +giving a clumsy and unconvincing performance of the role of +the wronged husband; his heavy figure clothed in an ill-fitting +suit of "blue dittos," his ill-kempt red beard and bock-stained +moustache did not help him in his impersonation. Mme. Fenayrou, +pale, colourless, insignificant, was cold and impenetrable. She +described the murder of her lover "as if she were giving her cook +a household recipe for making apricot Jam." Lucien was humble +and lachrymose. + +In his interrogatory of the husband the President, M. Berard +des Glajeux, showed himself frankly sceptical as to the +ingenuousness of Fenayrou's motives in assassinating Aubert. +"Now, what was the motive of this horrible crime?" he asked. +"Revenge," answered Fenayrou. + +President: But consider the care you took to hide the body and +destroy all trace of your guilt; that is not the way in which a +husband sets out to avenge his honour; these are the methods +of the assassin! With your wife's help you could have caught +Aubert in flagrante delicto and killed him on the spot, and the +law would have absolved you. Instead of which you decoy him into +a hideous snare. Public opinion suggests that jealousy of your +former assistant's success, and mortification at your own +failure, were the real motives. Or was it not perhaps that you +had been in the habit of rendering somewhat dubious services to +some of your promiscuous clients? + +Fenayrou: Nothing of the kind, I swear it! + +President: Do not protest too much. Remember that among your +acquaintances you were suspected of cheating at cards. As a +chemist you had been convinced of fraud. Perhaps Aubert knew +something against you. Some act of poisoning, or abortion, in +which you had been concerned? Many witnesses have believed this. + +Your mother-in-law is said to have remarked, "My son-in-law will +end in jail." + +Fenayrou (bursting into tears): This is too dreadful. + +President: And Dr. Durand, an old friend of Aubert, remembers +the deceased saying to him, "One has nothing to fear from people +one holds in one's hands." + +Fenayrou: I don't know what he meant. + +President: Or, considering the cruelty, cowardice, the cold +calculation displayed in the commission of the crime, shall we +say this was a woman's not a man's revenge. You have said your +wife acted as your slave--was it not the other way about? + +Fenayrou: No; it was my revenge, mine alone. + +The view that regarded Mme. Fenayrou as a soft, malleable paste +was not the view of the President. + +"Why," he asked the woman, "did you commit this horrible murder, +decoy your lover to his death?" "Because I had repented," was +the answer; "I had wronged my husband, and since he had been +condemned for fraud, I loved him the more for being unfortunate. +And then I feared for my children." + +President: Is that really the case? + +Mme. Fenayrou: Certainly it is. + +President: Then your whole existence has been one of lies and +hypocrisy. Whilst you were deceiving your husband and teaching +your children to despise him you were covering him with caresses. + +You have played false to both husband and lover--to Aubert in +decoying him to his death, to your husband by denouncing him +directly you were arrested. You have betrayed everybody. The +only person you have not betrayed is yourself. What sort of a +woman are you? As you and Aubert went into the drawing-room on +the evening of the murder you said loudly, "This is the way," so +that your husband, hearing your voice outside, should not strike +you by mistake in the darkness. If Lucien had not told us that +you attacked Aubert whilst he was struggling with your husband, +we should never have known it, for you would never have admitted +it, and your husband has all along refused to implicate +you. . . . You have said that you had ceased to care for your +lover: he had ceased to care for you. He was prosperous, happy, +about to marry: you hated him, and you showed your hate when, +during the murder, you flung yourself upon him and cried, +"Wretch!" Is that the behaviour of a woman who represents +herself to have been the timid slave of her husband? No. This +crime is the revenge of a cowardly and pitiless woman, who writes +down in her account book the expenses of the trip to Chatou and, +after the murder, picnics merrily in the green fields. It was +you who steeled your husband to the task. + +How far the President was justified in thus inverting the parts +played by the husband and wife in the crime must be a matter +of opinion. In his volume of Souvenirs M. Berard des +Glajeux modifies considerably the view which he perhaps felt it +his duty to express in his interrogatory of Gabrielle Fenayrou. +He describes her as soft and flexible by nature, the repentant +slave of her husband, seeking to atone for her wrong to him by +helping him in his revenge. The one feature in the character of +Mme. Fenayrou that seems most clearly demonstrated is its +absolute insensibility under any circumstances whatsoever. + +The submissive Lucien had little to say for himself, nor could +any motive for joining in the murder beyond a readiness to oblige +his brother be suggested. In his Souvenirs M. Berard des +Glajeux states that to-day it would seem to be clearly +established that Lucien acted blindly at the bidding of his +sister-in-law, "qu'il avait beaucoup aimee et qui n'avait pas +ete cruelle a son egard." + +The evidence recapitulated for the most part the facts already +set out. The description of Mme. Fenayrou by the gentleman on +the sporting newspaper who had succeeded Aubert in her affections +is, under the circumstances, interesting: "She was sad, +melancholy; I questioned her, and she told me she was married to +a coarse man who neglected her, failed to understand her, and had +never loved her. I became her lover but, except on a few +occasions, our relations were those of good friends. She was a +woman with few material wants, affectionate, expansive, an +idealist, one who had suffered much and sought from without a +happiness her marriage had never brought her. I believe her to +have been the blind tool of her husband." + +From motives of delicacy the evidence of this gentleman was read +in his presence; he was not examined orally. His eulogy of his +mistress is loyal. Against it may be set the words of the +Procureur de la Republique, M. Delegorgue: "Never has a more +thorough-paced, a more hideous monster been seated in the dock of +an assize court. This woman is the personification of falsehood, +depravity, cowardice and treachery. She is worthy of the supreme +penalty." The jury were not of this opinion. They preferred to +regard Mme. Fenayrou as playing a secondary part to that of her +husband. They accorded in both her case and that of Lucien ex- + +tenuating circumstances. The woman was sentenced to penal +servitude for life, Lucien to seven years. Fenayrou, for whose +conduct the jury could find no extenuation, was condemned to +death. + +It is the custom in certain assize towns for the President, after +pronouncing sentence, to visit a prisoner who had been ordered +for execution. M. Berard des Glajeux describes his visit to +Fenayrou at Versailles. He was already in prison dress, sobbing. + +His iron nature, which during five days had never flinched, had +broken down; but it was not for himself he wept, but for his +wife, his children, his brother; of his own fate he took no +account. At the same moment his wife was in the lodge of the +courthouse waiting for the cab that was to take her to her +prison. Freed from the anxieties of the trial, knowing her life +to be spared, without so much as a thought for the husband whom +she had never loved, she had tidied herself up, and now, with all +the ease of a woman, whose misfortunes have not destroyed her +self-possession, was doing the honours of the jail. It was she +who received her judge. + +But Fenayrou was not to die. The Court of Cassation, to which he +had made the usual appeal after condemnation, decided that the +proceedings at Versailles had been vitiated by the fact that the +evidence of Gabrielle Fenayrou's second lover had not been taken +ORALLY, within the requirements of the criminal code; +consequently a new trial was ordered before the Paris Assize +Court. This second trial, which commenced on October 12, saved +Fenayrou's head. The Parisian jury showed themselves more +lenient than their colleagues at Versailles. Not only was +Fenayrou accorded extenuating circumstances, but Lucien was +acquitted altogether. The only person to whom these new +proceedings brought no benefit was Mme. Fenayrou, whose sentence +remained unaltered. + +Marin Fenayrou was sent to New Caledonia to serve his punishment. + +There he was allowed to open a dispensary, but, proving +dishonest, he lost his license and became a ferryman--a very +Charon for terrestrial passengers. He died in New Caledonia of +cancer of the liver. + +Gabrielle Fenayrou made an exemplary prisoner, so exemplary that, +owing to her good conduct and a certain ascendancy she exercised +over her fellow-prisoners, she was made forewoman of one of the +workshops. Whilst holding this position she had the honour of +receiving, among those entrusted to her charge, another +Gabrielle, murderess, Gabrielle Bompard, the history of whose +crime is next to be related. + + + +Eyraud and Bompard + + +There are accounts of this case in Bataille "Causes Criminelles +et Mondaines," 1890, and in Volume X. of Fouquier "Causes +Celebres." "L'Affaire Gouffe" by Dr. Lacassagne, Lyons, +1891, and Goron "L'Amour Criminel" may be consulted. + +ON July 27, in the year 1889, the Parisian police were informed +of the disappearance of one Gouffe, a bailiff. He had been +last seen by two friends on the Boulevard Montmartre at about ten +minutes past seven on the evening of the 26th, a Friday. Since +then nothing had been heard of him, either at his office in the +Rue Montmartre, or at his private house in the Rue Rougemont. +This was surprising in the case of a man of regular habits even +in his irregularities, robust health, and cheerful spirits. + +Gouffe was a widower, forty-two years of age. He had three +daughters who lived happily with him in the Rue Rougemont. He +did a good trade as bailiff and process-server, and at times had +considerable sums of money in his possession. These he would +never leave behind him at his office, but carry home at the end +of the day's work, except on Fridays. Friday nights Gouffe +always spent away from home. As the society he sought on these +nights was of a promiscuous character, he was in the habit of +leaving at his office any large sum of money that had come into +his hands during the day. + +About nine o'clock on this particular Friday night, July 26, the +hall-porter at Gouffe's office in the Rue Montmartre heard +someone, whom he had taken at first to be the bailiff himself, +enter the hall and go upstairs to the office, where he +remained a few minutes. As he descended the stairs the porter +came out of his lodge and, seeing it was a stranger, accosted +him. But the man hurried away without giving the porter time to +see his face. + +When the office was examined the next day everything was found in +perfect order, and a sum of 14,000 francs, hidden away behind +some papers, untouched. The safe had not been tampered with; +there was, in short, nothing unusual about the room except ten +long matches that were lying half burnt on the floor. + +On hearing of the bailiff's disappearance and the mysterious +visitor to his office, the police, who were convinced that +Gouffe had been the victim of some criminal design, inquired +closely into his habits, his friends, his associates, men and +women. But the one man who could have breathed the name that +would have set the police on the track of the real culprits was, +for reasons of his own, silent. The police examined many +persons, but without arriving at any useful result. + +However, on August 15, in a thicket at the foot of a slope +running down from the road that passes through the district of +Millery, about ten miles from Lyons, a roadmender, attracted by a +peculiar smell, discovered the remains of what appeared to be a +human body. They were wrapped in a cloth, but so decomposed as +to make identification almost impossible. M. Goron, at that time +head of the Parisian detective police, believed them to be the +remains of Gouffe, but a relative of the missing man, whom he +sent to Lyons, failed to identify them. Two days after the +discovery of the corpse, there were found near Millery the broken +fragments of a trunk, the lock of which fitted a key that had +been picked up near the body. A label on the trunk showed that +it had been dispatched from Paris to Lyons on July 27, 188--, but +the final figure of the date was obliterated. Reference to +the books of the railway company showed that on July 27, 1889, +the day following the disappearance of Gouffe, a trunk similar +in size and weight to that found near Millery had been sent from +Paris to Lyons. + +The judicial authorities at Lyons scouted the idea that either +the corpse or the trunk found at Millery had any connection with +the disappearance of Gouffe. When M. Goron, bent on following +up what he believed to be important clues, went himself to Lyons +he found that the remains, after being photographed, had been +interred in the common burying-ground. The young doctor who had +made the autopsy produced triumphantly some hair taken from the +head of the corpse and showed M. Goron that whilst Gouffe's +hair was admittedly auburn and cut short, this was black, and had +evidently been worn long. M. Goron, after looking carefully at +the hair, asked for some distilled water. He put the lock of +hair into it and, after a few minutes' immersion, cleansed of the +blood, grease and dust that had caked them together, the hairs +appeared clearly to be short and auburn. The doctor admitted his +error. + +Fortified by this success, Goron was able to procure the +exhumation of the body. A fresh autopsy was performed by Dr. +Lacassagne, the eminent medical jurist of the Lyons School of +Medicine. He was able to pronounce with certainty that the +remains were those of the bailiff, Gouffe. An injury to the +right ankle, a weakness of the right leg, the absence of a +particular tooth and other admitted peculiarities in Gouffe's +physical conformation, were present in the corpse, placing its +identity beyond question. This second post-mortem revealed +furthermore an injury to the thyroid cartilage of the larynx that +had been inflicted beyond any doubt whatever, declared Dr. +Lacassagne, before death. + +There was little reason to doubt that Gouffe had been the +victim of murder by strangulation. + +But by whom had the crime been committed? It was now the end of +November. Four months had passed since the bailiff's murder, and +the police had no clue to its perpetrators. At one time a friend +of Gouffe's had been suspected and placed under arrest, but he +was released for want of evidence. + +One day toward the close of November, in the course of a +conversation with M. Goron, a witness who had known Gouffe +surprised him by saying abruptly, "There's another man who +disappeared about the same time as Gouffe." M. Goron pricked +up his ears. The witness explained that he had not mentioned the +fact before, as he had not connected it with his friend's +disappearance; the man's name, he said, was Eyraud, Michel +Eyraud, M. Goron made some inquires as to this Michel Eyraud. He +learnt that he was a married man, forty-six years of age, once a +distiller at Sevres, recently commission-agent to a bankrupt +firm, that he had left France suddenly, about the time of the +disappearance of Gouffe, and that he had a mistress, one +Gabrielle Bompard, who had disappeared with him. Instinctively +M. Goron connected this fugitive couple with the fate of the +murdered bailiff. + +Confirmation of his suspicions was to come from London. The +remains of the trunk found at Millery had been skilfully put +together and exposed at the Morgue in Paris, whilst the Gouffe +family had offered a reward of 500 francs to anybody who could in +any way identify the trunk. Beyond producing a large crop of +anonymous letters, in one of which the crime was attributed to +General Boulanger, then in Jersey, these measures seemed likely +to prove fruitless. But one day in December, from the keeper of +a boarding-house in Gower Street, M. Goron received a letter +informing him that the writer believed that Eyraud and +Gabrielle Bompard had stayed recently at his house, and that on +July 14 the woman, whom he knew only as "Gabrielle," had left for +France, crossing by Newhaven and Dieppe, and taking with her a +large and almost empty trunk, which she had purchased in London. +Inquires made by the French detectives established the +correctness of this correspondent's information. An assistant at +a trunk shop in the Euston Road was able to identify the trunk-- +brought over from Paris for the purpose--as one purchased in his +shop on July 12 by a Frenchman answering to the description of +Michel Eyraud. The wife of the boarding-house keeper recollected +having expressed to Gabrielle her surprise that she should buy +such an enormous piece of luggage when she had only one dress to +put into it. "Oh that's all right," answered Gabrielle +smilingly, "we shall have plenty to fill it with in Paris!" +Gabrielle had gone to Paris with the trunk on July 14, come back +to London on the 17th, and on the 20th she and Eyraud returned +together to Paris From these facts it seemed more than probable +that these two were the assassins so eagerly sought for by the +police, and it seemed clear also that the murder had been done in +Paris. But what had become of this couple, in what street, in +what house in Paris had the crime been committed? These were +questions the police were powerless to answer. + +The year 1889 came to an end, the murderers were still at large. +But on January 21, 1890, M. Goron found lying on his table a +large letter bearing the New York postmark. He opened it, and to +his astonishment read at the end the signature "Michel Eyraud." +It was a curious letter, but undoubtedly genuine. In it Eyraud +protested against the suspicions directed against himself; they +were, he wrote, merely unfortunate coincidences. Gouffe had +been his friend; he had had no share whatever in his death; +his only misfortune had been his association with "that serpent, +Gabrielle Bompard." He had certainly bought a large trunk for +her, but she told him that she had sold it. They had gone to +America together, he to avoid financial difficulties in which he +had been involved by the dishonesty of the Jews. There Gabrielle +had deserted him for another man. He concluded a very long +letter by declaring his belief in Gabrielle's innocence--"the +great trouble with her is that she is such a liar and also has a +dozen lovers after her." He promised that, as soon as he learnt +that Gabrielle had returned to Paris, he would, of his own free +will, place himself in the hands of M. Goron. + +He was to have an early opportunity of redeeming his pledge, for +on the day following the receipt of his letter a short, well-made +woman, dressed neatly in black, with dyed hair, greyish-blue +eyes, good teeth, a disproportionately large head and a lively +and intelligent expression of face, presented herself at the +Prefecture of Police and asked for an interview with the Prefect. + +Requested to give her name, she replied, with a smile, "Gabrielle +Bompard." She was accompanied by a middle-aged gentleman, who +appeared to be devoted to her. Gabrielle Bompard and her friend +were taken to the private room of M. Loze, the Prefect of +Police. There, in a half-amused way, without the least concern, +sitting at times on the edge of the Prefect's writing-table, +Gabrielle Bompard told how she had been the unwilling accomplice +of her lover, Eyraud, in the murder of the bailiff, Gouffe. +The crime, she stated, had been committed in No. 3 in the Rue +Tronson-Ducoudray, but she had not been present; she knew nothing +of it but what had been told her by Eyraud. After the murder she +had accompanied him to America; there they had met the middle- +aged gentleman, her companion. Eyraud had proposed that +they should murder and rob him, but she had divulged the plot to +the gentleman and asked him to take her away. It was acting on +his advice that she had returned to France, determined to give +her evidence to the judicial authorities in Paris. The middle- +aged gentleman declared himself ready to vouch for the truth of a +great part of this interesting narrative. There they both +imagined apparently that the affair would be ended. They were +extremely surprised when the Prefect, after listening to their +statements, sent for a detective-inspector who showed Gabrielle +Bompard a warrant for her arrest. After an affecting parting, at +least on the part of the middle-aged gentleman, Gabrielle Bompard +was taken to prison. There she soon recovered her spirits, which +had at no time been very gravely depressed by her critical situ- + +ation. + +According to Eyraud's letters, if anyone knew anything about +Gouffe's murder, it was Gabrielle Bompard; according to the +woman's statement, it was Eyraud, and Eyraud alone, who had +committed it. As they were both liars--the woman perhaps the +greater liar of the two--their statements are not to be taken as +other than forlorn attempts to shift the blame on to each other's +shoulders. + +Before extracting from their various avowals, which grew more +complete as time went on, the story of the crime, let us follow +Eyraud in his flight from justice, which terminated in the May of +1890 by his arrest in Havana. + +Immediately after the arrest of Gabrielle, two French detectives +set out for America to trace and run down if possible her +deserted lover. For more than a month they traversed Canada and +the United States in search of their prey. The track of the +fugitive was marked from New York to San Francisco by acts of +thieving and swindling. At the former city he had made the +acquaintance of a wealthy Turk, from whom, under the pretence of +wishing to be photographed in it, he had borrowed a magnificent +oriental robe. The photograph was taken, but Eyraud forgot to +return the costly robe. + +At another time he was lodging in the same house as a young +American actor, called in the French accounts of the incident +"Sir Stout." To "Sir Stout" Eyraud would appear to have given a +most convincing performance of the betrayed husband; his wife, he +said, had deserted him for another man; he raved and stormed au- + +dibly in his bedroom, deploring his fate and vowing vengeance. +These noisy representations so impressed "Sir Stout" that, on the +outraged husband declaring himself to be a Mexican for the moment +without funds, the benevolent comedian lent him eighty dollars, +which, it is almost needless to add, he never saw again. In +narrating this incident to the French detectives, "Sir Stout" +describes Eyraud's performance as great, surpassing even those of +Coquelin. + +Similar stories of theft and debauchery met the detectives at +every turn, but, helped in a great measure by the publicity the +American newspapers gave to the movements of his pursuers, Eyraud +was able to elude them, and in March they returned to France to +concert further plans for his capture. + +Eyraud had gone to Mexico. From there he had written a letter to +M. Rochefort's newspaper, L'Intransigeant, in which he declared +Gouffe to have been murdered by Gabrielle and an unknown. +But, when official inquiries were made in Mexico as to his +whereabouts, the bird had flown. + +At Havana, in Cuba, there lived a French dressmaker and clothes- +merchant named Puchen. In the month of February a stranger, +ragged and unkempt, but evidently a fellow-countryman, +visited her shop and offered to sell her a superb Turkish +costume. The contrast between the wretchedness of the vendor and +the magnificence of his wares struck Madame Puchen at the time. +But her surprise was converted into suspicion when she read in +the American newspapers a description of the Turkish garment +stolen by Michel Eyraud, the reputed assassin of the bailiff +Gouffe. It was one morning in the middle of May that Mme. +Puchen read the description of the robe that had been offered her +in February by her strange visitor. To her astonishment, about +two o'clock the same afternoon, she saw the stranger standing +before her door. She beckoned to him, and asked him if he still +had his Turkish robe with him; he seemed confused, and said that +he had sold it. The conversation drifted on to ordinary topics; +the stranger described some of his recent adventures in Mexico. +"Oh!" exclaimed the dressmaker, "they say Eyraud, the murderer, +is in Mexico! Did you come across him? Were you in Paris at the +time of the murder?" The stranger answered in the negative, but +his face betrayed his uneasiness. "Do you know you're rather +like him?" said the woman, in a half-joking way. The stranger +laughed, and shortly after went out, saying he would return. He +did return on May 15, bringing with him a number of the +Republique Illustree that contained an almost +unrecognisable portrait of Eyraud. He said he had picked it up +in a cafe. "What a blackguard he looks!" he exclaimed as he +threw the paper on the table. But the dressmaker's suspicions +were not allayed by the stranger's uncomplimentary reference to +the murderer. As soon as he had gone, she went to the French +Consul and told him her story. + +By one of those singular coincidences that are inadmissable in +fiction or drama, but occur at times in real life, there happened +to be in Havana, of all places, a man who had been employed +by Eyraud at the time that he had owned a distillery at +Sevres. The Consul, on hearing the statement of Mme. Puchen, +sent for this man and told him that a person believed to be +Eyraud was in Havana. As the man left the Consulate, whom should +he meet in the street but Eyraud himself! The fugitive had been +watching the movements of Mme. Puchen; he had suspected, after +the interview, that the woman would denounce him to the +authorities. He now saw that disguise was useless. He greeted +his ex-employe, took him into a cafe, there admitted his +identity and begged him not to betray him. It was midnight when +they left the cafe. Eyraud, repenting of his confidence, and no +doubt anxious to rid himself of a dangerous witness, took his +friend into an ill-lighted and deserted street; but the friend, +conscious of his delicate situation, hailed a passing cab and +made off as quickly as he could. + +Next day, the 20th, the search for Eyraud was set about in +earnest. The Spanish authorities, informed of his presence in +Havana, directed the police to spare no effort to lay hands on +him. The Hotel Roma, at which he had been staying, was visited; +but Eyraud, scenting danger, had gone to an hotel opposite the +railway station. His things were packed ready for flight on the +following morning. How was he to pass the night? True to his +instincts, a house of ill-fame, at which he had been entertained +already, seemed the safest and most pleasant refuge; but, when, +seedy and shabby, he presented himself at the door, he was sent +back into the street. It was past one in the morning. The +lonely murderer wandered aimlessly in the streets, restless, +nervous, a prey to apprehension, not knowing where to go. Again +the man from Sevres met him. "It's all up with me!" said +Eyraud, and disappeared in the darkness. At two in the morning a +police officer, who had been patrolling the town in search +of the criminal, saw, in the distance, a man walking to and fro, +seemingly uncertain which way to turn. Hearing footsteps the man +turned round and walked resolutely past the policeman, saying +good-night in Spanish. "Who are you? What's your address?" the +officer asked abruptly. "Gorski, Hotel Roma!" was the answer. +This was enough for the officer. Eyraud was know{sic} to have +passed as "Gorski," the Hotel Roma had already been searched as +one of his hiding-places. To seize and handcuff "Gorski" was the +work of a moment. An examination of the luggage left by the so- +called Gorski at his last hotel and a determined attempt at +suicide made by their prisoner during the night proved +conclusively that to the Spanish police was the credit of having +laid by the heels, ten months after the commission of the crime, +Michel Eyraud, one of the assassins of the bailiff Gouffe. + +On June 16 Eyraud was delivered over to the French police. He +reached France on the 20th, and on July 1 made his first +appearance before the examining magistrate. + +It will be well at this point in the narrative to describe how +Eyraud and Gabrielle Bompard came to be associated together in +crime. Gabrielle Bompard was twenty-two years of age at the time +of her arrest, the fourth child of a merchant of Lille, a strong, +hardworking, respectable man. Her mother, a delicate woman, had +died of lung disease when Gabrielle was thirteen. Even as a +child lying and vicious, thinking only of men and clothes, +Gabrielle, after being expelled as incorrigible from four +educational establishments, stayed at a fifth for some three +years. There she astonished those in authority over her by her +precocious propensity for vice, her treacherous and lying +disposition, and a lewdness of tongue rare in one of her age +and comparative inexperience. At eighteen she returned to +her father's house, only to quit it for a lover whom, she +alleged, had hypnotised and then seduced her. Gabrielle was +singularly susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. Her father +implored the family doctor to endeavour to persuade her, while in +the hypnotic state, to reform her deplorable conduct. The doctor +did his best but with no success. He declared Gabrielle to be a +neuropath, who had not found in her home such influences as would +have tended to overcome her vicious instincts. Perhaps the +doctor was inclined to sympathise rather too readily with his +patient, if we are to accept the report of those distinguished +medical gentlemen who, at a later date, examined carefully into +the mental and physical characteristics of Gabrielle Bompard. + +This girl of twenty had developed into a supreme instance of the +"unmoral" woman, the conscienceless egoist, morally colour-blind, +vain, lewd, the intelligence quick and alert but having no +influence whatever on conduct. One instance will suffice to show +the sinister levity, the utter absence of all moral sense in this +strange creature. + +After the murder of Gouffe, Gabrielle spent the night alone +with the trunk containing the bailiff's corpse. Asked by M. +Goron what were her sensations during this ghastly vigil, +she replied with a smile, "You'd never guess what a funny +idea come into my head! You see it was not very pleasant +for me being thus tete-a-tete with a corpse, I couldn't sleep. +So I thought what fun it would be to go into the street and pick up +some respectable gentleman from the provinces. I'd bring him up to +the room, and just as he was beginning to enjoy himself say, +`Would you like to see a bailiff?' open the trunk suddenly and, +before he could recover from his horror, run out into the street +and fetch the police. Just think what a fool the respectable +gentleman would have looked when the officers came!" + +Such callousness is almost unsurpassed in the annals of criminal +insensibility. Nero fiddling over burning Rome, Thurtell fresh +from the murder of Weare, inviting Hunt, the singer and his +accomplice, to "tip them a stave" after supper, Edwards, the +Camberwell murderer, reading with gusto to friends the report of +a fashionable divorce case, post from the murder of a young +married couple and their baby--even examples such as these pale +before the levity of the "little demon," as the French detectives +christened Gabrielle. + +Such was Gabrielle Bompard when, on July 26, exactly one year to +a day before the murder of Gouffe, she met in Paris Michel +Eyraud. These two were made for each other. If Gabrielle were +unmoral, Eyraud was immoral. Forty-six at the time of +Gouffe's murder, he was sufficiently practised in vice to +appreciate and enjoy the flagrantly vicious propensities of the +young Gabrielle. All his life Eyraud had spent his substance in +debauchery. His passions were violent and at times +uncontrollable, but unlike many remarkable men of a similar +temperament, this strong animalism was not in his case +accompanied by a capacity for vigorous intellectual exertion or a +great power of work. "Understand this," said Eyraud to one of +the detectives who brought him back to France, "I have never done +any work, and I never will do any work." To him work was +derogatory; better anything than that. Unfortunately it could +not be avoided altogether, but with Eyraud such work as he was +compelled at different times to endure was only a means for +procuring money for his degraded pleasures, and when honest work +became too troublesome, dishonesty served in its stead. When he +met Gabrielle he was almost at the end of his tether, bankrupt +and discredited. At a pinch he might squeeze a little money +out of his wife, with whom he continued to live in spite of his +open infidelities. + +Save for such help as he could get from her small dowry, he was +without resources. A deserter from the army during the Mexican +war in 1869, he had since then engaged in various commercial +enterprises, all of which had failed, chiefly through his own +extravagance, violence and dishonesty. Gabrielle was quick to +empty his pockets of what little remained in them. The proceeds +of her own immorality, which Eyraud was quite ready to share, +soon proved insufficient to replenish them. Confronted with +ruin, Eyraud and Gompard hit on a plan by which the woman should +decoy some would-be admirer to a convenient trysting-place. +There, dead or alive, the victim was to be made the means of +supplying their wants. + +On further reflection dead seemed more expedient than alive, +extortion from a living victim too risky an enterprise. Their +plans were carefully prepared. Gabrielle was to hire a ground- +floor apartment, so that any noise, such as footsteps or the fall +of a body, would not be heard by persons living underneath. + +At the beginning of July, 1889, Eyraud and Bompard were in +London. There they bought at a West End draper's a red and white +silk girdle, and at a shop in Gower Street a large travelling +trunk. They bought, also in London, about thirteen feet of +cording, a pulley and, on returning to Paris on July 20, some +twenty feet of packing-cloth, which Gabrielle, sitting at her +window on the fine summer evenings, sewed up into a large bag. + +The necessary ground-floor apartment had been found at No. 3 Rue +Tronson-Ducoudray. Here Gabrielle installed herself on July 24. +The bedroom was convenient for the assassins' purpose, the bed +standing in an alcove separated by curtains from the rest of the +room. To the beam forming the crosspiece at the entrance +into the alcove Eyraud fixed a pulley. Through the pulley ran a +rope, having at one end of it a swivel, so that a man, hiding +behind the curtains could, by pulling the rope strongly, haul up +anything that might be attached to the swivel at the other end. +It was with the help of this simple piece of mechanism and a good +long pull from Eyraud that the impecunious couple hoped to refill +their pockets. + +The victim was chosen on the 25th. Eyraud had already known of +Gouffe's existence, but on that day, Thursday, in a +conversation with a common friend, Eyraud learnt that the bailiff +Gouffe was rich, that he was in the habit of having +considerable sums of money in his care, and that on Friday nights +Gouffe made it his habit to sleep from home. There was no +time to lose. The next day Gabrielle accosted Gouffe as he +was going to his dejeuner and, after some little conversation +agreed to meet him at eight o'clock that evening. + +The afternoon was spent in preparing for the bailiff's reception +in the Rue Tronson-Ducoudray. A lounge-chair was so arranged +that it stood with its back to the alcove, within which the +pulley and rope had been fixed by Eyraud. Gouffe was to sit +on the chair, Gabrielle on his knee. Gabrielle was then +playfully to slip round his neck, in the form of a noose, the +cord of her dressing gown and, unseen by him, attach one end of +it to the swivel of the rope held by Eyraud. Her accomplice had +only to give a strong pull and the bailiff's course was run.[17] + + +[17] One writer on the case has suggested that the story of the +murder by rope and pulley was invented by Eyraud and Bompard to +mitigate the full extent of their guilt, and that the bailiff was +strangled while in bed with the woman. But the purchase of the +necessary materials in London would seem to imply a more +practical motive for the use of rope and pulley. + + +At six o'clock Eyraud and Bompard dined together, after +which Eyraud returned to the apartment, whilst Bompard went to +meet Gouffe near the Madeline Church. What occurred +afterwards at No. 3 Rue Tronson-Ducoudray is best described in +the statement made by Eyraud at his trial. + +"At a quarter past eight there was a ring at the bell. I hid +myself behind the curtain. Gouffe came in. `You've a nice +little nest here,' he said. `Yes, a fancy of mine,' replied +Gabrielle, `Eyraud knows nothing about it.' `Oh, you're tired of +him,' asked Gouffe. `Yes,' she replied, `that's all over.' +Gabrielle drew Gouffe down on to the chair. She showed him +the cord of her dressing-gown and said that a wealthy admirer had +given it to her. `Very elegant,' said Gouffe, `but I didn't +come here to see that.' + +"She then sat on his knee and, as if in play, slipped the cord +round his neck; then putting her hand behind him, she fixed the +end of the cord into the swivel, and said to him laughingly, +`What a nice necktie it makes!' That was the signal. Eyraud +pulled the cord vigorously and, in two minutes, Gouffe had +ceased to live." + +Eyraud took from the dead man his watch and ring, 150 francs and +his keys. With these he hurried to Gouffe's office and made a +fevered search for money. It was fruitless. In his trembling +haste the murderer missed a sum of 14,000 francs that was lying +behind some papers, and returned, baffled and despairing, to his +mistress and the corpse. The crime had been a ghastly failure. +Fortified by brandy and champagne, and with the help of the +woman, Eyraud stripped the body, put it into the bag that had +been sewn by Gabrielle, and pushed the bag into the trunk. +Leaving his mistress to spend the night with their hateful +luggage, Eyraud returned home and, in his own words, "worn out by +the excitement of the day, slept heavily." + + +The next day Eyraud, after saying good-bye to his wife and +daughter, left with Gabrielle for Lyons. On the 28th they got +rid at Millery of the body of Gouffe and the trunk in which it +had travelled; his boots and clothes they threw into the sea at +Marseilles. There Eyraud borrowed 500 francs from his brother. +Gabrielle raised 2,000 francs in Paris, where they spent August +18 and 19, after which they left for England, and from England +sailed for America. During their short stay in Paris Eyraud had +the audacity to call at the apartment in the Rue Tronson- +Ducoudray for his hat, which he had left behind; in the hurry of +the crime he had taken away Gouffe's by mistake. + + +Eyraud had been brought back to Paris from Cuba at the end of +June, 1890. Soon after his return, in the room in which +Gouffe had been done to death and in the presence of the +examining magistrate, M. Goron, and some fifteen other persons, +Eyraud was confronted with his accomplice. Each denied +vehemently, with hatred and passion, the other's story. Neither +denied the murder, but each tried to represent the other as the +more guilty of the two. Eyraud said that the suggestion and plan +of the crime had come from Gabrielle; that she had placed around +Gouffe's neck the cord that throttled him. Gabrielle +attributed the inception of the murder to Eyraud, and said that +he had strangled the bailiff with his own hands. + +Eyraud, since his return, had seemed indifferent to his own fate; +whatever it might be, he wished that his mistress should share +it. He had no objection to going to the guillotine as long as he +was sure that Gabrielle would accompany him. She sought to +escape such a consummation by representing herself as a mere +instrument in Eyraud's hands. It was even urged in her defence +that, in committing the crime, she had acted under the +influence of hypnotic suggestion on the part of her accomplice. +Three doctors appointed by the examining magistrate to report on +her mental state came unanimously to the conclusion that, though +undoubtedly susceptible to hypnotic suggestion, there was no +ground for thinking that she had been acting under such influence +when she participated in the murder of Gouffe. Intellectually +the medical gentlemen found her alert and sane enough, but +morally blind. + +The trial of Eyraud and Bompard took place before the Paris +Assize Court on December 16, 1890. It had been delayed owing to +the proceedings of an enterprising journalist. The names of the +jurymen who were to be called on to serve at the assize had been +published. The journalist conceived the brilliant idea of +interviewing some of these gentlemen. + +He succeeded in seeing four of them, but in his article which +appeared in the Matin newspaper said that he had seen twenty- +one. Nine of them, he stated, had declared themselves in favour +of Gabrielle Bompard, but in some of these he had discerned a +certain "eroticism of the pupil of the eye" to which he +attributed their leniency. A month's imprisonment was the reward +of these flights of journalistic imagination. + +A further scandal in connection with the trial was caused by the +lavish distribution of tickets of admission to all sorts and +kinds of persons by the presiding judge, M. Robert, whose +occasional levities in the course of the proceedings are +melancholy reading. As a result of his indulgence a circular was +issued shortly after the trial by M. Fallieres, then Minister +of Justice, limiting the powers of presidents of assize in +admitting visitors into the reserved part of the court. + +The proceedings at the trial added little to the known facts +of the case. Both Eyraud and Bompard continued to endeavour to +shift the blame on to each other's shoulders. A curious feature +of the trial was the appearance for the defence of a M. +Liegeois, a professor of law at Nancy. To the dismay of the +Court, he took advantage of a clause in the Code of Criminal +Instruction which permits a witness to give his evidence without +interruption, to deliver an address lasting four hours on +hypnotic suggestion. He undertook to prove that, not only +Gabrielle Bompard, but Troppmann, Madame Weiss, and Gabrielle +Fenayrou also, had committed murder under the influence of +suggestion.[18] In replying to this rather fantastic defence, +the Procureur-General, M. Quesnay de Beaurepaire, quoted a +statement of Dr. Brouardel, the eminent medical jurist who had +been called for the prosecution, that "there exists no instance +of a crime, or attempted crime committed under the influence of +hypnotic suggestion." As to the influence of Eyraud over +Bompard, M. de Beaurepaire said: "The one outstanding fact that +has been eternally true for six thousand years is that the +stronger will can possess the weaker: that is no peculiar part of +the history of hypnotism; it belongs to the history of the world. + +Dr. Liegeois himself, in coming to this court to-day, has +fallen a victim to the suggestion of the young advocate who has +persuaded him to come here to air his theories." The Court +wisely declined to allow an attempt to be made to hypnotise the +woman Bompard in the presence of her judges, and M. Henri +Robert, her advocate, in his appeal to the jury, threw over +altogether any idea of hypnotic suggestion, resting his plea on +the moral weakness and irresponsibility of his client. + + +[18] Moll in his "Hypnotism" (London, 1909) states that, after +Gabrielle Bompard's release M. Liegeois succeeded in putting +her into a hypnotic state, in which she re-acted the scene in +which the crime was originally suggested to her. The value of +such experiments with a woman as mischievous and untruthful as +Gabrielle Bompard must be very doubtful. No trustworthy instance +seems to be recorded in which a crime has been committed under, +or brought about by, hypnotic or post-hypnotic suggestion, +though, according to Moll, "the possibility of such a crime +cannot be unconditionally denied." + + +In sheer wickedness there seems little enough to choose between +Eyraud and Bompard. But, in asking a verdict without extenuating +circumstances against the woman, the Procureur-General was +by no means insistent. He could not, he said, ask for less, his +duty would not permit it: "But I am ready to confess that my +feelings as a man suffer by the duty imposed on me as a +magistrate. On one occasion, at the outset of my career, it fell +to my lot to ask from a jury the head of a woman. I felt then +the same kind of distress of mind I feel to-day. The jury +rejected my demand; they accorded extenuating circumstances; +though defeated, I left the court a happier man. What are you +going to do to-day, gentlemen? It rests with you. What I cannot +ask of you, you have the right to accord. But when the supreme +moment comes to return your verdict, remember that you have sworn +to judge firmly and fearlessly." The jury accorded extenuating +circumstances to the woman, but refused them to the man. After a +trial lasting four days Eyraud was sentenced to death, Bompard to +twenty years penal servitude. + +At first Eyraud appeared to accept his fate with resignation. He +wrote to his daughter that he was tired of life, and that his +death was the best thing that could happen for her mother and +herself. But, as time went on and the efforts of his advocate to +obtain a commutation of his sentence held out some hope of +reprieve, Eyraud became more reluctant to quit the world. + +"There are grounds for a successful appeal," he wrote, "I am +pretty certain that my sentence will be commuted. . . . You ask +me what I do? Nothing much. I can't write; the pens are so +bad. I read part of the time, smoke pipes, and sleep a great +deal. Sometimes I play cards, and talk a little. I have a room +as large as yours at Sevres. I walk up and down it, thinking +of you all." + +But his hopes were to be disappointed. The Court of Cassation +rejected his appeal. A petition was addressed to President +Carnot, but, with a firmness that has not characterised some of +his successors in office, he refused to commute the sentence. + +On the morning of February 3, 1891, Eyraud noticed that the +warders, who usually went off duty at six o'clock, remained at +their posts. An hour later the Governor of the Roquette prison +entered his cell, and informed him that the time had come for the +execution of the sentence. Eyraud received the intelligence +quietly. The only excitement he betrayed was a sudden outburst +of violent animosity against M. Constans, then Minister of the +Interior. Eyraud had been a Boulangist, and so may have +nourished some resentment against the Minister who, by his +adroitness, had helped to bring about the General's ruin. +Whatever his precise motive, he suddenly exclaimed that M. +Constans was his murderer: "It's he who is having me +guillotined; he's got what he wanted; I suppose now he'll +decorate Gabrielle!" He died with the name of the hated Minister +on his lips. + + + + +INDEX +{not ocr'd} + + + +**The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Book of Remarkable Criminals** + diff --git a/old/rcrim10.zip b/old/rcrim10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed2321e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/rcrim10.zip |