WEIRD MURDER IN PARIS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 19 January 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

WEIRD MURDER IN PARIS.

MUTILATED- BODY FOUND IN THE STREET.

The streets of Paris on the night of the 4th ult. echoed with the shrill cry of the newsboy, "Horrible discovery; a young man cut in pieces!" and persons talked of

nothing else but the mysterious crime,

which recalls the revolting- murders of Jack the Ripper.

The full story of the tragedy has yet lo be revealed, but from personal inquiries the "Daily Mail" correspondent gives the following details:—

This morning about eight o'clock Mme. Stein, the concierge of a tenement at 205, Fauborg- St. Denis, not far from the Gare dv Nord, had her attention drawn to a bulky parcel reclining against the inside of the street door.

Thinking that some one might have temporarily left it there, she allowed it to remain until 9.30, when her curiosity got the better of her. Not liking the look of it, she called a policeman, who soon discovered that it contained human remains.

A magistrate was brought, and, after several wrappings had been removed a human trunk was exposed. The head and arms were absent, and the legs from the knees were missing, The body had been horribly mutilated, and the intestines removed. It was, however, possible for a medical man to state that the headless trunk was that of a young man about twenty years of age.

The concierge, whom I saw this evening, was still pale and agitated from the disconcerting

DISCOVERY MADE AT HER DOOR. She could throw no light on the mysterious affair. Neither she nor her husband had heard any unusual sound in the night, although the door of their lodge is not more than three yards from the outer door; and the husband did not notice anything in the passage when he went out to his work at 6.30 this morning.

The grocer next door, when he opened his shop at 7.30, saw nothing, but a little later on he remarked two men, who had been walking up and down in front of the house, suddenly enter and immediately after come out and disappear, but he saw no parcel.

None of the other neighbours could furnish any explanation of the ghastly incident, but I was Informed in another that the concierge had drawn the cord opening the door at two o'clock in tne morning. At that hour even concierges are drowsy, and after a short interval the door was closed again.

Neither the porter nor his wife could say what happened between the opening and shutting of the door. The Commissalre, however, informs me that in his opinion the remains were deposited about X.30 a..m.

At about the same hour as the gruesome discovery in the Faubourg St. Denis, a boy of ten, on his way to school, noticed a curious bundle on some vacant ground in the Pere Lachalse quarter. A comrade soon cut the string, displaying the

UNEXPECTED SIGHT OF A HUMAN HEAD.

which had been scalped, two arms, and two legs.

At iir.st it was considered that these remains were those of a woman, but, although the nose and the upper lip had been cut off, close Investigation proved them to be those of a young man.

When later In the day the two sets of remains were critically examined, the police were convinced that the trunk found In the Faubourg St. Denis and the limbs discovered in the Rue dcs Platrleres belong to the same body.

The evidence taken and the details collected by M. Cochefert, the head of the Paris detective service, point to the conclusion that the author of the awful crime is some one employed in a warehouse and accustomed to making parcels, while it is considered that the victim belongs to the better classes and was not used to manual labour.

• But although It is announced to-night that the police have an Important clue in an address discovered on one of the pieces of paper used to wrap the remains, they are still entirely in the dark as to the author of the horrible mystery and the motives and circumstances under which it was perpetrated. The FaubourgSt. Denis, is a busy main thoroughfare, and the strange thing is that no one can furnish the slightest information regarding the individual ior individuals who placed the mutilated trunk where It was found.

The body is now at the Morgue awaiting identification. The police have not yet arrested anyone in connection with "the affair.

Telegraphing the following day the same correspondent says:—

The frightful crime the particulars of which 1 telegraphed to you last nifjht is still a great topic In Paris, and the Impenetrable mystery which surrounds the whole affair only adds to the suspense regarding the author, the victim, and the reason for THT3 DREADFUL, OUTRAGE. It has not yet been established whether the young man who was found cut in pieces was first strangled, and ail the efforts of the doctors and police engaged on the case are still directed towards the identification of the body, a task rendered extremely difficult owing. to the mutilation. Once that is accomplished it is hoped that the first step in the unravelling of the mystery will have, been made.

A plan of the scene of the discovery has been prepared. Every trail is being followed, and all persons remotely connected with the finding of the two parcels containing the remains have been carefully examined by the magistrates charged with the elucidation of the gruesome business.

But of all the evidence collected the most valuable seems to be that of M. Jacciuemont. who from his window on Monday night saw six men in the neighbourhood of the Rue dcs Platieres talking in a low voice. Finally two of them left the others, and he noticed that one of them carried a large parcel, which he threw into the ditch, where it was found this morning. After this the six men made off.

With regard to the parcel deposited behind the street door in the Faubourg St. Denis, little doubt is entertained that the two men seen by the grocer and the milkman in front of the house, and whose movements they

REGARDED AS SUSPICIOUS, belonged to the same band. The evidence of these three witnesses agree in most particulars, and although their information is vague the police consider that as the assassins number half a dozen vengeance was probably the motive of the crime, and that a fatal indiscretion on the part of one of them will bring them within the grip of the law. All the Paris detective staff Is at work, and it is believed that a clue will be obtained before long. Experts have concluded a minute examination of the paper, the material of the curtain, and the waxed cloth in which the two parcels were wrapped, and police inspectors all over Paris and the suburbs are trying' to match these. v

The murder is supposed to have taken place about seven or eight o'clock at night in one of the numerous hovels situated between the quarters of the Faubourg St. Denis and Pere Laehahe, and the police remark that a curious circumstance is that no woman has come forward to vouchsafe an opinion as to the deceased.

As a result of the medical examination of the remains this morning, Dr. Socquet Is of opinion that the cutting up was probably done by a butcher or a charcutier, and that the victim was bled before laelng^ dissected. His ag-e is "believes to have been between fifteen and twenty.

M. Bertillon has finished his anthroronetrlc measurements, and is fit work trying to establish the identity of the subject.

A later report states that two young men have been arrested In connection with the crime.