"HUMAN POCUPINE."

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 161, 9 July 1910, Page 15

"HUMAN POCUPINE."

BKOCIOTIS APACHE WHO ENCASED HIMSELF. IN CTJRIOTJS ABMOT3K. SENTENCED TO DEATH, At the Assize Court of the Seine, < Jean abeuf, the Apache -who gained notoriety the "ihuman porcupine," was' sentenc- . to death for the murder of a policeman imed Deray, in January last. The murder woe actuated by revenge. Llabeuf had been accused of receiving money from women, and on the evidence of the Rolice yraa convicted and sent to prison. He protested all along that he was innocent, and found many to take his part. Liabeuf swore to have revengp on the police — . and lie kept his word. Getting a hint, as he afterwards said, Irom. an English hook, he made himself urinlets of stout leather-j studded with sharp nails. These he wore on his arms from wrists to shoulders,' under his Jacket. Hie throat, too, was. encircled yith a similar band; hidden by a scarf.y Thud accoutred, and armed with revolver and krilfej he deliberately provoked a' quarrel with the police. When they went to arrest him he opened are with the revolver. If the officers got near enough he brought the knife Into play. Any of them who succeeded; in reaching him had their hands cruelly lacerated by the sharp nails in his armour. . After a firece battle Liabeuf was secured, but he had killed Deray and wounded six other officers. •In the court-room iwere a number of elegant ladles who had put on Fashion's latest fads to see the famous hooligan. These contrasted with several ApacheUke people who were standing at the back of the court. The policeman on .whose evidence Liabeuf was, in the first instance, convicted, reiterated his statement, but the secretary of the "Guerre Sociale'' stated that he had made a private inquiry into the case, and he was convinced that Liabeuf was a victim of police error. M. Gustave Herve, the director of this journal, was so convinced of Liabeuf's original Innocence thrit he wrote a violent article approving the murder of the policeman Deray — an article for which he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. When sentence was pronounced, Llabeuf, a dark, .finely-built man of thirty, cried, "I .will die on the scaffold, but I am not a souteneur. I shall protest my Innocence to the last drop, of my blood." These words produced a profound sensation. Many people believe Liabeuf to be the victim of a miscarriage of Justice, and it seems" not unlikely that the sentence may be commuted to one of penal servitude for life.