DEATH CASKET.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 71, 24 March 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

DEATH CASKET.

STOLEN SUICIDE POWDER,

Almost like a fantastic Sherlock Holmes story is the Paris police record of two young rascals who, it is alleged, attempted to sell to rich people tired, of life a mysterious and deadly poison brought from India many years ago.

Sixty-three years ago a French army captain committed suicide in Paris. He left his fortune to a niece, who was then 10 years of age. He also left her, among other articles, a Chinese casket containing a white powder. In a letter to the child — who is now a septuagenarian widow, named Mme. Pierre, living in Paris —the dying officer said that the powder was a poison which he had brought back from India, and that by taking some of it he was putting a rapid end to his life.

Mme. Pierre kept the mysterious casket in a drawer, and never touched it until recently, when she wanted to get rid of two old dogs. She tried the powder on them and the effect was instantaneous.

Her two godsons—brothers named Pierre and Emil Coudert, now aged 19 and 21— witnessed the dog experiment. Being out

of work, the lads decided to ransack their godmother's apartment while she was away in the country, not very long ago. They found some jewellery and 6ilver plate, and they found the mysterious casket, with its white powder.

After a time they began to visit the night haunts, carrying the poison casket with them, and inquiring for any rich people harbouring the desire to put an cr.d to their lives. One restaurant keeper, hearing of their quest with the suicide specific, called in the police. The two brothers were taken to the police station. When asked what was in their Chinese box, they confessed to their breaking into their godmother's home; and they t<Md the story attached to the casket of white powder.

"But what did you intend to do with it?" asked the police commissary.

"It is very simple," said one of them. "We read in newspapers recently th«t there was an epidemic of suicides among rich people who, after leading a gay life and spending their fortune iu gambling, take their own lives. We thought of lojking for these weary ones, to offer them for a good price, a quick and painless means of committing suicide. With that aim, we visited night pleasure resorts, notably in Montmartre." Both lads were detained.