THE BLUE TRAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 267, 10 November 1934, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE BLUE TRAIN.

MURDER DRAMA. SLAYER UNMASKED. MAN "WANTED" FOR 11 YEARS. As the Blue Train—the most famous, luxury express in the world—sped on itq way from the Riviera to Paris last month a passenger in a lirst-class compartment murdered his sleeping friend and then turned his revolver on himself. Meanwhile, a criminal was being grilled by the police in distant Lille. He declared that two inen, named Ahbert and Rene Betlamiui, were members of the gang organised by Mariani, the Suretc-Generale iusp«»ctor who has been unmasked as a white slaver, thief aud drug trafficker. Within a few hours the French police had discovered that the two men shot dead in the Blue Express were the wanted gangsters, Alibert and Betlamini. Then came another sensational disclosure. The name Alibert was proved to be the alias of Joseph Ziffer, a Pole, wanted for the murder of his sistcr-m-law in 1023. It was a train attendant who discovered the double tragedy of the Blue Express. The train was stopped at Montgeron, near Paris, the death carriage was shunted to a side line and a medical and legal examination carried out on the spot. "I Am Innocent." A criminologist came to the conclusion that Alibert was the murderer—Betlamini the victim. Two dramatic notes written by Alibert were found in the compartment. They read as follow: — (1) "I am making an honest, man of Rene for the second time. He is nay :«isfortuue. In the face of death I swear I am innocent." (2) "Rene, with his diabolical brain, has set the police against me. He knows I prefer death to ; caudal. He expects my suicide." ; ■*. Betlamini, like many another criminal involved in the scandals which in recent times have stirred France to her foundations, lived an amazing double life. His Paris friends know him as a merchant, supporting his aped mother in a comfortable flat of which she was the mistress. Alibert worked in the business, which served as a ■ moke tscreeu for the underworld activities- nf both men.

It was only in juti of this year that Alibert was identified—juetf lfl days before police action would have been rendered impossible by existing law—as tho wanted murderer ZifTer. It is thought that he committed his double crime either because Betlamini, knowing his record, had blackmailed him, or because he was reduced to panicstricken desperation by the knowledge that the police net was being drawn about him. Family Council. The police allege that Alibert killed his sister-in-law after a family council in Poland had decided on her death so that her husband might marry a rich woman. The murder was committed at Le Treport, on the north coast of France. Plus mystery was partially solved through the arrest in Poland of Alibert's brother and a sister. The brother was once an officer in the Austrian Army. Only a few days previously a police officer engaged in shndowing Betlamini in connection with the Mariaui scandal called at the Paris flat of the "respectable merchant's" partner. Alibert reappeared at his flat. The porter told him of the police visit. At once the gangster turned

on his heel and fled. His suicide cleared up a riddle which has baffled the best police brains for eleven years. It appears that the two criminals joined the Blue Train at Nice. Large sums were found i'i their pockets, and it is supposed that they had been gambling in the Riviera casinos. A revolver with two spent cartridges in its chamber lay near tlie bodice. Another discovery in the death compartment was a glass, at the bottom of which was a thick white deposit.

There was no sound of a quarrel during the night, no crack of a revolver to warn the train attendants of the crime. Other passengers report seeing the murderer and his victim playing cards amicably together.