CRIME OF PASSION.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLVII, Issue 52, 31 December 1920, Page 3

CRIME OF PASSION.

APACHE LOVER'S REVENGE. The details of a tragedy in the neighbourhood of 'Les Halles—in which two Apaches are concerned, and the victim is a pretty flower girl named Marcelle Rigel—have just been made known (says the Paris correspondent of the Sunday Chronicle). The setting of the crime is the back room of a third floor flat in one of the network of dark and ill-'conditioned streets that fornv the greater part of the Underworld of Paris. iClose at hand is a cafe, frequented for the most part by criminals, whose records are kept carefully among the archives of the Snrete--the Scotland Yard of Paris.

Here, night after night, came Marcelle Higel. x She was very popular with the men, and could dance charmingly. Good-looking and vivacious, she had many Suitors, 'but showed a distinct preference for Pierre Maurice, who — rough ail'd ill-conditioned—was a striking fflittf&ft to the 'dainty and fascinating daiVeer.

'Maurice was of a jealous type, and induced the girl to swear -a vow of fidelity to him.

He was tracked down lljy detectives, however, and sent to prison for a theft committed in the Rue do la Madeleine. Marcelle was present at the trial, and, after receiving his sentence —a short one —-'Maurice waved a hand to her, shouting: "I .shall soon be with you again. Remember your oath." 'But Marcelle was fickle, turned for consolation to a man named Piot, and went to live with him. She seems to have fdrgotten Maurice, who conducting 'himself well in gaol,'' was released a few days 'before the expiration of his sentence.

He at once returned to ;his accustomed haunts, inquired for Marcelle, and, learning what had happened, waited until night fell, and rushed upstairs to the' room where the .girl was living. He burst open the door and rushed at his rival with an open kjiife, stabbing hi>m to death. Then, turning to Marcelle—Whoim he lfad prevented from leaving the apartment—he bore her. to the floor, and poured vitriol into her eyes, and left h<er rolling in agony. • " 'Maurice then rushed down the stairs, atid shouted to a maii he 'met:

'' I have killed the man—aad spoiled the beauty of th'e woman. You had better go> upstairs." There was, of course, a hue and cry after • the murderer, but he was not traced till two days later, when his body was washed up on the banks of the Seine. Marcelle is still alive, but the shock ha.s destroyed her reason, and she is totally blind. /