CRIME IN PARIS.

Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 69, 24 March 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

CRIME IN PARIS.

A remarkable trial for murder and robbery commenced on January 11, before the Assize Court of the Heine. The accused was a mau named Barbicr, aged 25, who was for some time an agent for the sale of flowers and fruits in the Central Market. The murdered man, Eugene Maton, an Inspector ofthe Society of Public Assistauce, was wealthy, and led a retired life in an apartment of house at the corner of the Bue Rambuteau and the Rue St. Martin. On October 15, M. Maton was found dead on the floor of his bedroom, a thin cord being tightened round his neck, and a part of it hanging broken from a nail in the wall. It was at once summarily concluded that the deceased had committed suicide ; and Maton, after the necessary formalities had been gone through, was buried in his native place, a town in the north of of France. When his heirs, however, came to examine the inventory of the property they found that securities to the amount of £3200 had disappeared. The body was accordingly disinterred, but, being in an advanced state of decomposition, no traces of death by the hands of another person could be discovered. The brother of the deceased then came to Paris, accompanied by a rural policeman who knew the family. This man — named Godde — after having examined the apartment and the cord which had been tied round the neck of the deceased, at once concluded that M. Maton had been murdered. He showed that the nail and the cord were too weak to hold up a .man's body — a fact which the Parisian police inspector had altogether overi looked. Further search disclosed traces of a desperate struggle, shattered | vases and a broken stick being found behind the chairs. In the meantime M. Alberic Maton, the brother, ascertained from various . moneychangers that a woman named Fichon, had tried to sell some Credit Foncier coupons which belonged to the deceased. Pichou, a market-woman, was communicated with, and told the examining magistrate that she had got the coupons from her daughter, Elisa Fevre, who lived with Marbier, the accused person, as his mistress. Barbier, it appears, having failed in his business, was at his wits' end to satisfy bis landlord and other creditors. Balny, the landlord, threatened to turn him out ou lGth October if he did not pay £8. That was in the morning. Bavbier returned at four in the afternoon, his face all scratched, and his hands severely cut. Haying washed his wounds with some arnica he paid his landloid £4 10s, stating, in explanation of his cuts and bruises, that he had beeu fighting iv the Bois de Boulogne. Next day he discharged the whole ef his debts, and paid many of his creditors in bank notes amounting to £40 each. The woman Fevre, with whom he lived, began to array herself in unaccustomed finery, and

the clerks at the Societe Generale remarked with some surprise that Barbier, whose account with the bank had closed at the time of his bankruptcy, was now depositing in abundance. Some oi the securities were stolen from him by the woman Fevrc, to whom he had also given a few. Barbier was alleged to have deliberately taken a room opposite Maton's abode, and had for a long time watched every movement of the latter through a field-glass.