THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER IN MADRID.

Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER IN MADRID.

EXTRAORDINARY rRISON REVELATIONS The Daily News correspondent at Madrid gives a deeply-intereresting account of the extraordinary Varela murder. "At last," the correspondent says, "the magistrates were suddenly put into possession o£ data that revealed facts so important and so strange that never has any crime produced such a deep and sad sensation in Spain. Indeed, not only in Madrid, but in every part of the kingdom, this really extraordinary affair has been followed with unprecedented curiosity and anxiety. The realistic horrors of this cause celebre might have served as the basis of a sensational novel, which most readers ■would have said was too incredible to be possible in real life. Many Spaniards and respectable organs of the Madrid press were, until the last few days, reluctant to admit that the secret of this mysterious crime could be discovered, as it has been, behind the walls of the prison of the capital. This penitentiary was supposed to be the best administered and the most constantly watched of all, and was inspected by the Government and the Minister of Justice." A MIDNIGHT DISCOVERY. After midnight on July 1 the police magistrate entered the second floor of the house No. 109 in the Oalle de Fuencarral, where the porter and neighbours had heard some unusual noises and noticed smoke. On reaching the second floor, he rang the bell and repeatedly asked for admission, in the terms required by the law, before he ordered the door to be forced open. This was not done without some trouble and delay. The officers of the law were horrified at finding the occupant of the apartment lying dead in the alcove by her bed. The deceased lady, a woman of about 55 years of age, had been stabbed to death, and the assassins had attempted to burn the body. Fo? this purpose they had heaped clothes over the lower limbs, and had poured petroleum on thorn, to which they had set light. The fire had charred and disfigured the lower part of the body, but had died out, leaving intact the chest and neck, which bore the marks of stabs. In the room where the crime had been committed nothing had been touched or disturbed. Only a careful investigation showed that bloodstains on the floor and furniture had been washed away. In the course of his search, the judge was not a little amazed to discover in the kitchen a servant, the only attendant of the murdered lady, and a bulldog. The latter was evidently labouring under the effects of a strong narcotic. The servant was coolly lying on the floor of the kitchen next the dog, and at first pretended that she had neither witnessed the crime nor heard the authorities knocking at the door of her mistress. She was putin-prison, and has been the cause of great perplexity and embarrassment to the Crowu officers. A SCAPEGRACE SOX AND A SINGULAR SERVANT. The murdered lady was a widow, who had inherited considerable property in Cuba and Spain. She lived in modest style, with only one servant. The only interest she showed was in her son, a young man of 24 years of age, her sole heir. He had given her much annoyance and trouble, as he had been leading a a wild dissipated life. He only camo to her for money, and they very frequently had attracted the notice of their neighbours by the violent scenes and disputes, in which, unfortunately, he forgot himself several times so far as, to strike his mother. Once he was actually arrested and piosecuted for an assault upon her, and she saved him by refusing all testimony in court. ' About four months ago he got into trouble, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, which he was undergoing on the night when the authorities discovered the death of his mother. On the morning after the crime the prison officials communicated to young Yarela the news of his mother's death. He did not show much con-r cern, but at once gave instructions for her funeral, and ordered that no expense was to be spared for the Church rites, masses, and the interment. When asked whether his suspicions fell on anybody, he declared himself at a loss to guess who could have perpetrated snch a crime. He said that his firm belief was that the servant, Higinia Balaguer, could only have been an unwilling witness or accomplice of such a deed.