REVENGE ON SWINDLER

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 85, 7 October 1929, Page 9

REVENGE ON SWINDLER

STRANCE CASE IN FRANCE

AIE PIPE IN COFFIN

(Jolted Press Association—By Electric Tel«. Craph—Copyright Australian Press Association. PAEIS, 4th October. Keeeiving an anonymous letter with a diagram stating that the Marquis of Champaubert was buried alive at Verneuil sur Seine, the polico hastened to the cemetery and found at the spot indicated a little tube sticking up from the freshly disturbed earth. Digging revealed a.coffin containing the body of a man. The tube was sufficient to enable him to breathe, hence it is believed that death was due to starvation.

It is reported that the pseudonym "Marquis of Champaubert" concealed the identity of Pascal Clement, who was prominent many years ago in connection with an alleged swindle. He recently went to reside with bis mother at St. Denis in the hope of living clown the past.

Burial alive is possibly a diabolical form of revenge. The body was clad in a shirt only. His trousers were folded under his head as a pillow. His face bore traces of terrible suffering, and a post-mortem revealed symptoms of asphyxia as well as starvation..His elbows, knees, and the back of hiswhead were bruised. Death had occurred at least forty-eight hours before the discovery. The.pipe communicating with the coffin was solidly made of brickelav.

The grave was in the woods near Verneuil. The spot was exactly shown on the plan accompanying an anonymous letter addressed to a friend of Clement's named Gryvalefc, who communicated with the police. The death of the pseudo-Marquis recalls a no less amazing exploit in which he was the chief actor in 1924. Giving the name Marquis of Champaubert, he rented a chalet near Dinard and asked a jeweller to bring a magnificent collection of gems. Tho jeweller was invited to sit in a room specially, fitted up with an apparatus which was slowly chloroforming him. He escaped and informed the police, and Clement was arrested and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. .