MURDERS IN PARIS

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 March 1928, Page 7

MURDERS IN PARIS

POLICE POWERLESS — i CHICAGO OUT-DONE (Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.) (By Cable —Press Assn. —Conyright.) PARIS, i\larch 8. This city is outrivalling Chicago as a crime centre. Never in its history has there been such a, wave of Press and public attack upon the police and their powerlessness in dealing with criminality. There has scarcely been a day of the new year without some terrible crime, and the perpetrators escaping. To-day the body of a motorist was found on the banks of the Seine, the victim being kidnapped from the motor-car, which was abandoned at Bois de Boulogne. A sensational scene was enacted at the Paris Divorce Court when the judge, whose duty it is to try to reconcile people before a divorce action, announced the husband’s refusal to compromise his wife. Madame, who is a Servian, aged 23, drew a. revolver from her handbag and shot herself in the heart.

The newspaper “Quotidien” comments that the crime wave threatens to submerge the police organisation. There are three reasons for the crime wave. The police are insufficient, and are inadequately equipped ; the juries will not convict, and the heads of the departments are incompetent. “MURDERED” HIMSELF. JEWEL ROBBERY THEORY. PARIS, March 8. A startling theory, reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe, is advanced concerning the Truphene murder. It is now suggested that Truphene, who was in possession of more than £6OOO in diamonds, himself murdered an unknown man and substituted the victim’s body and dressed it in his own clothes to which he set fire, hoping to mislead the police into believing he was dead. The theory is supported by three men identifying Truphene from the photograph as the driver by whom it is believed the body was conveyed to the scene. Two women well known to Truphene state that he mentioned that he had a presentiment that he would be assassinated, and his body burned, also that he was going to Amsterdam where he had a new position. Another intriguing circumstance Iks that Truphene’s overcoat, in the pocket of which there was a small set of scales used for weighing jewels, was found on the. roadside near the body.

WIFE MURDER TRIAL.

MELBOURNE. March 9.

The jury in the 'Griggs’ trial retired, and after several hours returned to Court, where the foreman announced they had apparently reached a dead lock, there being no chance of reaching a decision. The jury were then locked up tor the night.