The Mysterious Monttet Murder.

Hastings Standard, Issue 47, 20 June 1896, Page 4

The Mysterious Monttet Murder.

AX AWFUL PBOBLEM IN CHIME.

Hero is the most- puzzling murder case that has ever been brought before a French court of justice. lour corn-is haw discussed it, an<J have attempted to decide it. Yet it is now no nearer a just decision than it was four years ago. Iu the village of Blancarde, near Marseilles, there was a rich woman named Madame Monttet. She was eighty years old, and lived alone, except for lier companion, Marie Michel, a pretty girl of sixteen, young for her age in speech and manners, but well developed physically. Every day a young man of the village, a certain Loui~ Cauvin, of good family and of excellent reputation, came to call on the old woman. It was well known that Cauvin was to be the old woman's sole heir. She gave him money ami presents all the time, and they seemed to be very fond of each other. As the old woman was very strong, she had a good chance to live many years. Early in the morning of December IG, 1801, old Madame Monttet was found dead. She had been strangled iu her bed after a terrible struggle, in which she had drawn blood from her murderer with her long nails. She had been strangled in the most brutal and cold-blooded manner. Suspicion at once fixed upon Marie Michel as an accomplice, because she could not give a coherent account of herself. She denied strenuously, but after a few days made a most startling confession. She accused young Cauvin of the murder. She said that on the evening of December 15, Cauvin o tie red her 8000 francs out of his inheritance from the old woman and a secure place in the employ of his own family if she would help to murder her old mistress. She said that she had accepted his offer. Her account of the murder was full of minute and horrible details. She said Cauvin's manner was such that she thought he would kill her, and the old woman as well if she did not consent. So she hid him in the .bedroom of the old woman, and they waited until her breathing indicated that she was asleep. Marie said that she held the candle while Cauvin leaped upon the body of the old woman, stickng his knees into her abdomen and burying his lingers in her throat. But the old woman was stronger than he thought. She struggled frantically, and twisted herself inso such a position that his fingers slipped from her neck. The nightstand at the head of the bed was in the way. Cauvin called out to the y'nmg girl to move it, and she did so. Hut the old woman had freed her legs from the covers, and was kicking violently. Marie set the candle down, and laid hold of the old woman's ankles, and stretched her legs out straight, so that she could not kick. Cauvin soon finished the strangling. When he was sure the old woman was dead he went into the next room and washed away the blood her nails had drawn. He came back, wiping them on a towel. This is only an outline of the story the girl told. It was apparently as truthful and as precise in its details as a story could possibly be. When the case came up she went upon the stand, and repeated it just as she had told it to the prosecutor. The young man's lawyer, one of the best criminal lawyers in France, cross-examined the girl for several days. He did not"succeed iu breaking her testimoiY in a

single point. Cauvin proved a good alibi. But tlie jury found him guilty. There wys the girl's story, and there was the fact that Cauvin was the only man in the world who would profit by the death of this wealthy old woman. He was sentenced to death. Marie Michel was acquitted. For some reason the Judge was not quite satisfied, and sent the case up to a higher court. That court sent it back for a re-trial. The same testimony was heard over again, and the jury found Cauvin guilty, and he was again sentenced to death. But the case was again sent up, because the Judge feared there was something wrong. There was a long delay. Marie Michel went into a convent not as a novice, but as a penitent in retreat. She became very religious, and a few months ago she sent for the prosecutor. To him she confessed that she had lied about Cauvin. " I killed Madame Montctt," she said. " I alone am guilty. I accused Cauvin to save myself. My confession was a lie from beginning to end.'' She made this confession under oath. But when they asked her why she killed the old woman she said she did not know. Her mistress had always been kind to her, and that it was to her interest for her mistress to live as long as possible, as her wages depended upon it. But she swore most earnestly that she, and she alone, was guilty; that Couvin never even suggested the murder, and she described how he had done it with as much minuteness as she had previously used in describing how Cauvin had done it. Physicians were called in. They said that Marie Michel was mentally sound, and that she was physically powerful enough to have produced the deep wounds in the old woman's neck. And now began a new series of trinls. None knew what to think it was impossible to decide between the young woman's two contradictory stories. Each was apparently as coherent and credible as the other. And the fact that Cauvin denied the accusation was balanced by the facts that he would have a motive for the crime, and Marie Michel had no possible motive for it, but very strong reasons for not wishing the old woman to die. •Just before Marie's confession Cauvin was condemned to death for the third time. A reprieve came just in time to save his head. The brutal murder of the old woman should not go unavenged. But who should suffer for it ? And if the law punishes cither there is the doubt whether an innocent person is not dying for the: crime and the guilty person going free.