JEWELLER CONFESSES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 17 March 1928, Page 5

JEWELLER CONFESSES

MURDER OF TRUPHENE. FRENCH POLICE METHODS. QUESTIONED FOR TWENTY HOURS SY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION-COPYRIGHT PARIS, March 15. After being questioned for 20 hours, from 0 a-m. to 4.30 a.m.. with only brief intervals for meals, a . jeweller named. Mesterino confessed to the murder of Truphene. Mesterino was exhausted mentally and physically, at the clo.se of tlie inquiry. The police two ah a. time, took turns in flinging questions at him, until resistance ended and he murmured “Yes, I am the man. For pity’s sake give me rest.” He then collapsed. Next morning the police took Mesterino to his house in Rue Saint Augustin, for a reconstruction of the crime. An immense crowd gathered ouits:de and was most hostile, shouting “To the guillotine.” Mesterino confessed that Truphere demanded money due to him. A violent quarrel ensued, in the course. of which Trupnene was floored, hitting his head on the corner of a table. When he recovered consciousness he shouted for help. Mesterino lost his head and suffocated him, stuffing a wad of cotton wool in his mouth. He tied up the body, drove it way in a •?ar, burned it, and then returned to Pans, where he continued his businessA large part of the jewels had been recovered. Mesterino did up two packages and gave them to his sistner-in-a*w and aunt to keep, neither knowing the contents. .

Tru phone’s disappearance while ca rrying a large quantitv of jewels excited i good deal of interest in Paris, where it was exi>ected that he was waylaid and robbed.