TWO MURDERS IN FIVE HOURS.

Mataura Ensign, 26 January 1912, Page 2

TWO MURDERS IN FIVE HOURS.

A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE. A woman of 35, with an excellent reputation for honest, industry and good sense, attempted two murders within five hours in Paris last month, killing her husband and mortally wounding her aunt. She acted with complete deliberation and coolness and shows not the slightest trace of insanity or even of excitement.

She decided on her crimes at midday. She lunched at a restaurant with her little daughter at 12.15 p.m.; shot her husband dead in his bedroom while ho slept at one o'clock; went to tho station and took train for Savigny-sur-Orge, 13 miles away, at 2.30 p.m., reached the house of her husband's aunt at 3.30; shot the old lady five minutes later; returned to Paris at about half-past four; said good-bye to her daughter at a quarter to five; and gave heiself up to the police at fii'o o'clock. The woman's name is Marguerito Pascal, and she was married on October 17 last to Jean Pascal, an ex-soldier, who sav much service in the French Colonics and whom she had known ininnately for 12 years. M. Pascal worked all i>)ght in the office of a Paris newspaper

"I si iiera! much from my husband's unkindi es,i." Mme. Pascal told tho police later, "and his aunt, Cainille Pascal, a wealthy woman of 63, egged him or,. I resolved to be revenged on them loth this very day, and [ have killed them." Mme. Pascal did not know that her aunt had not succumbed.

"I took my little girl out to lunch while my husband slept, and then I bought a revolver. I went homo again, and asked the concierge to take care of my little girl for a while. I went upstairs to our rooms on tho sixth storey and quietly opened the door. My husband was asleep. "I walked to the side of iJhe bed and held tho barrel close to his head and pulled the trigger three times. He did not move. I must have killed him the first shot. Nobody seemed to have heard the noise. I went out, shutting the door after me, for I still had to go to Savigny to complete my revenge. "I took the Metropolitan to the Austerlitz Station and booked to Savigny. I had half an hour to wait, so there Has plenty of time to reload tho revolver. At Savigny I walked to my aunt's house and knocked. She let me in, and we went to the kitchen. There I shot her four times, and she fell down without a cry. I shut the door softly and came back to Paris. I went home to say good-bye to my daughter, and then I came hero to givo myself up, for I am a great criminal." All this story was told with as much calm as though the speaker were commenting on the weather, and every fact was subsequently verified by the police.