THEFT AND MURDER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 255, 25 September 1933, Page 8

THEFT AND MURDER.

PENITENT CRIMINAL’S SUICIDE IN CELL. AMAZING CANADIAN STORY. Tile murder of a policeman, a running gun-fight with bandits and the penitent suicide of one of them after capture, were dramatic incidents associated with the recovery of stolen paintings valued at £IO,OOO, which were taken several months ago from tile Montreal Art Gallery. The editor of a Montreal newspaper received half of one canvas, with a demand for £6OOO ransom; otherwise the pictures would be cut into a jigsaw. No communication was made with the robbers.

The solution came in unexpected fashion when a Canadian-Pacific Railway constable, Mackie, and an associate attempted to arrest two men for robbing a freight car in the railway yards. One robber turned and fired point-blank at Mackie, who subsequently died. The pair were captured after a chase and the firing of many shots. Paul Thousin was charged with murder. When told that Mackie had died, he wept and took the officers to liis cache, 50 miles away, where the paintings were all hidden. He was returned to his cell where, later, he was found dead of poison, which he had hidden in the heel of his shoe;