PRISONER’S FATE.
DEVIL’S ISLAND ESCAPEE. Though he swore Iris innocence oil the heads of'his family, Armand Spilers, Devil’s Island escapee, was found guilty of murder on February 15, at Pan, France. He will be guillotined. The charge against Spilers in this case was one of murdering a policeman, Fautroux, who surprised him when breaking into a house at St. Jean de Luz, in the Pyrenees. “1 am a robber, but not a murderer!” he cried, “I swear on the heads of my wife and of my little daughter that it was not I who fired.” Counsel pleaded that Spilers had saved a little girl of six from drowning while he was doing military service and that lie risked death to save lives from a shipwreck when he was a prisoner in Guiana. The jury found Spilers not only guilty of murder, but also of 17 burglaries in a month in five different towns. He heard the sentence without emoton. t ~, . During the trial it was stated that Spilers and two others, after escaping to the mainland from Devil’s Island, became lost and were dying of thirst. They drew lots to decide who should die to save the others.
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Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 101, 31 March 1937, Page 10
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198PRISONER’S FATE. Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 101, 31 March 1937, Page 10
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