A Deadly Vendetta

Northern Advocate, 11 July 1938, Page 5

A Deadly Vendetta

(Received 1.30 p.m.) CANNES, July 10,

A four-year-old underworld feud caused three deaths last night, and has already been responsible for three murders. The feud started in the “Dead Rat” Cabaret at Montmarte during Christmas of 1934, when a boy named Keusch was killed.

The father, Foata Keusch, accused Jean Stefanij but, while the latter was awaiting trial, his brother, Etienne Stefani, was found shot. Jean was acquitted in 1936 as no witnesses had appeared. Foata Keusch lay in wait for him at a cemetery where Jean was visiting his wife’s grave, and fired, taut missed, for which ho was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment. Jean, however, was killed in a Montmarte street last year by a man who was acquitted after pleading self-defence. The latest crime is believed to be an “execution by the Stefani gang,” two of whom ambushed a 40-year-old Parisian, Andre Marguin, poured 11 bullets into his head and stomach dashed off in a car without lights, and ran down and killed two motorists who were repairing a tyre at the roadside.

At. Cagnes the police barred their way at a level crossing, but the driver ignored the signal to halt. The police fired at the car, and a bullet pierced the petrol tank, setting fire to the car, but the occupants leaped out and disappeared in the darkness.

It was Andre Marguin who killed Jean Stefani.

Keusch’s son was killed by a volley aimed at his father, and Foata, carry-' ing on the vendetta and attempting to shoot Jean Stefani, hid behind a tombstone and wounded one of Stefani’s bodyguard. He was then felled by a grave-digger with a wooden cross. J