THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER IN MADRID.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9178, 6 October 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER IN MADRID.

EXTRAORDINARY PRISON 1 REVELATION'S. The Daily News correspondent at Madrid gives a deeply-interesting account of the extraordinary Varela murder. "At last," the correspondent says, "the magistrates were suddenly put into possession of data that revealed facts so important and so strange that never has any crime produced such a deep and sad sensation in Spain. Indeed, not only in Madrid, but in every part of the kingdom, this really extraordinary affair has been followed with unprecedented curiosity and anxiety. The realistic horrors of this came celebre might have served as the basis of a sensational novel, which most readers would have said was too incredible to be possible in real life. Many Spaniards and respect- le organs of the Madrid press were, until the last few days, reluctant to admit that the secret of this mysterious crime could be discovered, as it has been, behind the walls of the prison of the capital. This penitentiary was supposed to be the best administered and the most constantly watched of all, and was inspected by the Government and the Minister of Justice.''

A MIDNIGHT DISCOVKRV. After midnight on July 3 the police magistrate entered the second floor ot the ; house No. P»n in the Calle de Fuencarral, where the porter and neighbours had heard some unusual noises and noticed smoke. On reaching the second floor, he rang the bell and repeatedly asked for admission, in the terms required by the 'law, before ho ordered the door to be forced open. This was not done without some trouble and delay. The officers of the law were horrified at finding the occupant of the apartment lying dead in the alcove by her bed. The deceased lady, a woman of about 55 years of age, had been stabbed to death, and the assassins had attempted to burn the body. For this purpose they had heaped clothes over the lower limbs, and had poured petroleum on them, to which they had set light. The fire had charred and disfigured the lower part of the body, 'but had died out. leaving intact the chest and neck, which bore ho marks of stabs. In the room where the crime had been committed nothing had been touched or disturbed. Only a careful investigation showed that bloodstains on the floor and furniture had been washed away. In the course of his search, the judge was not a little amazed to discover in the kitchen a servant, the only attendant of the murdered lady, and a bulldog. The latter was evidently labouring under the effects of a strong narcotic. The servant was coolly lying on the floor of the kitchen next the dog, and at first pretended that she had neither witnessed the crime nor heard the . authorities knocking at the door of her .•mistress. She was put. in prison, and has ' been the cause of great perplexity and embarrassment to the Crown officers.

A SCAPEGRACE SON AND A SINGULAR SERVANT. The murdered lady was a widow, who had inherited considerable property in Cuba and Spain. She lived in modest style, with only one servant.. The only interest she showed was in her son, a young man of 21 years of age, her sole heir. He had given her much annoyance and trouble, as he had been leading a wild, dissipated life. He only came to her for money, and they very frequently had attracted the notice of their neighbours by the violent scenes and disputes, in which, unfortunately, he forgot himself several times so far as to strike his mother. Once he was actually arrested and prosecuted for an assault upon her. and she saved him by refusing all testimony in court. About four months ago he got into trouble, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, which he was undergoing on the night when the authorities discovered the death of his mother. On the morning after the crime the prison officials communicated to young Varela the news of his mother's death. He did not show much concern ; but he at once gave instructions for her funeral, and ordered that no expense was to be spared for the Church rites, masses, unci the interment. When asked whether his suspicions fell on anybody, he declared himself at a loss to guess who could have perpetrated such a crime. He said his • inn belief was that the servant, Higinia f-alaguer, could only have been an unwilling witness or accomplice of such a deed. THE SERVANT IMPLICATES THE GAOL GOVERNOR. For a whole fortnight Balacruer nearly .irove the judge and the police distracted with her pretended disclosures and concessions incriminating three women and Jive men, who were arrested. The judge had to examine more than one hundred witnesses, whose sworn evidence covered five thousand pages. Higinia made no less than three distinct statements, which she successively retracted or modified. One day she surprised the judge with a statement, in which she charged the son of the murdered lady, the prisoner in the Madrid gaol, with having been the principal actor i in this terrible affair. To this statement j she has stuck with extraordinary tenacity, •giving the minutest and most plausible details of the crime. She declared, when the was brought up and confronted with Varela, that he had assassinated his mother, stolen the bank-notes, and then threatened her with the same fate if she did not accept one thousand pesetas as the first instalment of rim price for her silence. She went on to explain how the murderer, who had two accomplices, sent her out to buy the petroleum, with which the body was to be burned by his order after he left the house at 10.4") p.m., a quarter of an hour before the porter closed the front door and put the gas out. When asked ■why she had not made a clean breast of all this sooner, Higinia declared that she had been induced to make her first statements by the governor of the prison. He wished to conceal the fact that he had let Varela ■out on July 1, as he had done many a time before. This singular confession of the only witness of the crime immediately led to the arrest of the governor. After five days' detention he was set at liberty, but not allowed to resume his duties pending further investigation. THE SUBSEQUENT DISCLOSURES. Day by day public opinion had been clamouring louder and loader for a thorough inquiry into the strange rumours that had gained credence. Most people -were beginning to think that grounds did exist for accusing the prison authorities of having permitted the accused man to go out whenever he chose to visit his mother, •or to spend a day at the buli-fight and his nights in revelry and riot outside his prison /walls. The judge and authorities, the more moderate and respectable organs of the Madrid press, and especially the friends of the Government, showed a marked un- ! •willingness to listen to the objections which •were raised against the judicial inquiries and investigations by many papers and by ' popular prejudice. The governor and ' almost all the prison officials, and many prisoners, were found ready to swear that Varela had not left his cell on the night of July J, nor on any other occasion. Soon persons were found to swear that they had seen Varela in the bull-ring, in cafes, and in the street on different occasions since the day on which he entered the prison to undergo his three months detention for the robbery of a coat in April, 1888. Finally, one of "the prison officials determined to try and cave himself by turning informer. He saw the judge, and made a clean breast of all he knew. Then it was discovered that, •like other prisoners, Jose Varela went in and out of His Majesty's prison by day and night, in disguise or in plain clothes, by the ordinary door or by a side passage through the political department. He had been out all the afternoon and night of July 1, and had returned to prison at 4 a.m. on July 2 in a state of semi-intoxi-cation, though he had been allowed to Jiave as a companion one of the prison officials. It was also learnt from the official who made this confession that Varela, on returning to the prison half-intoxicated, had told one fellow-prisoner, who was sweeping his cell, that his mother was badly hurt, and not likely to live long. To another person in the prison on the same night he had distinctly declared that he had been mad enough to kill his mother. The judge at once ordered Varela and the other prisoners arrested on suspicion of being his accomplices to be transferred to cells of close confinement, and he issued warrants for the apprehension of seven warders and officials on duty on July 1 and 2. Last, but not least, he issued a warrant for the arrest of .the ex-governor. He has released all the persons accused by the servant and by the officials of the prison, who 'turned informers after having first sworn a

few weeks ago that they knew and had seen absolutely nothing. Higinia Balaguer and two friends of hers, who are charged with having taken an active part in the crime, are kept in prison. Varela has been sent for trial. Last, but not least, the exgovernor of the prison will have to stand on his trial. A formidable array of witnesses will be brought forward. The case is still so obscure and so full of conflicting testimony on all sides that it excites great; curiosity. With the exception of El Dia, La Epoca, La Correspondence, LI Imparcial, Senor Castelar's paper, LI G obo, and the illustrated weeklies, almost all the other organs of the press have decided to appoint special counsel to watch the case. Never has any criminal case cited such interest and angry discussion, -The trial will hardly come off before the autumn. The preliminary report covers 3yoo iolio pace* and includes the sworn evidence of 210 witnesses, besides more than 'JO examinations of each suspected person.