TWO MEN GUILLOTINED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8682, 26 September 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

TWO MEN GUILLOTINED.

\ VIOLENT SCENE ON SCAFFOLD. Thf.death sentence was carried oat at Pari? on a recent Monday on iton; and Borland, passed upon them for the rnarder, in a most brutal manner, of Madame Mcnsnier De»?aigne, an old lady who lived alone in the prettily-surrounded village oi Coarbevols, on the left bank of the Seise, some si miles to the northwest of the capital There were five persons implicated in the ghastly tragedy, which was perpetrated in January last. The accased were not finally pat upon trial until the 12tb of Last month. The detail? were of a revolting character, and public indignation was intensified by the fact that the two victims now guillotined were mere i youths and instruments in the hands or ! Berlan I s mother, who kept an infamous ! den and was he'd by the court to have i taken a sufficiently active part in the 1 gba«t!y business to call for sentence of : death. The years of this abandoned woman I almost equalled the aggregate age? of the ; four youths, and, apart from her fiendish | physiognomy, her behaviour during the i three days' trial was at times disgusting.* ! The motive for the murder was robbery, it \ being supposed, as shown at the triaj, that Madame Dessaigne was pcHSAssei.'. of con- : siderable Tioaey. The youth Ber'and was sent by his mother to the victim's house with a letter. The unsuspecting lady asked him inside, and while she was in the act of reading the address he butted her with his head, and then thrust his hand into her month to tear out her tongue At that moment Dore rushed in, and plunged a strong awl into the unfortunate woman's head. She sank to the floor unconscious, and then Borland began to kick and jump upon his victim's head and face. Dsvi'ic. entering at this point, saw what was taking place, and leaving Borland to finish his foul work, he and I tore went upstairs to search for the unfortunate woman's money. lCemainms; a considerable time upstairs, Borland became auspicious of them, and proceeded to the tipper chambers. He, however, heard the woman groaning below, and thereupon returned and administered snore kicks about her head, and so ended her life. Chotin had up to that point remained outside keeping watch, but he was then called into the house, "and the four youth? having taken a parting look at the disfigured corpse, they shut the door, and proceeded to the den of the woman Berland, where they divided the plunder, which, however, amounted to less than IS*. They were received by the woman with an encouraging remark. In due course the police pot on their track. During the trial lion- pleaded that he had been led astray by the woman Borland. Her son coolly told the court that he had been drinking. " The sight of blood intoxicated me." Devillo .averred that had he not known Berland and Don'; he should havo been an honest workman ; and Chotin set up that he had been influenced by Devillo and Dore. The glimpses given of the life of the woman Berland were horrible in the depravity which they indicated. However, at the end of the three days' trial extenuating circumstances were accorded to Ciiotin and Doville, and they were respectively sentenced to 20 years' penal servitude. The Parisian? are strongly averse to the execution of women, and principally on this ground step? were taken to obtain a reprieve for the worn Berland. It was even rumoured that Madame Carnob exercised her ?ood offices on the side of clemency, bub this has been contradicted. None the less the culprit was reprieved late at night, and this appears to have been accepted as a signal that her son and Dore would pass through the hands of " Monsieur de Paris" within a very few hours. Just before midnight ib became generally known that the executions would be carried out shortly after daybreak. The work of building the guillotine into the four socket.*, whose positions are well defined by white stones, was expeditiously performed, and the executioner having tested the motion of the knife and tho certainty*of the trigger which release? it, and its impetus imparting a leaden weight of nearly 1001b, he and his attendants withdrew inside the prison gates to announce that so far as they were concerned everything was in readiness. The Prison Governor, the District Commissary of Police, Juge d'lnstruction Gretfier, and the Abbe Faure were likewise in readiness to perform their several parts in the grim function. At a quarter-past four them representatives of law and religion entered Dori-'s cell. The culprit .ww still a*loop, and upon being roused he received the brief notice of his doom with a meaningless stare. Not a word was uttered in response to the Judge, and upon being handed over to tho executioner and conducted to the pinioning department known as the toiletteroom, he preserved the same stolid demeanour, and submitted to the strapping process with apparent indifference. Before setting out in the procession to tho guillotine, however, he looked around the room, and seeing the chief warder, thanked him for his kindness towards hitn. As the corK(jp., with the boyish-looking culprit as the central figure, passed through the ereat gate.? and on towards the fatal platform, the Abb-; Faure recited prayers for the dying, but thero was no response from the object of this ministerial solicitation, and there is a general impression gathered from the halting steps of tho doomed young man that he arrived at the foot of the scaffold in a half-conscious condition. Diebler does not waste any time over ceremony, and, taking in the situation at a glance, he gave a signal to his attendants, and Dore was instantly thrown under the knife, which was immediately liberated, and the culprit's head fell with a thud into the basket underneath. The now vast crowd was kept well back by the soldiers and tho police, and they gave vent to their disappointment in frightful howls of execration. The knife having been readjusted, officials' procession re-formed and returned to the prison, where Borland, who had been awakened in readiness, was already partially drcysed, and maintaining an air of bravado. When apprised of the cause of his being called so early, he jocularly remarked to the warders, " Then there's no more card playing for me." Upon being informed of iii mother's reprieve, he uttered an ejaculation of astonishment, and by no means seemed pleased. The completion of his toilet was hastily accomplished, and, taking his place in the procession, he jauntily walked across the prison yard and down the open road to the guillotine. In short, ho maintained his brave, demeanour until within a few paces of the guillotine. Turning upon those who were acting as guards, he tried to force his way back. A desperate struggle ensued, but it was not of long duration, as tho, stalwart and experienced attendants easily overpowered him, and, thrusting him down on to the platform, held until the executioner had ended tho writhing by liberating the knife, his head falling into the basket at 4.30. Tho conduct of tho Abbe in retiring several seconds before Berland was executed was severely criticised.