MURDER IN A CHURCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9491, 21 April 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

MURDER IN A CHURCH.

A FRENCH VERDICT. A murdkress of a very singular type was tried at the Assizes at Montpellier, recently. She is a woman of sixty-one, a Madame Alziary do Roquefort, an.l was formerly in good circumstances, but ruined herself by litigation. Since her marriage she has brought no less than thirty-eight lawsuits, and lost every one of them. The case which led to her appearance in the dock on a charge of murder arose out of a legacy left to her by her mother. The property of the testatrix was divided by her will among the children, and Madame Alziary de Roquefort, the eldest, received the largest share, bub she was nevertheless unable to resist the emptation of trying to upset the will. The administrator of the estate was a notary named Jean, whose life appears to have been made a burden to him by Mdme. Roquefort, who continually attempted to get what she considered her full share of the property. Failing to obtain what she regarded as satisfaction, she resolved on revenge. She therefore travelled from Paris to Montpellier, and went one Sunday morning with a revolver in her pocket to the church which M. Joan usually attended. She saw the notary on his knees, and walking up to him from behind, deliberately blow out his brains. Ab tho trial the prisoner gave a very confused account of her grievances. The jury, contrary to all the evidence, found thab the murder was unpremeditated, and that the crime had extenuating circumstances. The prisoner was sentenced to eight years' confinement