MURDER OF A FRENCH FAMILY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10347, 23 January 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

MURDER OF A FRENCH FAMILY.

A shocking story comes from Dijon. Tlie .sleepy old town was the other day the scono of i> trial for murder which for' cold- , bloodedness and careful premeditation is certainly one of the worst' which have figured in the annals of French criminal cases. Throe persons— widow named Madame Meot; lior daughter Annie. 18 yours 'of age; and her sou Felicien, aged U-were brutally murdered on tho night of September 11. A farm-servant named Redoii was also savagely attacked and loft for dead, but was able to drag himself to iv neighbour's door, whore he fjavo the alarm, liedoii'e account of tho affair ie very detailed. Ho states that on the night named Pacotte, a butcher, came to the farm begging the loan of a horse, on the plea that hie own had met with an accident. Madame Meot went out to the stable with the witness Redon to harness the horse, while Paeotto wend upstairs into the bodroora, when it is supposed he murdorod tho two children. Paeotto afterwards asked Redon to walk along the road a little way with tho horse' while he wontinto the house with Madamo Meotto get something to drink. According to thospeeoh made by the prosecuting counsel, it was at the moment when she was pouring him out a little spirit that ho stabbed her. When he joined Redon in the road he soW the latter, and time after time thrust his knifo into him, and, believing him to be dead, thrust him into a turnip field. Pacotte, it appears, expected to inherit money on the death of the murdered woman and her children. When arrested he was very cool and collected. Pacotte declared that he was innocent, and hoped to prove it-by a letter which he wrote on the -night of the tragedy, and which bears the postmark of Dijon, as having been posted -at the time when the crimo is supposed to have taken ■place. The jury returned .-a' verdict of ■guilty,-without extenuating circumstances. Pacotte was then condemned to death. After,hearing the sentence : the prisoner shouted out in court that he was innoccont, ,and ha.l committed no such crime as that of whlch-he was accused. >■':;»■& W<*.- '-'■' ••■■!■•,-)•;