BOY AS POISONER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13650, 18 January 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOY AS POISONER.

TERRIBLE CASE OF YOUTHFUL DEPRAVITY. rtiE trial, which has just concluded at the Blois Assize Court, in France, of a young chemist's assistant, named Fern and Leborrc, on a charge of poisoning his employer, revealed' a terrible degree of moral depravity. Leborre is no poor, ignorant criminal } he' is a well-educated youth of 21, who graduated from the local college with the degree of Baccalaureat. A year afterwards he entered the service of M. Blanc, the leading chemist of the historic town of Blbis. From his birth Leborre has been a psychological problem. Nobody, not even his parents, lias been able to understand him. Towards his companions he was inclined to be vicious; 'he was taciturn in manner, rain, and given to boasting of heroic exploits which were figments of his imagination. " Ploughed'' in his first examination for Ins college degree, he took his failure, so much to heart that he shut himself up in lis loom for a fortnight. When he did go jut he carefully avoided his fellow-students est they should chaff hint on his want of , success. But he worked with redoubled energy, md next time passed triumphantly. This strange youth, who had little love for his fellow-beings, had a marked affection, for mimals. He made pets of cats, dogs, and jirds. Once a favourite pigeon died, hereupon he wept for days. BROODED OVER IHAGIJfAEY WBOXGS. M. Blanc, hia late employer, was an excellent man, and a kind ma«ter, but he had a hot temper and a sharp tongue. Exasperated by the awkwardness of his assistant, he frequently rated him soundly, and more than once addressed him as " imbecile." Leborre conceived a bitter hatred of his employer, and he resented his reprimand!!. Leborre neither drank nor smoked, was rarely seen in a cafe, and at night, his ivork done, he usually retired to his room Id brood on "his imaginary wrongs. Determining to get rid of his employer, lie made two separate attempts to poison him by mixing arsenic with his food. M. Blanc 'was seriously ill for several weeks, but lie recovered without divining the real nature of his malady. Then, one day, Leborre was charged. by his 'master with stealing small sums from the till. The youth energetically denied the accusation. St. Blanc refused- to believe him, and took from him the keys of the cashbox'. _ . By this act the chemist signed his own death warrant. Leborre lived in the same house, and the family and the employe ate together at the same table. At eight o'clock next morning Leborre arose, and, without saying a word to anyone, went into the shop and took a bottle of strychnine from the shelf. From the dining-room he took a glass and a part-emptied bottle of Vichy water, from which his employer was accustomed to drink. Going into the cellar, in order to be free from observation, he mixed' a third of'the bottle of strychnine in the glass, and when it had dissolved he poured the whole of the poison into the Vichy water. Having prepared the deadly concoction, he replaced the Vichy Water on the diningroom sideboard, and went to work as usual. The previous day lie had told his employer that he would make him regret his harshness, but the latter paid no heed to the threat, attributing it to an outburst of isiger. WATCHED HIS VICTIM'S DEATH AGONY. M. Blanc, his wife,'and Leborre partook of luncheon together on the day of the ;rime. The assistant' was in good spirits, his employer had addressed him kindly, Mid ho ate heartily. • Quite unmoved, he watched : the doomed man fill a .glass from the poisoned bottle and swallow the contents. " This water tastes very bitter," said the still unsuspecting chemist. "Perhaps the servant did not wash the glass," remarked the assassin without the least trace- of emotion; A few minutes later, M. Blanc was rolling 011 the floor in his death agony. Urged by Mdnie. Blanc to run and fetch a doctor, "Leborre strolled quietly to the house of the nearest physician, whom he informed that his employer was suffering from a slight attack of indigestion, suggesting thai he should call and see him when he had leisure. Then lie Went back to the house and watched with evident satisfaction the terrible agony of the man he had poisoned. Meanwhile two other doctors had arrived, and suspecting "that the dying man had been poisoned, 'taxed' Leborre with the crime. "Tell -us- quickly," cried they and the., grief-stricken Wife,: '' what have' you given him? There is yet time to administer an antidote." _ "I swear I have given him nothing," exclaimed the murderer, with ft look of reproach at his accusers. Ten minutes later M.'.Blanc expired. Then his slayer wept and said he was sorry to see his master lying dead. " I was very fond of him," he blurted out between sobs. Next day he was caught in the cellar in the act of attempting to destroy evidence of his guilt by breaking the glass in Which he had mixed the strychnine. , . He was arrested, and 48 hours later made a full confession of his guilt. •• In court he sat with folded arms, indifferent to the whole proceedings, and replying in monosyllables to the questions of the president. The defence set up a plea of " diminished responsibility," but the jury refused to accept this view and returned a verdict of guilty without extenuating circumstances. Leborre was accordingly sentenced to death.