MURDER OF A SIGNALMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15646, 27 June 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

MURDER OF A SIGNALMAN.

WIFE'S DEVOTION SAVES TRAIN..

HUNDREDS OF LIVES IN DANGER.

Mystery surrounds tho murder of a signalman who was shot dead in tho early morning recently in Ins cabin between Paris and Chantilly on a section of the Northern Railway over which express tranw are constantly running.

The victim, M. Ulysso Poullain, aged 51, livid with his wile and his 20-year-old son in a cottage a few yards away from his signal cabin. Just after 3 o'< lock in the morning a revolver shut rang out, and almost simultaneously Mad/ma foullain heard her husband cry for help. She rushed to the cabin and discovered that her husband had been snot by someone who had taken flight

The murderer, who must have been in ambush, had fired point-blank, the bullet entering M. Poullain's left eye and coming out from the naps of the neck.

Life was not extinct when li:s wife found him, but just .is she was about to lend him, the whistle of an express Ham warned her tint unless she changed liu* signals a catastrophe would cur ;;i which hundreds of passenger* mi.-lit lose their lives, So stifling liei wiiu-.v sh'j attended to tie signals, .1 the suite time shouting frantically for help. Her were heard by her son, and by some neighbours who tended the dying man, while Mine. Poullain, with .splendid devotion, remained at her post.

When the 3.30 imprest from Calais csrac along Mine. Poullaiu stopped it, and her husband was placed in a vacant compartment, where he expired on iho way to Paris.

Iho police have dis'ovcied no due to the muidwer's identity. Seu-ial theories have been advanced, one Iving that vengeance was the motive lor the crime, but as M. Poullain had no enemies the |K>lico aro disposed to discard it- Another is that tho criminal's real intention was to wreck the express tram and kill .M. l'oullain first in order to disturb the signalling system. Tho victim's cite.-, put'him to flight.

The polico have arrested six suspicious individuals who were discovered in .1 field changing their ragged clothing fur new garments.

It is recalled that on July 15. 1912, Gamier and the oth.-r motor bandits cut tho signal wires a few yards from M. 1 Whin's cabin with the intention of causing a catastrophe to the London-Paris excursion train and plundering the victims. M. Povllaw's vigilar.ee averted this disaster.