Mystery Murder in Paris

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22777, 10 July 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

Mystery Murder in Paris

ALREADY known a* the " One-minute Murder," a problem in crime «• baffling a* any conceived by a writer of detective fiction in engaging the attention of the Paris police. It concern, the fate of a 30-year-old Italian woman, familiar to her friend, a. the "Merry Widow," who was found with a sm. stiletto in the back of her neck in a first-class carriage of a tram on the Metro, Paris' underground railway. PARI!?. June 1

THERE are several clues which the police are following up in an effort to bring to justice the assassin or assassins responsible for inflicting the fatal wound on 'Madame Yolande Laetitia Toureaux, a beautiful blonde, who married a Frenchman in Paris, ten years ago, and was widowed in 1934. Madame Toureaux left Porte de Charenton Terminus Station, near the Bois de Vincennes, in Metro train No. 382. As the train slowed up at the next station, Porte Doree, 62 seconds later, five women and an army medical officer, waiting on the platform, saw a woman in a white hat sitting in first-class coach No. A.P. 356. She was then thrown on the floor, apparently by the heavy braking of the train. "There Is no Hope" The four jumped into the coach and rendered what assistance they could. The medical officer briefly examined her, then remarked, "Her carotid is severed. There is no hope." A gendarme was summoned. He removed the stiletto, and asked, "Who did this to you?" The woman opened her eyes and moved her lips, plainly trying to speak. She died in hospital. The police made an immediate reconstruction of the crime following a check-up on all known passengers. After a conference at,- headquarters they started a hunt for two men, one

tall, and wearing spectacles, and the other small, and walking with a limp. One is believed to be a Spaniard.

Important Glues These are the most important clues in the possession of the police:— One blue earring found on the floor of the underground carriage. Finger-prints found on an evening paper which the dead woman clutched in her hand. A letter from a man named "Jean." asking her to meet him at 11 o'clock the previous night. A letter which she had written, but had not posted to her lover. The police believe that Madame Toureaux took a corner seat in an empty first-class carriage with her back to the entrance door. According to the theory of an official in touch with the case, the assassin (assuming there was one) watched the conductor make ready to give the starting signal, and, just as the doors were about to slide . to, buried the stiletto in the neck of his victim. Assailant's Escape Then he was apparently able to jump back on to the platform-and walk away, leaving the station by one of the two exits. . Another official who was present at the post-mortem on Madame Toureaux advanced the following dramatic opinion: "A human monster killed the woman. There was' evidence that the stiletto had been driven in with tremendous force."

Widow Stabbed to Death on Underground Railway 5

The'murder has all the elements of the perfect crime, and the possibility that it was committed by a jealous lover is being considered. Love Letters..in Flat f ■ Police inquiries have definitely established that Madame Toureaux led a double life —and one of those was speijt among the "small-time" gangster circles of Paris night life. Madame Toureaux's regular employment \}'as - as cashier at a night dance club called the Ace of Hearts, and sho is known to have one lover who went by the name of "Kiki;" But frequently she left the. cashier's desk and became a dance hostess, not only at the Ace of Hearts, but at a number of dance halls in Paris, some in the Montmartre district. She also attended wild parties, and that her admirers and" lovers ranged from the denizens of the Paris .underworld to fashionable habitues of the city's most wealthy residential quarters was proved by dozens of passionate love-letters found at her eiegant flat. Called on Her Mother According to the concierge of the building where the flat is located, a letter arrived every morning for Madame Toureaux from the Meurthe-et-Moselle department, North-east France. On the morning of the day of the tragedy there arrived a letter in the same handwriting on the same kind of envelope, but postmarked from a Paris railway station.

The hours before Madame Toureaux's tragic end were typical of the routino of her life. She had danced most of the day at little cafes with men friends, but yet had found time to call on her mother and other members of her family. Then off to a dinner appointment—to meet death on the way. "I want to enjoy life. I have lost a lot. Let me make it up . . she once said to one of her friends a few months after the death of her husband.