A HORRIBLE CRIME.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 8006, 10 February 1887, Page 4

A HORRIBLE CRIME.

, Among our recent English exchanges we 'found the following account, scarcely credible, of deliberate matricide. It came from France, a country prominent for atrocities of-the kind:—A shocking caao of murder has Keen tried tl'/i a week before.tho asqizea of the Loire et Cher, France. feidov/, named Lebon, 70 years old, who was living with a married daughter named Thomas, suddenly died, and her sons, in making the legal declaration of her death, averred that she had fallen into thejflre While alone in the house. Suspicion, was, however, aroused, as it was notorious that ( Madame Lebon had been badly treated by' her relatives. She had a, sinal}>au'm in aav- J ings, amounting _ to ,ab£rat aUij .her daughter fehd aon-in-law, pa well as her two Sons, ‘did their beet to obtain possession of the money. They first endeavored to get her into an asylum for the insane ; failing in this,- they tried to bring about her death by brutal treatment, and finally burned her alive. Her two sons confessed to the gendarmes after a child, who had witnessed it, had given his testimony. The child in question, a boy of eight, son of png the accused persona, a moat: realistic account of the • senile' scene. ‘ While we "■ er l ,a< dinner,’ he said, ‘ mamma cried out all at once, “We must get rid of the old hag.” Then my Uncle Alexandre went to grandmamma’s bed and seized her by the head ; my Uncle Alexis took her by the legs, and the two carried her to the fire vv Inch had been kindled by papa and mamma. My grandmamma cried a good deal at first, but by degrees her voice grew weaker, until I heard no more,’ When the gendarmes arrived in the place they found nothing but the carbonised bead, legs, and thighs of the victim. Around the head and on the face were the incinerated remains of the woirian's right arm and hand, which seemed to have been used in a last effort to protect the face from the scorching Sanies, The unfortunate woman was left burning for hours, her murderets looking om Her tOn-in law actually pressed her do’Wn amid the flames by stamping bn her with’ his wooden shoes, fnd his wife supplied him with straw from the bud, which he ignited and fed the faggots therewith. The chemical expert w ho examined the remains said some mineral oil had also been thrown on the body to accelerate combustion. It appears that the two sous, having assisted, in the burning of their mother, went to the priest after they had given notice of the death at the mayor s office. -They asked to bo confessed, but as the priest had no time he blessed fob them, at their own bequest, a scapular, ob biband of the Virgin Mary, which they divided and wore. They returned to the pbiest after a few moments, and he had to hear their con. feasion of the murder. The Same curb also heard the confession of the victim’s daughter iii the evening, but he was of course, unable to make the perpetrators of the deed known to justice, and could only inflict heavy penances. The Court of Assize sentenced the woman Thomas and her husband to death, and the two brothers to penal sebvitudo,