CRIME INT FRANCE

Otago Witness, Issue 3029, 3 April 1912, Page 26

CRIME IN T FRANCE

THREE MEN MURDERED. KILLED BY APACHES. THREE ARRESTS MADE. PARIS, March 25. Six Apaches killed a chauffeur near Chantilly, seized his car, entered the Chantilly Rank, killed the cashier and clerk, and then drove off with 40,000 francs (£1600). March 26. A sensation has been caused by the renewal of motor car outrages. The robbers have been identified as the men who on February 28 knocked down a number of people in Place de Havre, and killed a gendarme when threatened with arrest. On March 1 they broke into a lawyer's house at Pointoise, and when the owner fired at them they replied, wounding him. Soldiers are now posted at all the stations with loaded revolvers in the hope of arresting them. A reward of £4OOO is offered. The murderers hid on the road to Menders, and took shelter at Montgeron, awaiting a car with two chauffeurs aboard. One was killed instantly, and the other was wounded. The latter feigned to be dead until the assassins boarded the car and motored to Chantilly, 40 miles away, making a circuit to avoid Paris. On reaching Chantilly the murderers met a woman, who was watching the bank. Four of them entered the bank, a fifth guarding the doors with a loaded carbine, and the sixth remaining in the car. The cashier was killed immediately, but the clerk lingered for 10 minutes. The office boy was wounded. A messenger escaped and ranged the alarm, but the assassins seized the money and escaped, travelling at a speed of 60 miles an hour towards Paris, and firing intermittently at any one attempting to follow 7 or stopping to look at them. Several people got telephones and roused

the police in the district, and a wild chase followed. Two policemen on bicycles overtook the car owing to the tyres collapsing,' but the six robbers alighted and scaled the railway line as two trains were passing at a low speed. They boarded one train, but the police did not know which one. The police took 55 minutes to secure a telephone connection with the Paris terminus, and the men escaped. There are a number of bullet holes in the deserted motor car, and three bloodstained handkerchiefs and many revolver and carbine cartridges were found. Late at night the police mounted on bicycles pursued a car containing three people, one of whom shouted for help and flung out a piece of cotton wool saturated with chloroform. The car escaped. The banks in the vicinity of Paris are providing their cashiers with revolvers, and the Government is introducing a. bill to provide a police automobile corps. March 27. No trace of the motor assassins has been discovered. A formidable force of detectives armed with carbines and revolvers is following the clues and is watching every exit from Paris. The assassins obtained a supply of arms by looting a gun shop on Christmas Eve, securing 120 revolvers and four repeating rifles. Several witnesses at Chantilly identified the three missing bandits as Bonnot, Carouy, and Gamier, who are wanted for a series of murders and highway, robberies. March 28. Eighteen hundred additional police are enrolling, and repeating rifles have been served out to them wherewith to puncture the tyres of fleeing motor cars. March 30. The sale of revolvers has increased tenfold since the motor car outrage. The frontiers are being closely watched. Many innocent people have been arrested. Ma-rch 31. Three arrests have been effected at Chantilly, including Soudy, an Anarchist, who is supposed to have stood guard outside the bank while it was being robbed. April 1. Soudy is a consumptive and 20 years of age. He is known to be a reckless and fanatical Anarchist. He attempted to swallow poison.