HIS LAST KISS

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 60, 22 May 1928, Page 3

HIS LAST KISS

AT FOOT Op GUILLOTINE, GIRL BARRISTER’S ORDEAL. Dawn hail just broken on the famous Santo Prison, Paris, when the gleaming knife of a guillotine crashed down twice, and, within the space of a minute, H r p heads rolled into the basket. A pretty young wonhn stood near the towering instrument of death, with pale face and burning eyes. She stared straight ahead unflinchingly, and not until the execution was over did she turn away, tears running down her cheeks. Behind her a huge crowd swayed with emotion. She was Mademoiselle Sonia Erlich (25), the youngest and prettiest of the 1.50 women piactising at, the French Bar. 'According to French law, the counsel of a man sentenced to die must be present at his execution, and she had fought hard, hut unsuccessfully, befoire the Assize Court for the lives of the Polish bandits Zinzuck and Pachovsky,. condemned for a series of brutal murders. It was a brave little woman who s.il up all night, waiting for the call, and then walked with the two men to the guillotine. She was the first of her sex to be present at an execution in an official -capacity with the task of assisting the doomed murdereis in their last moments. Before the final act Mile. Erlich visited the bandfts in the condemned cell, where she saw their necks shaved and the collars of their shirts cut away.

As Zinzuck prepared for the- guillotine he sang Polish hymns and urged his companion to do the same, to show they were not afraid of death. They chatted gaily to the girl counsel, and Mile. Erlich spoke to them tenderly, although she looked pale and worn. Then five o’clock tolled on the prison bell, and officials hurried the men to the guillotine. When the two men were asked if they had anything to say, Pachovsky remained silent, but Zinzuck repeated several times: “I ; did not kill; I simply, fired.” Then both confessed to a Polish priest, heard mass, and embraced each other. .Then they embraced Mile Erlich.

A MURDERER’S KISS. , Ppchovsky was the first of the two bandits to be executed. Then Zinbuck, with Mile. Elrich and the prison Chaplin on either side of him, walked down the three steps of the prison van ladder, smoking a cigarette. “Good-bye, gentlemen,” he shouted, as he stumbled towards the 'guillotine less than ten paces away. 'Mile. 'Erlich kissed him on either .cheek as the executioner almost tore him from her grasp. The girl wavered a moment, then braced herself and stepped to the foot of the guillotine to do her duty—that of seeing that ihe sentence of the Court was carried out according to the law and , without a hitch. The condemned man laid his head on the block and the knife fell. As Mile. Erlich turned array she whispered to an official.' '“They died heroically. I am gjad to have done my duty by being with them at the last moment.” The execution was in public and a huge crowd assembled during the night, pressing into the roped square around the guillotine and climbing trees and walls to get a better view. At dawn 300 taxi cabs and nearly 100 private motor cars had arrived carrying would-be spectators from all parts of Paris. Numbers of wealthy men and women had succeeded in securing the coveted cards of admission to the enclosure reserved for journalists and officials. Rouge sticks and powder puffs made their appearance with the first rays of sunlight. Behind them there were scores of women and girls in the crowd struggling to see the execution.

As justice was done, strong men lifted the big wickerwork basket containing the heads and bodies of the bandits on to a motor lorry, which dashed away with an escort o£ Republican Guards and mounted police. The bodies, which nobody claimed,, were taken to the Federal Schools and afterwards buried in the common ditch at the Ivry Cemetery.

REIG'N OF TERROR. Wirh the trial and death of the two bandits a reign of terror has ended or. the outskirts of Paris and the North of France. Zinzuck and Pachovsky were the ringleaders of a gang of twenty bandits who committed a dozen brutal murders and ■scores of robberies.

In France executions are still public by law, but as juries are,so tentier they arc extremely rare. There was a public demand that, in view of the exceptional and bestial crimes of the two men, the old method of guillotining should be resorted to as a lesson to other desperadoes.