LE CARON A GRAVE-ROBBER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 1, 26 April 1889, Page 23

LE CARON A GRAVE-ROBBER.

Detroit, February 20. Investigation discloses the fact that Le Caron, the British spy, was formerly one of the most expert grave-robbers ever koown in the West. Fifteen years ago Le Caron was in Detroit for some time, ostensibly as a medical student, aad subsequently as A practitioner of medicine.

A large number of cases of grave-robbery have beea brought to light in which Le Caron was engaged. The most sensational case was the thef c of the body of President-elect Harrison's father, in which it has been proven Le Caron wis implicated. A man namel Devens, of North Bend, 0., bad died, and his grave was discovered to have been tampered with. Investigation showed thit professional body-snatching had been done, and the bodj was gone. Djvens's brother, together with John Harrison, a friend, started to make a tour of the medical colleges.

The men went to a college in Cincinnati and made search. In the pickling vat no bodies were found. Harrison noticed a rope attached to a windlass leading down into some subterranean region, aud takin? hold of the windlass, discovered that some heavy body was attached to the rope. Winding it up, the body of a man was fouod hanging to the rope, with the face covered. The hair of the corpse was gray, and Devens, therefore, knew that the body wa9 not that of his brother. The two men were about to leave the place when Devens suggested that it would be well to look at the face of tbe dead man anyway. They removed the cloth, when Harrison was par ilyz jd to find that it was the body of his father, and of Benjamin Harrison, now Pieaident-elect. General Harrison made the most strenuous efforts to secure the conviction of the offender, but h6 was never caught. The police had little difficulty in ascertaining later that it was the work of the slippery Le (Jarou.