ARMED BANDITS IN FRANCE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1634, 28 December 1912, Page 15

ARMED BANDITS IN FRANCE.

ROBBERS ON BICYCLES SHOOT OFFICIAL DEAD.

A daring crime, which bears the mark of tho Bon'not-Garhier gang, was committed on November 8, in tiie environs of Paris. Tho'scene .was. at , Bezons on; Seine, a little commune about five miles from tho fortifications. 1

Mme. • Gartier, the post-mistress, was busy making up her account of the day's takings. Her assistant was answering a telephone will from the Marie, where a clcrk was-'asking to bo put on to a certain number. - In the office" were Mmo. Cartier's two children, a hoy and a girl. M. Cartier, a postal clerk on the State railway, had just com© in and had gone upstairs to read his paper. ■ Suddenly four men, who had cycled up to the post office, olio a mask, burst in with revolvers -in their hands. Mine. Cartier, hoi- assistant, and the children, fled shrieking into a room behind the office. M. Cartier, hearing the noise, came running downstairs. Two of the bandits, had already vaulted over tho office railing and were pouncing on the till. The moment -M.:' Cartier, anp.eared the four revolvers rang ontfond-lie-dropped mortally wounded. A minuto later .the bandits wore off'.with their booty, cycling ut full speed towards -Paris.- - •••-" One of them had left his cap behind in the office. Meeting a workman, lie stopped him, and, pointing his revolver at him, demanded his cap.. While th-9 man hesitated the bandit seized, it, clappcd it on his own head, and, flinging down a 5-franc piece, continued his flight. The cleric at the Maris, who was in telephonic communication with the post office at the moment'of the crime, heard the cries and shouts without being able to help. An hour elapsed .before tho police were upon the trail, and hy that timo the criminals wero beyond 'pursuit. In the meantime M. Cartier had breathed his last. , , ~ The detectives' investigations led them to the conviction that oiYo'of tlio bandits was Lacombe, the man who shot tho ticket-collector Tarry at Les Aubrias Station last August, and who since then has defied tlio efforts of the police to- track him down. • Early the following morning a body of 100 polioem'en surrounded some premises in the Passage de Clichy, whero the Anarchist review, "L'ldee Libre," is published. Thoy, hoc-ed to find Lacombe there, but ho had already fled. - Two bicycles were, liowev«r, discovered, ono of them stained with blood. ' ■ :

While searching the place they camo upon the track of another man, a. Spaniard named Ibanes, of tho journal "Anarchic." This man was caught at his lodging, and the police then discovered that they had .mado a most important arrest. Ibanes (states the "Bflily i News correspondent) has been' identified by Mine. Cartier's assistant as one of tho four bandits. In the lodgings were.bloodstained clothes, an-1 a Browning pistol of tlio same calibre as the bullets by which M. Cartier was killed. The man s hands 'were scratched, and the blood-stained cycle appears to bo his, ' • The haul mado by the robbers _ only amounted to about .£ls. Mmo. Cartier, in her flight, had had the presence of mind to seize an envelope in which sho had just placed notes to tho valiie of J2120.