A PARIS MURDER—THIS WOMAN CUT IN TWO.

Dunstan Times, Issue 783, 20 April 1877, Page 4

A PARIS MURDER—THIS WOMAN CUT IN TWO.

o The great Paris murder, known as the woman cut in two,” which has occu the talk of the town for so many weeks past, has at last been fully cleared up, Billoir, the man arrested on suspicion, has made a full confession in the presence of the examining judge. “On November 2, Le Jour des Morts,” began the prisoner, “ Marie de Mannch went to an office for servants out of work, in the Rue St. Denis, and inscribed her name. While there she met one of her try. women, who treated her to some drink, and when she returned home to our lodging in the Rue des Trois-Feres she was drunk, and broke a gilt g'ass, which I ptized dearly as a souvenir. I got out of temper, and as she stooped down to pick up the fragments I kicked her in the stomach, and she fell like a stone at my feet. It was about eleven o’clock at night, I tried all I could to bring her round, but I soon discovered she was dead. At three o’clock in the afternoon on the following day I resolved to get rid of the body. I undressed it, and covered the floor with a thick layer of saw-dust, of which I had a great quantity brought home by me from the northern Railway at the time I worked there. I opened the body with a razor, took out the ' viscera, and placed them in a large pan used for washing up the crockery. I then cut out the vertebral column with a chisel, using the hammer you found in my loom. Here the prisoner stopped for a moment to wipe away the heavy drops of perspiration which rolled down his face, and to refresh himself with a glass of water. lowards nine o’clock in the evening, he resumed in a feeble voice, after having carefully wrapped up the two halves of the body in linen underclothing and a waterproof, and made them into tight parcels, I took the upper part of tbejbody to Cliuchy, where I threw it into the river. On the next day, the same hour, i did the same with the other half I bound the arms and legs together with rope to prevent them moving, in the event of the parcels coming undone in the water. I cut off the hair and threw a part, together with the razor and the chisel, down the drain in the Rue Cadet or the Rue Kochechouarfc, I don’t remember which. As for the viscera, and (he remainder of the hair, I threw them down the water-closet in our house. I do not know Clichy. I found myself unawares, with the first parcel on (he banks of the Seine. I met nobody there on the first day, and was able to tie a large stone rottnd the neck at ray ease.” Here Billoir again stopped and refused to say anything more, but pressed by the Magistrate to unburden his mind completely, he continued after a. few minutes silence ;—“ On the second day I carried (ho other portion of the body under my arm, taking care to hide it with my coat, which is a very ample one ; but just as I |had tied the stone to the legs and thrown the parcel into the water, I saw a heat, in which I perceived two men. I ran across the fields, and having hidden myself for half an-hour, returned home about midnight, and set to work to remove all traces of the <crime.” Such is the prisoner’s confession. As soon as it was taken down, the magistrate asked him to sign it. Billoir staggered towards the table, and taking the pen in one hand, while he supported his head with the other, he appended his signature. He then fainted,'and remained insensible for a quarter-of-an-hour. On recovering he was led back to his cell. It must bo added that many of the statements ■made by Billoir are contrary to the facts of the crime. For example, ho says the murder was perpetrated on the 2nd of November, whereas the neighbors saw the woman alive on the Cth, and the medical autopsy proves that when the remains were found on rfhe Bth they had not been in the water more than a day. The prisoner, it is thought, has committed these inaccuracies in order to elude the charge of premeditation, and to make the crime appear as the result of a sudden quarrel. He was again visited by the ■examining magistrate, but refused to give any more particulars. Since his confession ho has been in a most weak and prostrate state. —'London Telegraph.