A HORRIBLE RUFFIAN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1203, 20 March 1885, Page 3

A HORRIBLE RUFFIAN.

T ater New Caledonian papers jus f received contain a report of the trial and coud-mn ition to death b-- the military tribunal of a honi’de ruffian named Chiappe. He 5a a Corsican by birth, and was transported for life on account of an assassination committed in Algeria, where ho followed an in-fun-ms occupation in a house of illfame Since he has been in the island of Non he has been the executioner of the sentences passed o > such of the convicts as fell under the ban of tb-ir own secret tribunal f -r offences usually arising out of heir gambling transac tious. Th- man he hj is j ist murdered is named Mas. He was formally known as “ the king of the hulks,” and his power over the convicts was at one time so absolute that, they would have commoted anv atrocity at his command. But for the last four years he has been em ployed as oie o' the turnkeys On th ■ 17th of May. 1881, he was accu ed of killing another convict, and w s sentenced to death His 1 fe was spared, however, amt he was reinstated to his former position. On the 22ud of August, 18 -! 2. he was sud lenly attacked bv two prisoners, to whom had been delegated by lot the duty of as sassinating him. He was s were y wounded, but recovered. On ring the ye-r 1883 numerous attempts were mule to murder him, but were baffl -d by his great strength and courage. al-> t. ou.di he received s ver-il ugly gashes On the 2nd of October last, Mas. who hj id been removed from his post for drunkenness and outrageous conduct t -wards one of the warders, was seated on the step of the room he occupied, about the hour of noon, when Chiappe, armed with a cutlass, suddenly hurst upon him, and inflicted a terrible wound upon him with the weapon ; then, seizing Mas by the throat with his left hand, he proceeded to hack at him, and then, weary wi hj the violence of his exertions, drew back to gloat over the,spectacle of his victim bleeding from fifteen different gashes. By a supreme effort, Mas staggered to his

feet, and drew, as he thought, a fcni e from his pocket Ohiappe. seeing this, took flight, pure 'ed by the bootings and bowlings of about twenty co ivicfs. who sympathised with his crime, hut despised his cowardice This sin med him into returning, and he igai i flung himself upon his to* taring victim Thlatter looked at the imaginary we ipun which he held in his hand, and fnmd it was one of his own fingers which had been severed in the straggle with on* his bein »c msoiniis of it. His assassin. findi ‘g that be had nothing to fear from him, renewed his attack, with the approbation of the scoundrels who looked on, and Mis fell to the ground covered with twenty additional wounds. At that moment a warder made his appo Tante, and both murderer and spectators disappeared as if bvenchantment According ti the report of the surgeon who examined the corpse, the head was nearly severed fora the trunk, and there were more than 50 gashes on the bodv, which, if placed in a line, would have been in the aggrega'e upwards of four feet long LLiappe is described as being both moraUv and physically hideous—a wild beast endowed with human speech. Hisattiude before his judges was <’ne of i 'Solent mirth and defiant mockery. He denied the perpetration of the crime with revolting cynicism ; and when the clerk of the tribunal notified to him that he was sentenced to be executed for the murder, “ What?” he excbiimed, “ Condemned to death for such canaille as that 1” And it was with considerable difficulty that the gendarmes imposed silence upon him. Ever since the assassin's condemnation, the conv cts known as “ tencurs dejeux of whom he was the instrument, and who express themselves quite confidently with respect to the cam mutation of his sentence, have allowed him half a franc a-day p 'cket money during the term of his incarceration.