CRIMES OF VIOLENCE IN PARIS.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 293, 20 May 1875, Page 3

CRIMES OF VIOLENCE IN PARIS.

A Paris correspondent of dhe Pall Mall Gazette writes as follows:—“It would appear that crimes of violence are on the increase in Paris, for scarcely a day passes without one or more murders being committed, On Wednesday evening, an old man and his wife were murdered under circumstances of singular atrocity, and as yet no clue has been obtained to the authors of this horrible crime. Benard and his wife, who were natives of Angers, had just retired from business in Pans, where they had amassed some 50,000 fr. by the sale of secondhand clothes and curiosities, and after selling the goodwill of their shop, and preparatory to returning to Angers, they were living in a small apartment in the Marais quarter. Their servant had gone out in the course of the afternoon, and finding the door of the apartment locked on her return, she obtained the assistance of the police, who, on forcing the door, found both Benard and his wife lying in a pool of blood, with their skulls so fractured that it was almost impossible to recognise their features. It is presumed that there were several persons engaged in this murder, which no doubt had been planned for some time, and the motive of which was presumably to gain possession of the savings which Benard and his wife were known to have with them. The Place de I’Europe, which is almost in the centre of Paris, close to the St Lazare station, is almost every night the scene of one or more attempts to murder and rob females and elderly men, and the strangest thing in connection with it is that though the perpetrator of these outrages has been seen escaping on several occasions, the police cannot lay hands upon him. You have already mentioned that several atrocious murders were committed last year in the neighbourhood of Lemours, which is not far from Paris. No trace has been discovered of the assassins, who, emboldened by their impunity, are probably the perpetrators of two fresh murders reported from the same district.” .