DREADFUL OUTRAGE IN PARIS.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 120, 14 May 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

DREADFUL OUTRAGE IN PARIS.

The Parisian public had not recovered from the recent horrible attempted murder at Batignolles when they were once more aroused by h ■ report of a crime cf a similar nature, this time perpetrated in the very heart of the capital, and in broad daylight, The crime took place in the Rue de Turin near the Western Railway Station. Here lives an English gentleman, who occupies an apartment on the third storey, overlooking the courtyard. His name is Pearson, he is (>(> years of age, and is said to be very rieh. About three o’clock on Sunday afternoon a young man called on him with a letter purporting to come from a neighbour, who asked for the loan of 400 f. Mr. Pearson, who was alone in the apartment at the time said he knew no such a neighbour, but he went into the drawing-room to fetch his spectacles, in order to read the letter more attentively. The youug man followed him, and demanded the money in a threatening manner. On the old gentleman again refusing he drew a large kitchen knife out of his pocket and stabbed Air. Pearson several times about the neck and head. A terrible struggle followed ; the old gentleman seized the knife by the blade, and by so doing nearly cut ofl his fingers. He then grappled with his assailant, aud in the struggle they both rolled to the ground, and upset some porcelain vases on the table, the breaking of which aroused the inmates on the second storey. Madame Delage, the house porter’s wife, came upstairs, and after knocking at the door in vain, broke it open. On entering the apartment she found Air. Pearson bleeding on the floor, more dead than alive ; but her first thought was to capture the criminal. The youug man had opened the window, and was climbing down into the courtyard by means of the shutters and gutter pipes. Losing no time she rushed down-stairs to close the landing windows and the doors, and arrived in the courtyard just as the assassin was about to make his escape. The latter, findiug himself at bay, jumped through the window of a small outbuilding which led to the _ porter’s lodge. Madame Delage caught him there, and, after wresting the knife from him, threw him down and held him till the police arrived. He says he is a valet de ohambre out of place. Air. Pearson’s wounds are of a serious nature.