TWO MURDERS IN FIVE HOURS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1000, 30 January 1912, Page 4

TWO MURDERS IN FIVE HOURS.

A woman of thirty-five, with an excellent reputation tor honesty, industry and good sense, committed two murders within five hours recently, killing her husband aud mortally wounding her aunt. She acted with complete deliberation aud coolness, and shows not the slightest trace of insanity or even of excitement.

She decided on her crimes at mid-day. She lunched at a restaurant with her little daughter at 12.15 p.m. ; shot her husband dead iu his bedroom while he slept at one o’clock ; went to the station aud took train for Savigny-sur-Orge, thirteen miles away, at

2.30 p.m. ; reached the house of her husband’s aunt at 3.30 ; shot the old lady five minutes later ; returned to Paris at about half-past four; said good-bye to her daughter at a quarter to five ; and gave herself up to the police at five o’clock. The woman’s name is Marguerite Pascal, and she was married on October 17th last to Jean Pascal, an ex-soldier, who saw much service in the French colonies, and whom she had known intimately for twelve years. M. Pascal worked all night iu the office of a Paris newspaper. “I suffered much from my husband’s uukindness,” Mine. Pascall told the police, “ and his aunt, Camille Pascal, a wealthy woman of sixty-three, egged him on. I resolved to be revenged on them both this very day, and I have killed them.” Mine. Pascall did not know that her aunt had not succumbed.

“ I took my little girl out to lunch while my husband slept, and then I bought a revolver. I went home again, and asked the concierge to take care of my little girl for a while. I went upstairs to our room on the sixth storey and quietly opened the door. My husband was asleep. “ I walked to the side of the bed and held the barrel close to his head and pulled the trigger three times. He did not move. I must have killed him with the first shot. Nobody seemed to have heard the noise. I went out, shutting the door alter me, lor I still had to go to Saviguy to complete my revenge. “ I took the Metropolitan to the Austerlitz station and booked to Soviguy. I had half an hour to wait, so that there was plenty of time to reload the revolver. At Saviguy I walked to my aunt’s house and knocked. She let me iu, and we went to the kitcheu. There I shot her four times, and she fell down without a cry. I shut the door softly and came back to Paris. I went home to say good-bye to my daughter, and then I came here to give myself up, for I am a great criminal.”

All this story was told with as much calm as though the speaker were commenting on the weather, and every fact was subsequently verified by the police.