MURDER HEARD ON PHONE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2522, 23 December 1922, Page 1

MURDER HEARD ON PHONE

A double tragedy, in which a girl named Juliette Blanchard shot her lover, George Rodin, a railway clerk at St. Cloud Station, in the middle of the night, then committed'suicide, forms oiie of the strangest dramas of real life recorded in France (says the Paris correspondent to tins Daily Mail). At midnight <■>• Friday. Inly 7, the Solitary policeman on duty at the telephone at St. Cloud poboe station was rung up. lie heard a man’s voice say: “Come quickly and turn this woman ont or she will kill me.” The policeman was about to ask for an address, when he distinguished a second voice. This time it was a woman, and sin* s,*pil: “Drop that telephone or T will shoot

von!” There came the sound of a revolver shot, and then—-donee. The policeman ascertained from the girl on duty at the telephone exchange that the call had come from the olliee of the stiltionmastcr at St. Cloud, lie hurried thither yn a bicycle, but found tin? door closed and the station in darkness. He got on a bench and peered through the whitewashed windows of the station olliee. There was a light within and somebody moving about. The policeman with two comrades who had arrived to help him, tried to hurst the door open. As they did so they heard two more reports. Finally, with the help of a bench as ji battering-ram, they broke open the door. Lying on the floor by the side of the telephone was the dead hodv of Georges Rodin. A lew paces away, still groaning, lay it darkhaired girl with a wound in her forehead. By her side was a tiny revolver ornamented with silver and mother of pearl, while in her hand was a second weapon, a more serviceable one of blue steel. The police itn I airy enabled the facts to be established very quickly. Mile. Juliette Blanchard had been engaged some time to Rodin, who, however, recently met another girl whom he liked better. He announced lvis intention of breaking bis first engagement. Mile. Blanchard thereupon went to St. Cloud station to discuss the matter with her lover. When he telephoned to the police she shot him. A few minutes later, evidently aware that the police were outside (he station, she tired at herself. The bullet missed her. and a third cartridge in the pretty toy revolver missed fire. But the girl had conic amply prepared, and, throwing away the small revolver, slu* took the second weapon from her bag. This time tin* shot was effective. She died on the way to the hospital.