KILLED FOR BAG OF GOLD

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8360, 21 February 1913, Page 11

KILLED FOR BAG OF GOLD

OLD MAN ATTACKED ON HIGHWAY AND MURDERED. BURIED WHILE LIVING. The discovery at Grenoble, in the south-west of France, of the body of an old man, Pierre Bois, well known in. the neighbourhood as • a man ot means, has brought, to light a revolting crime. On December 30th the old gontieman went to see jus grandson, a child of five, who lay dying at St, GrOorge-en-V The earlier part of the evening M. Bois had spent at a cafe, where apparently he was noticed to possess a well-filled, purse. The .Mid died during the night, and the grandfather departed for his home, about a mile away, among the mountains. The road was a lonely one. and as M. Bois reached an unusually dark spot, overhung by branches, a man who had concealed himself behind a huge tree leapt down on him and felled him to the ground with a olnb, fracturing his skulk The murderer then seized his victim by the feet and dragged him into a neighbouring field, where he had prepared a grave. Into this the old man, still living, was placed, and the earth was filled in by the assassin. M. Bois was missed on the following day, and a search was organised, but his fate remained a mystery until last Friday afternoon, when two working women, walking along the road which the murdered man had taken on his last journey, noticed traces of hlood. They followed the tracks into a field to the spot where M. Bois had been buried alive. Here they saw that the ground had been disturbed. The two women gave information, and the corpse was dug out. The post-mortem showed that there was no doubt that the victim was alive when buried. The motive for the crime is clear, for the purse which M. Bois so imprudently displayed at the cafe was missing. Nothing was found which afforded any clue to the identity of the murderer..