CHILD MURDERERS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2638, 3 September 1881, Page 2

CHILD MURDERERS.

A man and bis wife, of the name of Zysset, have just been sentenced, at the Alitteland Assizes, Canton Berne, Switzerland, to penal servitude for life for having murdered all their children, numbering either live or seven. They admitted having put five to death, and there is reason to believe they killed two others whoso births they concealed. Their motive for committing crimes so terrible unnatural and revolting was simply to save themselves the trouble and expense of bringing their children up ; for, though in humble circumstances the Zyssets seem to have been far from poor, a considerable sum of money having been found in their bouse when they were arrested. The plan they adopted to get rid of the children was to deprive them of food, and when tbe process of starving did not appear quick enough, or the little ones cried too much, it was accelerated by strangling or knocking thorn on the bead. When the jury gave in their verdict they expressed regret that, under the present law of Berne, tbe Zyssets could not be sentenced to some severer punishment than perpetual imprisonment.