A SENSATIONAL TRIAL. Result of a Remarkable Murder Case in France.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 135, 2 January 1886, Page 4

A SENSATIONAL TRIAL. Result of a Remarkable Murder Case in France.

A London correspondent of the " Mail and Express " cables as follows : A great sensation has been caused by a peculiar murder trial in France, and it is feared that trouble may arise from the state of popular feeling. A farmer named Boudouin was killed while asleep in bed. His wife was lying by his side, yet declared that she did not hear the noise of the firearms, notwithstanding that the man was shot. His wife asserted that the nrst intimation she had of his murder was the smoke from the weapon used by the* assassin, and the blood which flowed from the wound made by the bullet. The story did not receive much credence, even by those disposed in the woman's favour, but suspicion fell on a young vagabond named Braguel, who had b3en employed on the farm but had been discharged. The fellow on being arrested not only confessed to having committed the crime, but asaerted that he had been instigated by Mme. Boudouin to kill her husband, and had been paid by her for doing the deed. The wife's reason. Braguel declared, was her rage at his con stant flirtations with other women. Th murderer said that the woman admittedhin, by a window at night, and when he had entered the room returned immediately to bed and lay down beside her husband, who was fast asleep. Braguel was armed with a gun, which he rested across the woman's limbs, in order to get precise aim and bo shot the man. The courtroom was the scene of a very realistic and sensational effect in the course of the trial. The judge had the blood-stained bed brought into court and compelled the prisoners, the murderer and the wife, to assume the identical positions which they occupied at the moment of the murder, as described by Braguel. Notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence against the woman, the jury acquitted her of any complicity, and Braguel was found guilty and condemned to imprisonment for life.