THE CHANTILLY MURDER. (From Our London Correspondent.) London, June 21.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 402, 14 September 1889, Page 3

THE CHA NTILLY MURDE R. (From Our London Correspondent.) London, June 21.

You may have already seen some particulars of the -extraordinary career of the Belgian Hoyos, who has jusfc been condemned to death ab Beauvais fdr a peculiarly ghastly murder at Chan billy. If not the following details of tho crime, supplied by Mrs Crawford) of Pdris," to the " Daily News," will be found interesting. The lady says :—: — One of -the chief Witnesses against the accused on tho question of previous character was his o\vn t father-in : law> who charged him with forgery and fraud, of brutally ill-creating- his wife, and of proposing the .assassination of an uncle who had come into a fortune. The crime for which this viilaip, is now condemned w.as audaciously conceived, leaving insured his life foy enormous .sums, ho enticed away from Belgium , a jcountryman of his. own, named Baron, vyho ,had a singular resemblance to himself. Ho fascinated this man with the prospect of , a splen- /(- did appointment in France, and on come plausible pretoxt as to tho necessity for secrecy succeeded, in getting him to leave his home mysteriously without letting 1 his friends know where, ho was going. Uoyo3 loadod Baron' witl> apparent benohts, answer.cd fox his expenses at his Hotels,, and made him cjiifJtjp.of.fClothinur- On the 30th October Baron.>, disappeared.. .Itom/ Paris, lloyos alsotwus wising' on.. Uk>» night of the 2nd 'November. A day or two later a woman called Alphon&ino Figue, , tho mistress of Hoyos, passing as hja wife, wrote to one of' her*' "friends' that she was in movfcili fear 6n j 'a<jcourifc of her husband, USJIO .was a reckless man in, tra\ oiling, and had le.tc,her jfor liambouillet with a very largo sum oi money, in hia possession. She was without news from him, she said, and she began to fear that ho might have been assassinated. On the 3rd November was found a mangled corpse on the. rails of tho Northern Bailway at Uliantilly, which corpse, horribly disfigured -in the face as it was, but wearing tho clothes' of Hoyos, waa identified for a timo as his. It wasi really! Baron who was killed, but a great ciime seemed for the moment to be succopsful. Hoyos had dictated that letter bo his mistress, and paVed tho way for a belief in his own assa»?ination. Tho body was buried as that of Hoyos, and nothing | apparently remained for the real Hoyos to do but to secuie tho insurance money on his own life, through the agency of his mistress, in whose favour the policy was mnclo out But meanwhile a director of one of the insurance com panics spoke of the tragic death of Hoyos to the director of another company whom' Hoyos had tried to swindle. " You are robbed," said this latter. "Tliere is no such persbn as'Hoyos. Ho ha=i never been seen. ( , H©* i.^ an imaginary person, Another man called Huet has tried to insure in my company." In point of fact Huet and Hoyo? were the same; but without knowing that at the time the insurance companies made further inquiry into the' identity of the murdered man. The body was exhumed, and his real identity in due course established. The mistakes of criminals are aids to justice. Hoyos made several egregious blundeis. He went to Valenciennes and took tho name of Baron, his victim. He too generously trave away tho victim's clothes, after fil ; s't' endeavouring to leave them lying about at Valenciennes in order that the police mightconcludc that it could not be Baron ,<who*had been murdered at Chantilly. Then; ; while still bearing the assumed name, he was found with letters in hi-s pocket ready in an emergency (if tho body was exhumed for further inquiry as to identity) to inform the magistrates that Hoyos was not doad ; that he was Hoyo?, alive and well and ready to present himself before the magistrate. Taken to the scene of the crime, Hoyos made a further mistake of pretending an absolute unfamiliarity with the spot, but abundant testimony wns forthcoming that he had been seen hovering about the place. In the face of these facts the counsel for the defence pleaded in vain the danger of reliance on circumstantial evidence. Hoyos in vain swore "on tho headV'of his children" that he was not the assassin of 'Baron. Only two minutes were employed in deliberation by fche r ]ury. lie was found guilty and condemned 1 to death. " May my blood be on the head 1 of my perjured father-in-law," he shouted, "and on all those who" but heie the criminal, hitherto noticeable only lor his sangfroid, utterly broke down, and was carried away unablo to finish his sentence. All the protection of the gendarmes was needed to save him from the summary vengence of an excited crowd.