THE TRUNK MURDER

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 460, 5 April 1890, Page 4

THE TRUNK MURDER

A TERRIBDE CRIME. HOW GOUFFE WAS LURED TO HIS DEATH. A “Journal” cable special from Paris gives the following details of the Gouffe murder, which is now the sensation of Paris and for which Gabrielle Bompard is held as an accomplice, she having made a confession to the police that Eyraud, her lover, committed the crime. Gouffe made an appointment meet the girl in her room at 8 o’clock in the evening. While the young woman was enticing the huissier to his doom, Eyraud went to a hardware store and purchased two pulleys and a clothes line. At 5 o’clock he called at the house and completed his preparations. Eyraud first planted a strong nail in the wall of an alcove, which he carefully screened by means of a portiere, and, after ‘ bending the nail, he hung the pulley on it, making a running noose with the clothesline. His next move was to suspend a second pulley from the ceiling in the centre of the room. The rope was soaped and slipped through the pulley. An armchair, the only piece of furniture in the room, was placed under the noose. Then Eyraud concealed himself behind the portiere and awaited the coming of his victim. Soon Gouffe rang the bell. He was admitted by Gabrielle Bompard. He remarked that it was strange that there should be only one chair in the apartment. “ But that’s for you ; you must be tired,” quickly replied Gabrielle, “so pray be seated.” The unsuspecting huissier sat down, and was in the very act of begging her to come and sit on his lap when the fatal noose dropped silently from the ceiling and encircled his neck. Then Eyraud pulled at the rope, but it stuck in the second pulley and would not work. Fearing that his victim would escape, Eyraud rushed from behind the portiere calling, ‘ Oh, you wretch, would you rob me of my sweetheart ?” and seizing the huissier by the neck he strangled him to death. The girl, terrified at this brutal assassination, attempted to interfere, but Eyraud produced a dagger and threatened to kill her. Then Gouffe’s body was searched, They found 150 francs and some paper.s but they did not hesitate to withdraw a diamond ring from the dead man’s little finger. They then undressed their victim, and placed him in a lined sack, made by Gabriel Bompard, after which the corpse was bundled into the trunk, The next day Eyraud and Gabrielle took the trunk, in which they had concealed the

corpse, and drove to Millery. Here they dumped the body into a ravine, while Eyraud smashed the trunk to atoms with a sledge hammer. Three hours later the murderer and his sweetheart took the train to Marseilles, where they remained in concealment until August 29th, when they suddenly left for London. From there they went to Liverpool and took passage to San Francisco, where Gabrielle Bompard, repenting the part she had taken in the murder, made a confession to Gueranger, and was by him induced to return to France and make a confession.