ANARCHIST'S VICTIMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 218, 3 February 1913, Page 3

ANARCHIST'S VICTIMS.

NIGIIT OF Tliliil!!); .AXI) SUSPENSE. HELD AT POINT OK PISTOL. A grim story of crime, reminiscent of one of Edgar Allan Poe's dramatic narratives, has pome to 'light (says the Paris correspondent of the Central News) 1>;. tin' en'| iiirinto the shooting of the anarchist Jules Erlbach (alias Ducret) bv another anarchist named Lacombe. The crime took place at daybreak 01 Wednesday. December 4 (says the Sunday Chronicle), but the criminal had obtained an entry into Erlbaeli's residence the previous evening, and during the night lie submitted M. and Mine. •Krlbaeh to mental torture of an amazing description. At about 8 o'clock the couple closed their small shop and went upstairs to their bedroom. Later Mme. Erlbach left the room to fetch some coal, and in the passage outside encountered a man whom she did not at first recognise. He pushed her back into the room, and when the lamplight fell 011 his face she discovered him to be Lacombe, the member of the lionnot Garnier motor bandit gang, who committed the Aubrais murder.

Finding that they were taken by surprise at his presence he exclaimed, "Yes, it is I. You did not expect me. I have a little bone to pick with you," and holding a revolver in each hand, covered thf-m with the weapons. Then be advanced to the door of an adjoining room, in which was Mile. Lej coz, his former sweetheart, in whose J affections M. Erlbach was said to have I supplanted him, and lie turned the key, I saying, "We shall be alone; it will be better so." THE TORTURE BEGINS. Coming close to M. Erlbach, he said, "You have betrayed your comrades to the police. You must die. If you | move an inch I will shoot you down." M. Erlbach replied that he had never betrayed a single one of the anarchists, and argued with Lacombe, but could not convince him. Repeating his threat to murder Erlbach, Lacombe ransacked the room to ascertain if M. Erlbach had a weapon concealed. Mme. Erlbach, who meanwhile had been dumb with horror, began to supplicate with the intruder, but with renewed threats the anarchist continued his search in a small side room, where Mme. Erlbaeli's little boy, not yet five, was sleeping. "For the poor child's sake, have pity!" cried the mother; and the reply came by throwing one of the revolvers in the direction of the sleeping child. "Another word," he shouted, "and I will kill him." Fearing what might happen if she provoked him further, the woman kept silent. Lacombe then feigned irony, and turning to Erlbach, he said, "You are not going to convince me; spies always deny their guilt when they are caught. But •fill the same, my eiear Erlbach, it's a pity to die so young, isn't it? How old are you? Thirty-two, I believe?"

Then turning to the man's wifet he continued in insinuating language, "And you, too, madame, how old are you?" "Twenty-four," she faltered.'

"Twenty-four. You're very young to die; it's so much the worse. And you've got a child, too. J have to kill him as well; it's very hard, isn't it? But you and your husband betrayed me to the detectives, so you are condemned -to death; you are going to die." Lacombe then proceeded to sing jeering'}' from the patriotic song, "To Die for Home and Country":

Mourir pour la patrie C'cst le sort le plus beau. When the tortured woman begged to bo permitted to write a letter to her mother he retorted. "Xot likely! Your mother will hear of your death soQn enough." A SPIN OF A COIN. Presently he suddenly exclaimed, "I have an appointment at two o'clock. Undress and go to bed. I will kill you in your bed; it will be more convenient." Resuming his sardonic singing of the refrain, he forced the couple to take off, their clothing mid slip between the sheets. After resting a while, Lacombe pulled out his watch and exclaimed, "Two o'clock. I have missed my appointment. I may give you a few more hours' grace. We will play 'heads and tails' to decide the precise moment of the death of all of you." Producing a live-franc piece, he went on, "Spin this coin, Erlbach. If 'tails' come up I will execute you all three at once; if 'heads' turn up I will defer your death until dawn, the time at which the State executioner, M. Deibler, also operates." The coin was spun, the head coming uppermost., and Lacombe declared, "Road! You are lucky persons; you shall live until six o,'clock in the morning." Throughout the rest of the night Lacombe kept up his process of torture, which he varied by singing snatches of anarchist songs, and the refrain— Mourir pour la patrie C'cst le sort le plus beau. Once he approached the bedside, and, glaring at his would-be victims, exclaimed, "Rivers of blood shall flow. I will commit suicide over your dead bodies, j There will be an orgy of red blood. Death henceforth is master in your house. To die at your age. . . ." At this time Mile. Lecoz, in the adjoining room, had been listening to the terrible conversation. She was afraid to cry out or attempt to render any assistance lest she' should precipitate the crisis. At last she could keep silence no longer. Opening the window of the room, she shouted loudly for assistance. Lacombe sprang across the room, banged his fist against the partition, and called out, "One more word and you are dead." Intimidated, the young woman closed the window and kept silent. SHOOTIXf! IX THE DARK. At six o'clock Lacombe drew back the window curtains. Dawn was just breaking, and. still humming the terrible refrain, be ordered the couple' to rise from their beds to meet, their end. He intimated that if any attempt were made to bring in the police, he had with him a bonib, with which he would blow up the house, and they would all perish together. Lacombe tlxen commenced to fire bis revolvers. The first bullet shattered the lamp and plunged the room into darkness. Then followed a fnsilade of shots. M, Erlbach was wounded in the throat and chest, but bis wife, by laying lint on her back, escaped, the bullets passing over her.

Thinking Unit lie hart ended the lives of both his victims, Lacombe coolly walked ont of the house and disappeared. lie still iineapturcd. and is believed to be hiding in Montniartre. The wounded 7nan was visited at the hospital by his father, a big manufacturer at Fribourg, who passed an hour at his bedside exhorting him to recant liis anarchist creed. After this conversation Jules Erlbach had a relapse, and was not expected to last through the night.