MERCY FOR LANDRU.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 December 1921, Page 5

MERCY FOR LANDRU.

PLEA BY THE JURYMEN. MAY SAVE HIS HEAD. By Tele,?raph.—Press Assn —CopyrightReceived December 2, 5.5 p.m. Paris, Nov. 1. Immediately after sentence of death was passed on Landru. the jurymen unanimously signed a recommendation to mercy in favor of life imprisonment, which it. is believed will save his -head. When taken to the condemned cell at Versailles hist night, Landru dropped on to a stool and said to the warder: “It was time the trial finished. 1 am terribly tired.” A grating in the middle of the cell door is always open, and a warder is watching to prevent suicide. Landru’s counsel, M. Giafferi, was most affected during the closing scenes, and when the judges were deliberating after the verdict, Landru smilingly remarked to M. Miafferi: “So a condemned man has to console his counsel..” adding that he himself would sleep as calmly as ever. Landru listened calmly and most respectfully to the sentence, which prescribed that he was to have his head cut off in an open space at Versailles. Then ho protested his innocence. During the last day of the trial, gazing women shamelessly struggled for seats, and Landru was heard to remark: “If any’ ladies would like my place I will be willing to give it up.”—-Reu-