DOUBLE SUICIDE IN PARIS.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1743, 4 August 1874, Page 3

DOUBLE SUICIDE IN PARIS.

The special correspendentof the Standard, at Paris, under date 24th April, has telegraphed the following :—There are at this moment lying at the niorgue the bodies of a yoxmg English couple. They arrived in Paris on Tuesday night, took up their quarters at an hotel, and were found dead in their room the following morning. They had taken-prussic,acid. t The marks of their linen had been obliterated, and their papers burned. The French Figaro gives .; the following particulars; of the case : —" On Wednesday, at one in,: the forenoon* a gentleman and lady in deep mourning arrived at the hotel from England. The gentleman seemed to be about thirty, and wore a full light beared. ; He; was well dressed, and appeared to belong to the upper class of society. The lady was not more than eighteen, and was very pretty. The hotel was full, akd the couple consequently provided with a room on the fourth floor, the lady remarking that they could change next day. At dinner time they did not appear, which caused some surprise, and when the next day nothing was seen of them, at two o'clock the police were called in, and the door of the room broken open. The strangers were then discovered half dressed and dead in each others arms upon tho bed, and beside them was an empty bottle, which had contained prussic acid. Another bettle filled with laudanum was on a stool near. The young man's face was terribly contorted, but that of the lady was calm and beautiful. The police report states that whereas the woman had been dead ten hours, the body of the man was warm when found. Hence the conjecture that possibly the murder led to a remorseful suicide. Telegrams to the London police have not yet produced any information. The woman had no wedding-ring, but a ring reversed to simulate one. Eventually the parties were identified by photographs as Mr Charles Wm. Hall, of Bath, and his wife, who attempted to commit suicide atllfracombe in July last, by taking laudanum. On that occasion Mr. a»d Mrs Hall escaped death, mainly in consequence of their taking overdoses of the poison. When brought up at the quarter sessions in Exeter, in October last, the male prisoner pleaded guilty, and the female prisoner not guilty, and as the counsel for the Crown declined to offer any evidence, Mrs Hall was discharged. The counsel for the husband stated that since his imprisonment his client had been exceedingly penitent, and thankful, that his life was* spared from his own rashness,, and he added that Mr Hall, sen., a Bath tradesman, would for the future watch over his son and his wife. A merely nominal sentence was passed, and Hall was a few days afterwards discharged from prison."