THE PARIS MURDER-THE WOMAN CUT IN TWO.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2583, 18 April 1877, Page 3

THE PARIS MURDER-THE WOMAN CUT IN TWO.

The great Paris murder, known as " the woman cut in two," which was the talk of. the town for so many weeks, has at last been thoroughly cleared up. Billoir, the man arrested on suspicion, has made a full confession, in the presence of the examining judge. : " On. November.2, Le Jourdes Morts," began.the prisoner, "Marie dejManach went to an office for. servants out of work,

intho Eve St. Denis, and inscribed her name. While there she met one of her country women, who treated her to some drink, and when she returned home to our lodging in the Rue dcs Trois-Freres sho was drunk, and broke a. git. glass, which I prized dearly as a souvenir. [ got out of temper, and as she stooped down to pick up the fragments I kicked her in tb> stomach, and she felliiko a stone at my, feet. Ifc was about cloven o'clock nt night. I tried all I could In bring her round, but I soon discovered she was dead. At three.o'clock in the afternoon on the following day I resolved to get rid of the body.- I undressed it, ami cowWd the floor with a thick layer of savv-dust, of which I had a great quantity brought home by me,from the Northern Railway at the time I worked there. I opened the body with ;i razor, look put Hie,, viscera, and placed fclicm in a large pan used for washing up the crockery. I, then cut out the vertebral -column with a chisel, using the hammer - you found in my room. i .

Here the prisoner stopped, for a moment to wipe away the heavy drops of perspiration which rolled d-'V.n liis face, and to refresh himself with a glass of water. .- ;

'• Towards nine o'clock in the evening," he resumed in a feeble voice, "after having carefully wrapped up the two halves of the body in linen underclothing and a waterproof, and made thorn into tight parcels, I took the upper part of the body to Clichy, where I threw it info.the river. On the next day, the same hour, I did the same with the other half. I bound the arms and legs together with a rope to prevent them moving, in the event of the parcels eoniing uudonc in the water. I cut off the hair and threw a part, together with the razor and the chizel, down the drain in the Rue Cadet or the Hue -Roche-, ehouart, I don't remember, which. , As for the viscera and the remainder of the.hair,.. I threw them down the water-closet in our hoii'-e. Ido not know Clichy. I found myself unawares, with the first parcel* on the banks of Seine. I met nobody, there; on.the first day, and 1 was-able to tie alarge ;ssone round the neck at my ease."

;. Here Billoir again stopped and refused to say anything more, but pressed by the Magistrate to unburden his mind com\pletely, J he continued after a few triiniitesi silence :—"On, the second day I carried jthe other "portion of the body under my arm, taking care to hide itwith my coat, which is. a very ample one ; but jusl, as I had tied.the.stone to the legs and thrown the parcel in the water, I sawa;boat jn which, I think, I perceived two men. : I raja away across "the fields, and having hidden myself for half an hour, returned home about midnight^ and set to work to remove all traces of the crime."

Such is the prisoner's confession. As soon as ife was taken down, 'he magistrate asked him to sign it. Billoir staggered towards the fable and'taking the pen in one hand, while he supported his head with the other, he.appended his signature. He then fainted, and remained insensible for. a quarter of an hour. On recovering, he was led back* to his cell. It. must be added that many of the siafcements made by Billoir are contrary to the facts of the crime. For,example,: he says the murder was perpetrated on the. 2nd of November, whereas the neighbors saw the woman alive, on the 6th, and the medical- autopsy proves that when the remains were, found on the Bth jihey had not been in the water more than a day. THe prisoner, it is thought, has committed these inaccuracies in order to elude the charge of premeditation, and to make the crime appear as the result of a sudden quarrel.. He was again' visited by the examining magistrate, but refused to give any more particulars. , Since his confession he has been in a most weak and prostrate state.