A HORRIBLE RUFFIAN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1915, 14 February 1885, Page 2

A HORRIBLE RUFFIAN.

Later New Caledonian papers just received contains a report of the trial and condemnation to death by the military tribunial of a'horrible ruffian named Chiappe. He is a Coraicaii by birth, was transported for life on account of an assassination committed in Algeria, where he followed an-infamous a house of ill-fame. Since ho has been in the Island of Nou he has been the -executioner of the sentence passed on such of the convicts as fell under the ban of their secret tribunal., for. offences usually arising out of .their gambling transactions. ,••■'• The man he has just murdered is named / Mas.. He was formerlykhown3s "the king of the hulks," and his power over the convicts was at onotime so absolute f»i that they would ,have committed any atrocity at his command. But for the last four.years he has been employed as .otfeiof the turnkeys.• "On the 7th;of May, iSßij accused' of another convict, and was"seritehced fodeathi>'-Sis life's was spared, however,, reinstated in his fqnner position. Opthe 22nd August, 1882; he -was» suddenly attacked by two prisoners, to whom had been delegated by lot of duty of, assassinating him. He ..was seriously wounded but recovered. During the- yeaf 1883' numerous attempts were made to murder him,., but were baffled- ''by. "his. great strength arid courage, although he received several ugly gashes, ...On, the 2nd of October last, Mas, who'had been removed fronrhis .post lor -drunkenness and outrageous conduct-towards one of the warders, was seated on the step of the p room he occupied, about the- hour of hoori, when' Chiap'pe, arme'd'.fFitß'.ii cutleas,' ■ suddenly' ourst upon . him, and inflicted atemblrwouhd upon lip with the-'¥eapoh r £ fchen : Bei£ing*'!Mfs% the throat wtyh, .iuYleft hand, he proceeded to hack-at- him, and then,'-vi^'ary'- with the violence of his exertions,.drew-baok' to gloat oyer the spectacle, of'his victim' A. bleeding from 15 different gashes. By a ffiSjr supreme effort, Mas staggered to his-feet, \ and drew, as he thought a knife from his pocket. Chiappe, seeing.this took.fljA pursued by the hootings and about twenty convicts, wlio sympathised with his crime, but despised his cowardice. This shamed him into returning, and he agamflunghimsolfuponhistotteringyictim. |he latter looked at hisjm.agmary weapqn which ljifj hold in his hanc{, and found it was ono of his own jinge'ra which had. boon severed in the struggle without his being conscious of it. His assassin, finding he had nothing to fear from him, renewed hjs attack,' with the approbation pf |he piiri'drels who lqqked! on, ''.ani Mas fell to the grquncl cpvered with 2() additional wounck At tljaj; flipont § warder made his appearance and both murderer, and spectators disappeared as if by enchantment. According tg..-,repgrt gf the surgeon wllQ examined the pqrpsol the head was nearly severed from thj trunk, and there was more than fifty ■gashes qn the body, which if placed in a line, would liaye been, jn. the'aggregate, upwards Qf' fgp faej lpng, OJiiitppe is - described as being both morally-and physically hideous—a wild beast endowed > with human speech. His attitude !l!S jwlp W m i}f insolent mjrtlUd. defiant He denied the perpetration of the crime with revolting oynl> <<\m ; and when the clerk of the tribunal notified to hlni that ho was sentenced to be executed for tho murder, ""What!" he exclaimed, " Condemmed to death for Biioh a camilh as that?" And it.was with considerable difficulty that the gendarmes imposed silence upon him, Ever since the assassin's condemnation, the conyicts known as tenjutn de jmi, of whom ho was, the instrument, and who express confidently with-respect ti tjld coirimdtatlori'orhis; serif allowed'hWhalf a franc dui'ing the term of 'hisiricarceration, i: " - J '