WHOLESALE POISONING IN FRANCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2071, 18 August 1885, Page 2

WHOLESALE POISONING IN FRANCE.

A supposed wholesale poisoninp case, which has for some months occupied the public mind, has just been decided at the Seine Assises, and a verdict of wilful murder returned. The condemned criminal, a man about thirty-six, is named Pel, and for some little time lias ostensibly carried on the trade of a clockmakor at the suburb of Montreuil, near Paris, but in reality seems to have divided his time between chemical studies and playing the harmonium, Previously, however, he followed various vocations of an irregular character, and at one time is known to have occupied himself seriously with the study Of poisons and their effects. Some months a«ohe was living at Montreuil with a mistress named Eliza Boehmer, who is known to have had savings, and kept them by her, One morning she was attacked with violent pains and vomiting, Unknown to Pel, two neighbors came to see her, and they now state that from appearances they suspected her to have been poisoned. They ■ went again to see herafew days later, but she had vanished. From the circumstances. that during the interval elapsing between the visits there were indications of a threat fire burning in the house, with the accompaniment of a horrible stench, it was Surmised that Pel had out up Boehmer's body after herdeath from poison, and burnt it piecemeal in the kitchen grate. Pel was arrested; and it was then remembered by the neighbors, that some years ago Pel's wife, who'ijliad brought him a dowry of four thousii&d francs, had died suddenly only a month after her marriage from an illness attended with much vomiting. The body was exhumed, arid the doctors professed to have foupd in it a large quantity of arsenic, ' According to the proseoution there is, however, reason to believe-thty he poisioned three other women, oj

whom the first was his mother, from whom he had inherited eight thousswji franco; the second another mistress, and the third a domestic servant, all three ot whom died at his house under suspicious circumstances. Th? pieces dt ■ conviction, placed, according ty.cuStojLon the table of the presiding judge, weW.of an unusually ghastly description. . They included portions in jara of the intestines of Pel's exhumed wife; the grate in which his mistress 'is supposed to have been consumed, and the ashes found in the grate. Among the witnesses called against the prisoner were a second wife, who left him in .consequence of his ill-treatment, and her mother, Madame Dufaure,. but. these women were known to have gone to England to escape A the unpleasantness of the trial. In his in- %«■ terrogation the prisoner maintained his in- ' nocence, but offered very unsatisfactory, explanations of the circumstances telling againsthinii His wife's death lie attributed to an arsenic medicine she was in the habit of taking, and he alleged that the woman Boehmer' had, suddenly got well, and left him without saying where she was going, A number of witnesses was called, among whom were|various per- • sons who had formerly lived with him, and suffered at the time from mysterious illnesses. Th&wholo mass of evidence about proved arid 'about suspected crimes was laid before the jury, and it furnished more than ample matter for the verdict at which they arrived. That the verdict has been given without extenuating circumstances is probably due as much to the unproved as to the proved inrtgnces of Pel's: guilt. That he protest™ his innocence to the last!was a matter of course. It remains t<> bo seen what effect his protestations will have on M. Grevy in face of the certainty of its untruth.' . - .