A French Whitechapel Horror.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 3089, 27 December 1888, Page 3

A French Whitechapel Horror.

A correspondent of 'Tlio Time' writes:—"For weeks I have boon expecting that someone would draw attention to the fact tliatpreoisely tho same crimes were many years ago committed in, Paris and wero ultimately found to have been the acts of a monomaniac. Last summer, while travelling in France, I picked to and glanced over a French work 'Home Every Day Book,' wliich gaxe an account of a remarkable crimnal who must have strongly resembled the fiend who has created such consternation in the East End of London, l'or months women of the lowest class of 'unfortunates' f wore found murdered and. mutilated \ in a shocking manner, In tbopoorest districts of the city a 'reign of terror' prevailed. The police seemed poworless to afford any help or protection and, in spite of all theirwatchfulness fresh cases were from time to time reported, all the victims belonging to the same class, and all having been mutilated in the same fiendish way. At last a girl one night was accosted in the street' )jy a workman, who asked her to take a .walk with him, When, by the'light of a lanip, she saw his face, it inspired, hei* with a . strange fe'eluig of fear and aversion; and it infltantly flashed upon her that he must be tho 'jnuHerer, Site ihero-1 .•fore gave ,him in chargbloHtheipdlice.'i who, on enquiry, found, ihat her woman's instinct liatl accomplished «uttionß('f'.iJl their detectives.; l'iie e.itflual h:«V teen' hi la t fcund.''.H. i.uWeqjiffiitly. cami ~•(• lightth^thj'hid, hkn impeilej to ctmoiit the i ; uiimeib;/'a.blutalr'or li

sense "to ;khp>'; that . tli'is class ..of .'woiuen',' being -out lute a. night,;andteing-frifnjliis and}[jmprotected, lie coufdMulgo liis' li or riblo craze on tlie'iaiwith ~,compava livd safety and impunity) ami ; lio therefore avoided selec.ting.b.is victims froin" a more ;vespebt«i)le, oittss, : Ho was couvioted.and to,tho great relief of the public ;,aiid ! if 'any persons afterwards tempted to imitate hinij his prompt puiiisbmonfeftectu'-, ally doterred .them.V, This notorious. case'mnst be well kiiowii to vthia' Parisian police, and to thousands of persons in France, and if' inquiry is made its history can bo bo easily procured.' : •

Buried Aliyo, - . Iti'Hupsia people are oftener than elsewhere condemned- uuiutenlion. ally olieoursu—to that most gruesome of all deaths, of which E. L Poe'had such unfeigned' honor—buried alive. Bill the. circumstances accompanying, this'frightful torture are; seldom so characteristic or so horrible as in the case of the wife of a peasant in the Government of Volhynia, on the borders of Austria; who, : according to the local journal 'Yoiljyiiia 'was lately buried alive in a, comatose stato. She was expecting soon to became a mother at the timo of her supposed death, After the "corpse" had been left tho usual time, the parish priest, Koustantinoff,'recited the prayers of the burial service in the churchyard ; the widower cast three handi'itls of earth on tho coffin, and all departed except the grave-diggers. In tilling up tin gri vo the latter shovelled in an unusual large sod of hard earth, which struck the coffin with a loud noise and woke up tho unfortunate woman from her sleep. Tho horror of her position at once dawned upon her. Shu cried out in most pitiuus tones to tho grave diggers to resoue her from ut horrible death,' She solemnly promised them nil her property if'-tlmy would tnko her fro'm'ahtgrave and coffin, Tho more she cried and entreated the more strenuous were tln-ir endeavors lo bll in the grave;ami «n leaving the eliiirchymd »heu 1 heir work wi'ia done tiny still heard Inn cries and iiiohiih. IVv hi once liunied otf 10 nei liuii>aiid, wiiu was aiinounded with guests. diiiikin« to the memory of the deceased. Having roluiwi what had taken place, thf matter was discussed by the guests and llio neighbors, who soon eume rushing in, and it was dually resolved nan, con. that an evil spirit had taken possession of tho deceased, mid that, in order to prevent her walking at night and disturbing the people, it was absolutely necessary to disiuter her, and drive an ashen stake through her body and perform this snperstititious rite, deemed necessary ! in all such cases. The p)pe, horrified, hurried off lo the churchyard, and had the body disinterred in the hope of saving a lifej but superstition had already got its victim—the woman was dead, but unmistakeable Bigns showed she had struggled hard to escape from the most horrible death the human mind can conceive.