Career of Another French Criminal.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3102, 12 January 1889, Page 3

Career of Another French Criminal.

P II rains Bwindlers in Paris just now. They crop up on overy side. Pranzim's sanguinary villanies. had . barely been unmasked before Allmeyer's burglarious eccentricities wore attracting crowds to the Courts, and now Paris—tou/ Pam-m\ talk oiily ofPrado—"Xe Grand Prado." Muob has been said and written about tho latest candidate for the gallows, but his history has not yet been fullvund properly told. " Ho is," says amis correspondent of tho "Globe," "called Prado, but what his real name is nobody but himself knows. All the police.have been able to dis,covor oh this head. is that he possesses a list of distinguished aliases, such, for example, as Prado y Eido, Cointe Meudoza, Marquis de Haro, Duo do Grasett, aud Comte Linskade Castillon. The judicial investigation into his career does not dtt back further than 1879, when all Hrathentic trace of him is lost. At 7 that opoch ho ivas at Madrid, where ' he had just married a young lady of good family, Dolores Garcia yMarcillo, who brought him a dol of £15,000, He was then living under the namo of Comto Linska, but ho admits that tho papers he furnished for the marriago were forgerios. Previous to the above dote, all wo know of him is what he condesconds to tell üb, According to his own Btory, his birth was seoret and tragic. He was brought up at Dijon by an elderly woman who always wore mourning, and who often took him to ,tlie cemetery to pray over a tomb which she said contained the remains of his mother. On the death of that mysterious personage, he broke open her iron safe, and found in it an ..album bearing the namo of his accompanied by an. injunction never to reveal it, and ho swears he never will, come what may. He began his peregrinations at the early age of fourteen. He visited successively India, China and America On returning to Europe in 1872 he joined the army of Don Carlos, and lieutenant, He is fond of " welling on bis military exploits. He says he took part in the seige of San Sebastian, was arrested as a spy, and but for the Governor's daughter who fell in love with him he would have been shot. Shortly afterwards ho was wounded in an engagement and Bent to the ambulance. Here he again played Don Juan with success. The nurse who attended him was an English lady of illustrious family, and as soon as he was cured he carried her off and married her. The happy couple travelled some time in Palestine but on returning home his wife fell ill and died, Recovering from his grief he went to Havanna, where, falling short of money he robbed-a pawnbroker of £1,500, with Ifchich Bum ho repaired to Peru, Two Months later he again came back to Spain, re-joined the Carlists and shared in tho final combats of the insurrection, He turned up at Lima where he paid court to the daughter of a merchant, and finally obtained her heart and fortune. He soon gambled her dot away, and got involved in suspicious transactions which obliged him leaving the country to escape uupleasant consequences. ■- His wife died of a broken heart and i y left a child, which soon followed her Pto tho grave. Our sorry hero took j refuge in Lisbon, Here he once more found Jiimself penniless, but he was not long in poverty. He made the acquaintance of a jeweller, and ■ broke into his shop twice. The first ' time he carried off £2,000 in jewels, but on the second night he touched nothing, and contented himself with leaving a letter on the table faceti- ■ «ly advising his friend to " take tercare of his properly." After i a voyage to Madagascar and back he i made his re-appearance in Madrid ' He started a private gambling house, which was patronised by all the grew of the town. He managed to outdo them, and bolted with the stakes, amounting to £B,OOO. " It was the only money I ever stole with pleasure," he remarked, " for I was merely robbing a robber." It was at this period that, under the name of Comto Linsia, he got married to Dolores Garcialp Marcillo, who is still living in the Spanish capital in a state of abject misery. Having squandered her dowry away, he decided to como to Paris, the paradise of tho ' chevalier d'in- ' dustriOi' Hero ho captivated several , ladies of easy virtue, out of whom he i Bucceededin making a living, Among i \ them was one Eugenie Forestier, who plays a conspicuous role in .this wanco of crime. She was separated Mi her husband, and was then in tho keeping of a banker well known for his amorous proclivities. Eventually, however, she lost hor lovor. Prado continued to live with her, but her little fortuno was soon Bwallowed up, and both W6re reduced to iudigen ce. He now turned his attention in another direction, and was not long in discovering a fresh Victim. Foremost among the frail creatures who frequented the Eden Concert Hall was Mario Aguetant—a young . brunette covored with diamonds and pearls', which at once aroused his cupidity. He. proposed to her, was accepted, and, according to the indiotoent, had no sooner entered her apartment in the Kue Caumartin than hepDunced on her, cut her throat with a razor, and made off with her ' jowols. Tho murder took place so far bock as January, 1880, but it was not till nearly two years later that the perpetrator was arrested, and that ' too, in quite an unexpected manner. In the moantime, on the morrow of «£ crime, he escaped once more to Mdrid, where he sold the stolen property, and then came back to ' Bordeaux. He wroto to his old mistress, Eugenie forestier, to come and share his fortuno with him and she consented. He took a villa in the suburbs of that city, belonging to a widow lady named Couronneau, to whom he represented himself as a Spanish nobleman, and whoso daughter Mauricette he speedily seduced ' Shortly after bis arrival a robbery' ] was made at a jeweller's, Tho police , were put on the track, and judge of j their surpriso on finding some of the i jewels on the persons of Eugenie \ Forestier and Mauricette Couronneau, ■ mistresses of the illustrious hidalgo.:' Needless to say, they were imme- ' diately placed under lock and key, j but Prado was, of course, not to be | foupd anywhero. < We now come to the way in which he eventually fell into the clutches of justice, and which jed to his identification as the mysterious murderer of the Rue Caumartin, who at the time was believed to be in Pranzini. Aell-dressedman was oaught in the Wof stealing a quantity of diamonds from the room of a foreign dealer staying at an hotel in the Cours-la- . Bene. Ho tried to escape by firing \ ii revolver at tho waiter, bat after 'a long chase he was safely' landed at Mazas. Ho turned out io be no other ] than tho übiquitoui Prado. At tho i

same time his two mistresses, named' above werb brought to Paris to undergo examination by the jw/o d'instmtfon. While in prison Mauricette Couroueau gave birth to a boy, of which Prado was: the father." Eugenie Forestier condoled with her, and uttered suspicious words. "What' do you moan I" .asked the former," I mean" was the reply " that tho father of your child is a murderer, but I have sworn nover to reveal the crime.". However, pressed by tho chaplain and tho Judge, she consented to make a clean breast of it. She forthwith rotated how Prado came home on the night of the doed, how he washed his bloody handf, how he burned his stained clothes, and how he. tried to shoot her when he perceived that she had guessed his guilt. Tho stolen jewels wore found at Madrid, partly at the pawnbroker's aud partly at the second-hand dealers and Prado was recognised as the porson who got rid, of them. He himself does not deny this, but says ho' stole them in a railway carriage from a man who must have been the real murderer. He likewise denies the confession of Eugenio Forestier, whom lie accuses of inventing her story out of pure jealousy,—Punedin Evening Star.