A PARISIAN DESPERADO.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2581, 26 January 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

A PARISIAN DESPERADO.

The Times remarks that wliilo wo are searching, as yot vainly, for the Whitechapel murderer, Paris is 'more fortunate, and has secured the conviction of that other slayer of women, Prado, alias Count Linska do Castillon, alia* liaro, Grassot, and Mcndoza. This precious .scoundrel, who.se crime was ?o closely copied by Pranzini, the assassin of Marie Re/jnault, was on Wednesday found guilty of the murder, iu ISB6, of Marie Aguetant, a woman who had long been known among the frequenters of the promenado at the Eden Theatre as "la dameaux diamants." The history of this line flower of modern civilisation is most extraordinary. He appears to be a Spaniard or a Mexican, though as Count Linska he wished to pass for a Pole. His friends in Paris, who stood in the dock with him, were almost all Spaniards, and it was to Madrid that he wont, when he left Paris after the murder, to r try to dispose of the diamonds he had stolen from his victim. From his own account—though this is but one of many inventions of his with regard to identity—ho was brought up at Uijouby a lady who was always dressed in mourning 1 , and whom ho claims as his mother. In ISGS she died, and he, having examined her papers and found out the secret of his birth, left Europehe was then only fourteou —and travelled to Mozambique, Calcutta, Hayti, San Francisco, and Now York. Four years later he was, still according to his own account, a lieutenant in the ranks of the Carlists, and begun his career of robbery by stealing 3000f. worth of jewellery in a house across the French frontier. Wounded by a shell at Somorrostro, ho went into hospital, ran away with the aristocratic English sister who nursed him, and married her. She died next year at Isoliia; and he then went to Havannah, where he again stole jewels and absconded. At Lima, he .said, he married agaiu; the lady, who had a dowry of over a million francs, died suddenly, and he, after a quarrel with the family, had to flee the country. At Oporto and Madrid ho again had several great strokes of fortune, mostly in the way of stolen jewellery; and at Madrid in 1879 it is certain that lie married a woman who lias the misfortune to be still living, and who was present at his trial. Of tho other marriages there is no evidence except his own statement, though from his recent adventures in that direction ho appears to have been a yrttnd cpmtseur, always ready to go through the form of marriage with any woman who seemed attractive and rich. Whether his supposed marriages before 1579 were real, and, if so, whether ho murdered his wives or not, are questions not yet solved : and indped, as his destiny is fixed by Wednesday's verdio', it seems hardly worth while to solve them.

After four years at Madrid, during which he devoured his wife's fortune and reduced her to a state of miserable porcrty, Linska, or Prado, abandoned her and went to Paris. There ho sought at once the society of women, and after several adventures in that line he made the acquaintance, in January, 18:55, of Eugimie Forestier, who was living apart from her husband, one Varlay, and whom ho appears to havo inspired with an extraordinary devotion. With her he lived continuously, she receiving money from an Americau admirer, and keeping Prado by means of it. But Prado did not liko an existence so pinched as this. He looked for an opportunity of enriching himself, and ho found it in his acquaintance with the unfortunate Mario Agutitant, a lady of tho demi-monde, who, as we havo said, practised the dangerous habit of wearing a diamond necklace in public, especially at resorts like (ho Eden Theatre. Ou January 1.4, 18SG, this woman was found murdered in her rootn, in Ruo Cauraartiu, and her diamonds, with certain share certificates and other securities, wero gone. At half-past ten she had loft tho Eden with a man in a light o vereoat and felt hat ; had gone straight home; and the pair bad been received by tho servant, who then had gono to sleep in her chair in tho kitchon. At two o'clock the Blea, with whom Mario Aguetant lived in more or less permanent relations, returned home, broke open the door, and found her dead body. The murderer got clear off, and it was only long afterwards, when Prado was arrested in Paris ou a different charge, that it appeared that he was the man "wanted" for tho graver crime. His doings in the interval had been even more extraordinary than before. Two days after the murder he bad got clean off to Madrid with the jewels. There, according to tho evidence of . the jeweller's wife, to whom he pledged them, he had been constant to his old plan of action, and had proposed to marry her daughted Pnrita, though the time he was in the city was very short. He even took the dangerous step of giving her his photograph, and this proved to be one of the strongest places do conviction. Then he telegraphed to Eugenie Korestier to join him at Bordeaux, ami there they took up their quarters, she not without her suspicions that the man for whom she was so infatuated was the assassin for whose capture all Paris was clamouring. Perhaps the secret would havo remained unrevealed if this inveterate Don Juan had not re-commenced his usual practices and taken for a fresh mistress—though lie did not abandon Forestier—a of respectable antecedents, Mauricette Couronneau. Forestier occasionally gave way to outbreaks of jealousy, in one of which, when she had referred to the Aguetant affair, he fired at her and nearly killed her. Meanwhile he went joweihunting again, and stole at Itoyan a large number of watches and other goods, which led ultimately to his arrest. His accomplices, Ibancs, Garcia, and the rest, disposed of these in Paris; the police came to know of them and finally Prado was arrested on the Qnais, after firing several shots at the policeman who tried to seize him.

At the trial he showed himself extremely clever, cynical, and ready, while his advocate endeavoured to play upon the minds of the jury by vague and magnificent hints as to the criminal's real name and parentage. Although these suggestions and arguments did not ultimately prevail, they increased the interest of the trial, and there is doubth sfi a party in France wlueh believes that Prado is an ill-used man, tile victim of feminine jealousy. His real name has not been made known ; perhaps it is just as

well that it should be kept secret. Boundless possibilities are opened out. by the counsel's words. It is not an uncommon thing for a French criminal to maintain that he is the son of Napoleon IJI , and no doubt some parentage of the kind is being found for Prado by the credulous and sentimental. Whatever his birth, it is clear that he deserves to rank among the most remarkable adventurer* of our day. Bold, versatile, and utterly reckless, without one scrap of conscience or one grain of fear, this creature has lived for over twenty years by his wits, and has never been caught till now. Ho was an adept in the practice of making towns and countries too hot to hold him, but ho always anticipated the police and changed his quarters, preferring long journeys to short ones, and a thorough breach with t.iie past to keeping up compromising ties. It was only to Eugenie Forestic-r and to Paris that he appeared 'o have more than a pas.-ing attachment, and the former lie tried to shoot. She and his other victim, Maurieet.t'i Oouronnoau, are very properly acquitted, on the principle which in England allows a wife to plead marital compulsion. It neither was married to Prado, each was as much under his iniluenco as if she had been his wife, and the jury gave them tho benefit of this position, Prado himself will now in all probability expiate his crime on tho scaffold. Whether his execution will have any sequel analogous to that which connected Prauzini's with tho political scandals of last year, and even with the resignation of the President himself, none can sav : but it is certain that, even in fickle Paris tho criminal and his strange career will for a long time continue to impress the minds of tho makers of fiction and the students of that which is proverbially stranger—fact. Times, November 17.