Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1877 — Thrilling Scene in a Murder Trial. [ARTICLE]

Thrilling Scene in a Murder Trial.

, Paris—especially fashionable Paris—shuddered a great deal with horror ye«tdday. Billatr was brought up in the Assizes Court for trial, and found that he had a very aristocratic audience to witness his appearance at the bar of justice. This' infamous wretc>-who notaonly killed a woman who had lived with him, simply because she broke a glass, of which be Was fond, but proceeded, according to »he testimony of the very best medical experts, to cut her up into small pieces before she was reaily dead, in nnter that he might conceal an evidence of his crime—is, of course, certain of the guillotine. French law knows no leniency toward capital crime. The Magistrates makes long agony, however, of the trials. They review in detail every circumstance, however trivial, which in any manner reflects discredit on the-- criminal’s life before he committed his grave crime; they recount all the evidence which has been brought against him in such a methodical manner that he stands back aghast as he sees his downward course traced step by step until it terminates at the foot of the. scaffold. It is now proposed to take away some of the power which Magistrates have of dealing with an accused' person, as I have told you in a previousletter; but in the

case of a person like Bfllgli there cerwfe- - ly can be no harm in allowing a Judge full sway. There was one terribly dramatic wene in the court room yesterday. It was when Blllair was submitting to the “ interrogatory,” as it is called, after the accusation had been read against him. Jn making his confession—for he has fntai the outset admitted (hat be killed the woman—said that he did It in the heat of passion, and that, as soon as he saw that she was dead, he dissected the body to conceal it, in order that his fainlly name might not be dishomired. O, vagaries at crime! . The President of the coart said to the accused: “ I have already, told you that your pretended confession is nothing but lies.” 1 At that moment an usher brought in a wax mask of the murdered woman and placed it upon the table where lay other numerous proofs of the crime., A mufflqd cry of horror arose from the audience as this horrible mask grinned upon K Ladies turned away their heads, and men cried out, “ Enough 1” : The mask Waste) startling a reproduction of the most repugnant features of dissolution that the murderer himself, who can scarcely be accused of sentiment, was troubled. The Presiaent then said: , , “ Gentlemen of the jury, it now concerns you to know what day, at what hour and under what circumstances this woman was killed." Turning to the criminal; he added, “Do you know what people eay, Billair?” The accused, very calmly, “No, Mr. President.” “ They say that you dissected this body while it was alive! And that which says so is the corpse itself!” Great commotion in the audience. Billair turned his head away and murmured a few words, denying this statement. The President continued: “The body was alive! The unfortunate creature succumbed to hemorrhage. The body was completely bloodless! Now, there is no example of the escape of blood from, a body which life has quilted. If. few drops now that is all. Do you understand?'" , ; Joi' - w-J Happily, such scenes are rare in courts of justice.— Parie Cor. Boetoii JouriM.]