A Book of Remarkable CriminalsIrving, H. B. (Henry Brodribb)
History
A Book of Remarkable Criminals
Irving, H. B. (Henry Brodribb)
Criminals -- Biography
Requested to give her name, she replied, with a smile, "Gabrielle
Bompard." She was accompanied by a middle-aged gentleman, who appeared
to be devoted to her. Gabrielle Bompard and her friend were taken to the
private room of M. Loze, the Prefect of Police. There, in a half-amused
way, without the least concern, sitting at times on the edge of the
Prefect's writing-table, Gabrielle Bompard told how she had been the
unwilling accomplice of her lover, Eyraud, in the murder of the bailiff,
Gouffe. The crime, she stated, had been committed in No. 3 in the Rue
Tronson-Ducoudray, but she had not been present; she knew nothing of
it but what had been told her by Eyraud. After the murder she had
accompanied him to America; there they had met the middle-aged
gentleman, her companion. Eyraud had proposed that they should murder
and rob him, but she had divulged the plot to the gentleman and asked
him to take her away. It was acting on his advice that she had returned
to France, determined to give her evidence to the judicial authorities
in Paris. The middle-aged gentleman declared himself ready to vouch for
the truth of a great part of this interesting narrative. There they both
imagined apparently that the affair would be ended. They were extremely
surprised when the Prefect, after listening to their statements, sent
for a detective-inspector who showed Gabrielle Bompard a warrant for
her arrest. After an affecting parting, at least on the part of the
middle-aged gentleman, Gabrielle Bompard was taken to prison. There
she soon recovered her spirits, which had at no time been very gravely
depressed by her critical situation.
According to Eyraud's letters, if anyone knew anything about Gouffe's
murder, it was Gabrielle Bompard; according to the woman's statement,
it was Eyraud, and Eyraud alone, who had committed it. As they were both
liars--the woman perhaps the greater liar of the two--their statements
are not to be taken as other than forlorn attempts to shift the blame on
to each other's shoulders.
Before extracting from their various avowals, which grew more complete
as time went on, the story of the crime, let us follow Eyraud in his
flight from justice, which terminated in the May of 1890 by his arrest
in Havana.
Immediately after the arrest of Gabrielle, two French detectives set out
for America to trace and run down if possible her deserted lover. For
more than a month they traversed Canada and the United States in search
of their prey. The track of the fugitive was marked from New York to San
Francisco by acts of thieving and swindling. At the former city he had
made the acquaintance of a wealthy Turk, from whom, under the pretence
of wishing to be photographed in it, he had borrowed a magnificent
oriental robe. The photograph was taken, but Eyraud forgot to return the
costly robe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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