Show I Master Strokes of G Great Gat at Detectives s By GEORGE BARYON BARTON INSPECTOR AND THE LAMARRE TRAGEDY Th There re arc some men who live only to do good to others to-others others and such a a. one was Augustine Frederic Lamarrc Lamarre who was a railway guide in France for more than fort forty years He was retired at the end of that time on a pension and went to live economically economical ly In a modest house outside of Paris Life went along in tranquil fashion and then one day Madame Lamarre Lamarrc who was Just as good and generous as av her husband took it In her head to adopt two small children who had b been en left homeless by the death of their parents The small income of ot the old man would not permit this but he found a way out of the culty I shall get a Job he declared and make enough extra money to feed four mouths instead of two With his reputation for tor Industry and honesty he had no difficulty difficult in getting a position He was made a collector for the and it was his business to go around and gather the payments due the company On November 30 1897 he went to work but he did not return home as usual At midnight officers of the bank called to ascertain his whereabouts The They said he had failed to turn in his collections and wondered wondered won won- dered what had become of ot him Inspector was put on the case care and his first move was to trace the he movements of ot the collector from the time he had started out in the morning By good luck the officers of the Institution had a a. copy of the names of the people he was to visit The detective found that the last place he stopped was on the Rue de Kremlin In one of the suburbs It was found he had collected 1500 francs from M. M and I from rom M M. Martin Then he had called I Ion on M M. Carrara in the Rue Etienne M. M Carrara very obligingly told the Inspector of police pollee that Lamarre had called on him at half past 1 in the afternoon and had collected the money due the company It was further fur ther stat stated d that Lamarre had been seen at a hospital not far away at 2 This would seem to exonerate exonerate ate the three men on whom the col col- dector doctor had called In succession It was impossible to get any trace of him after he left leU the hospital h But inspector Manses was suspicious of ot Carrara and began to make an investigation in into his history He found that hat the man cultivated mushrooms in n an abandoned quarry directly In inthe inthe the he rear of his frame house In the course of his talk with one of the neighbors the detective made an important important im discovery It was that Lamarre La marre mars had called on Carrara at and not 1 30 Moreover no one had seen him leave the house The inspector made a thorough search of or the premises but found nothing to aid him in his lon tion One of ot Carraras Carrara's neighbors de de- Glared that some me hours bours after the messenger messenger messenger mes mes- had entered the house there was noticed the odor of burning flesh The next discovery of the detective was that there was a furnace furnace- down below the fireplace in the Carrara house which led to the mushroom I beds in the abandoned quarry Some ashes were found there and at the bottom of them a alum lump of ot gold gold all all that was left of the watch and chain of the unfortunate Lamarre Both Carrara and his wife were arrest arrested d and aud Madame Carrara broke down and made a full confession She said her husband was greatly in need of ot money and had haO made a plan for killing kUling and robbing the tho messenger When Lamarre Lamarro called on that fatal fata afternoon Carrara hit him on the head hend with an iron bolt and killed him Instantly He then dragged the body into the house and lowered it down the 1 fireplace replace into the mushroom mushroom mush mush- room furnace It took eight hours to consume the corpse and at the end endot of ot that time the flesh and bones had been fully cremated When Carrara finished his ghastly Job he turned to his wife wile with a look of at satisfaction and said Tomorrow we shall shan go to Paris and have a good dinner Bu But he did not go to Paris On the contrary through the clever detective work of M. M Mani Mantes z he went to prison Instead The details at the tho trial showed that the murder was thoroughly thoroughly thor thor- cold blooded and that Carrara felt no remorse over his deed When the business of burning the body ha had i b been n finished the murderer found that his hands and face were covered cov ered covered with a sort of ot film mm from the heavy smoke during the cremating He proc laughingly washed it off ott He was convicted and sentenced to death At the last moment his bravado bravado bra bra- bra I vado forsook him and he became such sucha a a. physical wreck that he had to be carried to the guillotine A great greal crowd gathered to see him die but the performance they witnessed was far from edifying Copyright by Public Ledger |