The New York Herald
The New York Herald est un quotidien américain en langue anglaise, édité à Paris, qui paraît de 1887 à 1935.
Le journal s’intéressait surtout aux affaires internationales et à la finance.
L’affaire Cadiou au quotidien
1914 : 20 articles dont 18 en première page
1919 : 6 articles dont 4 en première page
Source : BnF Gallica
FORTUNE TELLER LOCATES BODY OF MISSING
Amazingly Detailed “Vision” Leads to Discovery of M. Paul [Louis] Cadiou’s Murdered Corpse.
The body of M. Paul [Louis] Cadiou, manager of the Grande-Palud nitro-cellulose factory, near Landerneau, Finistere, whose sudden and inexplicable disappearance toward the end of December caused a great sensation in the district, was found yesterday buried beneath a few inches of earth within three hundred metres of the factory.
The circumstances of the discovery, as related by the “Petit Parisien,” are of the most extraordinary nature and even suggest what half a century ago would have been called “the Black Art.”
M. Jean Cadiou, the brother of the dead man, and the owner of a tannery at Lambezellec, has made unceasing efforts to solve the riddle of his brother’s disappearance. On Monday he received a letter from a relative at Nancy, in which she informed him of an amazing conversation she had just had with a fortune-teller relative to M. Paul [Louis] Cadiou.
“Paul [Louis] Cadiou,” said the fortune-teller, “was certainly murdered, and that by a tall, dark and bearded man, aged between thirty and thirty-five, who was assisted by another and smaller man.
“Do not look for Paul Cadiou in the water. He is not there, but he lies in a ditch near a small wood or thicket. The spot is covered with a little earth and is to the right of a mill. The corpse will be discovered, and the murderer will be captured.”
Despite a natural incredulity, M. Jean Cadiou felt unable wholly to disregard a statement so definite and circumstantial. He therefore set out yesterday morning to make a new search upon the indications given to him. For sometime lie sounded the ground near a little brook crossing the Vacheront woods, quite close to his brother’s factory, and finally, just to the right of a mill, he discovered a fragment of some woollen cloth.
Bending down, M. Jean Cadiou has tily removed a few handfuls of earth and discovered the body of his unfortunate brother a few inches below the surface.
Later in the day M. Jean Cadiou laid a formal charge before the Public Prose cutor, accusing an engineer employed at the Grande-Palud factory with the murder of his brother. The engineer in question was interrogated by an assembly of magistrates at Landerneau and strongly protested his innocence.
The “Petit Parisien” adds that in the opinion of the examining magistrate, the story of the fortune-teller was fabricated by the relatives of the deceased.
6 février 1914 – p. 3
M. PIERRE’S ARREST CAUSES SENSATION AT LANDERNEAU.
Relatives of Murdered Engineer Declare Themselves Convinced of Accused Man’s Guilt.
The arrest of M. Pierre, an engineer employed in the nitrocellulose factory at Grand Palud, on a charge of having murdered M. Paul [Louis] Cadiou, the director of the factory, has caused a great sensation at Landerneau. The dead body of M. Cadiou, who had been missing since the end of December, was discovered on Wednesday by his brother, M. Jean Cadiou buried near a mill at the Grand Palud.
M. Pierre who showed the greatest coolness when the body was discovered and assisted to remove it, is alleged to have made contradictory statements during his examination by the magistrate in charge of the case.
It is also said that a blood-stained pruning-knife, to which some human hairs were adhering and which has been identified as the property of the arrested man, has been discovered in a shed in the factory.
There were several wounds on the body, including a deep gash on the left side of the neck, while the carotid artery had been severed, and there was also a deep wound at the back of the head.
The dead man’s relatives declare themselves convinced of M. Pierre’s guilt. They declare that he was notoriously on bad terms with M. Cadiou, by whom he was shortly to have been dismissed.
The story that the finding of M. Cadiou’s body was due to indications furnished by a fortune-teller meets with but little credit at Landerneau, where the general opinion is that M. Cadiou’s family has invente dit in order to shield those who furnished the indications which led to the discovery of the body and the arrest of M. Pierre.
Mme Cadiou, who is at present in Paris, is too ill to be present at her husband’s funeral. Shortly before the finding of the body she had offered a reward of 2,000fr. for information leading to its recovery.
7 février 1914 – p. 1
WOMAN ASSERTS MEDIUM LED TO DISCOVERY OF MURDER.
Amazing Story of Finding of M. Cadiou’s Body Is Adhered To.
No further information was brought to light by the police yesterday in regard to the murder of M. Paul [Louis] Cadiou, director of the nitro-cellulose factory at Grand-Palud, though M. Pierre, an engineer at that factory, is still under arrest charged with being the author of the crime.
The authorities propose, however, to make a search for the medium whose indications, according to M. Cadiou’s family, led to the discovery of the body.
In this connection, a correspondent of tht “Figaro” had an interview yesterday at Pont-a-Mousson, near Nancy, with Mme. Sainpy, a relative by marriage of M. Jean Cadiou, the murdered man’s brother. Mme. Sainpy stated that it was she who had furnished M. Jean Cadiou with the information which she herself obtained directly from the medium.
“This medium,” she added, “lives at Nancy and is very well known. She has been following her present profession for the last twenty years. I do not wish to cause her any annoyance and I shall not mention her name. When I consulted her she told me exactly what has already been published and clearly indicated, not only the spot where the body would be found, but also what was the appearance of the murderer.”
In the evening the “Figaro” correspondent visited one of the best known mediums in Nancy and met with the usual response that, even had she been consulted in the matter, she would be unable to remember the incident, since all her “revelations” were made while in a state of trance.
9 février 1914 – p. 1
NEW WITNESS TO MURDER.
Orders have been given by the authorities investigating the murder of M. Cadiou at the Grand Palud, near Brest, to the police to discover the whereabouts of a number of woodmen who were working near the Grand Palud at the time of the crime. They will be called upon to give an account of how and where they passed the days of December 30 and 31. A workman named Bossard, who had assisted in the search for M. Cadiou’s body, has, after writing to the magistrate in charge of the case that he had an important statement to make to him, entirely disappeared. On the other hand, a new witness has come forward who declares that he saw M. Cadiou and M. Pierre, the engineer who has been detained on suspicion of the murder, together near the Grand Palud on the evening of December 30.
10 février 1914 – p. 1
MURDER INQUIRY PRODUCES CONTRADICTORY EVIDENCE.
Inconsistent Stories Told at Investigation into Death of M. Cadiou at Landerneau.
The investigation into the murder of M. Cadiou, who was assassinated near the factory at the Grand Palud, Landerneau, continues to bring to light a mass of contradictory evidence, which only serves to render the elucidation of the mystery more difficult.
Yesterday, M. Bonnefoy, the farmer at the Grand Palud, who had informed the authorities that he saw M. Cadiou in the company of M. Pierre, the engineer who had been detained in connection with the crime, was examined by the magistrate in charge of the investigation.
He declared that he distinctly remembered seeing MM. Cadiou and Pierre entering the factory about nine in the morning of December 30. He added that both men were wearing their mackintoshes, this being fixed in his memory by the fact that as he was passing him, M. Pierre’s cape blew across his face.
This is in contradiction with the story of M. Pierre, who affirms that he never saw M. Cadiou on the day in question. It is, however, equally opposed to the testimony of another witness, the foreman Bignard, who has deposed that M. Cadiou returned to the factory about midday on December 30, to fetch his coat, which he had forgotten.
A workman named Brossard has made a statement to the police, according to which he saw a suspicious-looking man knock at the door of M. Pierre’s house on the morning of December 28. The door was opened by the engineer’s servant, Julie Juzeau, who admitted the stranger without asking any questions.
Julie Juzeau, who is alleged to have been on intimate terms with her master, stoutly denies this story, and declares that nobody came to the house on the morning in question.
M. Pierre is to he re-examined in the presence of Brossard [Bossard]. The latter’s story has given rise to the theory that the engineer, if not the actual author of the murder, at any rate instigated it.
It is declared that M. Pierre’s position at the factory was a difficult one. Although by the terms of his engagement he was forbidden to engage in the cotton bleaching industry in France for a term of fifteen years, he in defiance of his contract had accepted an engagement in a rival factory not far
from Landerneau.
On the other hand, M. Cadiou’s watch and pocketbook, in which a considerable sum is believed to have been were missing from the body, while it is said that an individual living near the factory, who was known to he in financial difficulties, has recently paid a bill of 600fr. in Landerneau.
The police authorities of Nancy are to examine Mme. Camille, to whose indications the discovery of M. Cadiou’s body is alleged to have been due.
11 février 1914 – p. 1
The evidence against M. Pierre engineer at the nitro-cellulose factory at GrandPalud, Landerneau, who is now under arrest upon a charge of having murdered M. Cadiou, manager of the factory, in December last, appears to have broken down and he will probably be provisionnally liberated some time this week. Fresh evidence was given yesterdy be M. Marvou, an employe of the factory, which went far to disprove the only important evidence against M. Pierre that he was seen in M. Cadiou’s company prior to the latter’s disappearance. M. Bidard de la Noë, the examining magistrate, now seems likely to direct his inquiry into other channels, as recent medical evidence gives color to the hypothesis that M. Cadiou was not actually murdered and that the wounds from which he is thought to have died may have been inflicted after death in order that a simulated crime might be fastened upon an innocent person.
13 février 1914 – p. 1
Evidence given yesterday by two police officers frem Rennes goes to prove that M. Pierre is innocent of the charge of murdering M. Cadiou at Grand Palud, Landerneau. Il has hitherto been stated that m. Cadiou was never seen after Decembre 30, but yesterday itw as shown that he was seen at Morlaix on December 31 and on January 1. M. Picard, a café proprietor at Morlaix, said he was certain M. Cadiou visited the café on New Year’s Day.
19 février 1914 – p. 1
Autopsy Alters
All Theories in Murder Mystery
Discovery that M. Cadiou Was Shot Shatters Preconceived Ideas and May Yield Solution.
At least one definite fact has now been established in connection with the murder of M. Louis Cadiou, manager of the nitro-celluiose factory at Grand Palud, Landerneau ; and it is a fact of such significance that it may ultimately lead to the solution of one of the most baffling criminal mysteries that have occurred in France for many years past.
Indeed, the discovery that M. Cadiou had been shot in the head, which, as was stated in the Herald, was made during a second autopsy of the exhumed body on Tuesday, shatters all the theories previously held and places in the hands of justice what would appear to he a very valuable clue to the authorship of the crime.
In view of the great sensation which the murder of M. Cadiou has caused, not only locally but throughout France, it may be well to recall chronologically the succession of singular facts which have been elicited during six weeks of searching inquiry.
M. Louis Cadiou, who lived with his wife in Paris, passed much of his time at his factory at Grand Pallid, frequently stopping there for a couple of months on end. It was at the close of one such visit and the day after he had announced his intention of returning to Paris that M. Cadiou disappeared. He was last seen on the morning of December 30, and despite official inquiry, family investigations and public curiosity amounting to a hue and cry, all trace of him was lost until the discovery of his body on February 4.
Startling Discovery of Body.
Sensational as had been his disappearance, the discovery of M. Cadiou’s body was even more startling. According to the statement of M. Jean Cadiou, the dead man’s brother, who found the body buried beneath a few inches of earth in a small copse some three hundred metres away from the factory, he had been guided to the spot by the detailed revelations of a spiritualistic medium, communicated to himself by Mme Camille, a relative at Nancy.
Though the story of the medium was confirmed by Mme Camille, it obtained little general credence and was almost completely ignored by the investigating authorities. Whatever the manner of the discovery, however, it was almost immediately followed by the arrest of M. Pierre, engineer at the Grand Palud factory, who was formally accused by M. Jean Cadiou of his brother’s murder.
An amazing inquiry followed in which a mass of trivial and contradictory evidence was given. The only definite evidence which might be thought to tell against M. Pierre, however, was given by M. Bonnefoy, farmer at Grand Palud, who declared that he saw the accused man leave the factory with M. Cadiou on the morning of the latter’s disappearance. It should, however, be noted that there certainly had been serious differences between M. Cadiou and the engineer, the latter of whom had denounced M. Cadiou to the military authorities for alleged fraud not only in the quality, but also in the quantity, of goods supplied by him to the French army.
Throat Cut After Death.
Despite this, the case against M. Pierre appeared to be breaking down, when Dr. Rousseau discovered, upon making the first autopsy of the body, that M. Cadiou’s throat had been cut after death.
The mystery was even heightened at this period by a number of witnesses from Morlaix, who declared that they had seen M. Cadiou alive and well two days after his alleged disappearance.
Searching examination, however, has since rendered this evidence valueless, as it now appears certain that they were mistaken in their dates.
The problem, therefore, seemed further than ever from solution when Dr Paul was summoned from Paris to conduct a second post-mortem examination. Not only did he discover that M. Cadiou had been shot in the head from behind, but he also was of opinion that the wound in the throat had been made to conceal the bullet wound. Further than this, he deduced from the dead man’s perforated mackintosh that M. Cadiou had been shot in the open air, while an examination of the bullet proved the weapon employed to have been a pistol or revolver of 6 millimetre calibre.
With this tangible evidence to go upon, the police detectives at once marie a second examination of M. Pierre’s apartment, but, though they found a revolver, its calibre proved that it could not have been employed for the crime. However, a significant discovery was finally made yesterday, when the police ascertained that M. Pierre did actually buy a Bull-Dog revolver of six-millimetre calibre from a gunsmith at Landerneau some months ago and that the bullets adapted to this weapon were precisely the same as that which had killed M. Cadiou.
No trace of this revolver could be found, however ; but M. Pierre, informed by his counsel of the new facts, expressed a desire to be heard without delay in order that he might offer an explanation. He will probably he examined today, and other evidence will be heard which the public at Landerneau awaits with the utmost curiosity.
24 février 1914 – p. 1
No new facts of any importance were forthcoming yesterday in the inquiry at Brest into the murder of M. Cadiou, the manager of the nitro-cellulose factory at Landerneau. But it is alleged that examination of the evidence tends to confirm the charge of murder brought against Louis Pierre, the engineer of the factory.
25 février 1914 – p. 1
LANDERNEAU MURDER MYSTERY
Much comment has been caused by the fact that the magistrate, conducting the inquiry into the murder of M. Cadiou, manager of the Grande Palud factory at Landerneau, has asked for duplicates of all telegrams sent by the Cadiou family from December 25 to January 5. Many persons at Brest call attention to the remarkable circumstances under which M. Jean Marie Cadiou discovered the body of his father [Brother].
M. Jean Marie Cadiou himself said :
“I know I am suspected. The revelations of the medium appear strange and people wonder who can have sent the anonymous letters from Quimper. I have not been in that town since January. All my letters are opened now before I receive them. It doesn’t matter, I am not concerned in the affair.”
Further examination of M. Pierre, the engineer , has been postponed for a week.
27 février 1914 – p. 1
REVOLVER IN CADIOU MURDER.
The magistrate charged with the investigation of the mysterious murder of M. Cadiou at the Grand Palud, near Landerneau, yesterday confronted M. Pierre, who is detained in connection with the crime, with M. Marie, the gunsmith who sold him a revolver similar to the one with which the murdered man was shot.
The gunsmith was accompanied by his daughter, who assists him in his shop. Both of them declared themselves certain that the revolver Avas sold to M. Pierre in May, 1913, and not in 1912, as the accused had maintained. Finally, the latter admitted in face of the categorical and detailed assertions of M. and Mlle. Marie, that he must have been mistaken. He added that his memory must have failed him, for he had no reason to conceal the truth.
Subsequently, Mile. Juzeau, the accused’s servant, was questioned by the examining magistrate in the presence of her former master. She confirmed the gunsmith’s statement that the revolver was purchased in May, 1913. Asked whe ther M. Pierre’s attitude changed after the date on which M. Cadiou disappeared, the girl stated that his appearance and behavior remained exactly the same.
7 mars 1914 – p. 1
At Brest yesterday the examining magistrate who is investigating the death of M. Cadiou refused to allow the engineer Pierre to go out on bail.
13 mars 1914 – p. 1
NO FRESH LIGHT IS SHED UPON MURDER OF M. CADI0U.
Result of Second Autopsy Is Eagerly Awaited by Authorities at Brest.
M. Bidard de La Noé, the magistrate in charge of the inquiry into the murder of M. Cadiou at Landerneau, has ordered. the bullet found in the dead man’s head to be submitted to an examination by experts.
No little astonishment had been expressed that this course had not been taken before, more especially as the evidence of several witnesses tends to show that the bullet could not have been fired from either of the revolvers possessed by M. Pierre, the engineer who is detained by the police in connection with the crime.
The commercial traveller to whom M. Pierre declares that he sold one of his revolvers has returned from America, and will no doubt be called upon to give evidence. Meanwhile, he has already intimated that he has no recollection of having shown a revolver to M. Simon, the gunsmith.
The latter, who had stated this in his evidence before the magistrate, never theless maintains his assertion, and declares that the commercial traveller’s memory must have played him false.
All sorts of speculations are rife in the district, and there is a disposition to connect the death of a young girl employed as a typist at Quimper, who visited Morlaix on December 30, the day on which M. Cadiou disappeared, and of whom all traces were lost until February 10, when her body was found in the river. There appears, however, to be no tangible evidence justifying any supposition that the two tragedies were connected.
The authorities at Brest have not yet received the report of Dr. Paul, who conducted the last autopsy on M. Cadiou’s body, and which is expected to definitely establish the cause of death.
Meanwhile, M. Bidard de La Noé, who is evidently not satisfied with M. Pierre’s statements, has ordered search to be made in the wood of Le Grand Palud for the revolver, which the engineer declares he sold to a commercial traveller.
30 mars 1914 – p. 1
The Brest Court has refused the demand of M. Pierre, who is detained in custody on a charge of having murdered M. Cadiou, the director of the Grande Palud factory at Landerneau, to be liberated on bail. The court’s decision is thought to be due to inconsistencies in the statements made by the accused himself and to the fact that evidence which he gave as to the date on which he purchased a revolver of similar calibre to the one with which M. Cadiou was shot is contradicted by the gunsmith who sold him the firearm.
5 avril 1914 – p. 1
M. CADIOU MAY BE STILL ALIVE.
The inquiry into the murder (or disappearance) of M. Cadiou, manager of the nitrocellulose factory at Grand Palud, has proved an inexhaustible mine of surprises and sensations hitherto, but the suggestion that the factory manager is still alive is certainly the most extraordinary that has yet been sprung upon a bedazed public.
This suggestion was made yesterday in a letter addressed to M. Boulier, a postman at Blincourt, the wvriter signing himself “Edouard Roche, commercial traveller, 16 rue de la Passerelle, Calais-Sud.”
M. Roche stated in this singular document that M. Cadiou might very well have been seen after the date of the alleged murder, as some witnesses pretend, for he (the writer) had reason to believe that M. Cadiou embarked for England from Bordeaux on or about January 4. M. Roche added that, in his opinion, the body discovered near the factory was really that of a man named Jean Jamarec [Lamarec], who died at Landerneau in December and whose corpse was designedly clad in the factory manager’s suit.
Little credence is to he placed in M. Roche’s statements, however, since the body discovered near the factory was identified as that of M. Cadiou by several independent witnesses.
6 avril 1914 – p. 1
Two letters written by M. Pierre the engineer who is charged with the murder of M. Cadiou, the manager of the nitro-cellulose factory at Grand Palud, are now being discussed in the inquiry at Brest. M. Pierre says that M. Cadiou, on leaving him at noon on December 29, promised to send a cheque for the workmen’s wages. Not receiving the cheque next day, he at once wrote to M. Cadiou and again on December 31. The letters were delivered to Mme Cadiou. The prosecution alleges that the
letters were written to divert suspicion, while the defence, on the contrary, maintains that they prove M. Pierre believed M. Cadiou was with his family.
24 avril 1914 – p. 2
CADIOU MURDER INQUIRY LEADS TO SECOND ARREST.
Night Watchman Is Taken into Custody as Result of His Sensational Deposition.
Considerable excitement was caused at Brest yesterday when it became known that M. Bidard de La Noé, the magistrate charged with the investigation of the murder of M. Cadiou, managing director of the Grand Palud factory at Landerneau, whose dead body was discovered buried near the factory in
February, had ordered the arrest of Bossard, the night-watchman, who had on the previous day been examined by him. M. Pierre, an engineer employed at the Grand Palud, has for some time been in custody on suspicion of being concerned in the crime.
Bossard, who had on several occasions given evidence of importance, visited the examining magistrate on Wednesday and stated that on January 18 he came upon the remains of M. Cadiou buried beneath a shallow covering of earth, but out of fear that he might be connected with the crime he made no mention of his discovery.
It will he recalled that the finding of the murdered man’s body was eventually brought about through, indications furnished to Mme, Cadiou by a fortune-teller at Nancy, who declared that she had had a dream about the crime.
Bossard, who appears to be a man of somewhat disordered mind, has already made statements containing certain in consistencies to M. Bidard de La Noé.
The reasons given by the latter for ordering the arrest, were that Bossard had behaved so suspiciously in concealing such important evidence for so long and his attitude was so strange that there was reason to believe he knew more than he was willing to reveal.
Bossard, when arrested, appeared to treat the matter as a joke.
8 mai 1914 – p. 1
Little fresh light has been thrown upon the mystery of the murder of M. Cadiou by the report which Dr. Paul has just issued of the second post-mortem examination of the body. Dr. Paul is definitely of opinion that the late manager of the nitro-cellulose fac tory at Grand-Palud, near Landerneau, was killed by a shot in the head fired from behind, but he is unable to judge at what date the murder was committed.
11 mai 1914 – p. 1
Me Feillard, who is to defend the engineer Pierre when he is tried on the charge of murdering and burying the body of his employer, . adiou, at Brest, has stated that he believes bloodstains have been found on the clothes his client was wearing on the day of M. Cadiou’s sisappearance, but he explains them very easily by the fact that a foreman had been injured some time before and that blood from his wound fell on M. Pierre’s clothes.
25 mai 1914 – p. 1
Information was received yesterday by Me Feillard, counsel for M. Pierre, who is charged with the murder of m. Cadiou at Landerneau, that his client will be released this evening. The decision to liberate M. Pierre on his own recognises was taken two days ago.
27 octobre 1919 – p. 4
MURDER MYSTERY DATING FROM 1913 COMES IN COURT
Louis Pierre, an Engineer, to Be Tried in Brittany for Killing Employer.
Memories of the times before the war are evoked by the announcement that the trial of the engineer, Louis Pierre, charged with the murder of M. Cadiou, proprietor and manager of a factory in Brittany, at the end of 1913, will begin today at Quimper.
Pierre was released on bail and since the outbreak of war served as an artillery officer.
The body of the murdered man, after thirty-four days’ search, was found by his brother, M. Jean-Marie Cadiou, directed, it is said, by the revelations of an “extra-lucid” fortune-teller and voyante of Nancy.
M. Cadiou became owner of the Grande Palud factory in the commune of La Forrest [Forest], near Landerneau, where cotton was bleached to be used in the manufacture of explosives. The factory where the cotton was prepared for national explosives factories was rounded by Germans, run with German money and bad a German manager. It had as a figurehead a Frenchman, M. Legrand.
In 1908, on account of protests due to certain irregularities, the factory was struck off the list of purveyors to the State, and M. Cadiou, a retired lawyer, formed a company which became its owner in January, 1909. Greiss, the German engmeer, was replaced by Louis Pierre, who had recently quit
the Ecole Centrale. By his contract, Pierre engaged, should he leave the Grande Palud factory not to enter into any similar undertaking in France within fifteen years.
M. Cadiou reserved to himself the direction, of the company working the factory and continued to live in Paris. He kept, however, a small house at Landerneau, where he stopped when obliged to visit the factory. Pierre had his dwelling close to the factory.
From 1909 to 1913 the factory worked well and there was no misunderstanding between the manager and the engineer. But in the latter year the relations between the two men changed. Letters denouncing M. Cadiou, dated June 3, 16 and 23, were received by M. Barral, engineer of the powder and saltpetre department at the Ministry of War, M. Cadiou being accused of obtaining payment twice for a carload of cotton supplied to the Angoulême explosives factory. The letters, M. Cadiou was convinced, came from his engineer. As the result of the denunciation, against which M. Cadiou protested vigorously, the Grande Palud factory was again excluded from the list of State furnishers.
Company Dissolved.
M. /Cadiou thereupon tried to dispose of the Grande Palud factory to M. Legrand. But the negotiations had a effect the dissolution of the company owning it and the purchase of it shares by M. Cadiou. M. Legrand and his friends then constructed a factory for bleaching cotton at Daoulas, not far from the Grande Palud factory, with the object of competing withthe latter, and Pierre, from whom M. Cadiou wished to part, was engaged as the engineer of the new factory.
But Pierre by his contract was forbidden to take such a position, and M. Cadiou, who considered him the author of the denunciation which had caused him damage, would not consent to free the engineer from his obligation.
The prosecution maintains that, M. Cadiou being an obstacle to the realization of Pierre’s projects, was killed by the engineer.
M. Cadiou in order to settle some accounts at the Grande Palud factory left Paris on December 13, 1913, promising his wife that he would be back for the New Year family festivities. Until December 27 he wrote regularly. Then all communications ceased. Mme Cadiou telegraphed on December 31 to her husband, without reply. She telegraphed to the engineer. Pierre did not answer. She then telegraphed to relatives and friends, and the only information about M. Cadiou which she received came from M. Cloarec, Deputy for Finistere, who on unconfirmed information from the Mayor of Landerneau replied that M. Cadiou left Landerneau for Morlaix on December 30. At last, on January 2, Louis Pierre telegraphed that he had not seen his chief since December 29.
Mme. Cadiou, fearing the worst, applied to the Detective Department, and her brother-in-law, M. Jean-Marie Cadiou, laid with the Brest magistrates a charge of murder against a person unknown.
Much interest
The case attracted much public interest, all theories of an escape flight, suicide being admitted. The engineer Pierre was prodigal of confidences to the reporters.
The police inquiry, however established the fact that M. Cadiou passed the night of December 29-30 in his house at Landerneau and he was seen dressed in a cyclist’s costume, wearing yellow leather leggins and with his waterproof on his shoulder going an eight o’clock to the factory and leaving it three hours later, accompanied by Louis Pierre. After that he was never seen alive.
Nothing further was learnt till on February 4 M. Jean Marie Cadiou, guided by the statements of the Nancy fortune-teller mentioned above, and aided by a score of men, found his brother’s body, covered with a few centimètres of earth, at the end of e blind path, about 400 yards from Pierre’s dwelling. The body was dressed as M. Cadiou was last seen and the neck was roughly hacked.
A second examination showed that M. Cadiou had been shot before his throat was cut, and the projectile, a 6 mm bullet was found in the jawbone. Pierre was known to have had at one time a 6 mm revolver. He declared that he had bought it in 1912 and sol dit in February 1913, to a commercial traveller he did not know. It was proved by a dealer in arms at Landerneau that Pierre bought it of him in March 1913.
28 octobre 1919 – p. 4
TRIAL BEGINS AT QUIMPER OF GRANDE PALUD ENGINEER.
In the Assize Court at Quimper (Finistere) the first hearing took place yesterday in the trial of the engineer Louis Pierre on the charge of murdering M. Cadiou, manager of the Grande palud, a cotton-bleaching mill. M. Cadiou was last seen on December 30, 1913.
After the reading of the charge, the examination of the accused man began, with the object of proving brutality and other defects in him. He was blamed with giving a false address when he volunteered for the army on the outbreak of war ; hut he showed that only by that means could he join the army.
In reply to the accusation that he denounced M. Cadiou to the authorities in connection with the delivery of cotton to a State explosives factory, Pierre replied that he had long wished to leave the factory and had said so, for he was tired of being held responsible for bad work due solely to M. Cadiou.
A new witness who came forward yesterday, M. Gabriel Tonnard, a carpenter at Cleder (Finistere), asserts that in December, 1913, he met M. Cadiou in a carriage on the road from Morlaix to Brest, and was invited to ride with him. They were attacked by six disguised men and M. Cadiou was killed
with a revolver shot. Tonnard him self was chloroformed and, on recovering consciousness, found himself being eared for by M. Cadiou’s family at Morlaix. Little importance is attached to the story.
29 octobre 1919 – p. 1
Pierre Trial Continues at Quimper
At the second hearing yesterday at the assize court, Quimper (Finistère), in the trial of Louis Pierre on the charge of murdering in December, 1913, M. Cadiou, manager of the Grande Palud factory, near Landerneau, the depositions of a long procession of witnesses were heard. Most of them were confusing, owing to the lapse of time since the murder. Some of the witnesses speak only Breton, and others admitted that they could no longer remember. There was consequently much delay, and it is not thought that the verdict can be given before Friday night. Mme Cadiou, who arrived yesterday morning, was in court with one of her sons. Her testimony was taken.
Mme Leost, the servant at M. Cadiou’s house in Landerneau, said that M. Cadiou left there early on December 30 and she had not seen him again since. She handed the key to Pierre at his request, when he came, as he said, to change the leads in the telephone.
30 octobre 1919 – p. 1
WITNESSES’ MEMORIES FAIL THEM AT TRIAL OF PIERRE
Conflicting testimony was again a feature at the third hearing yesterday at Quimper on the trial of the engineer Louis Pierre on the charge of murdering M. Cadiou, manager of the Grande Palud factory near Landerneau (Finistere). M. Le Coz, the police commissioner charged with the first investigation, said that he was ordered on February 19, 1914, to await instructions before continuing His work. Similar orders were given to a detective named Brisset.
Mme. Saimpy [Sainpy], a friend of Mme Cadiou, who consulted the Nancy fortune-teller, was one of the witnesses. She admitted that the war has damaged her memory, but that she may have mentioned the wood and the mill to the medium. She was followed at the witnesses’ stand by the latter, who declared that she no longer remembered anything of her revelations. She said she was put into a trance by her godmother, eighty-six years old. She had a vague recollection of Mme Saimpy’s [Sainpy] visit, but could not recall what she had said in her hypnotic state.
Failure to recollect what they had seen at the end of 1913 has been general with the witnesses at the trial.
31 octobre 1919 – p. 1
Further Hearing of Pierre Trial.
At the Quimper Assize Court the trial continued yesterday of the engineer Louis Pierre, charged with the murder of M. Cadiou, manager of the Grande Palud cotton bleching factory near Landerneau (Finistère), who disappeared at the end of December, 1913.
The sensationnal testimony of M. Tonnard, who declared he was present when Cadiou in an automobile was shot by masked men, did not impress the court, and neither defence or prosecution insisted upon it. The statement of the doctor who examined the body that cotton was found on the murdered man’s shoes had some effect on the hearers, until itw as elicited that the shoes had been wiped with cotton waste. The case was adjourned to today after the pleading of the widiw’s counsel.
1er novembre 1919 – p. 1
Louis Pierre, Charged with Murder in Brittany, Is Acquitted by Jury
Louis Pierre, the engineer charged with the murder, in december, 1913, of his employer, M. Cadiou, proprietor and manager of a factory in Brittany, was acquitted by the jury after twenty minutes’ deliberation yesterday at Quimper (Finistère).
This result was doubtless due in great mesure to the effective handling of the defence by Me Henri-Robert, recognized as the ablest criminal pleader at the French bar. It was noon when the Public Prosecutor, M. Cazenavette concluded an argument which had occupied eight hours. In concluding, he reminded the audience in the courtrrom that one side a woman and children mourned a husband and father, and, on the other hand, a woman already mother of one child and expecting another, waited anxiously on the verdict which, he hoped, would therefore be received respectfully.
On the reassembly of the court, at 1.15 p.m., Me. Robert began his argument for the defence, declaring that he would not need eight hours to demonstrate the innocence of his client.
As a matter of fact, he concluded within an hour, adjuring the jury to render a verdict of acquittal, “which alone would be a wise and just verdict.” The accused, questioned for the last time, declared : “I swear before God and on the head of my child that I am innocent.” After his acquittal, which was applauded, Pierre rejoined his wife and both wept as they embraced, He declared that, always confident that justice would be done, he had never doubted his acquittal.
M. Cadiou was owner of the Grande Palud factory in the commune of La Forrest, near Landerneau, where cotton was prepared for national explosives factories. He was a retired lawyer and became owner of the factory in 1909 and appointed Pierre as engineer, retaining the direction of the works and continuing to live in Paris, although occupying a small house in Landerneau on his occasional visits to the factory. Pierre’s dwelling was nearby. In June, 1913, the relations of the two men became strained in consequence of letters sent to the ministry of War accusing M Cadiou of irregularities and as a result of which the factory was removed from the list of State furnishers These accusations, against which M Cadiou protested vigorously, he laid to the charge of Pierre The latter accepted an appointment as engineer of a competiting Daoulas, but MCadiou refused to release him from a contract in which he bound himself for fifteen years not to enter the employ of any similar factory in France. The prosecution maimtained that this opposition to the realization of Pierre’s projects was the motive of the crime.
On the night of December 13, 1913, M. Cadiou left Paris to visit the factory, promising to return for the New Year family festivities. Until December, he wrote regularly. Then all communication ceased. After delays, a telegram from Mme. Cadiou was answvered by Pierre on January 2, saying he had not seen his chief since December 29. Police inquiries established the fact that M Cadiou was last seen alive leaving the factory with Louis Pierre on the night of December 30.
Nothing further was learned until M. Jean Marie Cadiou, guided by the statements of a Nancy clairvoyant, found his brother’s body covered with a few centimetres of earth at the end of a blind path near Pierre’s dwelling. He had been shot and his throat cut ; a 6 mm bullet extracted from the jawbone corresponded to a 6 mm revolver. Pierre was shown to have bought in May, 1913.