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Le Petit Parisien 02 novembre 1924

MR. QUEMENEUR WOULD HAVE A DOUBLE

That is what a voluntary correspondent who lives in Neuilly-sur-Seine and who met this double of the general councillor in Paris wrote to the presiding judge

The jurors wish to give their verdict this evening

Quimper, 1 Nov. (of specific note)
We know that if, according to the prosecution and the vast majority of the testimonies collected, Mr. Quémeneur has disappeared since the night in May, during which Seznec declares having left him in Houdan, certain witnesses, on the contrary, with obvious good faith and sincerity, are convinced that the general councillor was alive after "this tragic night", for the good reason that they would have seen him after this date.

The importance that the defence attaches to these last testimonies and the advantage that it can take from them escapes no one. Indeed, if it is proven that Mr. Quémeneur was still alive after the night during which Seznec is accused of having murdered him, all the charges against the accused also fall.

However, the presiding judge received a letter today that may explain in some way why witnesses believed they saw Mr. Quémeneur after the date attributed to his murder. Mr. Quémeneur is said to have a double! The author of this letter is a merchant, Mr. Nicole, residing on Avenue du Roule, Neuilly-sur-Seine, formerly established in Brest. He claims that he saw the perfect double of the general councilor walking around Paris. Everything was there: silhouette, allure, and even the gold teeth of the missing person. Mr. Nicole thus explains the misunderstandings of witnesses who believe they saw Mr. Quémeneur. A similar mishap indeed befell him, for having met the double and having taken him for the missing person, he advanced towards him, his hand outstretched, to speak to him; he then realized that it was not Mr. Quémeneur who was in front of him.
A heartbroken witness
Today, we are on the eighth day and there are still forty witnesses to hear. Seznec has lost weight; his eyes are more sunken, his cheeks very red, his cheekbones purple. But he still has all his self-control. He listens to each deposition attentively, looks around the room frequently, and sometimes, with a furtive glance, at the jurors facing him.

The first witness of the day is a Mr. Marie, a merchant, who had, passing through Le Havre, heard a lady Brébant, a bartender, make serious revelations about the Seznec affair.
Mrs. Brébant allegedly said she had met Seznec in Le Havre, in June. The accused then allegedly hid his face behind his handkerchief.
Mrs. Brébant, called to the bar, seemed sorry to be involved in this affair and considered that being a witness was almost an indictment. She denied these statements. Mr. Marie, confronted by her, confirmed. They discussed, got angry and returned to their bench, looking at each other askance.

The unknown traveler
We know that the suitcase from Le Havre was found in the third-class waiting room by a railway worker. Here is this railway worker, Mr. Moutel, in the dock. Mr. Kahn cleverly makes him specify that on June 20, in the waiting room, he saw a traveler aged 20 to 25 lying on a bench. There was Quémeneur's suitcase there.
And this traveler, the defender triumphs, was not Seznec!
This is the first testimony favorable to the accused. Seznec does not even seem to notice it. Another employee of the station gives a similar statement. But a third railway worker declares that this young traveler pushed Quémeneur's suitcase away with his foot as if he had been caught "visiting it unduly".
It is the prosecution's turn to score a point. Mr. Le Bars, a bailiff in Morlaix, testifies that on June 20, he was going to the Traon-Ar-Velin sawmill to serve a document on Seznec when he met an engineer, Mr. Testeven, who was just returning from there. The engineer told him:
— "No need to go any further; Seznec is not here. I was told he was in Brest."
On June 20, it was learned that the accused had been seen at Le Havre station by Mr. Deckmuydt. Mr. Testeven was called, who confirmed his words.
The second bailiff from Morlaix, who had the opportunity to act against the accused, was awaited.
The President. — How many bailiffs were there in Morlaix prosecuting Seznec?
— Three, Mr. President.
The President. — The jurors will decide, emphasizes Mr. Dollin du Fresnel. if Seznec was, as he claims, in a flourishing situation.
Here is a neighbor of Angèle Labigou, Mrs. Le Flohic, who comes to specify that, on the evening of June 20, Angèle told her:
— "My boss (Mrs. Seznec) has been in bed for two hours and the gentleman is away."
In the audience, Angèle Labigou gets up and shouts:
— All that is lies.
— You will come to the bar, Miss Labigou, says the president, don't be afraid! Are you in a hurry!
Finally Angèle Labigou comes to the bar, followed by Mrs. Seznec, and both of them "berate" the witness:
— You are a liar, a wicked woman!
And Angèle says to the president, who is very indulgent:
— You only have false witnesses. with you!
The room demonstrates loudly against Mrs. Seznec and her maid. There is laughter, shouting, whistling, and the attorney general threatens to condemn the troublemakers on the spot. Here is a friend of Seznec, Mr. de Jaegher. He states that in June 1923 the sawmill entrepreneur of Traon-ar-Velin was worried, anxious, indifferent to what was said to him:
— I attributed that, declares the witness, to all the lawsuits that Seznec had on his back (Rumours).
Mr. Bègue is the postal clerk at the office on Boulevard Malesherbes who was asked, on June 2, for the poste restante letter containing the check for 60,000 francs sent by Mr. Pouliquen to his brother-in-law Quémeneur.

The president. — Do you recognize Seznec as the person who came to your counter?
— No. I don't remember that customer at all. So much happens in the office...

False Alibis
Here is now a former prison comrade of the accused.
"Seznec," he said, "first offered me fifteen thousand francs to share in order to find two witnesses who would have testified that he was on the train from Brest on June 13, then he offered me 30,000 francs, again to share with guys who would have said that they had seen Quémeneur in Paris on June 18."

The President. — "When did he ask you that?"
— "At night, I slept next to him in the dormitory."
One after the other, Mr. and Mrs. Maingourd, merchants in Landivisiau, testify that Seznec's driver came to offer them on behalf of Mrs. Seznec to tell the court that they had seen her husband in June.
He told me: — "This is a dirty job I'm doing here, but you, don't get yourselves into dirty trouble."
The driver Samson, from the back of the room, shouts: — "That's not true!" We witness a new confrontation, where the driver cheers the room with bawdy innuendos.
The merriment in the room has not yet calmed down when the showman Rospars, a former prisoner at Quimper prison, is introduced.
— "Seznec," he says, "on the day of my release, October 16, gave me three receipts and a letter for his wife. He told me: If you don't succeed, I'm done for!"
(Sensation.)
We know that these three receipts established Seznec's presence in Brest on June 13.
— "You wanted to stamp my wife!" shouts the accused.

— No more of a stamper than you, Rospars replies. And the comrades in the jail throw themselves at each other with prison stories. Afterwards there is a parade of prisoners or ex-prisoners who tell in green language the making and stamping of receipts.
— If the scheme had succeeded, explains one of them, there would have been tobacco to smoke in the prison.

Was Mr. Quémeneur, on May 30, at the café in Versailles?
Then we hear Mr. Lajat, a printer in Morlaix.
— I saw Mr. Quémeneur, he says, on May 30, on the terrace of the café in Versailles. He was sitting with a person I don't know. I saw him from the front, then he took a chair and turned his back on me.
The president. — Do you have good eyesight?
The witness: — I have good normal eyesight.
Mr Alizon, civil party: — Doesn't Mr Lajat have a spot on his right eye and isn't he short-sighted in the other eye?
The witness. — Despite this small spot, I have normal vision. (Laughter.)
Then Mr Bleas comes to state that two weeks ago Mr Lajat was much less precise.
Mr. Lajat said: "I believe so".... And Mr. Lajat, when confronted, admitted that he had been less assertive with Mr. Bleas because the latter was too convinced of Mr. Quémeneur's death.

Mr. President. — It was time to make him change his mind (Laughter.)
To conclude, we heard the testimony of Mr. Lebert, a railway employee in Dusseldorf, who told his wife on May 27, 1923, that he "believed he had seen Mr. Quémeneur" while he was having lunch in a Parisian restaurant.

Tomorrow, Sunday, hearing morning and evening. The jurors, in a hurry to finish, absolutely want to sit until the verdict.

L.-C. Royer.
Retour - Back 02 novembre 1924