AT THE FINISTÈRE COURT, PRESSED WITH QUESTIONS BY THE PRESIDENT, SEZNEC DEFENDS HIMSELF BY DENYING
"What would I have done with the body? I couldn't have put it in my pocket," he replied to a request from Mr. Dollin du Fresnel.

Quimper, Oct. 25 (of note env. Spec.)

"Open the box." This was the first sentence of the president of Fresnel at this morning's hearing. It was the huge white wooden box, sealed with black seals, which contained the exhibits.
Two workers, armed with hammers, banged loudly. Behind me, a young woman shivered:
It sounded like someone was nailing a coffin shut! From the cash register, they take out old clothes stained with brown, the typewriter, Seznec's suitcase and that of the unfortunate Mr. Quémeneur, found at the station in Le Havre.
"We are going, Seznec, to follow you step by step..."
And the president of Fresnel resumes the interrogation.

We are in Dreux, Seznec, on the evening of May 25, and we are now going to follow you step by step. You first stated that Mr. Quémeneur had left you in Dreux, then you say that it was in Houdan. Why this variation?

I was mistaken, Mr. President, but I immediately recognized my error.
On Mr. Quémeneur's expense book, found in his suitcase on June 20, in Le Havre, we see this entry: train Dreux, 11 fr. 40. The experts assure us that it was you who wrote this expense.
No, it is not me, Mr. President.
The conclusions of the experts are singularly confirmed by your first statement, where you indicated that Quémeneur had left you in Dreux. Moreover, in your own notebook and written by you, you acknowledge this: There is: Dreux.
Quémeneur left me in Houdan, but he may have taken the train in Dreux.
Oh! oh! nineteen kilometers to do on foot! (Laughter.)
In short, the president continues, you went to Houdan and there Mr. Quémeneur, who had not wanted to take the train half an hour before in Dreux, where there had been a breakdown, decides precisely at this station in Houdan, where there is no more train to Paris.

A long discussion then began between the president and the accused, about the passage to Houdan: duration of the dinner, time spent buying a car lantern.
Witnesses will come and testify, Seznec, the president continues, that your car left the Houdan station and that one of the passengers, who was recognized in the photograph as Mr. Quémeneur, had asked for directions to Paris. So he had not taken the train.
It was dark, how could they have recognized Quémeneur?
Yes, but it was a beautiful, clear night in May and the car was stopped right under a gas lamp.
How did Mr. Quémeneur leave you?
Well, I have already said it fifty times. He got out of the car, and I got behind the wheel.
And he took his suitcase and left alone in the night?
Yes! (Rumors.)
The overcoat
The president then addresses the testimony of Mr. Dectot, now deceased, who encountered a broken-down car eight kilometers from Houdan at around eleven o'clock in the evening.
Mr. Kahn raises an incident.
Some prosecution witnesses were heard five and six times. They were confronted with Seznec; but Mr. Dectot, we only heard him once, and yet his testimony was interesting. It established that Seznec and Quémeneur having left Houdan, according to the prosecution, around 10:30 a.m., Seznec was alone at eleven o'clock, eight kilometers from there.

What would I have done with Mr. Quémeneur's body? Seznec exclaims triumphantly, I couldn't have put it in my pocket. (Rumours.)
Mr. Dectot was only heard once, that's true, replies the president, but his testimony is precise. If the defense claims that it was indeed Seznec that he met near Houdan half an hour after leaving that town, we can refer to the entire testimony. First of all, Mr. Dectot has. saw the car stopped, broken down, he believes; the driver, let's assume that it was Seznec, since he wants it, refused the help that Mr. Dectot kindly offered him. Why? Furthermore, the driver had an overcoat, the witness is formal on this point. However, Seznec has always denied having taken his overcoat which was found torn at the Traon sawmill. An expert report has also shown that this overcoat bore traces of human blood.
Seznec cheers up

After the lunch break, the interminable interrogation resumed:
At five o'clock in the morning, said the president, you were met at Queue-les-Yvelines. Your car, at that moment, was facing Brest. You now had your back to Paris. Why?
It's very simple, Mr. President, at the moment I had a flat tire, I mean at the moment my car tire had a flat tire...
There was laughter, and Seznec louder than the room.
...I drove over the rim and the wheel came off. I wanted to go back to the village I had just passed. In the evening, at nine o'clock, in Houdan,
you had your jack, which weighed about fifteen kilos. The next morning, at five o'clock, in Queue-lès-Yvelines, you no longer had it. What had happened to it?
My jack? I lost it. I forgot it on the road, after a repair. Oh Mr. President, I see where you are going with this, but if I had needed an object to make weight, there were plenty of others to take besides the jack.
You were not far from the Seine, Seznec?
No, Mr. President.
Not far from the Gambais ponds either.
At this mention of the Landru affair, the room buzzes.
I do not know these ponds, Mr. President.
We then return to Houdan. Quémeneur is said to have left you in this town around nine o'clock in the evening, says the President. There was no train to Paris until 3:39 in the morning. What could he have done during these long hours? There is no trace of him in any hotel. He is nowhere to be seen. Come on, Seznec, do you have any idea, any impression on this subject?
None, Mr. President.
During the investigation, however, you put forward a hypothesis: that your traveling companion had spent the night with a "chick" (sic). The whole courtroom bursts out laughing and Seznec, likewise, laughs broadly, his mouth wide open, behind his hand.
We looked in that direction in Houdan, to the great indignation of the country where, apparently, everyone goes to bed early and where there are no "chicks", as you say.
We can never be sure of that, says Mr. Kahn with a smile.
Especially since it is the country of chickens, someone says between high and low. We laugh again, and Seznec, during the adjournment of the hearing that follows, lets himself be photographed between his two gendarmes.

Mr. Quémeneur's suitcase
We now come to the suitcase discovered on June 20, at Le Havre station. Seznec states that Mr. Quémeneur took it with him when he left him in Houdan, on the evening of May 25.
However, says the president, on May 26, at eight o'clock in the morning, at Queue-les-Yvelines, at the hotel where you admitted to staying, a witness saw in your car a suitcase that looked surprisingly like Mr. Quémeneur's; in any case, the witness specified that in Seznec's car it was certainly not the accused's little basket that was there but a large brown suitcase, like that of the missing person. June 20, Seznec, is the day you went to Le Havre.
I have never been to Le Havre, not on June 20 or on any other day.
We will hear four witnesses who will say the opposite; I will continue. When Mr. Quémeneur left you, you did not worry about what became of him, while the business of selling the cars to the Soviets must have interested you, given the profits you hoped to make from it?

It was up to Quémeneur to write to me.

You must have been waiting impatiently for his letter.

I am still waiting for it. (Rumours.)

In short, neither Mr. Quémeneur nor the car business interested you any more. Quémeneur is making money. After talking about Seznec's trip to Paris on 2 June, which the prosecution attributes to the accused's intention of collecting the cheque for thirty thousand francs sent by Mr. Pouliquen to his brother-in-law, Mr. Quémeneur, we come to the visit of the sister of the missing man to Traon. It seems that this visit particularly troubled you, you blushed.

Oh! Mr. President! I have seen others in my life and I have never changed color.
Finally, were you moved by the concern of your friend Quémeneur's sister?

Not at all, Mr. President, no more than today. This extraordinary answer has unleashed some rumors in the room.
You said to Miss Quémeneur Don't worry, your brother is making money in Paris
I never said that.
We will hear Miss Quémeneur. The jury will decide.

The typewriter The President now addresses the question of the typewriter. This is the machine that typed, according to the indictment, the deed of sale of Traonez. It was discovered, as we know, in the attic of the Traon-ar-Velin sawmill.
I don't know what was found at my house on July 6, since I was already in prison, but I affirm that when I left, the machine was not there,
It was the police who put it there, as you stated during the investigation.

I don't know if it's the police or someone else, Seznec says.
Finally, do you or do you not maintain your accusation against the police?
Seznec answers with a vague sigh that can be translated as a no. Besides, the president continues, we are going to see in what conditions the machine arrived in Traon-ar-Velin. Four witnesses state that on June 13 you were in Le Havre and that you had bought the device in question there from Mr. Chenouard.
On June 13, Seznec retorts, I had gone to Tréguier
to buy a truck from Mr. Pouy
You didn't manage to get to Tréguier?
No, I had a car breakdown. In this strange affair, there are a lot of car breakdowns. At six thirty, the hearing is adjourned. The president is a little hoarse, the defender more nervous; only Seznec is very fresh. We will resume the interrogation next Monday, longer and more complex than a copious detective novel. L.-C. Royer