CRIMINAL - Paul LEBIEZ(Angers 1853 - Guillotined September 7 - Lot 599

CRIMINAL - Paul LEBIEZ(Angers 1853 - Guillotined September 7, 1878), murderer with his friend Aimé Barré of the Widow Gillet(Two young college friends, educated, intelligent, but... with long teeth!La Veuve Gillet, an elderly milkmaid, had the misfortune to confide to Barré, a business agent on rue d'Hauteville, that she owned 14,000 fr in securities. On April 6, 1878, the two accomplices set up a lookout to lure the poor woman into Barré's offices; Barré struck her 2 times with a hammer, and Lebiez finished her off with a heart scraper; Lebiez, a medical student, didn't immediately cut up the corpse, knowing that 2 hours after her last breath, the blood would flow less; They spend this time at the café; Then, while Barré fetches the milkmaid's valuables, Lebiez detaches the head, arms and legs and piles them into a trunk; Lebiez is furious that the head is damaged by the hammer's breaks, "otherwise I'd have sold it for 25 fr"; Cynically, Lebiez, a few days later, gives a lecture at the Salle d'Arras on "Darwinism and the Church", declaring: "Every being tends to take its place in the sun. But at nature's banquet, there is no room for all the guests, there is no place setting for everyone. Each fights for his place: the strongest tends to suffocate the weakest"; during his trial, Lebiez claimed to be a Darwinist to justify his act, which horrified the public but nevertheless made the case terribly newsworthy): The file presented comes from a collection of autographs specializing in assassins and criminals (the cover of the folder that brought the documents together is attached), and includes: Autograph letter signed by LEBIEZ, 2 p petit in-8, Paris (38 rue de l'Ecole de Médecine), August 24, 1875, to a bookseller ("Please send me as soon as possible the catalog of the works in your bookshop that you sell by subscription (5 per cent per month). I hope to find there a few works that I might need") / Booklet produced by the collector, featuring a press article with an audience portrait and a later one, from Le Figarod October 30, 1889, by Gustave Geoffroy, on the Première at the Gymnase of a play by Alphonse Daudet, "La Lutte pour la Vie", inspired by the relationship between these two young criminals (very interesting analysis), as well as excerpts from the work of G. Macé's book "Mon Musée criminel" (detached pages with illustrations) recounting this crime.