Paris, Dec. 2.
The interests of society seem to have been adequately protected, after all, against that extraordinary criminal Landru. Though there is no actual tangible proof of the death of a single one of 11 his supposed victims, he has been found guilty of murdering all of them and las accordingly been~sentenced to be guillotined, but the sharp edge of the condemnation was taken off by a recommendation to mercy This was not a spontaneous act on the part of the jury. It was suggested to them by the prisoner's counsel after they had given their verdict and while the presiding judge and his assessors were out of court, drawing up their verdict in the complicated form required by French law. As counsel for the relatives of two of the missing women supported the recommendation, the jury no doubt felt' that, having done their duty to society by condemning Landru to the extreme penalty, they might as well tens per justice with mercy and secure their consciences against the unpleasant possibility of a reappearance: by one of the victims.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.