A mechanic named Dervaux, now in custody on a charge of murdering his wife, is entitled to a high place in the annals of crime, if only on account of his extraordinary callousness, According to his own confession, he killed his wife because, he says, she admitted infidelity, took her body into his workshop in the dead of night, and cut it up, separating the head and legs from the trunk with the saws he used in his business for cutting metal. He then made the reinaing into parcels, put them into his motor lorry, set off for Melun and, when in the middle of a bridge over the Seine, threw the parcels, which he had weighted with spare parts of motors, into the river. The trunk was tied with a rope to a gear box and Dervaux no doubt calculated that the rope was too short to allow the remains to conic to the surface, but he overlooked the fact that sluices are occasionally opened and closed to regulate the height of water, and it happened that, in the section he had selected, a sluice was opened a few days after he had thrown the tly packages into the river. The one containing the trunk came to the surface and was di. Dervarix had omitted to destroy the clothing, and a "D" embroidered on the chemise was his undoing.
He had already-told his sisterin-law that his wife had left him, and she insisted that they should go to Mclun and see the remains. He refused at first but gave way and actually went with her to see the mutilated body of the woman he bad killed and cut up. He of course asserted that the body was not his wife's, but his agitation, though quickly mastered, did not escape attention. Further inquiries were Made about him, he was arrested on. suspicion and at once admitted his guilt, adding that ha was a millionaire and could afford to engage the best talent to defend him, Thig boast seems to be founded on fact. Dervaux, having an excellent eye to the main chance, had speculated in business and real estate and amassed a considerable sum of money. His wife knew that he was unfaithful to her, and, a year or two ago, expressed her intention of applying for a divorce. This, if granted, would have entailed a division of the money and property, Dervarix persuaded his wife not to go on with her suit, and they lived together again. It seems highly probable that ha deliberately—removed her from his path so that ne cov'd remain in undisturbed enjoyment of his fortune.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.