M. Gaston Calmette, director of the ‘‘Figaro,’’ was yesterday shot and
killed by Mme. Caillaux, wife of the Minister of Finance, in his bureau
in the offices of that newspaper
writes the
New York Herald in a special section.
Mme. Caillaux called at the ‘‘Figaro’’ offices about five o’clock in the
afternoon and asked to see M. Calmette. After waiting a while, she was
shown into M. Calmette’s office 
and immediately drew from her muff an
automatic pistol and shot him three times. The shooting was the sequel
to the campaign recently waged against M. Caillaux by M. Calmette in the
columns of the ‘‘Figaro.’’ At the police-station, Mme. Caillaux
declared that she did not intend to kill M. Calmette, but wanted to
‘‘teach him a good lesson.’’ She explained to the police commissary that
the affair arose out of a letter which M. Caillaux wrote in 1901 to a
woman, a photographic reproduction of which appeared in the ‘‘Figaro’’
last Friday. Mme. Caillaux said that she was very shocked by the
publication of such a letter, and declared that she wanted to prevent
any more letters of the kind being published. An eye-witness of the
tragedy declared later that M. Calmette, as he was being carried
downstairs, preparatory to being removed to hospital, said, in a
fainting voice: ‘‘I have never done anyone any harm, but I have merely
done my duty.’’
In Our Pages,
100 Years Ago
(1914)
Check out
Herbert Mitgang's book review of
Edward Berenson's The Trial of Mme. Caillaux
