3 DECEMBER 1921, Page 3

But that did not prevent him from being the most

self-possessed man in the court, and his calmness and self-confidence contri- buted to the legend about the powers of will and hypnotizing eye which he exercised during his career. This elderly-looking man, with his record of gallant conquests and his impudent sallies in court at the expense of the Judge and counsel, made him at times almost a comic figure. Yet there was nothing comic in this abominable ogre ; and the thought that there was was a reaction from horror. The jury seem to have had as little hesitation in recommending him to mercy as they had in finding him guilty—and all this is difficult to understand. Landru, whether he dies under the guillotine or not, will live for ever in the awful Catalogue of Crime.