Opera singer escapes through ceiling

An opera singer called François Bernard, known as Henri, born in Toulouse in 1885, had recently left Saintes prison after serving three months’ imprisonment for fraud and deception.

Arrested once again last night at Rochefort train station for the theft of a a bicycle and sundry foodstuffs, he escaped from the room in which he was being detained by smashing through the ceiling and climbing up between two joists. Mr Bernard has sixteen previous convictions.

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A Madman

An individual presented himself at Champs-Elysées police station yesterday morning and demanded to speak to the chief inspector.

Brought before the magistrate, he claimed to be the inventor of an aeroplane able to travel from the earth to the moon. He added that, in order to construct this machine, he needed the 50,000 francs owed to him by Mr Fallieres.

This poor madman, Charles Morel, forty years old, was sent to the prison infirmary.

He is a former inmate of Nanterre hospital.

Le Petit Parisien, 21 August 1910