Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, January 27, 1998

Blanc brothers hanged for celebrated murder in Scott

Young French orphans said James brothers inspired crime

by Jim Bradshaw

The names of two young brothers from France are generally among the first to come to mind when discussion turns to the history of Scott. But they are not remembered for their civic deeds. They are remembered for the gruesome murder they committed there.

The Blanc brothers were born in Paris, Ernest in 1877 and Alexis in 1878. They were orphaned at the ages of 15 and 16, respectively, and, having no relatives in France, they decided to travel.

They went to Belgium, and, from there, to the United States, landing in New York. They decided to go from there to New Orleans, hoping that the French population would take them in. Finding no work there, they continued across the Louisiana countryside, finally arriving at the home of Col. Drozin Boudreaux, near Scott, in April 1894.

Boudreaux hired the young men to do farm work. They stayed with him for two years and according to their account of their lives, found the life on the Boudreaux farm "tranquil, calm, and honest.

According to Ernest, their downfall sprang directly from reading a romanticized book about the robbers Jesse and Frank James. In his confession, Ernest recalled his thoughts at the time: "Why work in the fields? Why perspire the whole day long behind a plow and at the end of the year have no more than a suit to put on your back? To take gold from others in a single night seemed to us much easier."

The brothers bought two revolvers and fashioned two daggers from old three-cornered files. They decided that they would rob Martin Begnaud's store in Scott.

On the night of April 22, 1896, the brothers arrived in Scott at about 9 p.m. Martin Begnaud was at a cafe run by his brother, Siméon Begnaud. After a bit, Martin walked backed to his store and the Blanc brothers followed him. They knocked on the window and said they wanted to buy some tobacco. They said they'd been working all day and couldn't get there earlier. Martin Begnaud let them into the store.

"We chatted of other things for a rather long time without finding a chance to attack him advantageously because he was behind the counter," Ernest wrote in his confession. "We were going to leave when the idea came to us to ask him to show us some rat traps, which obliged him to come from behind the counter, giving us the opportunity for which we had been watching for a long time.

"He came to show us the traps and after explaining their functioning, placed them on the counter. He turned his back on us, then, when turning back on us, he found himself facing the dagger and revolver of Alexis. His surprise was so great that he took a step forward, trying to seize the arm aimed at him.

"'Do not move or you are dead,' he was told with my revolver also pointed at his head," according to Ernest's confession. "Paralyzed no doubt by thinking he could fall under one of our bullets or be stabbed by our daggers, he did not move. At that moment Alexis went to close the door which had remained open throughout the scene which had just taken place.

"Then we said to him, 'We are in charge now, and we can speak freely without anyone bothering us. Now, Martin, all that we want is for you to open your cash box so that those good pieces of money pass from your strong-box to our pockets.' Without saying a word, he walked directly to that small iron metal object, the contents of which had already inflamed more than one human brain. Five minutes later, the cash box was open,, however (not) without difficulty because of his trembling while finding the combination.

"Then, ignoring the money, we began to tie his hands and afterwards to bind his body with calico for further security. Then, leading him to his bedroom, we tied his feet and made him sit on his bed. He looked like a tied up sausage!

"I stayed near the bed," Ernest continued, "pistol in hand, watching the least movements of the unfortunate prisoner, while Alexis went through the strong-box as coolly as a banker would have inspected his.

Then it was that Martin asked (in spite of his gag he spoke clearly) why we had not asked him for the money, which he would have given us without the need of treating him this way. I answered that he spoke thus because he was caught. Alexis told him he would do better to tell us where the keys were to the two small locked drawers. 'The keys are in a drawer which is open,' he answered. "Besides in one of those drawers there are only business papers, and some gold in the other one.'

"Alexis went back to the strongbox and found only one key which opened the drawer with the gold. He looked for the other key, but did not find it, and, believing Martin's word, was no longer concerned and was satisfied ... with the amount of gold, silver and bills which he had found.

"That had taken us a quarter of an hour, and I, growing impatient by the bed, went to find my brother to see if he had finished his banker's work. Indeed, I noticed on the floor in front of the strong-box two bags of money which weighed a great deal and the pockets of Alexis (were) stuffed with bank notes. We were going to consult with each other about how we were going to tie him up so that he could not harm us until the next morning, when we heard him speak, saying to us, 'Don't destroy my account books nor my business papers, with which I shall not be able to live.'

"In the silence of the night this strong, deep voice probably seemed to us stronger than it was in reality," Ernest confessed. "That made an impression upon us impossible to describe and, panicking, we hurried into the bedroom and I stabbed Martin seated on his bed.

"How many blows I struck I do not remember, nor have I ever known. All that I recall is a stifled cry that he uttered at the first dagger blow, surely mortal. That scene took place in much less time than it takes to describe it."

The coroner later said that Martin Begnaud had been stabbed 52 times.

The brothers went to their cabin, buried the money, hid their weapons, and burned everything else that might incriminate them. A week later, they pretended they had received some money and left for New Orleans with their booty. From New Orleans, they took a train to New York, and, from there, a boat to Europe, where they toured the continent like princes.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Isaac A. Broussard had arrested two other men, Gustave Balin, a French artist living in Carencro at the time, and Hemp Benton, who was also living in Carencro.

While these two suspects sat in jail, the Blanc brothers returned to the United States, then traveled to Mexico, where they finally ran out of money.

It was then that, for some strange reason, they returned to Lafayette, apparently confident that no one suspected them of the murder. They were arrested two days later and, shaken, confessed to the crime.

Balin and Benton were freed and the Blanc brothers were transferred to the jail in New Orleans to protect them from a local lynch mob. They were brought back to be tried Feb. 25. They were convicted, sentenced to be hanged, then returned to jail in New Orleans to await their fate.

Sheriff Broussard traveled to New Orleans to pick up the brothers and bring them to their hanging. They left New Orleans on the Southern Pacific at 8:30 a.m., and arrived about 2 p.m. on March 31. They were put into separate jail cells, each under a death watch to be sure that they did not commit suicide and cheat the gallows.

More than 4,000 people showed up for the hanging. Some climbed in trees to look over a fence that had been constructed around the gallows - causing Ernest to remark: "There are some who will surely have their necks broken in advance of ours."

The brothers marched up the scaffold at 2:15 p.m. They stood side- by-side as nooses were placed around their necks. The trap doors opened at 2:20 p.m. The coroner pronounced them dead at 2:34 p.m. Ernest was 20 years old when he died. Alexis was 19.