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Note: Newspaper clipping from De Gentenaae (Translated to English) Wednesday, 4 Febuary 1903
DREADFUL MURDER AT MALDEGEM (KLEIT)
Monday, late in the evening at Louis Fiers, forester and inn-keeper, along the Steenweg from Knesselare to Maldegem, Hendrik Van Den Bussche (age 27), recently married with a widow, Rene De Bruyne (age 27), and another friend were playing the dice.
Afterwards, they went home. On their way home, to Burkel, Henri and Rene were quarrelling. De Bruyne stabbed his knife in the shoulder of Van Den Bussche. The victim fell down, mortally wounded and died. The murderer fled the scene, but has now been arrested. De Bruyne lived as a servant with Kamiel Willems, at Burkel and has always been a good fellow.
The public prosecutor was informed by the police of Maldegem, and has been at the place on Tuesday. The dead body of Van Den Bussche is with the carriage of H. Himschoot, brought to the mortuary in Maldegem. Rene De Bruyne was hurt in his face. He is brought to the public house of Louis Fiers, awaiting the Public Prosecutor.
Newspaper clipping from De Gentenaae (translated)
Thursday, 5 Febuary 1903
DREADFUL MURDER AT MALDEGEM (KLEIT) FURTHER PARTICULARS.
The murder, Rene De Bruyne, was born 27 years ago at Knesselare. Tuesday afternoon, the Public Prosecutor was there to start the investigation. On Monday at Louis Fiers, the didn't play the dice but were playing cards. The public prosecutor will come again to the scene of the murder to inquest the victom Van Den Bussche.
Rene De Bruyne, Henri Van Den Bussche, and Kamiel Willems (a farmer near Burkel), went home from Louis Fiers, without quarrelling and they weren't drunk either. On their way home Kamiel Willems was lef behind to do something. Suddenly he heard a splash and ran to his friend, who just came out of the water.
Willems went on. After a short time he heard a call, "I'm stabbed". The victom was Van Den Bussche. The murder had fled the scene by the time Willems got to the victim. However the other day he gave himself in to the police commissionair at the pub of Louis Fiers. De Bruyne testified that he was protecting himself against Van Den Bussche. He said Van Den Bussche wanted to push him in the water to drown him. "I got furious and hit him with my knife, afterwards I threw it away." The knife has been found near the house of Kamiel Willems.
De Bruyne has lived for 7 years as a servant with Willems. Van Den Bussche's knife-thrust would not have been deadly if there would have been a doctor nearby. The victim crawled 70 meters further and then fell down, exhausted by the loss of blood and died there. The clothes of the murderer and Van Den Bussche were very wet.
Rene De Bruyne was also named De Cock. Willems and Van Den Bussche lived along the Steenweg to Burkel (Maldegem) about 15 minutes from the forester Fiers. De Bruyne told what happened like this, "Van Den Bussche, who was a strong man, was looking for a quarrel with me, pushed me in the canal and tryed to drown me. He was standing with his feet on my chest, and took me by my throat to keep me in the water. I made it to get free and jumped across the canal. Van Den Bussche jumped behind me and threathened to throw me again in the water. To protect myself, have I without the sight to kill him (did not mean to kill him), stabbed him with my knife and ran towards home. Van Den Bussche took a few steps towards me and fell. It seems that he died immediately." De Bruyne came home totally wet.
Early in the morning he went to Fiers and asked for the police to turn himself in. The police-Commissionair of Maldegem and the gendarmes, came soon and looked at the body. De Bruyne was questioned, arrested, and taken to Gent. They say the man who was murdered had just a little wound at the neck, but the artery was cut down. The knife of De Bruyne, a normally little knife, has been seized. De Bruyne was just getting married. The boy cried bitter tears when his sad mother came to visit him; he just wanted to defend himself. The parents of De Bruyne, poor good workmen, lived at Knesselare.
The people say that the face of De Bruyne is taken open, that his chest and throat full was with black bruches from his attacur. This painful accident has caused great emotion in the whole area. Two families are plunged in deep mourning.
Getrouwe Maldegem
Sunday, 8 Febuary 1903
Local News/ Maldegem (translated)
As it was last week a policeweek, now we could definately speak of a murderweek. Because Candlemas fell on a Monday, there was a double journey by people which caused obviously many accidents. How should it be if every day was a Sunday and fair in the week! Well, Monday in the late evening they went home from the inn across Papeloo.
Three youngsters. One stayed behind to pull of his trousers while the other two were quarelling. Biene Snel's (Sabina's) boy, who was a strong built boy named Henri Van Den Bussche and married with his aunt said to Rene De Bruyne whose nickname was Cock, "I should drown you." Apparently he had done it because his wet clothes were the proof.
Cock said, " I had to defend myself and I hit my knife in his shoulder, not thinking he would die." Van Den Bussche screemed "I'm hit" ran about sixty footsteps further and fell down. Willems hears it, closes his trousers and finds him laying against some wood. If someone would have been there, but he had to bleed like a beast to be killed. Biene Snel's boy, the strong guy. And what about De Bruyne? He didn't dare to go home, escaped to his aunt and crept in a bed while he was screaming about the things he has done. What an awful night! And what a morning! The forester said, "Boy, boy...what have you done? I would give myself up.
And there he was sitting when the police arrived. They put the dead person on a cart and drove him to the hospital. Afterwards the perpetrator was put on a cart, driven to the parquet, surrounded by gendarmes on their bikes. Then he was put a short time in a quod, driven to the station and put in the prison for a long time. This was something he hadn't thought about!
Oh, that nightrunning! The fighting, the knives. But, how do the countrymen come out of there? Can they only run and sleep together with the chickens? Oh, those Sundays and festive days, made to enjoy by the country men, how dangerous are they for them.
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