Crítica
- Clary Will Testify Tomorrow—
- They Are the Same Ones as in Castritius, Says Foppiano
- And the Explanation Is This:—
This page of Crítica followed the murder of Dr. Carlos Ray at a turning point in the investigation. One report described Judge Facio checking a maid's account on the spot and summoning Mr. Clary, who had left for his business in Buenos Aires, to testify in La Plata the next day, while praising the legwork of Deputy Commissioner Mancho. Another quoted Foppiano, the former head of the robbery squad, insisting that the killing was purely the work of thieves, possibly the same gang behind the Castritius crime, and blaming the provincial police for building a case against María alone. An editorial column, meanwhile, pushed back against moralizing judges by arguing that prostitution was a social product rooted in poverty and hypocrisy rather than individual sin.
This is a partial reading covering three excerpts from the page. Column breaks split several headlines and sentences, so the second excerpt begins and ends with fragments that come from neighboring text, including part of the editorial. Some small print and column edges are blurred, and the unreadable spots are marked [?]. The Castritius crime that Foppiano mentions is not explained in the excerpts. No independent source for it was consulted, so the link between the two cases remains only his claim.
Translation
Clary Will Testify Tomorrow—
With the court moved to the room [?] ba, the judge confirmed the plausibility of the maid's statements. To conclude her statement, the woman added that if she had said nothing to Mr. Clary's wife about what she had observed, it was simply because the latter does not speak Spanish and she does not understand English.
Clary will testify tomorrow
As his statements are of fundamental importance, Dr. Facio wanted to question Mr. Clary immediately, but he was not at home. This morning, as usual, he left early for the Federal Capital to attend to his business. Clary has been summoned to appear tomorrow before the court in La Plata, in order to clarify everything he knows about the matter.
The work of Deputy Commissioner Mancho
The work that Deputy Commissioner Mancho has done in this matter has been very favorably commented on everywhere; accompanied by the employee Biase, he has managed in a few days to gather information of such interest as that which we have recorded above.
They Are the Same Ones as in Castritius, Says Foppiano
…two individuals jump the…
They are the same ones as in Castritius, says Foppiano
[?] at the Police Department this morning we found Mr. Foppiano, the former head of Robbery and Theft, whose abilities as an investigator everyone knows. "Now more than ever," he told us, "one can state, as I did on the first day, that the crime against Dr. Ray is exclusively the work of thieves, and if it has not been solved until now, that is because the provincial police greatly neglected the matter and, instead of following every lead, insisted on piling up evidence against María alone."
Mr. Foppiano added that the Dr. Ray case and the Castritius case are the work of thieves and that it is very likely that the perpetrators of both crimes belong to the same gang. We are in a position to state that Commissioner Santiago shares Mr. Foppiano's opinions.
…sence of any moral scruple, to the point that her husband, the man who was to be her companion for life, was a "souteneur." From this environment, the human, the logical thing is that a harlot should emerge: She, a…
And the Explanation Is This:—
…tinue living. The trade in caresses has always existed. The laws tolerate it and protect it. Hygienists accept it as a necessary evil, and everyone, poor or rich, goes to that fountain to quench their wicked thirst. And now this question arises: Whom do we accuse of sin? The fountain, whose spring, contaminated or not, is a social product, or those who go to it? Ah! The problem is much more serious and much more human than the robed judges and the cops believe, clinging to the dead letter of the codes, those codes written by old men far removed from the passionate urgency of the flesh, in the cold serenity of their comfortable economic positions, entrenched behind their honorable surnames and social concealment. Who casts the first stone? — Once again: we do not boast of being apostles or Quixotes. But, gentlemen! anyone who has contemplated the Zolaesque picture of misery would hesitate a great deal before casting the first stone. The judges seem not to know that the slums are not only the outlying districts of the city. The slums are in souls. The proportion, without barricade rhetoric, is appalling: for every happy one, a hundred wretched; for every satisfied one, a hundred hungry.
Context
Why a maid's testimony and the lab results mattered for María Poey
The first report shows the judge verifying a maid's statement and hurrying to question Mr. Clary, apparently the head of the household where she worked. The background is a case in which Ray's companion, María Poey de Canelo, had become the chief suspect after the first judicial autopsy, by Pedro Pando, concluded that Ray had been poisoned with cyanide. Historical accounts record that Ángela Villalba, a maid at the neighboring house, said she had seen two men escape while Poey shouted from the window, and that her employer had told her to say nothing so as not to get involved. This appears to be the testimony described here. It would explain why the judge checked her statements on the spot and wanted to hear from Clary himself. Around the same time, the report of an expert commission that included the dean and the toxicology professor of La Plata's Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy reached Judge Facio. It concluded that there were no traces of cyanide; only Pando dissented. An eyewitness to fleeing intruders and the collapse of the poisoning evidence together explain why this issue treats the robbery hypothesis as ascendant and calls Clary's testimony of "fundamental importance."
Foppiano, Santiago and the robbery theory
On this page, Foppiano's claim that the Ray and Castritius crimes were the work of one gang rests solely on his own word as a veteran robbery investigator. The article offers no concrete evidence linking the two cases, and it does not describe the Castritius crime itself. What it adds is that Commissioner Santiago shared his view. That alignment matters. Crítica had backed the thesis of Commissioner Eduardo Santiago, head of investigations of the Federal Police, that the killing was an attempted robbery, while La Razón and Última Hora leaned toward Poey's guilt. Foppiano's complaint that the provincial police had fixated on María therefore echoed a line the paper was already promoting. The robbery theory later gained support. In December a criminal who was seriously wounded and arrested during an attempted assault in Buenos Aires confessed to taking part in Ray's murder with two accomplices, and the police recovered part of the stolen property. Poey and Pereyra, who had been detained with her, were released on 30 December. The matter did not end there. The accused men retracted their confessions, saying the police had tortured them into making them, and the dispute continued into late 1927. None of this confirms the Castritius connection Foppiano proposed.
How Crítica's editorial turned the moral attack on Poey into a social argument
The editorial fragments on this page respond to a climate in which Poey was portrayed as morally depraved. Some newspapers described her as the "prototype of an adventurous woman, lacking scruples," who drew valuable gifts from wealthy men. A psychological assessment by the director and deputy director of the Melchor Romero hospital, which became public in the press, called her "an instinctive pervert" marked by an irregular private life and licentious customs. The column, which apparently refers to Poey though the legible fragments do not name her, partly accepts that portrait. It speaks of a husband who was a "souteneur" and an environment from which a "harlot" logically emerged. It then reverses the moral charge. Prostitution is tolerated by law and accepted by hygienists as a necessary evil, so the column asks whether sin lies with the "fountain" or with the rich and poor who resort to it. Its sharpest target is the judiciary. It depicts judges and police as bound to codes written by comfortable old men sheltered by honorable surnames, and it invokes Zola and the image that "the slums are in souls." In this way the column joined social criticism framed in terms of class to the paper's defense of Poey.
Original
Mañana declarará Clary—
Trasladado el Juzgado a la habitación [?] ba, el juez constató la verosimilitud de las declaraciones de la sirvienta. Agregó la mujer, para terminar su declaración, que, si no dijo nada de lo que había observado a la esposa del señor Clary fué sencillamente porque ésta no habla español y ella no entiende el inglés. Mañana declarará ClaryComo sus declaraciones son de fundamental importancia, el Dr. Facio quiso interrogar inmediatamente al señor Clary, pero éste no estaba en la casa. Esta mañana, como de costumbre, salió temprano para la Capital Federal, para atender sus negocios. Clary ha sido citado para que mañana comparezca al Juzgado, de La Plata, a fin de aclarar todo lo que sepa del asunto. La actuación del subcomisario ManchoHa sido muy elogiosamente comentada en todas partes la actuación que ha tenido en este asunto el subcomisario Mancho, quien acompañado por el empleado Biase, ha logrado en pocos días reunir datos de tanto interés como los que dejamos consignados más arriba.
Son los mismos de Castritius, dice Foppiano
a dos sujetos saltar la Son los mismos de Castritius, dice Foppiano [?] el Departamento de Policía encontramos esta mañana al señor Foppiano, el ex jefe de Robos y Hurtos, cuyas condiciones de pesquisante todos conocen. Ahora más que nunca - nos dijo - se puede asegurar, como yo lo hice el primer día, que el crimen del doctor Ray es obra de ladrones exclusivamente y si no fué esclarecido hasta ahora, esto se debe a que la policía de la provincia descuidó mucho el asunto y en vez de seguir todas las pistas se empeñó en acumular datos contra María exclusivamente. Agregó el señor Foppiano que el caso del doctor Ray y el de Castritius son obra de ladrones y que es muy probable que los autores de ambos crímenes forman parte de una misma banda. Estamos en condiciones de afirmar que el comisario Santiago coincide en sus opiniones con el señor Foppiano. sencia de todo escrúpulo moral, hasta el punto de que su marido, el que debía ser compañero de toda su vida, fué un " soutener ". De este ambiente, lo humano, lo lógico es que surja una ramera: Ella, una
Y la explicación es ésta:—
tinuar viviendo. El comercio de las caricias ha existido siempre. Las leyes lo toleran y lo amparan. Los higienistas lo aceptan como un mal necesario y todo el mundo, pobres o ricos, acuden a esa fuente para saciar la mala sed Y ahora cabe esta interrogante: ¿ A quién acusamos de pecado? ¿ A la fuente, cuyo manantial contaminado o no, es un producto social o a los que acuden a ella? ¡ Ah! El problema es mucho más serio y mucho más humano de lo que creen los togados y los milicos ceñidos a la letra muerta de los códigos, esos códigos que hicieron los ancianos alejados de la urgencia pasional de la carne, en la fría serenidad de sus cómodas posiciones económicas, parapetados en el apellido honorable y en el encubrimiento social. ¿ Quién arroja la primera piedra? - Nuevamente: nosotros no nos jactamos de apóstoles ni de quijotes. Pero, ¡ señores! cualquiera que haya contemplado el cuadro zoliano de la miseria, vacilaría mucho antes de arrojar la primera piedra. Los jueces parecen ignorar que los arrabales no son, exclusivamente, los barrios excéntricos de la ciudad. Los arrabales están en las almas. La proporción, sin elocuencia de barricada, es pavorosa; por un feliz, cien desdichados; por un satisfecho, cien hambrientos.
Source: Source: Internet Archive / Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina