Jacques Latour
Jacques Latour was a notorious murderer, condemned and executed in September 1864. At a private Spiritist meeting in Brussels, a woman medium suddenly began writing without anyone calling him. Her hand moved violently, scratching huge letters onto the paper. No one there had been thinking about him.
The medium's hand begins writing violently...
Jacques LatourI repent! I repent! Latour.
MediumWhat made you come here instead of somewhere else, since we did not call you?
Jacques LatourI saw that you were compassionate, and that you would pity me.
Jacques LatourOthers have called me more out of curiosity than charity...or they shrink back from me in horror.
The spirit identified strongly with the medium. Her face, voice, and gestures changed. His despair was so intense and painful that everyone there was deeply moved.
Jacques LatourOh yes...pity! You do not know how much I need it, because you do not know how much I suffer!
Jacques LatourNo...you do not know...you cannot understand it!
Jacques LatourIt is horrible...the guillotine! What is that compared with what I endure now?
Jacques LatourIt was nothing...only a moment.
Jacques LatourBut the fire that devours me now is far worse.
Jacques LatourIt is a constant death.
Jacques LatourIt is suffering with no pause and no rest...and no end!
Jacques LatourAnd my victims are there...all around me.
Jacques LatourThey show me their wounds.
Jacques LatourThey follow me with their eyes.
Jacques LatourThey are there, before me.
Jacques LatourI see them all...yes, all of them, I see them all!
Jacques LatourAnd I cannot escape them!
Jacques LatourAnd this pool of blood...and this gold covered with blood!
Jacques LatourEverything is there, always before me!
Jacques LatourDo you smell the blood?
Jacques LatourBlood...everywhere blood!
Jacques LatourThey are there, my poor victims!
Jacques LatourThey beg me to pity them!
Jacques LatourAnd I...without pity...I strike, and strike, and strike again!
Jacques LatourThe sight of their blood made me drunk!
Jacques LatourI thought that after death everything would be over.
Jacques LatourThat is why I faced death.
Jacques LatourI defied God.
Jacques LatourI denied that there was a God.
Jacques LatourAnd now, when I believed everything would be over, I wake into something terrible.
Jacques LatourYes... it's terrible!
Jacques LatourI am surrounded by corpses...by threatening faces.
Jacques LatourI walk through blood.
Jacques LatourI thought I would be dead, and I am alive!
Jacques LatourIt is hideous!
Jacques LatourIt is horrible!
Jacques LatourMore horrible than all the tortures of Earth!
Jacques LatourOh, if people could know what lies beyond life on Earth!
Jacques LatourIf they knew what it costs to have done evil, there would be no more murderers, no more criminals, no more evil men!
Jacques LatourIf all murderers could see what I see and endure what I endure...
Jacques LatourNo...no...there would be no more of them.
Jacques LatourIt is too dreadful to suffer as I suffer!
Jacques LatourI know I deserved it, my God.
Jacques LatourI had no pity on my victims.
Jacques LatourI pushed away their pleading hands when they begged me to spare them.
Jacques LatourYes, I was cruel.
Jacques LatourIn my cowardly wickedness, I killed them for their gold.
Jacques LatourI sinned against You.
Jacques LatourI denied You.
Jacques LatourI cursed Your holy name.
Jacques LatourI wanted to drown every thought of You, so I tried to persuade myself that You did not exist.
Jacques LatourMy God! I am a horrible criminal!
Jacques LatourI understand that now.
Jacques LatourBut will You not have pity on me?
Jacques LatourYou are God...that means You are goodness and mercy.
Jacques LatourYou are all-powerful.
Jacques LatourPity, Lord!
Jacques LatourOh, pity...pity!
Jacques LatourI beg You, do not be unyielding.
Jacques LatourFree me from this hateful sight, from these horrible images...from this blood...from my victims, whose eyes stab my heart like daggers.
Jacques LatourYou who hear me...you are kind and charitable.
Jacques LatourYes, I see it...you will pity me.
Jacques LatourYou will pray for me.
Jacques LatourOh, I beg you, do it.
Jacques LatourDo not reject me.
Jacques LatourAsk God to remove this horrible sight from before my eyes.
Jacques LatourHe will hear you, because you are good.
Jacques LatourI beg you... do not reject me as I rejected others.
Jacques LatourPray for me.
Those present told him that God asks for sincere repentance and the desire to make up for evil. They promised to pray for him and recited the prayer for suffering and repentant spirits.
Jacques LatourThank You, my God!
Jacques LatourOh, thank You!
Jacques LatourYou have had pity on me.
Jacques LatourThose horrible images are going away.
Jacques LatourDo not leave me.
Jacques LatourSend me good spirits to support me.
Jacques LatourThank You!
The next day, at another gathering, the same spirit returned. The scene began again for a few minutes with the same intense display, but less violently.
The medium's hand begins writing again with feverish agitation...
Jacques LatourThank you for your prayers.
Jacques LatourI am already better because of them.
Jacques LatourI prayed to God so earnestly that He granted me a lessening of my sufferings...but only for a moment.
Jacques LatourFor I will see them again...my victims.
Jacques LatourThere they are! There they are!
Jacques LatourDo you see this blood?
The prayer was repeated.
Jacques LatourForgive me for taking hold of you like this.
Jacques LatourThank you for the relief you bring to my suffering.
Jacques LatourForgive me, all of you, for the trouble I have caused.
Jacques LatourBut I need so badly to make myself known.
Jacques LatourYou alone can do it.
Jacques LatourThank you...thank you!
Jacques LatourI am somewhat relieved, but I have not reached the end of my trials.
Jacques LatourMy victims will soon come back.
Jacques LatourThat is my punishment.
Jacques LatourI deserved it, my God...but have pity on me!
Jacques LatourAll of you, pray for me!
Jacques LatourPity me!
Later, a member of the Paris Spiritist Society prayed for him and received several more communications.
Jacques LatourI was called almost right after my death, but I could not communicate at once, and many frivolous spirits took my name and my place.
Jacques LatourI took advantage of the presence in Brussels of the President of the Paris Society, and with permission from higher spirits, I was able to communicate.
Jacques LatourI will come and speak with the Society.
Jacques LatourI will begin repairing my faults by giving warnings that may serve as a lesson to all criminals who read about my sufferings.
Jacques LatourSermons about hellfire do little to affect hardened criminals.
Jacques LatourThey are less afraid of devils than of policemen.
Jacques LatourNo priest can say to them, "I have seen all this with my own eyes. I have witnessed the tortures of the damned."
Jacques LatourBut when I say, "This is what happened to me after the death of my body. This is what I endured when, to my horror, I found that I was not dead, as I expected...and what I thought was the end of my troubles was only the beginning of torments impossible to describe..."
Jacques LatourAh, then, more than one will draw back from the edge of the abyss he was about to fall into.
Jacques LatourAnd every miserable person I stop on the road to crime will be part of the atonement for the evil I once did.
Jacques LatourThat is how good comes out of evil, and how the goodness of God shows itself in all things, on Earth and in space.
Jacques LatourI am spared the sight of my victims while I speak with you.
Jacques LatourBut when I leave you, I will see them again.
Jacques LatourThe thought alone causes me more misery than I can say.
Jacques LatourI am glad to be called, because for a few moments I leave my hell.
Jacques LatourPray for me.
Jacques LatourPray to God that I may be freed from the sight of my victims.
Jacques LatourYes, let us pray together.
Jacques LatourPrayer does so much good!
Jacques LatourI feel less crushed.
Jacques LatourMy burden seems lighter.
Jacques LatourI see a gleam of hope before me, and full of repentance I say: Blessed be the hand of God. His will be done.
MediumInstead of asking God to free you from the sight of your victims, I urge you to join me in asking for strength to bear this purifying torture.
Jacques LatourI would have preferred to be spared the sight of my victims.
Jacques LatourIf you knew what suffering it gives me!
Jacques LatourThe hardest heart would be touched if it saw what I endure.
Jacques LatourBut I will do as you advise.
Jacques LatourI see that it will help me complete my atonement sooner.
Jacques LatourIt is like a painful operation that restores health more quickly.
Jacques LatourAh, if the criminals on Earth could see me, they would be terrified by the consequences of their crimes.
Jacques LatourEven when hidden from human eyes, they are always seen by spirits.
Jacques LatourHow deadly this ignorance is for many unfortunate people.
Jacques LatourAnd how great is the responsibility of those who deny education to the poor.
Jacques LatourThey think the police can prevent crime.
Jacques LatourWhat a mistake.
Jacques LatourThe sufferings I am enduring are horrible.
Jacques LatourBut since you have helped me with your prayers, I feel helped by good spirits, who tell me to hope.
Jacques LatourI understand the power of the heroic remedy you advised me to accept, and I ask for strength to bear this heavy atonement.
Jacques LatourIt is equal to the evil I have done.
Jacques LatourI will not try to excuse my atrocities.
Jacques LatourBut at least, after the few moments of terror before death, all suffering ended for my victims.
Jacques LatourAnd those who had completed their earthly trials passed directly to the happiness waiting for them.
Jacques LatourBut since my return to the spirit world, except for the few moments when I am allowed to communicate, I have not stopped suffering the torments of hell.
Jacques LatourPriests, even with the frightening pictures they paint, have only a faint idea of the horror of the punishments God allows for those who violated His law of love and kindness.
Jacques LatourHow can they expect thinking people to believe that a soul, something not material, can suffer from material fire?
Jacques LatourIt is absurd.
Jacques LatourThat is why so many criminals laugh at those fantastic pictures of hell.
Jacques LatourBut moral torture after death is very different.
Jacques LatourPray for me, so despair does not take hold of me again.
Jacques LatourHow grateful I am to you for letting me glimpse the glorious goal I will reach when my purification is complete.
Jacques LatourI still suffer dreadfully, but less than before.
Jacques LatourI cannot believe that in the spirit world we suffer less only because we get used to suffering.
Jacques LatourNo.
Jacques LatourIt is because your kind prayers have increased my strength, so that although my pain is the same, I am stronger, and it seems less severe.
Jacques LatourMy thoughts go back to my last life and to the faults I would have avoided if I had known how to pray.
Jacques LatourNow I understand the power of prayer.
Jacques LatourI understand the strength of those whom the world calls simple and weak, but who are strong through faith and devotion.
Jacques LatourI understand this mystery, so little understood by those who know only earthly science.
Jacques LatourHow these learned people laugh at prayer.
Jacques LatourLet them come back into the spirit world.
Jacques LatourWhen the veil of flesh is torn away, they too will fall at the feet of the God they forgot.
Jacques LatourThey will rejoice to humble themselves so they may be freed from their errors and the punishment of their wrongdoing.
Jacques LatourThen they will understand the power of prayer.
Jacques LatourTo pray is to love.
Jacques LatourTo love is to pray.
Jacques LatourThey will then love the Master and offer Him prayers of love and gratitude.
Jacques LatourWhile going through purification in suffering, because they will have to suffer, they will pray, as I do, for strength to atone and endure.
Jacques LatourAnd when they no longer suffer, they will pray in gratitude for the pardon won by submission and acceptance.
Jacques LatourPray with me, my brother, so that I may become stronger.
Jacques LatourThank you, my brother, for your charitable help.
Jacques LatourI am forgiven.
Jacques LatourInfinite mercy has freed me from the sight of my victims.
Jacques LatourMy God, eternity will be too short for me to express my gratitude for this favor.
Jacques LatourI feel the full enormity of my crimes, and I humble myself before Your power.
Jacques LatourI love You, my God, with all my heart.
Jacques LatourAnd I ask to be allowed, when Your will sends me back to Earth for a new trial, to go there as a messenger of peace and charity.
Jacques LatourI want to teach children to speak Your name with love and reverence.
Jacques LatourI want to teach them to love You, the Father of all creatures.
Jacques LatourI am among repentant spirits, and my repentance is sincere.
Jacques LatourI love You as fully as a heart as impure as mine can feel the purest feeling that comes from Your divinity.
Jacques LatourBrother, let us pray together, for my heart overflows with gratitude.
Jacques LatourI am free.
Jacques LatourI have broken my chains.
Jacques LatourI am no longer condemned.
Jacques LatourI am still a suffering spirit, but I am also a repentant one.
Jacques LatourI want my example to stop the hands that I see ready to rise for evil, on the eve of crime.
Jacques LatourOh, stop, brothers, stop!
Jacques LatourThe tortures you prepare for yourselves will be horrible.
Jacques LatourDo not imagine that all of you will be delivered as quickly as I was.
Jacques LatourDeliverance often comes only after centuries of torment.
Mediums’ GuideYou do not understand the spirit's last words because of the force of his emotion and gratitude to God.
Mediums’ GuideHe wants to stop the hands of all the criminals he can see, though you cannot see them.
Mediums’ GuideHe wants his voice to reach them all.
Mediums’ GuideWhat he does not yet know is that he will be allowed to undertake missions of repair, and so begin the atonement for his former crimes.
Mediums’ GuideHe will be sent among those who were his accomplices, and he will try to inspire them with repentance and awaken remorse in their hearts.
The Brussels medium later received one more revealing message from him.
Jacques LatourDo not be afraid of me anymore.
Jacques LatourI am calmer, though I still suffer greatly.
Jacques LatourGod saw my repentance and had pity on me.
Jacques LatourBut I now suffer from that repentance itself, because it shows me the full enormity of my crimes.
Jacques LatourIf I had been rightly guided in life, I would not have done all the evil I did.
Jacques LatourBut my bad tendencies were not restrained, and I followed them blindly, because nothing held them back.
Jacques LatourIf everyone thought more about God, if everyone truly believed He exists, such horrors would no longer be committed.
Jacques LatourBut what people call justice is badly administered.
Jacques LatourFor a fault that may have been small, a man is thrown into prison, which is often a place of corruption and ruin.
Jacques LatourHe usually comes out completely destroyed by bad advice and bad examples.
Jacques LatourEven if he is good and strong enough to resist that corruption, when he leaves prison, every door is closed to him.
Jacques LatourHonest people reject and avoid him.
Jacques LatourWhat remains for him then?
Jacques LatourContempt and misery.
Jacques LatourHunger drives him back into crime.
Jacques LatourThen he too begins to despise and hate his fellow human beings.
Jacques LatourHe loses the sense of good and evil, because even when he wants to return to an honest life, he is pushed away.
Jacques LatourTo get the necessities of life, he steals...perhaps he kills...and then society puts him to death.
Jacques LatourMy God! At this moment I feel my hallucinations are about to seize me again.
Jacques LatourBut I also feel that Your hand is showing mercy, that Your goodness surrounds and protects me.
Jacques LatourThank You, my God.
Jacques LatourIn my next life, I will use whatever intelligence I have to help unfortunate offenders who fell at a first temptation and to keep them from falling back into crime.
Jacques LatourThanks to all of you, who did not shrink from communicating with me.
Jacques LatourFear nothing.
Jacques LatourYou can see that I am no longer wicked.
Jacques LatourWhen you think of me, do not think of me as the portrait once drawn of me.
Jacques LatourThink of me as a poor suffering soul beginning to hope and thanking you for your compassionate kindness.
Jacques LatourFarewell.
Jacques LatourCall me again...and pray for me.