France – Death On My Doorstep

1/ Column of July Suicide, Paris, August 1858

A young chap of about twenty years of age was at the Column of July asking the fella in charge if he could go to the top. The attendant said that no-one could go up alone. Later on, three others were let in and they all went up together. This was the chance the man had been waiting for, so he dashed up the stairs to the platform on top, then leapt over the balustrade. The column is 150 feet high, so when he landed he was immediately killed. The other unnerving thing that occurred, was that his head smacked into the railings at the bottom. (As you can see).

In his pocket was a short suicide note saying: “My name is Phillippe Elles. I was born at Mulhausen on the 13th of August,1838. No-one will ever know the cause of my death. Farewell to all. Farewell Marie!”

2/ Arc de Triomphe Suicide, Paris, May 1878

An unknown man who was about thirty odd, climbed up the Arc de Triomphe throwing items of clothing off as he ascended. He finally appeared at the summit, stark naked. The people down below looked on in horror as he jumped over the parapet and landed on the ground. He died instantly.

3/ Notre Dame, Paris, October 1882

Throngs of people were milling about, the day after a young lady had thrown herself from the tower of Notre Dame. She was about twenty-something, dark hair, which had two plaits. The Jane Doe was smartly dressed, suggesting that she belonged to a respectable family, with her linen had the initials “M.F.” and she had fifty francs on her. (Was she ever identified?)

4/ Notre Dame Suicides, July 1857

Baron de B___ had lost all his money on the French Stock Exchange, the Bourse, so he thought that he’d commit suicide, by jumping off one of the towers of Notre Dame. Grasped in his hand was a summons from the Procureur Imperial, to answer a charge of forgery, when he hit the pavement.

5/ Notre Dame, Paris, September 1845

Another Baron commits suicide from the top of Notre Dame towers. This time it’s a Baron Achille de Maynard who was only twenty-five years old, incredibly wealthy and who was married to the gorgeous daughter of the Count d’Espagnac a fortnight ago. There is no conceivable reason why he should kill himself.

Eiffel Tower Suicides -Paris, France.

6/ Eiffel Tower Suicide, August 1891

The body of a young man was found hanging one Sunday morning, to a girder on the Eiffel Tower. He must have climbed up manually with his hands and feet, up to the stonework at the base of the giant structure. The post-mortem examination revealed he had been dead a couple of hours or so. In his pocket was a slip of paper stating that his head should be delivered to the major of his former regiment and that the rest of his effects should go to the tower’s builder, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. He is thought to be an Englishman as he had British stamps and coins on him along with a handkerchief with the initials “C.F.B.”, on it.

7/ Eiffel Tower, (English Lady Suicide) March 1913

A young lady, thought to be English, committed suicide by plunging from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. She was killed on the spot and there is no clue to her identity, except that her linen was initialled “M.T”.

8/ Eiffel Tower, (Young Lady Kills Herself) August 1908

Whilst a number of sightseers were admiring the view from the third platform of the Tower, a young woman by the name of Mantion from the Paris suburb of Billancourt, climbed over the parapet and plummeted over the edge. She fell onto the second platform, as the postcard shows still a hell of a height and was instantly killed.

9/ Eiffel Tower Decapitation, July 1889 (Only been open three months!)

10/ Eiffel Tower, April 1893 (Two Suicides in One Day)

Two men decided to kill themselves on the Eiffel Tower, on the same day. The first was a Russian named Kviakorski, who shot himself in the temple after dining at the first-floor restaurant. Just over an hour later, a clerk named Pierre Delarue, jumped off the third platform. On his speedy descent down to the bottom, he struck the second platform and his arms and legs were torn off.

11/ Eiffel Tower, May 1906

August Braun, a German on holiday in Paris, went up to the second platform of the Tower with a group of friends, then he suddenly leapt over the edge with his body striking the first platform, a height of over 250 feet. He was living at 113, Elder Street in Cincinnati and was a naturalised American, but friends said he behaviour in the past few days had been most strange.

12/ Eiffel Tower, March 1902

The favoured suicide hot-spot in Paris was the Vendome Column or Arc de Triomphe, but since the building of the Eiffel Tower it has taken over the mantle. A young chap went up the first platform, then threw himself over. Amazingly, a crowd gathered around him shortly after hitting the pavement. He was found to be still breathing, but this only lasted a few minutes.

13/ Thiers, Puy-de-Dome, (Twenty-Four Killed in Court) June 1885

14/ Roux Lighthouse Self-Immolation, Concarneau, December 1906 (Sad tale! )

This is probably one of the saddest stories of suicide in the French section. It was at the lighthouse of Roux near to Concarneau in Brittany. Monsieur and Madame Le Bris were in charge of the lighthouse. The loss of their 19-year-old son last year had put Madame Le Bris in a state of depression. While her husband lay sleeping, she walked out of the lighthouse, then doused herself in petrol and then torched herself. Her husband tried to save her but she died shortly afterwards.

15/ Paris, (Double Suicide) February 1873

Celestine and Julie Retel, both sisters who were unmarried and hadn’t had a man’s company in quite a while, decided to end their miserable existence by taking a large dose of laudanum before going to a bathing establishment. An attendant came in to tell them their time was up, both at the pool and in life, as both had sunk to the bottom of the pool.

16/ Montpelier Murder, August 1893

During a mass at St Anne’s, a 60-year-old woman fired four shots at Jean Jouissant, killing him. The reason for the man’s murder is unclear but thought to be revenge for Jouissant keeping some money which was supposedly hers.

17/ Vannes Yacht Deaths, Brittany, March 1899

18/ Chappelle-Moche, Orne, ((Ice Disaster) December 1878

A terrible accident has just occurred in the Commune of Chappelle-Moche, in the Orne. A crowd of children, numbering fifty-two, were sliding on a deep pond near the village when suddenly the ice gave way and forty-eight of them were precipitated to the bottom of the pond, from which their bodies were taken out lifeless. The catastrophe has cast a deep gloom over the district.

19/ Monaco Suicide, March 1885

A telegram from Monaco reports the suicide of a young Englishman, recently married, but whose name is concealed. He is said to have lost £50,000, then blown his brains out.

20/ No.26, Rue Fontaine Murder, Paris, March 1879

The other night a widow named Jaubert who was a vendor of books and newspapers at 26, Rue Fontaine, was found dead by a customer in her back room, her skull fractured by a hatchet. She had apparently been taken by surprise while dining, with her back to the door and with the first blow being fatal. She was reputed to have some savings and the cupboard was found open. What is accountable is that the murderer, whose clothes must have been drenched in blood, left the premises without being observed by the neighbours. The deceased lived quite alone.

21/ Roubaix (near Belgium border) April 1885 (Ate the lions! Mind you, they eat snails and horses)

22/ Muy Vampire, near Toulon, October 1901

A human vampire lives in the town of Muy near Toulon. The story describes an old man of sixty years, wrinkled skin etc. When I looked into the “Vampire of Muy” it ended up being the son, Victor Ardisson, not the Honore Ardisson described in the paper. It said that they couldn’t describe the acts committed by this monster, as they were too graphic for a British newspaper. They just stated that he would go in an out of the Cemetery, digging up a newly-buried corpse often young girls, then took them home. Apparently, police found the house filled with human bones. He was now awaiting trial. What the French press wrote was a different kettle of fish. One of his victims (He was a necrophiliac) was a 13-year-old girl who he dug up, then had sex with her and tried to carry her home, but she was too heavy. To lighten the load he cut her head off and took that home instead. It reminds me of the Ed Gein case in his horrific methods of how he used to get naked with corpses and other weird sh*t. (What happened to this freak in the end?)

23/ Turcoing Boiler Explosion, June 1885

A steam boiler exploded in the wool cleansing establishment of M.Honore Prosper. Seventeen persons were killed and forty injured.

24/ Paris Murder, April 1885

Another terrible murder has just been committed in Paris. A chef, living in the neighbourhood of the Ecole Militaire, attacked his wife with a meat cleaver and literally hacked her to pieces.The murderer, who had lived unhappily with his wife for a considerable period of time, has succeeded in escaping.

25/ Rue Cambronne Murder, Paris, May 1885

26/ Valenciennes Double Suicide, August 1885

A double suicide occurred at Valenciennes near the Belgian border. A.M. Kuhn, living in that town, having missed his son, went in search of him and found a corpse lying in a room along with that of a young woman who was living in the same house. In the hand of each was a revolver, with which they had blown out their own brains. Young Kuhn was only seventeen years old.

27/ Marre, in the Mayenne, May 1836 (Man Bakes Himself to Death)

Usually, a suicide involving an oven would be putting their head in and turning on the gas. A bloke living at Marre had just been dumped by his girlfriend, who had promised to be his wife. In a rash act, he crawled into the oven after heating it up, then shut the door behind him, sort of “baking himself to death”. He died after several minutes but he looks to have had second thoughts as his head was turned towards the door.

28/ Royan (Gironde) (Eight Drown) August 1885

A party of excursionists had visited the Cordouan lighthouse and were returning in their boats to their ship, when one of the boats, manned by two sailors containing eight passengers capsized. The sailors managed to save themselves, one by swimming, the other by holding onto the boat, but all the passengers were drowned.

29/ Bal Mobille, Paris, October 1862 (Ball-room Suicide)

While the dancing was in full flow at the Bal Mobille in Paris, a young fella killed himself by blowing his brains out with a pistol. He did it in full view of the crowd and two local doctors who were there, put the body on a stretcher and took him away.

30/ Nancy February 1899 (Pay up or I shoot a stranger- Then did it)

31/ Christian Brothers School, Lille, February 1899

Arising out of the murder of a little boy in the Christian Brothers School at Lille, anti-clerical disturbances occurred on Saturday both there and in Paris. Those at Lille were more serious, the streets having to be cleared by the repeated charges of mounted gendarmes. In Paris revolvers were used and a gendarme was wounded. The Clerical and Nationalist papers are said to be alarmed and apprehensive of a general agitation. (What boys murder caused the rioting?)

32/ Lille Murder/Suicide, August 1885

Today’s sensation in France, which brings a new one daily, is the report of a dreadful occurrence at Lille. M.Gautois was a sixty-year-old financial agent, shot a woman named Linart, the keeper of a wine shop in that town, then he lay down on a bed beside the body of his victim and blew his brains out. Jealousy is supposed to have been the motive of the crime.

33/ Paris, August 1858 (Gambler’s Suicide)

A wealthy and well-known young man had just eaten at a fine restaurant in the Boulevard de la Madelaine when he was coaxed into gambling. He then lost 600,000 Francs, he went home, signed over the whole of his fortune and his Chateau at Villebon, then went away and shot himself in the temple. When they heard of the tragedy the uncle and mother of the deceased were going to start legal action against the winner. The same man was thought to have acquired land at the Barriere de l’Etoile, where he built several villa’s, by the same method as he got this chap’s.

34/ Blois, February 1885 (Blois Witch Project? Well I thought it was funny!)

35/ Paris Suicide, July 1889

A Leeds gentleman has just committed suicide in Paris in a most determined manner. He was preparing to return home after having visited the Exhibition, then while waiting for the bill for which he had asked, he stood before a mirror and cut his throat with a razor from ear to ear. The deceased was a young man and had in his possession at the time of his death, a considerable amount of money.

36/ The River Seine, September 1885 (Englishman Murdered)

The body of a Lewes man named Frederick Smith, employed in France as a jockey, has been found in the Seine. He had evidently been murdered and a man has been arrested who was wearing the deceased’s clothes. The French police have communicated with Smith’s relatives in Lewes and at their request, a brother of the deceased left for Paris yesterday.

37/ Montmartre June 1867 (Prisoner’s Suicide in Court)

A local tradesman in Montmartre was up in court, in front of the Comissary of Police on a charge of immorality. While the magistrate was reading the first words of the deposition to him, he fixed the handle of an awl against the desk in front of him, then threw himself on the blade driving it into his chest. He died instantly.

38/ Marseilles March 1885 (English Couples Attempted Suicide)

39/ Brest Quadruple Murder, October 1885

An awful tragedy is reported from Brest. A tradesman in that town drowned his wife and three children in a pond, then gave himself up to the police. There is no doubt that he was insane. (What was his name?)

40/ ????? France, August 1885

A girl only seventeen years of age has just been condemned to twenty years penal servitude in La Vendee for having murdered her father in a most brutal manner. She beat his brains out with a wooden beam used for carrying buckets. She had had frequent quarrels with the deceased, who was averse to her going out to service and to her keeping company with a young man whom she wanted to marry.

41/ Passy (16th Arondissement) June 1894 (Body Found at Auction)

During an auction sale at a boarding school in Passy, one of the rooms was found to be locked. It was prized open for the benefit of potential customers at the auction and to everyone’s horror, there lay the body of an elderly man. He used to be a servant at the establishment but was fired a week ago, due to the place being sold. He must have got back inside without anyone knowing. The cause of his demise is currently unknown and the auction was stopped when he was discovered.

42/ Grenoble Murder, July 1890

43/ Monaco, (Fiftieth Suicide) May 1885

There has just been chronicled, the 50th suicide at the exclusive resort of Monte Carlo since December of 1884. The victim in this instance was an unknown traveller who arrived with £12,000 and in a matter of a few hours ended up penniless. This is the normal cause of suicides in Monaco, most are visitors that gamble away what they can’t afford and lose everything, including their lives.

44/ Ventimiglia, Italy/Monaco, September 1892 (U.S Heiress Suicide)

Twenty-six-year-old Miss Jane Armstrong, was an American heiress who committed suicide after losing her $250,000 fortune at the Monaco casino’s. She arrived about a month ago and rented a villa in Ventimiglia in Italy, just across the border from France and about 20 km from Monaco. A visit to a casino got her hooked immediately and on her first serious gamble, she came out with 100,000 Francs in her handbag, with 24 coming up six times in succession during one period of play. What are the odds of that? Miss Armstrong, thinking she was on a hot streak went back the next night, but this time lost heavily. The next three days saw her lose $200,000 but in an amazing comeback, she won most of her money back again, promising to the on-lookers and staff that she’d never go back. Come Monday morning and she returned, putting huge sums on her lucky number 24 with the end result being that she had lost her $250,000 inheritance by the evening. Miss Armstrong returned to her residence, pulled out a revolver and shot herself in the chest. (Was her suicide in Ventimiglia?)

45/ Monte Carlo/Monaco, (Gambling and Suicide) March 1885

46/ Monaco Suicides, February 1881

Here is a short list of some of the suicides in Monaco,in the last four months:-

An Englishman threw himself under a train at Nice.

A Russian blew out his brains.

Five or six corpses were taken out of the water under the celebrated rock of Monte Carlo.

A Bavarian gentleman shot himself in the heart.

At the Hotel de la Jure in Cannes, a merchant poisoned himself.

A member of one of the first Austrian families committed suicide at Nice, in the Rue Segurene.

A gentleman from Nice precipitated himself into the sea from the rock called Rauba-Capeu.

A German officer suffocated himself.

A Dutchman poisoned himself with laudanum.

Another Dutchman, who had been a millionaire the previous month, killed himself with a gun he used for pigeon-shooting.

At the Hotel des Deux Mondes, a French widow poisoned herself with laudanum, having sold all her jewellery to try and regain what she had lost.

47/ Dreux (Eure et Loire) July 1919 (Body Found After Thirty-Two Years)

A man disappeared on September 18th,1887 and had never been seen since, until his mummified cadaver was discovered in the inside of a gas reservoir at Dreux. The gas reservoir hadn’t been cleaned for thirty-two years, so it was given a tidy up. It was while workmen were inside they came across the corpse of the bloke who vanished more than three decades earlier. It was a case of suicide, as in his pocket was a note stating that he intended to kill himself. (What was his name?)

48/ Versailles (Mysterious Suicide) August 1892

49/ Angers Murder, June 1885

The son of an eighty-year-old retired judge, has been tried at Angers for murdering his father after a quarrel about the succession of his mother. The prisoner’s counsel pleaded that his mind was affected by habitual drunkenness. Extenuating circumstances being found by the jury, a sentence of twenty years penal servitude was passed.

50/ Dinan Suicide, (Misread the Bill) October 1845

This suicide was down to the perpetrator not reading the figures properly on an outstanding bill. Two peasants had brought an action against a young lass to whom their father had left his property. They failed and had to pay the costs. When it arrived, one of them thought it read 1284 Francs and not having anywhere near that sum, he went and hung himself. The actual bill was for twelve Francs and eighty-four centimes.

51/ No.76, Boulevard Mazas, Paris, July 1878

A humble engine-driver returned home to 76, Boulevard Mazas in Paris and found his 32-year-old wife stretched out on a couple of chairs, with her head next to an extinct brazier (Metal receptacle for heating coals). She had probably asphyxiated herself with charcoal. The poor woman was clutching two dolls to her chest. These were her three-year-old daughter’s favourite toys before she died in May.

52/ Carcassonne Murder, (Aude) September 1885

53/ Boulogne-Billancourt (Church Corpse) October 1860

A horrendous discovery was made at a church of Boulogne, between Paris and St Cloud, which was being repaired at the time. Beneath the altar of the Virgin, there was a 14-year-old girl’s dead body. She vanished about three years ago and her parents had never seen or heard from her since. Apparently, she was a good-looking lass and had just been to confession before she disappeared. (What happened to her?)

54/ Privas (Ardeche) June 1901 (Dug Own Grave, Then Killed Himself)

A scrooge by the name of Charron from Privas, buried his hoard in his back garden. It kept preying on his mind that somebody would rob him of his stash until his brain couldn’t remember where he had hidden the stuff. Alzheimer’s?. He tried digging all over but never found anything. In the end he dug his own grave, stood next to it and then shot himself in the forehead and his body plunged into the empty hole.

55/ Caen/Courseulles, August 1861 (Human Pin-Cushion)

Mademoiselle Leprovost died in Caen, the day before she was due to be up in court on a charge of embezzlement when she was Courseulles post-mistress. She killed herself by thrusting pins and needles into her chest. This punctured the heart, with another two needles crossing each other in her throat and then she had bashed the pins in with a prayer book. Weird!

56/ Caen, March 1885 (Demonstration Against Actress for Lover’s Suicide)

57/ No.197, Faubourg St Antoine, Paris, January 1893 (Suicide by Cannon)

A locksmith named Ritskisko took the act of suicide to a new level at Paris. He purchased a small cannon, filled it with a cannon-ball. Then with plenty of gunpowder, he popped it on the table, then made a device that would enable him to set it off by tugging on a piece of string. He sat in his favourite chair, pointed the cannon at himself and pulled the string. Neighbours ran to the spot when they heard the cannon go off and discovered the remains of Ritskisko stuck to his ceiling and a massive hole in one of his walls.

58/ Luneville, December 1876 (Suicide in a Vegetable Stew!)

A smartly dressed chap went into an establishment in Luneville and requested a hot bath. He then asked the waiter to pop to the shops and get him the following items: -a bottle of white wine, whisky, red peppers, carrots, tomatoes, turnips and some onions. These things were bought for him, then he was left alone in his bath. He then poured some boiling water in, chopped up the veg and put it all in the bath, then climbed in. When discovered, the man was boiled to death.

59/ Perigueux, (Landslide Deaths) October 1885

60/ Montpelier Cemetery Suicide, November 1893 (Kills Himself on Mistress’s Coffin)

I’ll always remember that line in the Blackadder series that went:-“We’re about as likely to move as a Frenchman living next door to a brothel”. The next clipping sums it up nicely. A gravedigger in Montpelier Cemetery noticed that one of the tombs had been broken into and on checking the inside, he found the lifeless corpse of an old man clutching a pistol, with three bullet wounds in his chest. The suicide victim was a tradesman from Montpelier who had crept into the tomb of his mistress, who had died five years ago and wanted to join her in the after-life.

61/ Meuse Quadruple Murder/Suicide, December 1885

A terrible tragedy has come to light in the Department of Meuse. The bodies of a woman and her daughter and her three grandchildren were found in a pond near their dwelling. It is supposed that the woman first drowned the children and then killed her herself.

62/ Paris (English Soldier Suicide) November 1833

An English soldier named Hodgson, formerly from the 14th Dragoons, had just lost a small fortune on the gaming tables in Paris, so ended it all by shooting himself in the porchway, while on his way out. The hotel where he was staying at had a very generous landlady, who had given Hodgson 500 Francs to get back to England, but he lost that too. Even more generous was the fact that she paid for his funeral, on top of everything else.

63/ St Brevin, September 1885 (Lion Shot Dead on Beach)

64/ Romainville, November 1885 (Another Dead Lion Story)

65/ Faubourg Montmartre, February 1846 (Death by Brandy)

A young milliner from the Faubourg Montmartre district, killed herself by guzzling down two pints of brandy in one go, due to her boyfriend seeing another woman behind her back.

66/ Rheims, (Dinner-table Suicide) May 1894

A man named Hubert was sat down at the dinner table with his wife and child. When the meal was finished, he pulled out a revolver, then mumbled “Au Revoir” and shot himself in front of the two of them.

67/ Cambrai Murders, (Near Belgian border) January 1896

The bodies of a woman and three young children were discovered in a woods just outside Cambrai, near the border with Belgium. They were all nude and horribly mutilated, but the police have already arrested a man, thought to be one of the murderers.

68/ Choisy le Roi, Paris, (Family Suicide) October 1897

69/ Rue Robert Fleury, Paris, (Double Murder/Suicide) January 1900

A married woman by the name of Boillot killed both of her children by throwing them out of a third storey window of the apartment in Rue Robert Fleury. She then jumped out herself, with all three laid dead on the pavement below.

70/ Paris (Near National Library) December 1906 (More than a Hundred Cremated Babies)

A maternity home near the National Library in Paris held a dark secret for quite a while. The police commissioner of the Vivienne quarter discovered a stove built into a wall of the place, where new-born babies were cremated. Well over a hundred have been killed in this way and the total could be nearer two hundred. Several people and a doctor, are said to be involved in the matter.

71/ Place de Lenche, Marseilles, July 1858 (Suicide)

A stark raving bonkers old lady aged sixty-three clambered up to the top of her house on the Place de Lenche in Marseilles, then calmly sat on the edge of the fourth storey roof, shouted to the folks down below to “Get out of the way!”, then rolled off the roof-top. The passers-by went to help her but she died within half an hour.

72/ Nice, (Suicide on British Yacht) February 1895

73/ Clermont Murder, July 1896

An awful murder has taken place at Clermont, where a thirteen-year-old girl was found naked, hanging from a tree, also having been savagely raped. She had apparently been given a message to go somewhere just outside Clermont. Already several arrests have been made.

74/ Paris, (Suicide Rather Than Move) April 1854

A carpenter in Paris was so scared of moving to another place, while his home was demolished to make way for a new street, that he committed suicide. When told of the plans for the new street, he refused to believe it, but when the placards went up stating when and where it was going ahead he became very melancholic. A notice was given to him and he told neighbours: “I cannot bear the idea of living! All my affections cling about the place and if I am forced to go, it shall be for good!”. He then went up to his bedroom and hanged himself.

75/ Monaco Suicide, December 1876

A servant of an English gentleman killed himself by jumping out of one the windows of one of the best hotels in Monaco. He had been down in the dumps for several days previous, all caused by a disappointment in love, which he had experienced. He left in his pocket, a small packet containing some cash, which was meant to pay an overdue account of his.

76/ Nogent-Sur-Marne, August 1905 (Quadruple Murder/Suicide)

77/ Boyelles, June 1843 (Determined Suicide of Servant)

A servant from Boyelles wanted to commit suicide, so he went into the woods and slit his throat with a razor and stabbed himself in the abdomen. He was still alive after an hour or two, so he dressed his wounds with his handkerchief and went back to Boyelles. There he attempted suicide for a third and final time as he dived into a well and drowned himself. His corpse was found after a few days.

78/ Mulhouse, Alsace, (Million to One Fatality) March 1895

A tragic accident, possibly one in a million, occurred at Mulhouse in Alsace. A chemical operator was blown by an explosion of nitro-benzol into a trough of sulphuric acid. He would never have been found if it wasn’t for the accidental discovery of a rubber mouthpiece and a couple of porcelain buttons from his uniform. Everything else was dissolved: bones, flesh, hair etc.

79/ Quai de Tuileries, Paris, (Cigar, Juggling and Suicide) March 1870

A stunning suicide was committed by a stranger at the Quai de Tuileries on the banks of the Seine. A gentleman went and sat down next to a man who was fishing, then lit a cigar. He then offered one to the fisherman and then struck up a conversation. After a few minutes, he got up and plunged into the Seine, with no warning at all. The fisherman jumped in to try and save him but the oaf just punched him and swam away, while the would-be hero dragged himself ashore. Amazingly, the chap came back and while staying afloat in the Seine took out three coins and began a bizarre juggling act, he then swallowed the coins and dived underwater. The dead body of the man was discovered late that evening but he had nothing on his person to help identify him.

80/ Brest/Treboul, (Twenty-One Dead) April 1899

81/ Rue de la Folie Mericourt, Paris, (Murder) September 1906

A dreadful murder in broad daylight has again happened in Paris. The victim was fifty-seven-year-old Madame Lucas, wife of a business employee, in the Rue de la Folie Mericourt. She employed a lad of thirteen to do odd jobs for her, but it was the boy’s elder brother aged seventeen, who was let in her flat, where he then grabbed her and stabbed her in the throat with a screwdriver. The lad then went through the drawers and took cash and jewellery worth 1500 Francs. He was arrested a few hours later and calmly admitted to killing her.

82/ Rue du Faubourg St Honore, Paris, September 1866 (Infatuation Goes Too Far)

A Liverpool lass was working as a governess for the two young daughters of a wealthy couple, who lived on the Rue du Faubourg St Honore. She was nearly fluent in French, spoke good English, was good at art and music. All in all, she was a pleasant young lady with an excellent demeanour. When the parents of the two girls went to their country seat, the governess accompanied them. During this period she became depressed and sullen and tried to asphyxiate herself with the fumes from charcoal, but she was discovered just in time. The doctor told the couple to keep an eye on her and they did as were instructed, but she vanished one day and nobody knew where she had got to. After being missing for a fortnight and still no sign, a foul odour became noticeable in the house and it was traced to a little-used room, now used for the storage of lumber. A huge chest was in the room and when opened, there lay the decaying corpse of the governess. Rather intriguingly, she held a photo of the father of the two girls and her master. On the back of it was written: “Mr–, I ask your pardon for my death. I loved you. Not daring to tell you, and too weak to leave you, I thought that I must die. I also the pardon of Mrs–, who was so good to me.”

The post-mortem examination revealed a number of pins, nails and poison in her stomach, so she had kept on trying to kill herself several times before this final effort.

83/ Brest coastline, March 1905 (Decomposed Bodies Wash Up)

84/ Cognieres, September 1841 (Human Bonfire)

Cognieres in the Seine-et-Oise, was the scene of an unusual suicide. A peasant had been unjustly accused of poaching and he was so depressed that he could be thought of as a common poacher, that he entered the woods, climbed on a pile of faggots and torched himself, a sort of “human bonfire”. The local population flocked to see what was alight in the woods and there they found the peasant totally ablaze. They found a letter from him stating that he was no poacher, instead preferring death. The mayor wrote a certificate that he was mad when he did this and on giving this to the local priest, he was given a Christian burial.

85/ The Hippodrome, Paris, (Dreadful Accident) October 1860

The Hippodrome was the scene of a terrible accident which caused the deaths of three performers when a human pyramid collapsed and landed heavily on the floor. The trio, consisting of Miss Louise and Mr Hippolyte and Mr Francais, would form the pyramid at a height of a hundred feet above the ground. All was going well with the two men had ascended on two parallel tight-ropes, with Miss Louise standing partly on the shoulder of one of them and her other foot on a balancing pole held by them in front. When they reached the highest point of the ascent, a rope snapped and all three fell to the floor. The audience members began to scream and several ladies passed out. The director got up on stage and explained that the rest of the performance was cancelled and “could they make their way out of the theatre”. All three lie in a precarious condition. (Did any survive?)

86/ Ramatuelle (Var) (Step-Mother Shot Child) November 1885

87/ Evrand? August 1905 (Asylum Patient Eats Arm)

I can’t seem to find the place where this is supposed to have happened. Anybody, any ideas? It says that there was a sensation in Paris, by the report of an awful tragedy at Evrand Lunatic Asylum. A female inmate named Gaucher was on suicide watch, but she managed to flee the area and get into the cellars. While down there she heard a noise and scared stupid, she hid inside the hot air apparatus and closed the door. As staff looked for Gaucher, the time kept ticking on. Hours turned into days, and still, there was no sign of her. When the body was discovered it appeared that half the flesh on her arm was missing, as the unfortunate lass had tried to stop herself from starving to death in the eight days she had vanished.

88/ Champs Elysees, Paris, September 1871 (Account of Suicide)

The only word I can think of to describe this tale is “Creepy”. It is a minute by minute account of his impending suicide from taking some poison. It begins at ten o’clock at night and continues till he dies. Fascinating but weird, it reads:

“Ten o’clock at night. I must finish. I will get into a garden and end it all in an unknown corner. Five past ten- Here I am in the corner, covered up by my cloak. The air is cold and damp. But what have I to fear from the cold? The gaslight just reaches me. Quarter past ten- Everything is ready. I take my bottle of poison. How strange! To think that those few drops will separate my soul from my body. Twenty past ten- Tis done! I have swallowed the liquid! What is going on within me? I feel nothing but curiosity. The cafes’ below are gay. I hear them all. Ah! Half past ten- Fearful pains in my legs and back. My ideas are confused. The world is disappearing from me. My childhood appears before me, mother, father, all! Quarter to eleven- Sleep is overcoming me. The beginning of the end is at hand. My legs are dead. Where is my soul? Will it wander from globe to globe, through the sands of centuries? What matters? I came into the world without thinking; I must leave it the same. Eleven o’clock- What do they say? The cold has reached my stomach. My head is heavy. I cannot see. Oh!I should know…..

The last part is when he finally died. Told you it was weird!

89/ Paris Triple Murder, April 1887

Henri Pranzini murdered three females in cold blood. 40-year-old Marie Regnault, her 38-year-old maid Annette Gremeret and her 12-year-old daughter, also called Annette. He was guillotined on August 31st, 1887.

90/ Paris (A Day of Suicides) October 1857

A soldier on a visit to his brother at Vaugirard, after having been rejected by a woman he had fancied, locked himself in his room with several pans of charcoal, but this failed as he left a gap under the door. The breeze fanned the charcoal, causing a spark to catch light of his bed curtains and the sight of the flames suddenly dissipated his thought of suicide and he madly looked for the key. He shouted for help and the door was smashed down and he was rescued.

A water-carrier from Faubourg Montmartre having learned that the man with whom he invested all his money had gone bankrupt, went to the fortifications at La Chappelle and threw himself off.

A German workman hanged himself in his lodgings at Rue de Temple.

A writer living at the Rue d’Enfer, slit his throat in a delirium caused by a nervous disorder.

91/ French Methods of Suicide, April 1882

A country chemist took his wife and two children to a Paris restaurant, then after eating a hearty meal in a private room, the parents sent the kids away. Then they swallowed some laudanum. The waiters heard the groans and summoned a doctor to assist them and they were taken to the hospital. It appeared they had lost a large sum of money.

A sculptor from Paris named Delhomme had gone to his nephew’s funeral at Chaource and while chatting with relations at the wake, he grabbed a knife and thrust it into his stomach, causing his instant death.

92/ Toulon Disaster, March 1899

93/ Limoges Court House Murder, November 1900

A murder was committed outside Limoges Court House by two brothers named Bayne, who were proceeding against a farmer named Lacroix, for recovery of some land. They lost the case and decided to confront him outside. Their own form of justice was used, with one of them clattering him over the head with a hatchet, while the other stabbed him with a sword-stick. The gendarmes were close by but it was all done in a flash. They were handcuffed and taken to gaol. When asked why they did it they seemed to be genuinely pleased that they’d murdered him, saying that they had done a good job.

94/ Paris, July 1831 (Teenage Murder/Suicide)

This murder happened at a small theatre in Paris, where the actors and performers are all kids under the age of seventeen. A 14-year-old actress named Bruce, had been seeing a seventeen-year-old lad named Louis Cretz, who was coming into some property. Neither set of parents seemed too keen on the idea of them forming a permanent relationship and had been told as such. The teenage couple went down to the Bois de Boulogne, with the girl carrying a basket with two pistols in it, where they sat down together. Bruce had asked Cretz to shoot her, which he kindly obliged and then he put the other pistol to his head and fired.

95/ Place de la Roquette, Paris, (Double Execution) March 1890

96/ Solre le Chateau, (Suicide Re-enactment) January 1850

At the sugar factory of Monsieur Sohier, a lad of twelve years of age was working away, when he got too close to the machinery and was pulled into the workings and cogs and had his head squashed, with his limbs badly broken. Amazingly, the lad was pulled out alive and he may still make it. When the boy’s father Philippe Fonteville, was told about his son’s tragic accident, he went down to the factory a few days later and he stood in the same place as his son was crushed to atoms, then did the same thing his son did and popped his head in the metal cogs that were whirring around. It was some kind of suicide by re-enactment. The father was, unlike his son, crushed to a pulp.

97/ Verberie (Oise) January 1865 (Postmans Premature Suicide)

Here’s a sorry tale of why you should just stay calm and think things through before you do anything hasty, like this chap in Verberie. He was a postman in the district, named Vignon and getting on a bit, as he was fifty-two years old. He was well-liked by customers and staff alike, so he was the main candidate to be trusted with 2000 Francs in bank notes, which was to be exchanged for gold and silver. When he got to Verberie he was about to pull the money from his pocket, when he realized he had lost it. Filled with remorse and a fear that he would be suspected of pocketing the cash, he went and hanged himself. About an hour after the body was discovered, it turned out that the money had been handed into the address on the package, in which the notes were wrapped.

98/ River Seine, Paris, (Atrocious Murder) March 1885

99/ Paris Suicide Figures, April 1893

In 1881 there were 767 suicides in Paris, rising in 1890, to 896, with a third of those, women. The females preferred poisoning or suffocation by charcoal, whereas the men much preferred a pistol or by drowning in the Seine. The main causes of the suicides were love and misery. The greatest number of suicides was men aged between 40-50, and for women, it was those aged between 20-40. Apparently, people are less likely to kill themselves if there is a child involved.

100/ Paris, April 1863 (Property Refused By Actress in Admirer’s Will)

An Englishman by the name of Longford Brooke who resided at 69, Rue St Anne, left a will (not attested), leaving all his property to an actress in the Theatre Francais, Madame Madelaine Brohan. There was a clause that if she refused it, then it would all go an orphan’s charity. He then committed suicide after writing the will. He was supposed to a baronet, but this seemed very unlikely. When asked if she wanted the man’s “fortune”, Madame Brohan refused it. The author of the editorial seemed to disbelieve the whole thing as well, but pointed out that if he lived in a flat in Rue St Anne he can’t have been in the English nobility and if it was that much, would an actress refuse such a gift from an infatuated admirer. (Was it true?)

101/ St Ouen Murder, (Not St Oden) August 1890

102/ Ruelle Pelie, Paris, (Father’s Drastic Suicide) August 1893

As was mentioned in the Paris Suicide Figures, the person with a child is less likely to kill themselves as they don’t want the little ones to suffer. Victor Toulot, an engraver by trade, lived in a poky flat in Ruelle Pelie in Paris. The man had been suffering from internal pain so badly that he kept saying he was going to do himself in, the pain was that bad. Time after time he said this but then looked at his five-year-old daughter who depended on him for everything and he backed down. One night though, Toulot was really in pain, so he went and kissed his daughter on the head while she was asleep, then he lay down on the bed and slit his throat with a razor. He was still alive after a few minutes, so he thought he would cut the artery of his arm, then to make doubly sure he hammered a third razor into his stomach. If he wasn’t in pain before he certainly was now! The nauseating part of this tale is that his little girl heard him and on seeing “Papa” drenched in blood, with razors in him, she screamed out with fright. He was rushed to the hospital and was clinging to life. (Did Toulot live?)

103/ Lavaur Murder, (Tarn) September 1885

104/ Paris, June 1902 (Lynch Mob Attack Wife Murderer)

A man came back home one afternoon and saw his wife innocently chatting to a male neighbour in the courtyard. The wife was held in high esteem by her neighbours and had given the husband no grounds for jealousy. He was infuriated and he grabbed hold her, shoved her on the floor and proceeded to beat the hell out of her. So severe were her injuries, that she died on the way to the hospital and this meant that the husband had suddenly become a wife-murderer, instead of a wife-beater. Friends and neighbours armed themselves with shovels, brooms, fire pokers and then went round to deal a bit of neighbourhood justice themselves. They inflicted the same injuries on him as he did to his poor missus, times ten! A policeman intervened and he too was roughed up for trying to help the murdering son-of-a bi**h and he lies in the hospital in a hopeless condition. Unfortunately, the policeman might not make it either. (What was the end result here?/Any names?)