Crime Fiction Flashcards
Press law eliminating restrictions on freedom of the press
1881
Troppmann affair
September 1869
Spoke of bakers and butchers complaining about loss of business from crowds who left the city to visit the Troppmann crime site at Pantin
Gazette des Tribunaux, Oct 1869
Dismembered body of Marie le Manach discovered at area along the Seine in Clichy
1876
3000 visitors a day passed through Paris Morgue to see Marie le Manach’s corpse in the days after its discovery
Le petit parisien Nov 1876
‘dense and boistrous crowd’ waited outside ‘For the few words which will be telegraphed’
Le petit journal, March 1864, of the Armand Affair (closed courtroom)
Often featured reports of crime at head of its second page in early 20th Century
Le Matin
Train bearing down on old man and young woman. Four observers, moved to pity and horror
1909 cover illustration from Supplément Illustré du petit journal
‘I want to see you palpitate with indignation before the assassin’s steaming knife, to see you take pity upon the fate of the victim’
Le petit journal, June 1864
Victor C, reporting directions of Alphonse Milland, newspaper’s director in early years, who chastised him for writing without emotion
‘The human soul, in the presence of such misfortunes, forgets nationalities and thinks only of equality before death’
Le petit parisien, Jan 1907, of the mining disasters at Saarbrücken and Liévin
‘From the top of society to the bottom, all cried with the survivors’
Le petit parisien, May 1897
Of the aftermath of the Bazar de la Charité fire 1897
Women’s patronage most precious of all
Trimm, le petit journal, September 1864
Crowd eyes newspaper kiosk, with the newspapers’ duelling claims
Le Matin promises 2 rapes
Le journal promises 3
No pity or horror in crowd
L’assiette au Beurre, 1907
Carlègle’s illustration of aftermath of murder by Soleilland of younger neighbour ‘Little Martha’
Kiosk contained achievements of Le Petit Journal and sibling publications. Centre of frame is Le Petit Journal’s HQ on Rue Lafayette
Urban crowd before it is not unwashed masses, but fully respectable - ladies, leisured gentlemen in top hats, coachmen, delivery boys mingled
1888 Le Petit Journal poster
Political strife of the 1890s
Rise of socialist parties, taking 43 seats in Chamber of 1893 Expansion of trade union movement May Day marches (began 1890) Rising tide of strikes Dreyfus affair
Dreyfus affair
A scandal that rocked France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Dreyfus affair involved a Jewish artillery captain in the French army, Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), who was falsely convicted of passing military secrets to the Germans. In 1894, after a French spy at the German Embassy in Paris discovered a ripped-up letter in a waste basket with handwriting said to resemble that of Dreyfus, he was court-martialed, found guilty of treason and sentenced to life behind bars on Devil’s Island off of French Guiana. In a public ceremony in Paris following his conviction, Dreyfus had the insignia torn from his uniform and his sword broken and was paraded before a crowd that shouted, “Death to Judas, death to the Jew.”
In 1896, the new head of the army’s intelligence unit, Georges Picquart, uncovered evidence pointing to another French military officer, Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, as the real traitor. However, when Picquart told his bosses what he’d discovered he was discouraged from continuing his investigation, transferred to North Africa and later imprisoned. Nevertheless, word about Esterhazy’s possible guilt began to circulate. In 1898, he was court-martialed but quickly found not guilty; he later fled the country. After Esterhazy’s acquittal, a French newspaper published an open letter titled “J’Accuse…!” by well-known author Emile Zola in which he defended Dreyfus and accused the military of a major cover-up in the case. As a result, Zola was convicted of libel, although he escaped to England and later managed to return to France.
The Dreyfus affair deeply divided France, not just over the fate of the man at its center but also over a range of issues, including politics, religion and national identity. In 1899, Dreyfus was court-martialed for a second time and found guilty. Although he was pardoned days later by the French president, it wasn’t until 1906 that Dreyfus officially was exonerated and reinstated in the army.
Intensification of political strife 1906-9
Courrières, March 1906
Mine explosion that killed 1300 miners, sparked a series of strikes, 1st among miners of the Pas-de-Calais
Confédération Générale du Travail backed these strikes and pressed for their extension
Massive strikes continued despite Clemenceau’s brutal repression
‘Would you not grant that the considerable development of laws and institutions protecting children is also due in large measure to the press, its daily remarks, the facts it has brought together that inform us, that move us to pity, forcing us to think’
Jean Cruppi, politician and future minister of justice, 1897
