Monday, June 29, 2015

Madame Bonnefoy’s Family Ahhihilation Escapade – France, 1869


By adhering to the codes of politically correct censorship the experts on domestic violence have allowed a grotesquely false notion to persist among the public that women are not dangerous perpetrators of the massacres which are termed by criminologists “family annihilation.” It is time to end this politically correct hoax.


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FULL TEXT: One of the most fearful crimes which has ever been committed in the south of France, took place on the 27th ult. at Marseilles. The following particulars are taken from the local papers:

About half-past five o’clock yesterday morning, as the workmen of the building yard known as the Pharo were proceeding to work, a terrible scene was enacted in a hotel restaurant, kept by M. Bonnefoy. Five pistol shots were heard in succession, and immediately after the attention of the men was directed to the spot by cries of “Help!” and “Murder!” The house was entirely barricaded, and all the keys had been hidden in order to prevent any one from putting a stop to the execution of the crime. A few courageous men soon broke in the door of the restaurant, while some others got in by a window on the first floor, which had been opened by Bonnefoy. Here is what had taken place a few moments before: At about the hour mentioned above, Madame Bonnefoy had risen as usual, and descended into the kitchen to make the coffee. But instead of lighting the fire she went into the shop, where, with her back against the door and a six barreled revolver in her hand, she waited till the rest of the family came down stairs. The first person who presented herself was her sister Annette, against whom she had lately conceived a violent hatred, in consequence of some attentions paid her by one of the customers of the house, who, it turns out, was Madame Bonnefoy’s lover. She bad no sooner descended the last staircase than Madame Bonnefoy sent a bullet into her breast. Without stopping to look at her victim, the murderess bounded up-stairs into the room where her own three children were sleeping. She first approached the cradle of the youngest, a boy of five years. She bent down, put the pistol to his heart, and fired. The noise of the fire immediately aroused the other two children, whose bed was by the side of the cradle. She again cocked her weapon.

“Mother, mother,” murmured the elder, what are you doing’?”

“Do not be afraid,” replied the wretched woman, “you have nothing to fear, all the money will be for you.”

And placing the revolver near the other child’s heart she fired, telling the elder child to be off.

The boy went down stairs trembling. The mother followed. On reaching the shop the woman took another staircase leading to the bedroom of her husband. Bonnefoy, aroused by the pistol shots and shrieks of his sister-in-law Annette, had put on his clothes and was about to descend, when he met his wife. Without saying a word she raised the revolver and fired, sending a bullet into his stomach. Having finished her butchery the murderess now determined to shoot herself. She bad already recocked the revolver, and was holding it toward her head, when her boy ran into the room crying,

“Mother — oh, mother, what are you going to do?”

“Hold your tongue, will you,” was her reply; “ I have spared you and you will be rich.”

Placing her finger on the trigger, she fired, and lodged a bullet in her own head and fell insensible on the ground. Medical assistance was soon at hand, and the victims forthwith taken to the hospital. Strange to say, none of them were killed, although all of them are seriously wounded. Operations were immediately performed to extract the bullets, but in the cases of the youngest child and the father the doctors have not vet succeeded, and it is feared that they cannot live long. The wretched author of the tragedy is the least in danger. The motives which led to the crime appear to be partly jealousy and partly remorse. Madame Bonnefoy has for a long time past led a very irregular life. Frequent dissections in the family were the consequence, and the girl Annette always sided with the husband. A day or two before the crime a quarrel had taken place in the restaurant between the customer above alluded to and Bonnefoy, at which Madame Bonnefoy was present. It was noticed that the woman was touched with remorse at her guilty conduct, and, from letters which she wrote during the night, it appears she thereupon determined to make a holocaust of the whole family, including her lover. Why she spared the child may be easily conjectured.

[“A Desperate Woman.” Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 37, Number 5723, 31 July 1869, p. 2]

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A different report states that the husband and the two children later died from their wounds.

[“Great Crimes in France.” The Evening Telegraph (Philadelphia, Pa.), Sep. 16, 1871, p. 7]

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