XDDL, the summer saga: striking criminal cases of last centuries
If this investigation is, for the moment, non-elucidated, other French news items have unleashed passions for several centuries ...
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The Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès affair has passionate about the French for almost 10 years. While in October 2019 France retains its breath by learning its possible arrest in Glasgow (while it was a peaceful French retired from Portuguese origin), in 2020 the media no longer happen.
Cet été, c’est le magazine Society qui aborde le sujet sous un nouvel angle, avec près de 80 pages consacrées à XDDL. Les deux magazines s’arrachent même à prix d’or sur les sites de revente en ligne. En parallèle, la télé s’empare du fait divers, Netflix a consacré un épisode à cet événement dans sa série « Unsolved mysteries » (comprenez, « Mystères non résolus ») et M6 nous a proposé une mini-série sur cette enquête non-élucidée.
Following the dissemination of information on this case via these different media, testimonies are multiplying and the French take ownership of the current survey ...
If this investigation is, for the moment, not elucidated, other French news items have unleashed passions for several centuries ... examples.
The Courrier de Lyon case - 1796
We are on the night of 8 to 9 floréal year IV, not far from the village of Vert-Saint-Denis (Seine-et-Marne). Diligence, Malle-Post, which goes from Paris to Lyon is attacked by several individuals. His passengers, Mr. Audebert (Postillon) and Mr. Excoffon (conveyor) are murdered with saber and dagger.
The money conveyed is stolen. There are 80,000 pounds in currency and 7 million pounds in assignats. All the mystery lies in the fact that a third passenger has disappeared without leaving any trace ...
The investigators find on the spot the two bodies and the boxes emptied of their books, but also a silver spur, part of the saber of the aggressors and two horses on the three pulling the diligence.
Six men will be apprehended: Couriol, commercial representative with whom we find a booty; Richard, apprentice jeweler, receiver and knowledge of Guénot, the first decree in the company of Lesurques, both recognized by witnesses; Bruer and Bernard.
While the workers are innocent by the other protagonists, he, Couriol, Bernard and Richard are declared guilty. They will be guillotined. But the reopening of the investigation by a new judge of years later will highlight the possible innocence of the worries whose resemblance to a certain Dubosq is striking (he will be sentenced to guillotine).
Later, in 1868, workers will give the law to rehabilitate condemned convicts recognized innocent thereafter. Today, his conviction remains a symbol of miscarriage of justice when his innocence has never been proven.
The Fualdès affair - 1817-1818
On March 20, 1817, the body of the former imperial prosecutor of the Aveyron department, Antoine Bernadin Fualdès, was found in Aveyron. These are the beginnings of the judicial inquiry which will arouse the passions in France of catering.
In views of the victim's state, investigators quickly bring their suspicions to the inhabitants of the wobbly house, neighbors of the victims, and their loved ones.
A dozen people will be accused of having set out for Fualdès. These are Bernard-Charles Bastide (brother-in-law and godson of the victim), Joseph Jausion (exchange agent and husband of Victoirer Bastide), Jean-Baptiste Collard (tenant of the bancal and smuggler), the widowed widow, his daughter Marianne Bancal, Jean Bousquier (Portefaix), Anne Benoit (laundress) and her lover, among others.
But why did they want the former prosecutor? Very quickly, the simple flight of silver bags did not convince the investigators. The rumors, they evoke an infanticide committed by JaUnus which could have been kept in silence by friendship by Fualdès. Other mobiles are advanced, against the backdrop of libertinages and/or escape from Louis XVII from the temple prison ...
A first trial, from August 18 to September 13, 1817, will incriminate eleven people and imply nearly 250 witnesses. Four will be sentenced to death, two in life imprisonment. But a second trial in the Tarn assize court, from March 25 to May 5, 1818 will give a second breath to this sordid affair. A new witness, Clarisse Manson, first claims to have seen everything about the murder before retracting and making whimsical remarks before vanishing in the middle of a trial. This time, three of the accused will be executed in June of the same year, two will be sentenced to perpetuity and others will be sentenced to two years in prison or to forced perpetuity.
No evidence will have made it possible to certify the guilt of the accused. Nevertheless, this affair is today considered to be the first juridic-journalistic affair of the European press as it has unleashed passions ...