You don't kill poor people
You don't kill poor people (Original title: On ne tue pas les pauvres types ) is a short story by Georges Simenon . The work belonging to the series of Maigret novels and stories was created on August 15, 1946 in Canada and was published in July 1947 as a pre-publication in Les Œuvres Libres , no 19, then in book form in the volume Maigret et l'inspecteur Malancheux by Presses de la Cité. The German translation of the story appeared for the first time in 1975 under the title “ Poor people are not killed” .
action
Maigret is called to a murder case on a hot summer's day in the Rue des Dames in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, a neighborhood of "the little people" in the northeast of Paris. They interrogate a careworn, approximately 45-year-old housewife and mother who reports how her husband Maurice Temblet was shot through the open window the previous evening, shortly before going to bed. It is discovered that a stranger had rented a room in a guesthouse across the street and that the dead man worked as a cashier in a trimmings' shop on Rue de Sentier in the 2nd arrondissement . For Maigret, the petty-bourgeois deceased, who apparently led an inconspicuous and regular life, does not fit into the profile of a victim who is deliberately murdered. "You don't kill poor people," the inspector keeps thinking. Maigret then goes to Rue de Sentier to visit the deceased's previous place of work. There he learns that Temblet has not worked for the company for seven years. Maigret reconstructs the typical start of the day for the victim: Every morning Temblet left the house at eight-thirty in the direction of the Boulevard des Batignolles to take the metro. Research is being carried out that on line 3 , which runs between Porte de Champerret and Porte des Lilas , there is also a Prisunic department store on Rue Reaumur, where Temblet's daughter works.
The next morning, on the Quai des Orfèvres , Maigret interrogates Francine, the daughter of the deceased who had the same way to work as she did. So he asks her if she has never noticed anything suspicious. Maigret notices that the little shop assistant is wearing expensive clothes and earrings made of real gold. When Maigret found out after a call to the Prisunic department store that Temblet's daughter had not worked there for three months, he continued to research her. Eventually she confesses that one day she persecuted her father after learning that he was no longer working for the company on rue de Sentier. During the pursuit, he quickly noticed his daughter. Temblet, who didn't want his daughter to work, told her that he had a much better job for her. They met regularly on the banks of the Seine, he gave her the expensive earrings and gave her as much money as she earned in the department store. But she couldn't find out where her father got the money and what he was doing all day.
Then Maigret interrogates a bird dealer; he remembers that Temblet, who called himself Monsieur Charles , was one of his best customers. He bought around 300 canaries from him. In the meantime, the pathologist's report comes in, which shows that the killer was a rather amateur shooter, shot with an air rifle and that Temblet was "somehow unlucky". Maigret and Lucas are concerned with the question of where Temblet has been during the day over the past seven years. Suddenly it occurs to Maigret that Mme Temblet had spoken of "he couldn't take any noise". At the same time, a clochard reported to the criminal police, stating that Temblet lived in a small house on Quai de la Gare in the southeast of the city and that he fished on the banks of the Seine every morning . Maigret and Lucas examine the house, in which there are many aviaries and a few poor furniture; however, they cannot find the money on which Temblet lived for seven years. Maigret decides to spend the night in the house. Meanwhile, Temblet's lover Olga has reported to the police; she states that Temblet wanted to move to the country with her. Gradually she found the man a nuisance. Since the search for the money does not yield anything, Maigret keeps the house on the quai guarded.
One morning a waiter reports to the police and says that Temblet is the one who regularly played billiards in a brasserie on Boulevard Saint-Germain , often with a red-haired, gaunt man named Théodore. Maigret then asks the former employer Temblets again whether they know a Théodore. It is found that he worked as a messenger in the company, but was dismissed years ago due to unreliability. One night Théodore tries to break into the house on the quay and is overwhelmed. He confesses the act; he claims that he was annoyed by Temblet's greed, pursued him and discovered his double life. Therefore, he claims he shot him out of anger. Years later, the money is found and turns out to be a lottery win, which Temblet kept secret from everyone.
expenditure
The story was first published by A. Fayard in the journal Les Œuvres libres , nouvelle série, n ° 19. It was then published in book form in the volume of short stories Maigret et l'inspecteur malchanceux (Paris, Presses de la Cité, 1947). It was also included in the Simenon work edition Œuvres complètes (Lausanne, Editions Rencontre, 1967–1973) in volume XVII, in Tout Simenon (Paris, Presses de la Cité, 1988–1993) in volume 2 and in Tout Simenon (Paris, Omnibus, 2002–2004) included in Volume 2. In August 2000 an edition illustrated by Jacques de Loustal was published by the Paris publisher Omnibus in the Carnets series .
The first German translation by Hansjürgen Wille and Barbara Klau was published by Kiepenheuer and Witsch in 1975 under the title “ Arme Menschen kla” ( poor people not kill) , in the new translation by Linde Birk in 1989 under the title “ Man kills poor people not in Diogenes” (Detebe 21486) in the volume Maigret and the most stubborn guest in the world . It is also available in German translation in the anthology, Complete Maigret Stories , published by Diogenes in 2009 ( ISBN 978-3-257-06682-1 ).
Adaptations
The story was filmed by Stany Cordier under the title Maigret dirige l'enquête (1956) , with Maurice Manson in the role of Commissioner Maigret. It was filmed for Italian RAI under the title Non si uccidono i poveri diavoli (1966), with Gino Cervi as Maigret, further under Maigret voit double (2000) for French and Belgian television by François Luciani , with Bruno Crémer as Maigret .