Henriette Caillaux
Henriette Caillaux (born December 5, 1874 in Paris as Henriette Raynouard , † January 29, 1943 ) was a French celebrity and the second wife of the previous Prime Minister Joseph Caillaux . Caillaux shot and killed Gaston Calmette , the editor-in-chief of Figaro . Her acquittal for temporary insanity in the subsequent trial sparked a scandal in France .
Life
Henriette Caillaux met her future husband at a time when he was still married to his first wife. While her husband was serving as France's finance minister , he was heavily attacked in a Figaro press campaign . Calmette, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, came into possession of early love letters from Henriette Caillaux before her marriage and threatened to publish them. Then Henriette Caillaux entered the editor-in-chief's office on March 16, 1914 and fired several shots at Calmette, who died shortly afterwards in a hospital in Neuilly .
She was immediately arrested and tried. Her lawyer was Fernand-Gustave-Gaston Labori . The process ended with an acquittal on July 28, 1914. The reason for the verdict was Henriette Caillaux's “acute emotional distress” and that the jury attributed “uncontrollable female emotions” to her, based on the image of women at the time. The verdict sparked heated controversy and protests in France.
References in popular culture
The act Henriette Caillaux was filmed several times, so the film The Caillaux Case was made in 1918 under the direction of Richard Stanton . In 1968 a version for German television was produced under the title Madame Caillaux . In 1985 the film L'Affaire Caillaux was produced for French television . In Ken Follett's novel Fall of the Titans from 2010, the case is mentioned several times and interpreted in various ways by the protagonists.
literature
- Edward Berenson: Trial Of Madame Caillaux . University of California Press, 1992, ISBN 0520073479 .
- Colin Wilson / Patricia Pitman: Encyclopedia of Murder , Putnam, 1962, p. 128.
- Alister Kershaw. Murder in France . London 1955, p.90 - 117th
- Peter Shankland. Death of an Editor: The Caillaux Drama . London 1981.
- Jean-Yves Le Naour, Meurtre au Figaro. Le procès Caillaux , Larousse, 2007.
Web links
- March 16, 1914 - The wife of the French finance minister Joseph Caillaux shoots the editor-in-chief of "Figaro" ( memento of October 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) - the Deutschlandradio calendar sheet
- Photograph by Henriette Caillaux at the time of her trial
- Because of love letters - Minister's wife shoots editor-in-chief
Individual evidence
- ↑ Le Figaro boss shot for love letters. On: br.de from March 16, 2010.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Caillaux, Henriette |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Raynouard, Henriette (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French wife of Joseph Caillaux |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 5, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 29, 1943 |