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If this investigation remains unsolved for now, other French criminal cases have captivated the public for centuries...
©️Gallica - BnF
The Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès case has captivated France for nearly 10 years. In October 2019, the country held its breath at the news of his possible arrest in Glasgow (which turned out to be a peaceful French retiree of Portuguese origin), and in 2020, the media couldn’t get enough of this case.
This summer, it’s the Society magazine that approaches the subject from a new angle, with nearly 80 pages dedicated to XDDL. The two magazines are even selling for gold on resale websites. Meanwhile, TV has also embraced the case, with Netflix dedicating an episode to this event in its series "Unsolved Mysteries" and M6 offering a miniseries on this unsolved investigation.
As this investigation remains unsolved for now, other French criminal cases have captivated the public for centuries... Examples.
It is the night of the 8th to the 9th of Floréal, Year IV, not far from the village of Vert-Saint-Denis (Seine-et-Marne). The stagecoach, mail-coach, going from Paris to Lyon is attacked by several individuals. Its passengers, Mr. Audebert (postilion) and Mr. Excoffon (conveyor) are assassinated with sword blows and daggers.
The money being transported is stolen. They speak of 80,000 livres in currency and 7 million livres in assignats. The whole mystery lies in the fact that a third passenger has disappeared without a trace...
The investigators find on the scene the two bodies and the cases emptied of their livres, but also a silver spur, part of the assailants' sword and two of the three horses pulling the stagecoach.
Six men will be apprehended: Couriol, salesman at whose place the loot is found; Richard, apprentice jeweler, receiver and acquaintance of Guénot, the first arrested along with Lesurques, both recognized by witnesses; Bruer and Bernard.
While Lesurques is exonerated 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 years later will highlight the possible innocence of Lesurques, whose resemblance to a certain Dubosq is striking (he was sentenced to the guillotine).
Later, in 1868, Lesurques will give his name to the law allowing the rehabilitation of convicted persons later recognized as innocent. Today, his conviction remains a symbol of judicial error, although his innocence has never been proven.
On March 20, 1817, the body of Antoine Bernadin Fualdès, former imperial prosecutor of the Aveyron department, is found in Aveyron. Here begin the premises of the judicial investigation that will stir passions in Restoration France.
Given the state of the victim, the investigators quickly suspect the inhabitants of the Bancal house, neighbors of the victim, and their relatives.
A little over ten people will be accused of setting a trap for Fualdès. These include Bernard-Charles Bastide (victim’s brother-in-law and godson), Joseph Jausion (stockbroker and husband of Victoirer Bastide), Jean-Baptiste Collard (tenant of the Bancals and smuggler), the widow Bancal, her daughter Marianne Bancal, Jean Bousquier (porter), Anne Benoit (laundress) and her lover, among others.
But why did they want to harm the former prosecutor? Soon, the simple theft of money bags does not convince the investigators. Rumors, meanwhile, evoke an infanticide committed by Jausion that could have been kept silent out of friendship by Fualdès. Other motives are mentioned, with background of libertinage and/or the escape of Louis XVII from the Temple prison...
A first trial, from August 18 to September 13, 1817, will implicate eleven people and involve nearly 250 witnesses. Four will be sentenced to death, two to life imprisonment. But a second trial in the Court of Assizes of Tarn, from March 25 to May 5, 1818, will give a new breath to this sordid affair. A new witness, Clarisse Manson, first claims to have seen everything about the murder before retracting and making fantastic statements before fading away in the middle of the trial. This time, three of the accused will be executed in June of the same year, two will be sentenced to life imprisonment, and others will be sentenced to two years in prison or to life forced labor.
No evidence will have allowed to certify the guilt of the accused. Nevertheless, this case is now considered the first legal-journalistic case of the European press as it has stirred passions...