Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy
Speaker 1: Biegelson and I'm Holly Frye. We have come around to
Speaker 1: yet another episode. Inspired by that trip I took to
Speaker 1: Philadelphia to see the Marie Lawrence Sont exhibit at the
Speaker 1: Barnes Foundation. One part of that exhibition focused on Marie
Speaker 1: Lawrence Son's portraits, and there were these brief biographical sketches
Speaker 1: of the people shown in those portraits, and one that
Speaker 1: caught my eye was of Dominica Guilme. She was married
Speaker 1: to Paul Guielme, who was a writer and an art
Speaker 1: dealer who developed a substantial collection of artwork, and, in
Speaker 1: the words of this brief biography quote, to ensure the
Speaker 1: collection remained in her possession in the event of Paul's death.
Speaker 1: Dominica needed an air after an unsuccessful feigned pregnancy. She
Speaker 1: adopted a child, also named Paul, who she abused and
Speaker 1: whose murder she plotted twice after her husband died in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty four, which caused me to go, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: what like, there's a lot to unpack there. There's a
Speaker 1: lot to unpack there and it's just, you know, two
Speaker 1: entire sentences mentioned in this brief biography. So that's been
Speaker 1: hanging out on my to do list since then, and
Speaker 1: here we are today. So Dominica Guillome was born Juliette
Speaker 1: Marie Leoni Lacaz on May nineteenth, eighteen ninety eight, in Avon,
Speaker 1: in southern France. There's really very little documentation about her
Speaker 1: early life, reportedly because she destroyed as much of it
Speaker 1: as possible. There is some suggestion that the family was
Speaker 1: financially comfortable but perhaps wound up losing their money. In
Speaker 1: other accounts, her father was a notary. She had a brother, Jean,
Speaker 1: who got a job working for Shell Oil, and she
Speaker 1: eventually went to Paris where she was an art model,
Speaker 1: and she also got a job working in the cloakroom
Speaker 1: at a nightclub. We know a little bit more about
Speaker 1: her first husband, Paul Guillome, who was born at November
Speaker 1: twenty eighth, eighteen ninety one. His father was a tax collector,
Speaker 1: and Paul seems to have wanted a more exciting life
Speaker 1: for himself than that from a very early age. He
Speaker 1: wound up getting a job at a garage, which does
Speaker 1: not sound all that flashy, but this was a garage
Speaker 1: that catered to wealthy clients and they imported their own
Speaker 1: rubber for making tires. These rubber shipments sometimes included some
Speaker 1: kind of African artwork or cultural object. One of them
Speaker 1: was a mask from Gabon that sparked Guillaume's interest in
Speaker 1: African art. So this isn't really what today's episode is about,
Speaker 1: so we're not going to go into a ton of detail.
Speaker 1: But people in Equatorial Africa were tapping rubber trees for
Speaker 1: their sap and refining it into a usable material long
Speaker 1: before European colonization. But in the nineteenth century, European efforts
Speaker 1: to extract increasing amounts of rubber from parts of Africa
Speaker 1: were both environmentally destructive and devastating from a human rights perspective.
Speaker 1: This connects to King Leopold of Belgium's personal rule of
Speaker 1: the Congo, which we talked about in our episode on
Speaker 1: George Washington Williams that came out on February nineteenth of
Speaker 1: this year. Europeans were also extracting artwork from Africa. These
Speaker 1: objects that Paul Gielm was seeing in rubber shipments were
Speaker 1: just a very few of the thousands of pieces that
Speaker 1: Europeans took from Africa, mainly starting in about the eighteen seventies.
Speaker 1: At the same time time, though a lot of Europeans
Speaker 1: did not really see these works as having much artistic
Speaker 1: worth or value. To a lot of people, they were
Speaker 1: more like trinkets or curiosities. Museums that held African works
Speaker 1: in their collections often had them in ethnography, not in
Speaker 1: their art collections. This is something that we also talked
Speaker 1: about in more detail in our episode on the Putative
Speaker 1: Expedition of eighteen ninety seven and the collection of artworks
Speaker 1: known as the Benin Bronzes. That episode came out in
Speaker 1: January of twenty twenty two. The European perception of these
Speaker 1: objects was starting to shift when Guillume was working at
Speaker 1: the garage. Artists like Pablo Picasso and Arima Tise saw
Speaker 1: African sculptures in places like the Trocadero Ethnographic Museum in
Speaker 1: Paris in the mid nineteen hundreds, and these more abstract
Speaker 1: geometric pieces became a huge influence on their work. Cubism, Fauvism, Primitivism,
Speaker 1: and other aesthetic movements were heavily influenced by African art,
Speaker 1: sometimes without the artists really knowing much about the context
Speaker 1: of the traditions that these sculptures had been made in.
Speaker 1: At the same time, these artistic movements were also controversial.
Speaker 1: While these more avant garde artists saw African works as
Speaker 1: a source of inspiration, the artistic establishment was initially hostile
Speaker 1: to them and their work. Paul Gillo lived in molmart
Speaker 1: and he became connected to a lot of the writers
Speaker 1: and artists who lived there, including Pablo Picasso and poet
Speaker 1: and playwright Guilloma Polonaire. Paulinaire was really influential to Paul
Speaker 1: Gium's understanding of modern art in Europe, introducing him to
Speaker 1: other artists and recommending that he buys specific people's works.
Speaker 1: By February of nineteen fourteen, Paul Gium had developed a
Speaker 1: large enough art collection to open a small gallery, one
Speaker 1: that was focused mainly on the work of living artists.
Speaker 1: He also became one of the first art dealers to
Speaker 1: sell the work of the Cubists. Sometimes on his own
Speaker 1: and sometimes advised by a Pollinaire, Paul Guilloum bought the
Speaker 1: works of then unknown artists, often paying almost nothing for them.
Speaker 1: This included buying paintings by Maurice U Trio from a
Speaker 1: cabaret owner. Eu Trio had given him artwork in exchange
Speaker 1: for meals. As Guillome started to build a reputation for himself,
Speaker 1: Picasso and a pollinaire went to him to try to
Speaker 1: launch the career of Giorgio de Quirico, who had moved
Speaker 1: to Paris from Italy. Guillome bought all of his newly
Speaker 1: created artwork on an ongoing basis for one hundred francs
Speaker 1: a month. This reminds me a lot of what Gertrude
Speaker 1: Stein and her brother were also doing, like buying up
Speaker 1: the works of people who had no, you know, artistic
Speaker 1: reputation yet who later became really famous and influential. In
Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen, Guilloume loaned eighteen African works of art to
Speaker 1: an exhibition that was called Statuary in Wood by African Savages,
Speaker 1: the Root of Modern Art. This kind of language was
Speaker 1: extremely common in descriptions of African art in the early
Speaker 1: twentieth century. This exhibition was arranged by American photographer Alfred
Speaker 1: Stieglitz and held at his gallery, and this was the
Speaker 1: first exhibition in New York to treat African sculpture as
Speaker 1: artwork in its own right. Gilm also started a magazine
Speaker 1: called Lezard da Peri, doing a lot of the writing
Speaker 1: himself under an assortment of different pen names. Gilm was
Speaker 1: in his early twenties at the start of World War One,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't appear that he served in the war.
Speaker 1: One of the sources that Tracy used for this episode
Speaker 1: said that he was exempted for medical reasons. By the
Speaker 1: time the war was over, he had become extremely famous
Speaker 1: and influential in the European art world. He held exhibitions
Speaker 1: of European and African art, including one that included both,
Speaker 1: highlighting the African influence on Cubism. He also became the
Speaker 1: principal dealer of artists like Andrei Duran And In nineteen twenty,
Speaker 1: when he was twenty eight, when she was twenty two,
Speaker 1: Paul Gio married Juliette la Caz. He's the one that
Speaker 1: gave her the nickname Dominica, reportedly because of her domineering personality,
Speaker 1: and while we really don't know much about her life
Speaker 1: before this point, it's clear that they had some things
Speaker 1: in common. They were both from pretty modest backgrounds, and
Speaker 1: they were largely self taught in terms of things like
Speaker 1: art and culture. They both wanted lives that were more
Speaker 1: colorful and exciting and affluent than the way they'd grown up,
Speaker 1: and after they got married they got to work doing that.
Speaker 1: They moved into a bigger, fancy or apartment. They hired
Speaker 1: a staff of chambermaids and a chef and a chauffeur.
Speaker 1: They socialized and through elegant parties and made lots of connections,
Speaker 1: and they both had various affairs for Dominica. One of
Speaker 1: the was with Andrea Durant, who painted a series of
Speaker 1: portraits of her. After they were married and after the
Speaker 1: end of World War One, Giem seems to have focused
Speaker 1: more and more on the practical and commercial aspects of
Speaker 1: being an art dealer, rather than seeking out and acquiring
Speaker 1: the work of undiscovered, groundbreaking artists. He also boosted the
Speaker 1: price by placing modern works of art in ornate seventeenth
Speaker 1: and eighteenth century frames. This drew some criticism from other
Speaker 1: art dealers, who saw it as artificially inflating the value
Speaker 1: of works that were not as artistically notable. That he
Speaker 1: was still building a collection and selling a lot of
Speaker 1: works that were really influential, but there were people that
Speaker 1: kind of thought he sold out. At this point. Paul
Speaker 1: Gilm's relationship with one of his most important clients also
Speaker 1: started around this same time. That was doctor Albert Barnes,
Speaker 1: founder of the Barnes Foundation. To bring this back full circle,
Speaker 1: Barnes was a chemist who made a fortune in pharmaceutical
Speaker 1: and developed an enormous art collection. Works that Barnes acquired
Speaker 1: through Guielm included more than one hundred African sculptures as
Speaker 1: well as Impressionist paintings. Barnes really became Guilm's most important client.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty, Paul was awarded the French Legion of
Speaker 1: Honor Order of Merit, and he tried to open a
Speaker 1: London office, but that did not do well in the
Speaker 1: wake of the Great Depression. Dominica and Paul also struggled
Speaker 1: financially during these years, and they faced some struggles in
Speaker 1: their relationship as well. And we're going to get to
Speaker 1: all of that after a sponsor break. We said earlier
Speaker 1: that Dominica and Paul Guilllme both had various relationships outside
Speaker 1: their marriage. In nineteen thirty, Guillelm was reportedly seeing a
Speaker 1: fellow art dealer her name was Jeanne Castel. Dominica was
Speaker 1: involved with architect Jean Walterire, who designed hospitals, public housing,
Speaker 1: and luxury homes and apartments. These luxury apartments included the
Speaker 1: building where Dominica and Paul lived, which is also where
Speaker 1: Jean lived with his wife and three children. Living in
Speaker 1: the same building with his wife's lover seems to have
Speaker 1: been a little too much for Paul, and he started
Speaker 1: trying to discourage that relationship, including dropping hints that Dominica
Speaker 1: might face some kind of retribution if she didn't put
Speaker 1: an end to it. After he caught Dominica and Jean
Speaker 1: in a pantry together, Paul gave her an ultimatum. Either
Speaker 1: she would have a child, thus giving him an air,
Speaker 1: or he would write her out of his will and
Speaker 1: instead leave all of his money and his art collection
Speaker 1: to a foundation. According to various sources, Dominica had a
Speaker 1: tuba lagation before they got married, so conceiving a child
Speaker 1: with him was out of the question, but she was
Speaker 1: not willing to lose out on this potential inheritance, so
Speaker 1: she faked a pregnancy by stuffing pillows under her clothes,
Speaker 1: something that was only remotely possible because she and Paul
Speaker 1: were sleeping in separate bedrooms and he was often inebriated.
Speaker 1: Well Jude the obscure moment. Then, in nineteen thirty four,
Speaker 1: Paul became acutely ill and he was admitted to the hospital.
Speaker 1: Various sources say this was because of a burst appendix.
Speaker 1: He died not long after on October first, nineteen thirty four,
Speaker 1: at the age of forty two. During his brief career,
Speaker 1: he had sold and estimated thirteen hundred paintings. This made
Speaker 1: Dominica a widow at the age of thirty six, and
Speaker 1: a will eventually was found that left her Paul's entire
Speaker 1: estate valued at six billion francs, and there were, of course,
Speaker 1: some suspicions about where this discovered will was genuine or not.
Speaker 1: Not long after, though, Dominica became mother to a boy
Speaker 1: named Jean Pierre, who was also known as Paulo. According
Speaker 1: to records. He was born in Paris on November thirtieth,
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty four, and Dominica reportedly bought him for five
Speaker 1: thousand francs, but she told people that he was Paul's child,
Speaker 1: conceived before his death. There are actually some rumors that
Speaker 1: he really was Paul's child, but with another woman that
Speaker 1: he had been having an affair with, and then that
Speaker 1: Dominica had arranged to take custody. Meanwhile, Jean Valtaire's wife
Speaker 1: had learned of his affair with Dominica, but she refused
Speaker 1: to divorce him over it, but then she died in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, and on September fifth of that year,
Speaker 1: Jean and Dominica got married. It seems like he had
Speaker 1: not tried to interfere with her other relationships while he
Speaker 1: was still married to somebody else, but once he was
Speaker 1: married to Dominica, he wanted her to be faithful to him.
Speaker 1: He also encouraged her to formally adopt Paulo, which she
Speaker 1: did in nineteen forty one. At this point, of course,
Speaker 1: World War II was under way and France was being
Speaker 1: occupied by Germany. In addition to his work as an architect,
Speaker 1: Jean morterire on a lad and zinc mine in Morocco.
Speaker 1: He had gotten the rights to it as part of
Speaker 1: a settlement for bad debt in nineteen twenty five. Initially,
Speaker 1: this mine had not been financially successful and he had
Speaker 1: closed it down, but he reopened it in nineteen thirty six,
Speaker 1: as demand for those medals spiked in response to rising
Speaker 1: international tensions. The mine had in the intervening years become
Speaker 1: extremely lucrative and it was supplying materials needed for the war,
Speaker 1: so Germany tried to force Jean to give up control.
Speaker 1: He refused and was consequently arrested and imprisoned. He remained
Speaker 1: in prison until the Allies liberated France, and there are
Speaker 1: rumors that Dominica bribed a German official with sex to
Speaker 1: keep Jean from being executed and to protect him while
Speaker 1: he was in prison. Young Paulo spent most of World
Speaker 1: War Two living in ken with a nanny. He returned
Speaker 1: to Paris once the war was over, but Dominica really
Speaker 1: seems to have barely tolerated his presence in her apartment.
Speaker 1: He didn't have a bedroom and instead had to sleep
Speaker 1: on a mattress under the dining table, and if she
Speaker 1: was having a party, she made him sleep in the
Speaker 1: bathtub instead. She had plenty of money, but she made
Speaker 1: him wear various hand me downs from mostly Jane's side
Speaker 1: of the family or old things of hers, and that
Speaker 1: really embarrassed him because they were obviously women's clothes. She
Speaker 1: had a reputation for being cruel and inflexible with the
Speaker 1: household staff as well. All of this really raises some
Speaker 1: questions about Waldair's relationship with Gyom. He had done things
Speaker 1: like establishing a foundation to provide annual grants to disadvantage
Speaker 1: young men with the most promising of them given life
Speaker 1: larger grants, and eventually a job at the mine. A
Speaker 1: lot of sources describe him as practical, philanthropically minded, and principled,
Speaker 1: with the exception of his very public extramarital affair with
Speaker 1: Dominica Gyllome. Not only did he have a public affair
Speaker 1: well married to someone else, but it was also with
Speaker 1: someone like Dominica. People did not understand his attraction to
Speaker 1: her at all. He also stayed with her even as
Speaker 1: her relationship with her adopted son became increasingly volatile. Paulo
Speaker 1: apparently did not know he had been adopted until he
Speaker 1: was a teenager and had been expelled from a series
Speaker 1: of boarding schools for various misbehavior. It's been pretty common
Speaker 1: at points in history to not tell people that they
Speaker 1: were adopted, but during an argument over this, Dominica told
Speaker 1: him he had been a foundling and that she had
Speaker 1: no idea who his real parents were. This was clearly
Speaker 1: something she said to him to hurt him. Although her
Speaker 1: treatment of Polo wasn't enough for Jean Valterre to end
Speaker 1: his relationship with her, it does seem like he tried
Speaker 1: to protect and support Paolo where he could. After that argument,
Speaker 1: Tracy just mentioned, Paolo left home and went to live
Speaker 1: with Jean Saint Jacques. Paolo worked at a variety of
Speaker 1: jobs before enlisting in the army in nineteen fifty five
Speaker 1: at the age of twenty one as a paratrooper. Dominica
Speaker 1: reportedly knew his commanding officer and told him to make
Speaker 1: sure Paolo was sent into active combat, framing it as
Speaker 1: wanting to make a man out of him, which has
Speaker 1: its own problems, but based on her later behavior, perhaps
Speaker 1: she was thinking it would be convenient if he were
Speaker 1: killed in action. Around the same time, Dominica started seeing
Speaker 1: doctor Maurice Laqueur for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Various sources
Speaker 1: described Lequeur's practice as questionable. He had a reputation for
Speaker 1: basically being a drug supplier for wealthy women. He claimed
Speaker 1: to practice psychiatry. Home me off at the acupuncture hypnoanalysis
Speaker 1: and a range of other specialties as well. Dominica started
Speaker 1: having an affair with him, going so far as to
Speaker 1: move him into the apartment with Jean's reluctant permission. LeCour
Speaker 1: also treated John for some cardiovascular issues. Then came the deaths,
Speaker 1: which started to seem suspicious. Dominica had become friends with
Speaker 1: American writer and heiress Margaret Thompson Biddle. Margaret had become
Speaker 1: Jean's business partner after her Neumont Mining Corporation bought forty
Speaker 1: nine percent of Waldare's mines. Dominica and Margaret spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time together and talked about embarking on various projects,
Speaker 1: including starting a newspaper. On June eighth, nineteen fifty six, Dominica, Margaret,
Speaker 1: Maurice Lequeur, and Dominica's brother Jean Lacaz all went to
Speaker 1: the opera together for a gala performance celebrating the King
Speaker 1: and Queen of Greece. Later that night, while getting ready
Speaker 1: for bed, Margaret died suddenly of what was diagnosed as
Speaker 1: a cerebral hemorrhage. According to one of the sources used
Speaker 1: in this episode, her office was left in disarray and
Speaker 1: a dossier had been stolen from it, but no autopsy
Speaker 1: was conducted, and then she was buried in Fontainebleau A
Speaker 1: year later. On June eleventh, nineteen fifty seven, Dominica, Jean, Walterer,
Speaker 1: and Laqueur were driving in the countryside and stopped to
Speaker 1: eat at a restaurant. Dominica and Lequeur went into the
Speaker 1: restaurant while Jean crossed the street to buy a newspaper.
Speaker 1: He was hit by a speeding car, and he was
Speaker 1: still alive when Dominica and Liqueur got to him. Liqueur
Speaker 1: treated him as they waited for an ambulance, but Jean
Speaker 1: Walter was dead by the time the ambulance arrived. Soon
Speaker 1: after Jean's death, Dominica, her brother, and Maurice Lequeur started
Speaker 1: making changes at his businesses. They removed his children from
Speaker 1: his previous marriage from the board of his foundation, and
Speaker 1: they installed LaCour instead. They claimed they had found paperwork
Speaker 1: outlining these changes in Jean Walterire's office. Although Jean had
Speaker 1: kind of tolerated LaCour's presence in their lives, he did
Speaker 1: not like that man and family members did not think
Speaker 1: this paperwork was genuine. Dominica also put her brother in
Speaker 1: charge of the mine in Morocco. Her inheritances from both
Speaker 1: Paul Guillaume and Jean Valtaire made Dominica Guilleumaltaire incredibly wealthy,
Speaker 1: and under French law, on her death, she would have
Speaker 1: to leave at least half of her estate to her
Speaker 1: adopted son. Dominica seems to have found this entire idea intolerable,
Speaker 1: so at least allegedly, she decided to try to do
Speaker 1: something about it, and we will get into that after
Speaker 1: we pause for a sponsor break. I want to put
Speaker 1: a caveat on the rest of this episode. Some of
Speaker 1: the sources that I use make it sound as though
Speaker 1: Dominica Guiel and members of her circle definitely did everything
Speaker 1: they were accused of, and then others frame everything more
Speaker 1: as allegations. Some of them make no reference to any
Speaker 1: of this whatsoever. I only know of a couple of
Speaker 1: books that talk about this in detail. They are both
Speaker 1: in French, and one of them is also out of print.
Speaker 1: A lot of the most detailed reporting in English at
Speaker 1: the time was in the tabloids, maybe unsurprisingly, there were
Speaker 1: newspapers that were offering shorter coverage that mostly focused on
Speaker 1: things like the formal court proceedings and charges being filed
Speaker 1: or dropped. But even if all the whole rest of
Speaker 1: the episode needs the word allegedly in front of it,
Speaker 1: it's still pretty wild. As we said before the break,
Speaker 1: under French law, Dominica guilloum Waldere would have to leave
Speaker 1: at least half of her estate to her adopted son,
Speaker 1: Jean Pierre known as Paolo, upon her death. The only
Speaker 1: way she could get out of this is if he died,
Speaker 1: or if she had some legal justification for revoking his adoption,
Speaker 1: like if he committed a serious enough crime. A lot
Speaker 1: of accounts are not very kind to Paolo, suggesting that
Speaker 1: he got in a lot of trouble and he couldn't
Speaker 1: really stick with anything, and that he ran up debts
Speaker 1: that had to be settled by Dominica's brother, and that
Speaker 1: he stole from the regimental mess after he was basically
Speaker 1: kicked out of the house and joined the army. But
Speaker 1: none of those rose to the level of warranting a
Speaker 1: revocation of his adoption, so allegedly Dominica hired a hitman
Speaker 1: to kill him. Maurice Lequeur had previous connections to a
Speaker 1: far right group known as Lacagour, which was known for
Speaker 1: its ties to fascism and terrorism, and these far right
Speaker 1: associates led Laqueur to Commandant Camille Rayon. Rayon did not
Speaker 1: really run in these circles. He had been part of
Speaker 1: the French resistance during World War II. He had been
Speaker 1: part of Charles de Gaull's intelligence network. He was seen
Speaker 1: as a war hero, not as right wing terrorists, so
Speaker 1: it seems kind of weird that he would get caught
Speaker 1: up in this at all. But according to Rayon, when
Speaker 1: Liqueur came to him about this, Laqueur told him that
Speaker 1: he was being hired to deal with somebody who was
Speaker 1: bringing shame to his family and was a trader. Because
Speaker 1: Liqueur alleged that Paulo was secretly working with the Algerian
Speaker 1: resistance against the French military that he was serving in
Speaker 1: again into the real account, he quickly realized that Paolo
Speaker 1: wasn't some kind of double agent. He'd had various disputes
Speaker 1: with fellow soldiers and local Algerians, but had a reputation
Speaker 1: for bravery and combat. So Rayon decided to string LaCour along.
Speaker 1: He haggled over the fee, finally settling on thirty million francs.
Speaker 1: Then he said it wouldn't be advisable to kill a
Speaker 1: French paratrooper on Algerian soil. Paolo's enlistment was ending soon, though,
Speaker 1: and Rayl said it would be better to kill him
Speaker 1: after he returned to France. After leaving the military, Paulo
Speaker 1: started training to be an airline steward. Rayon told the
Speaker 1: cour that he would intercept Paulo on his way to
Speaker 1: training and kill him. Rayon did intercept Paalo, but instead
Speaker 1: of killing him, took him to dinner and told him
Speaker 1: all about the murder plot. At first, Palo didn't really
Speaker 1: believe him, but eventually Rayon persuaded him that the only
Speaker 1: way to get out of danger was to fake his
Speaker 1: own death. We said earlier that Jean Walterre had tried
Speaker 1: to protect Paalo where he could, and Palou was still
Speaker 1: close to various members of the Waltaire family, so he
Speaker 1: agreed to participate in this plan only if Jacques Walter
Speaker 1: and Jacques's brother in law Philippe Lamour agreed to it,
Speaker 1: which they did. They also all got some advice from
Speaker 1: a lawyer named Reneme Wati. Paolou checked into a hotel
Speaker 1: under an assumed name, and Rayon took his identification papers
Speaker 1: and revolver to Laqueur as proof that the job was done.
Speaker 1: He said that he had strangled Paolou, weighed his body
Speaker 1: down with rocks and thrown it into the sin. LaCour
Speaker 1: gave reON part of his fee of thirty million francs
Speaker 1: and promised the rest in ten million franc installments. Although
Speaker 1: Palou had ultimately agreed with this plan, he still had
Speaker 1: not been entirely convinced by Rayon's whole story. But once
Speaker 1: reON came back with this payment, Paolo believed him. They
Speaker 1: left Frontine on the coast northeast of Camp, where Reyon
Speaker 1: had a home. Rayon wrote out a full account of
Speaker 1: everything that had happened and titled it quote to be
Speaker 1: given to the competent authorities in the event of my
Speaker 1: disappearance or death. He then gave this to his lawyer.
Speaker 1: His lawyer read it and just sent it directly to
Speaker 1: a prosecutor, no waiting for his disappearance or death. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Jacques Walterire told Dominica that Paulo had disappeared. On February seventh,
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty eight, family members gathered purportedly for Paolo's body
Speaker 1: to be transported to a cemetery. Most of the people
Speaker 1: there were related to Jean Valtaire, and Dominica herself did
Speaker 1: not attend. Philippe Lemour filled everyone in about the plot,
Speaker 1: and a few days later Jacques Valtaire told Dominica's brother
Speaker 1: Jean that Paola was really alive. Once police had been
Speaker 1: informed about all of this, they questioned both Dominica and Liqueur.
Speaker 1: Dominica at home, and Liqueur after taking him into custody.
Speaker 1: Both of them claimed that Paulo and Raon were conspiring
Speaker 1: to frame them. Lequeur admitted to giving Rayl a sizeable
Speaker 1: cash payment, but he claimed that that was for a
Speaker 1: real estate transaction. This launched an investigation that went on
Speaker 1: for eight months, and it also took a second look
Speaker 1: into those earlier deaths. Rumors surfaced that Margaret Biddle had
Speaker 1: been planning to sell her shares in the mine because
Speaker 1: she wasn't satisfied with how it was being run, which
Speaker 1: would have given Dominica a potential motive to have her killed.
Speaker 1: But new investigation into Biddle's death ruled that she had
Speaker 1: died of natural causes. Suspicions lingered around Jean Valtaire's death,
Speaker 1: but no new evidence came to light. Lequeur was indicted
Speaker 1: in connection to the murder plot, and an envelope containing
Speaker 1: nine point five million francs that was allegedly part of
Speaker 1: a murder payment was handed over to police, but Judge
Speaker 1: Jacques Battine ultimately dismissed these charges. As all of this
Speaker 1: was happening, Dominica again allegedly took another tack to rid
Speaker 1: herself of Paolo. A sex worker named Marie Terrez Goynek
Speaker 1: known as Mitti, had told both Paolo and the police
Speaker 1: that Dominica's brother, Jean La Caaz, had offered her a
Speaker 1: bribe of twenty thousand dollars to accuse Paolo of living
Speaker 1: off of her earnings. So procurement of sex work was
Speaker 1: one of the crimes that could provide legal grounds for
Speaker 1: Dominica to revoke Paolo's adoption. After receiving this tip, police
Speaker 1: tapped Dominica's and La Caza's phones, and that led to
Speaker 1: La Caza's secretary, Irene Ricard, being implicated as well as
Speaker 1: all of them discussed the transfer of a big cash payment.
Speaker 1: Lacas did not deny giving Meti money but he said
Speaker 1: she had approached him saying that Paolo had beaten her,
Speaker 1: and that he owed her six million francs. So, according
Speaker 1: to La Caaz's version, this payment was hush money. He
Speaker 1: said that he'd been cleaning up after Paolo for years,
Speaker 1: paying off various debts and otherwise trying to keep him
Speaker 1: out of trouble. To make this whole thing more complicated,
Speaker 1: Metis later changed her story, saying that she had gone
Speaker 1: to La Case, not the other way around, but maintaining
Speaker 1: that the money was a bribe for her to bear
Speaker 1: false witness against Paolo, and not hush money to keep
Speaker 1: her quiet. In February of nineteen fifty nine, The New
Speaker 1: York Times characterized all of this as involving quote two
Speaker 1: distinct plots and virtually unlimited hypotheses on their origins and development.
Speaker 1: And there were still more twists and turns. Among other things,
Speaker 1: there was a bartender named Francois Ghee who came forward
Speaker 1: and claimed that Laqueur had tried to pay him to
Speaker 1: kill Rayel in a car crash. For a time, Dominica
Speaker 1: and Liqueur fled to Morocco, but then they went back
Speaker 1: to Paris, and they had a big public press conference
Speaker 1: at the Ritz Hotel in which they tried to place
Speaker 1: all the blame for everything on to Polo. Eventually, Jean Laquaz,
Speaker 1: his lawyer, and his secretary were all charged with suborning
Speaker 1: a witness, but in June of nineteen sixty all of
Speaker 1: those charges were dropped for lack of evidence. Eventually, Paolo
Speaker 1: became a journalist and a photographer and he moved to
Speaker 1: the United States. Yeah after that, he seems to have
Speaker 1: not had any more drama with his family. Fancy that
Speaker 1: when you get away from them. Uh Lqueur spent about
Speaker 1: six months in prison during all of this, and it
Speaker 1: seems like Dominica ended her involvement with him after he
Speaker 1: was released. She and her brother, Jean la Kaz never
Speaker 1: faced trial, and there is some speculation or according to
Speaker 1: some of the sources that I used absolute certainty, that
Speaker 1: this is because she worked out a deal with Andre Mauroux,
Speaker 1: the French Minister of Culture. Under the terms of this
Speaker 1: alleged deal, which was secret if it really happened, she
Speaker 1: would sell one hundred and forty six paintings to the
Speaker 1: Nation of France for a fraction of what they were
Speaker 1: actually worth. There was definitely a sale which happened in
Speaker 1: two batches, forty seven paintings in nineteen fifty nine and
Speaker 1: ninety nine paintings in nineteen sixty three. They included works
Speaker 1: by Sezen, Renoir, Picasso, Matisse, Moggliani, de Reent, Soutine, Rousseau,
Speaker 1: Lawrenceint and Utrio, among others. The French government planned to
Speaker 1: place these works at the muse de Laurenterie, which at
Speaker 1: the time was overseen by the Louvers publicly. Dominica maintained
Speaker 1: that this was what her late husband, Paul Guilloume, had
Speaker 1: always wanted. He had always wanted to use his collection
Speaker 1: of artwork to create a French museum of modern art
Speaker 1: which would be open to the public. The Musee de
Speaker 1: Laurenerie underwent an extensive renovation to house all of these
Speaker 1: works from nineteen sixty to nineteen sixty five. They basically
Speaker 1: tore out the whole interior and made a two floor
Speaker 1: gallery structure on the inside. A temporary display of this
Speaker 1: collection was inaugurated on January thirty first, nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 1: Dominica Guillome kept possession of most of the paintings until
Speaker 1: her death on June thirtieth nineteen seventy seven, at the
Speaker 1: age of seventy nine. A year later, another extensive renovation
Speaker 1: started at the Muset Delringerie, this time to both create
Speaker 1: a permanent home for this collection, known at Dominica's request
Speaker 1: as the Jean Valtaire and Paul Guilt Collection, and to
Speaker 1: address significant structural issues that have been discovered with the building. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we know for absolutely sure she sold this work
Speaker 1: to the nation of France. What I am less comfortable
Speaker 1: saying with absolute certainty is that it was part of
Speaker 1: a deal she worked to stay at a prison. It's
Speaker 1: possible that there is clearer documentation of that in France somewhere,
Speaker 1: but I can't really authoritatively say. Dominica yam Walter framed
Speaker 1: herself as the curator and the protector of Paul Giulm's
Speaker 1: art collection after his death, but in reality she sold
Speaker 1: about two hundred pieces from it after he had died.
Speaker 1: She also added some others. The pieces that she'd sold
Speaker 1: included his entire collection of African art and the paintings
Speaker 1: by d. Kurico that had been a big part of
Speaker 1: his establishing himself in the art world. So these paintings
Speaker 1: all exist but they are no longer part of one
Speaker 1: unified collection as they had been when he died. Who
Speaker 1: it's a lot of drama, so much drama. Do you
Speaker 1: have less dramatic listener mail? I do I have listener
Speaker 1: mail from Rachel. Rachel wrote, Hi, Holly and Tracy, longtime listener,
Speaker 1: A third time writer. I was recently in Louisville, Kentucky,
Speaker 1: which had me thinking about you all. On my way
Speaker 1: into town to spend three days doing the Bourbon Trail,
Speaker 1: I passed the Brown Hotel. Plastered on a door facing
Speaker 1: the street was a colorful poster announcing that this was
Speaker 1: where the hot brown sandwich originated. Photo one. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have known what that was or why it was being
Speaker 1: touted had it not been for the episode on three
Speaker 1: eponymous sandwiches. Went out to dinner one evening while in Louisville,
Speaker 1: at north of Bourbon, I took a photo of the
Speaker 1: different versions of old fashions that can be ordered. I
Speaker 1: sent that to my son, who's always perfecting what he
Speaker 1: makes at home. Then I thought of Holly and how
Speaker 1: she always seems to be working on some drink, and
Speaker 1: thought she too would be interested. Finally, after returning home.
Speaker 1: I was listening to the Missouri Leviathan episode and perked
Speaker 1: up at the mention of a working saloon in Albert
Speaker 1: Cox Museum. While the Fraser Museum in Louisville doesn't have
Speaker 1: a working saloon, just an exhibit of one, it is
Speaker 1: the only museum that I've been to where you can
Speaker 1: buy either a bourbon tasting class or an old fashioned
Speaker 1: mixing class, and that then includes entry into the museum.
Speaker 1: You can also just buy museum entry without bourbon, should
Speaker 1: you like. That's about as close to a working saloon
Speaker 1: as I've seen in any museum I've been to. While
Speaker 1: the Fraser has other exhibits about Louisville and Kentucky, there
Speaker 1: is a lot of bourbon going on there. It is
Speaker 1: also at the start of the bourbon trail in town.
Speaker 1: Thanks for all you do and keeping me company at
Speaker 1: the gym. And in Atlanta traffic, Rachel Man, Atlanta traffic.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, Man, I don't miss the Atlanta traffic,
Speaker 1: but I got caught in some Boston traffic. It's this
Speaker 1: very similar lot of similarities. So yes, there are some
Speaker 1: photos attached to this email that include the entry to
Speaker 1: the hotel that has where the Hot Brown was born
Speaker 1: as a poster, and then the menu of lots of
Speaker 1: different old fashions and getting the last one open. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: We've got a museum that has like big bourbon barrels
Speaker 1: part on the outside of it. While I have been
Speaker 1: to a number of museums that have like restaurants that
Speaker 1: serve alcohol on the inside, I don't think I would
Speaker 1: say I've been into one that has like a saloon
Speaker 1: or a speakeasy on the inside of it. That sounds
Speaker 1: pretty cool. I feel like there's another museum I've been
Speaker 1: to with a speakeasy and I don't remember which one
Speaker 1: it was, and I feel bad. Yeah, I probably out.
Speaker 1: I have so many questions about the old fashion. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: there are lots of different ways to make an old fashioned, actually,
Speaker 1: and different people like different versions, and there are depending
Speaker 1: on what I am in the mood for. Sometimes, when
Speaker 1: I'm somewhere that has like a particular, like their particular
Speaker 1: variety of old fashioned on the menu, sometimes that's what
Speaker 1: I will get. But sometimes I'm not in the mood
Speaker 1: for an old fashion. It depends. Yeah, do you ever
Speaker 1: drink Wisconsin style? Well? What is that? Well, there are
Speaker 1: a few Wisconsin style old fashions are completely different. Don't
Speaker 1: like and it's kind of their unofficial drink, but they're like,
Speaker 1: they involve brandy, they involve big chunks of oranges. They
Speaker 1: have Marisquino cherries usually, or they'll use marishino, which is
Speaker 1: I differentiate Marishino is the bright red, very candied ones Marasquino,
Speaker 1: which is how you would say it in Italy as
Speaker 1: the more kind of fancy pants unicorn true cocktail ones
Speaker 1: that are usually like a luxardo, like a darker that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. But they and you can top it
Speaker 1: with the soda of your choice. It's a whole different
Speaker 1: bag doing this. This is a very different thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've never experienced this. Now they're pretty fun. I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: Wisconsin does know how to drink. But I'm also just
Speaker 1: curious because some people like to use a syrup in
Speaker 1: their old fashion. Some people prefer the old school sugar
Speaker 1: cube one obviously gives you a more consistent flavor throughout,
Speaker 1: or is the sugar cube version even if it's well muddled,
Speaker 1: you get a sweeter finish. It's all different, So I'm
Speaker 1: curious what they taught at her at her little you know, experience. Holly,
Speaker 1: how do you know so much about cocktails? Ah? Well,
Speaker 1: I did a lot of bartending classes. But I also
Speaker 1: very excited. My other podcast, Criminalia, has our cocktail book
Speaker 1: coming out in just a couple months that's so cool,
Speaker 1: which is called Killer Cocktails. So for that show, in
Speaker 1: case anyone doesn't know, it's historical true crime, and every
Speaker 1: episode ends with the cocktail that we've come up with
Speaker 1: that goes with the theme or some detail about the show,
Speaker 1: about the topic at hand. And so we had been
Speaker 1: getting a lot of requests from people who are like,
Speaker 1: where can I get these written down? And so now
Speaker 1: you can get many of them written down, not all
Speaker 1: of them. About half of the entries in the book
Speaker 1: are abridged versions of stories we've told on the show
Speaker 1: with their corresponding cocktails and a mocktail for everyone. And
Speaker 1: then the other half is all new content with new
Speaker 1: crime stories and new and new recipe cocktails and mocktails,
Speaker 1: which is so cool, very fun. So that is out
Speaker 1: on October fifteenth. It's called Killer Cocktails. You can get
Speaker 1: it anywhere books are sold. It also has silly illustrations.
Speaker 1: I have been sort of watching from Afar as the
Speaker 1: over the time that you've been working on this book,
Speaker 1: and it sounds very cool and I'm very excited to
Speaker 1: read it. Thank you. It's it feels like it's been
Speaker 1: one hundred years that we've been working on it, and
Speaker 1: it's been very hard to be cagy with people when
Speaker 1: they ask me like on social media, are you ever
Speaker 1: gonna put up a website? And I'm like, stay, dude, hey,
Speaker 1: the whole time, I know, like there's a book, I
Speaker 1: just can't announce it yeeah. So now it's nice to
Speaker 1: be able to be like it's going you can buy it.
Speaker 1: I did not pick this listener mail to provide. I waited.
Speaker 1: As I was reading it, I was like, huh, Holly
Speaker 1: has a cocktail book coming out. I do? I do.
Speaker 1: And I should also mention that my co host on
Speaker 1: the show, Maria Tremarky, wrote it with me, so I
Speaker 1: don't want to leave her out of all of the
Speaker 1: stuff because she was integirl and you know, just as
Speaker 1: in it as I was. But yeah, it's been an
Speaker 1: exciting ride too, and also daunting to come up with
Speaker 1: what feels like one million cocktail recipes. Really I think
Speaker 1: it's like eighty one because some entries have more than
Speaker 1: one cocktail, Like, right, there's one that has a flight
Speaker 1: of shots. Fun, but like the shots are not like
Speaker 1: pour two ounces of whiskey ports. They're like little mini
Speaker 1: cocktails and then lie on the floor. Yeah, because our
Speaker 1: rule of thumb on the show in general in life
Speaker 1: is like one people should drink whatever and however they
Speaker 1: want two, Like, people don't need to just stick to
Speaker 1: like a spirit and a mixer when making their own cocktails.
Speaker 1: You can add a couple more things and just kind
Speaker 1: of like get a more elevated or fun experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but also not nothing too fussy, easy enough. You don't
Speaker 1: have to have a lot of skills or stuff. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's if it sounds like a fun way to experience
Speaker 1: historical true crime to you, you can go pick it up.
Speaker 1: I hope you do. Yeah, all right, if you want
Speaker 1: to send us a note, were at History Podcasts at
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio dot com and you can subscribe to the podcast
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app and wherever else you'd like to
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.