Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener Discretion advised. There was
Speaker 1: barely any breathing room in the courtroom as the proceedings
Speaker 1: were set to begin. The French town of Paragu was
Speaker 1: by no means a major city, but people from all
Speaker 1: across the entire region, from all across the entire country,
Speaker 1: had come to town in order to see firsthand the
Speaker 1: proceedings in what was sure to be the story of
Speaker 1: the year. Villagers and notables, lawyers and witnesses all jammed
Speaker 1: into every corner of the courthouse, and on a cool
Speaker 1: December day in eighteen seventy, Bernard Mathieu took the stand
Speaker 1: and appeared before the raucous audience. Bernard Mathieu was the
Speaker 1: mayor of a nearby town called Utfai, where a horrific
Speaker 1: crime had taken place, the lynching of a man. No
Speaker 1: not just a lynching, the prosecution reminded the audience, Bernard
Speaker 1: Mathieu had to answer for a carnival of torture, a
Speaker 1: four hour procession of brutality, in ungodly murder, and not
Speaker 1: just the murder of any villager, but of a young
Speaker 1: nobleman who had served his country. A total of twenty
Speaker 1: one men, including Mathieu, ranging from sixteen years old to
Speaker 1: well passed sixty, were charged with this crime, which had
Speaker 1: occurred four months before the trial, and the press had
Speaker 1: spent the intervening months gleefully recounting the most horrific details
Speaker 1: of the atrocity. These weren't any ordinary villagers, the stories
Speaker 1: made clear, but savages, animals possessed by their baser instincts.
Speaker 1: Bernard Mathieux he was well aware of the public's perception
Speaker 1: of the gruesome stories that were coming out about what
Speaker 1: had happened that day in August. What did it mean
Speaker 1: for him to be the mayor of a town of
Speaker 1: bloodthirsty monsters. Well, he would do everything in his power
Speaker 1: when he took the stand to distance himself from the
Speaker 1: deplorables of his town. But there was one charge that
Speaker 1: Bernard could not quite escape. Some days before he took
Speaker 1: the stand, a lady had come before the judge and
Speaker 1: testified against him. She supposedly had overheard one of the
Speaker 1: murderers telling Bernard that they intended to kill their victim,
Speaker 1: to which Bernard had allegedly responded something truly damning, something
Speaker 1: that was corroborated by a second witness. The mayor allegedly replied,
Speaker 1: eat him if you like. Before all of this, the
Speaker 1: tiny town in France had been renowned for its boisterous
Speaker 1: fairs and friendly faces. Not one of the twenty one
Speaker 1: men charged with the crime had ever had a single
Speaker 1: run in with the law before. And yet here was
Speaker 1: damning evidence not only of the murder of an innocent man,
Speaker 1: but of cannibalism. It seemed to the court and to
Speaker 1: the world that on August sixteenth, eighteen seventy, the inhabitants
Speaker 1: of a quaint town in western France slaughtered a nobleman
Speaker 1: and partook in his flesh. I'm Danas Schwartz, and this
Speaker 1: is noble blood. A note before we begin, in case
Speaker 1: you haven't picked up on that, this episode will contain
Speaker 1: some gruesome details, so be aware of that if that's
Speaker 1: something you might be sensitive to. Starting in the summer
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty eight, Western France was hit by a
Speaker 1: series of droughts that made farming in the town of
Speaker 1: Utfoy excruciating. By the summer of eighteen seventy, there had
Speaker 1: been almost no rain for six months. Whole lakes dried up,
Speaker 1: the price of food more than doubled, and an air
Speaker 1: of anxiety took hold of the village. Despite these difficulties,
Speaker 1: or maybe because of them, the villagers of Utfoy resolved
Speaker 1: to hold their annual summer fair. The fair typically drew farmers, artisans,
Speaker 1: and livestock dealers from fifteen miles around to an empty campground,
Speaker 1: where people haggled over goods, reconnected with old friends, and
Speaker 1: turned rowdy at the local inn. To the delight of
Speaker 1: many fairgoers, Utfoy was only accessible by footpaths. It was
Speaker 1: remote enough that villagers could enjoy the festivities without having
Speaker 1: to cater to city folk or to have to curtail
Speaker 1: their behavior amidst local police. Coincidentally, this year's fair overlapped
Speaker 1: with a national holiday for Napoleon the third. The holiday
Speaker 1: took on special significance because France had just declared war
Speaker 1: against Prussia. Young Men from the village and from across
Speaker 1: the country were being conscripted to the front, and not
Speaker 1: always against their will. Villagers saw Napoleon the Third as
Speaker 1: a trusted guardian of their liberties. The villagers didn't trust
Speaker 1: many local lords because chances were those lords wanted to
Speaker 1: restore ancient privileges over the peasantry. The villagers didn't particularly
Speaker 1: trust their local priests, who were feared to have extorted
Speaker 1: villagers on behalf of those nobles, and villagers most certainly
Speaker 1: did not trust Republican radicals, who were imposing un to
Speaker 1: do taxes upon them. Only the Emperor was fighting for them.
Speaker 1: Rumors spread throughout Utve some days prior that villagers in
Speaker 1: other parts of western France had caught and executed Prussian
Speaker 1: spies who were lying under cover amongst common folk. These
Speaker 1: rumors were most likely false, but the effect that they
Speaker 1: had on the people of Utfa was unmistakable. A fear
Speaker 1: of conspiracy lurking below the surface of an otherwise ordinary fair.
Speaker 1: The villagers found something to obsess over on August nine,
Speaker 1: when a crowd overheard one zealous nobleman by the name
Speaker 1: of Camille de Millard proclaimed that quote the Emperor was
Speaker 1: done for, referring to a string of military defeats that
Speaker 1: France had suffered against the Prussians. As it happened, Camille
Speaker 1: was indeed a critic of Napoleon the Third, but in
Speaker 1: reality it's unlikely that he was foolhardy enough to have
Speaker 1: stated his criticisms out loud, let alone announced them in
Speaker 1: a public square, so whether or not he did actually
Speaker 1: make a statement like that, it didn't really matter. A
Speaker 1: week later, on August sixteenth, when Camille decided to reappear
Speaker 1: in public at oaut Fay's Summer Fair. To Camille's chagrin,
Speaker 1: more than one person remembered him as the man who
Speaker 1: hated Napoleon the Third. A crowd began forming around Camille
Speaker 1: of local farmers and traders, pressing him for a confession
Speaker 1: of his crime. One person in attendance went so far
Speaker 1: as to claim that he heard Camille shout out long
Speaker 1: Live the Republic, which Camille utterly denied. Fearing for his safety,
Speaker 1: he fled the fair ground sometime in the morning. Camille
Speaker 1: had a cousin named Alandemnet, another nobleman who decided to
Speaker 1: attend this year's fair. By all account, Alone was an
Speaker 1: upstanding neighbor. His father was the former mayor of the
Speaker 1: nearby town of Bissup, and Elaine himself served as a
Speaker 1: member of the town's municipal council. He spent most of
Speaker 1: his time managing the four hundred acres that made up
Speaker 1: his family's inheritance, building waterworks and tending to the needs
Speaker 1: of local commoners. He had come to the fair that
Speaker 1: day in the first place in search of a cow
Speaker 1: to give to a poor family. Thirty two years old,
Speaker 1: Elaine desperately wanted to join the ranks of the French
Speaker 1: army in the war against Prussia, but due to some disability,
Speaker 1: the army disqualified him from enlistment. Esteemed compassionate, patriotic, Elaine
Speaker 1: was the last person anyone would have expected to become
Speaker 1: a victim of mob violence. There's no record of him
Speaker 1: having any prior disagreements with townfolk. Elaine turned up at
Speaker 1: the fair grounds around two in the afternoon, which may
Speaker 1: seem insignificant, but actually tells us quite a bit about
Speaker 1: the circumstances leading up to the commotion. At this point,
Speaker 1: many of the farmers and livestock dealers had packed up shop,
Speaker 1: and they were mingling with one another, perhaps headed to
Speaker 1: the inn for a pint or two. The crowd at
Speaker 1: the center of the fairground was still enraged over what
Speaker 1: many believed was Camille's brazen support for the Republic, and
Speaker 1: when someone had informed Elaine of the slander against his cousin,
Speaker 1: he approached that crowd with the intention of defending his
Speaker 1: family name. From Elaine's perspective, it made no sense that
Speaker 1: Camille would ever support the Republic. His cousin was, after all,
Speaker 1: a closeted advocate for the return of the Bourbon monarchy,
Speaker 1: a completely different political dynasty to the villagers. Though the
Speaker 1: distinction didn't matter. Republicans were Bourbons were Prussians. Any elite
Speaker 1: claiming authority that did not swear undying fealty to the
Speaker 1: bonapartes to Napoleon the Third was a threat. So while
Speaker 1: Elaine remained steadfast in his conviction that Camille was innocent,
Speaker 1: more and more villagers attested to having heard his cousin's
Speaker 1: treacherous proclamations for the Republic. Why else would he have
Speaker 1: been talking about Prussian war victories. Very few people in
Speaker 1: this growing mob knew one another well. The aut fe
Speaker 1: fair drew in hundreds of farmers and artisans from all
Speaker 1: over the region. While Elaine was well known among some
Speaker 1: residents of ote faith, it's plausible that no one in
Speaker 1: the mob knew him personally, so no one could speak
Speaker 1: to his actual character. This made it all too easy
Speaker 1: to cast him as an accomplice to Camille and for
Speaker 1: the villagers to see one another as fellow defenders of
Speaker 1: the Empire before law. Sometime around two thirty in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: someone accused Elane of being a Prussian spy. Arguments turned
Speaker 1: to insults, insults into clenched fists. More and more villagers
Speaker 1: joined without knowing anything about the original provocation or conversation,
Speaker 1: and many confused Elane for his cousin. The crowd gained
Speaker 1: a momentum of its own, and what began as an
Speaker 1: otherwise ordinary day at the summer fair shifted into the
Speaker 1: prosecution of an enemy of the state. Someone in the
Speaker 1: crowd warned Elane, one of us will be left beaten
Speaker 1: to a pulp. Maybe it was the first punch or
Speaker 1: slapped to the face, or the fact that he was
Speaker 1: surrounded by a throng of men all holding sticks and stones.
Speaker 1: Eventually Allah snapped out of it and realized his life
Speaker 1: was at stake. Historian Alain Corbin tells us that had
Speaker 1: understood that his counterparts lived in an entirely different conceptual universe,
Speaker 1: one that saw any proud noble as a conspirator against
Speaker 1: the Emperor. Maybe he would have survived, but By the
Speaker 1: time the first blows were struck, it was too late.
Speaker 1: Aloon screamed out in an effort to calm down the crowd,
Speaker 1: Long Live the Emperor, but it didn't work. Meanwhile, the
Speaker 1: town's priest had been watching the scene developed from right
Speaker 1: outside the church. After the first few blows were struck,
Speaker 1: he jumped over his garden wall and sprung into action,
Speaker 1: putting his body between Allan and the mob with a
Speaker 1: revolver in his hand. But even with a gun, it
Speaker 1: didn't take long for the priest to shrink away. When
Speaker 1: he heard some members of the crowd express interest in
Speaker 1: wanting to gut the man of faith, the priest tried
Speaker 1: another tactic. He invited the angry men into his presence,
Speaker 1: pretary for free wine and a toast to the emperor's health.
Speaker 1: Only some of the men diverged from their path and
Speaker 1: refreshed with free spirits, they simply returned Drunker to the mob.
Speaker 1: The crowd pushed and dragged a lot to the house
Speaker 1: of Hautve's mayor, Bernard Mathieu. We know Bernard as the
Speaker 1: man who allegedly incited the cannibalism. That may be false,
Speaker 1: but what is certainly true is that Bernard, fearing for
Speaker 1: his property and life, made no effort to calm the
Speaker 1: situation down. When a few leaders of the crowd demanded
Speaker 1: that the mayor prosecute and imprison the supposed Prussian spy,
Speaker 1: the mayor renounced any power and more or less told
Speaker 1: the crowd to do as they pleased. One man, a horseshoer,
Speaker 1: emerged from the crowd as de facto leader. He suggested
Speaker 1: that they take Allah to a cherry tree and hang
Speaker 1: him from the branches. The crowd moved their hostage to
Speaker 1: the execution site, but unfortunately for them and for a law,
Speaker 1: the branches proved too weak for the hanging. At this
Speaker 1: point the crowd changed their mind. They wouldn't be so
Speaker 1: merciful as to end the Prussian's life in a matter
Speaker 1: of minutes. No, they would draw out the pain, make
Speaker 1: the Prussians suffer in a fashion that was equal parts
Speaker 1: barbaric and cathartic. Two farmers from the small village of
Speaker 1: Manzak led the charge. They bruised and battered alone, hit
Speaker 1: him up the head, and clobbered him with stones. The
Speaker 1: whole scene was within view of an inn, where one
Speaker 1: man with a rifle turned to the people around him
Speaker 1: and announced that they should all protect that poor man.
Speaker 1: No one else at the inn said anything, and the
Speaker 1: riflemen sunk back in his chair. The crowd dragged along
Speaker 1: back to the Mayor's house and forced him inside a
Speaker 1: workshop full of ordinary farm tools that offered themselves up
Speaker 1: as useful torture devices. Alom was tied to a cattle crush,
Speaker 1: a structure that immobilizes livestock utterly defenseless. He was beaten
Speaker 1: with hoofs and sticks until his head was a bloody mess.
Speaker 1: There was something strangely casual about the way that the
Speaker 1: torture proceeded. The villagers would batter along for a few minutes,
Speaker 1: then take a break, leaving a law alone to howl
Speaker 1: in pain. Before they resumed the blood bath. Some of
Speaker 1: the culprits went out for breaths of fresh air. Others
Speaker 1: wandered off to other parts of the fair before turning
Speaker 1: back to the workshop to see how the violence had progressed.
Speaker 1: For a brief moment, Allow was left completely alone in
Speaker 1: the workshop, at which point a rescue attempt was made
Speaker 1: by the few allies he had had on the fairgrounds.
Speaker 1: Four men, including the mayor's nephew and Allan's servant rushed
Speaker 1: into the workshop to try to free him from the
Speaker 1: cattle crush, but the crowd returned before they could succeed.
Speaker 1: The mob doubled down on their torment. One local, who
Speaker 1: had just learned that his son had died on the
Speaker 1: front lines of the war against Prussia, drove a hook
Speaker 1: into Alain's head, which was thought fatal by some witnesses.
Speaker 1: By some divine intervention, the crowd around Alao had withered away,
Speaker 1: and his rescuers were finally able to wretch him from
Speaker 1: the cattle crush. The mayor's nephew pleaded with his uncle
Speaker 1: Bernard to take in the wounded man, but Bernard refused.
Speaker 1: His reason. The mayor complained that the mob would smash
Speaker 1: up his fire collection of crockery. Bernard Matieu recommended that
Speaker 1: they put Elaine in the sheep pen next to the house,
Speaker 1: out of sight from the fair grounds. Alayne's battered body
Speaker 1: collapsed when he reached the pen. In between gasps, he
Speaker 1: told his four rescuers to purchase a hogshead of wine
Speaker 1: and give it to his pursuers. In an attempt at peace.
Speaker 1: A friend passed him some figs to eat. Everything slowed down,
Speaker 1: but not for long. The horseshoer leading the charge against
Speaker 1: a Lah riled up the crowd, calling for them to
Speaker 1: burn down the pen and break down the front door.
Speaker 1: One man protected the entryway, while another urged Alan to
Speaker 1: change his jacket and shirt for a peasant's blouse. If
Speaker 1: the mob wasn't going to die down, their only chance
Speaker 1: would be a covered escape. None of those plans came
Speaker 1: to fruition, though, as the mass of people burst down
Speaker 1: the pen door and got out hold of Elaine. The
Speaker 1: court record's report that one of Elaine's friends asked him
Speaker 1: if he'd preferred being shot right then and there. When
Speaker 1: Elaine signaled yes, his rescuers demanded that the mob shoot
Speaker 1: him to end his suffering, but no one listened. In
Speaker 1: a last ditch effort to save Alan's life or offer
Speaker 1: an easier death, his servant wrestled his body away from
Speaker 1: the mob and took him to the local inn. The innkeeper,
Speaker 1: much like the mayor, refused to let the bloodied man in,
Speaker 1: whose leg was nestled in between the front entrance and
Speaker 1: the door frame. When the innkeeper shut the door, he
Speaker 1: broke Elaine's ankle and amidst all the chaos, the mayor
Speaker 1: allegedly told Alan's servant to quote take him away from
Speaker 1: the front of the inn because he was blocking traffic.
Speaker 1: Accounts of the precise circumstances of Allan's death diverge, but
Speaker 1: it was around this point, some two hours after the
Speaker 1: initial mob began, that the victim finally lost consciousness. When
Speaker 1: the mob dragged him once again onto the fair grounds,
Speaker 1: Allah seemed overcome with adrenaline, as though he knew this
Speaker 1: was his last chance. He picked up a stake and
Speaker 1: shoved it into the face of the horse shoer, but
Speaker 1: he was promptly disarmed. When Elaine ran under a wheelbarrow
Speaker 1: to try to fetch another steak, he was dragged out,
Speaker 1: screaming and finally killed. The murderers began that day as strangers,
Speaker 1: but they ended it as accomplices. When Elaine finally died,
Speaker 1: they set up his body as a punching bag for
Speaker 1: fair goers to beat as they wished. Importantly, they never
Speaker 1: used a knife or a blade to spill blood, the
Speaker 1: same protocol shepherds followed when they prepared animals for slaughter.
Speaker 1: Some witnesses described farmers poking the corpse's abdomen as they
Speaker 1: might sheep. Elaine was dead, but the suffering imagined by
Speaker 1: the fair goers transformed the suspected Prussian into the beast
Speaker 1: they believed he was. As night approached, members of the
Speaker 1: crowd called for the burning of his body, as though
Speaker 1: they were grilling meat for a feast. Elaine was dragged
Speaker 1: to the same spot where residents celebrated Saint John's Eve
Speaker 1: with bonfires less than a month earlier. One witness describing
Speaker 1: the transfer of the corpse four years after the fact,
Speaker 1: reflected he was dragged by the legs through the narrow
Speaker 1: streets of the village, his bloody head ringing on the stones,
Speaker 1: his torn body jumping up and down, barring the corpse.
Speaker 1: The scene could have been mistaken for some sort of holiday.
Speaker 1: Women and children fetched kindling. The mayor showed up the
Speaker 1: horse shoer brought a bale of straw and laid it
Speaker 1: on top of Elaine's body, asking a group of children
Speaker 1: to light the fire with a pack of matches. When
Speaker 1: the fuel flared in a horrible blaze, the crowd cheered
Speaker 1: Long Live the Emperor. Conflicting accounts of the immolation emphasized
Speaker 1: the dehumanization underlying this horror. One witness said, in court quote,
Speaker 1: I saw the fire blaze up, and I could see
Speaker 1: the poor man moving under the wood piled on top
Speaker 1: of him. Another said, just as the fire blazed up,
Speaker 1: Monsieur de Monet flailed his arms and legs and made
Speaker 1: sounds like the noises a hog makes when you stick
Speaker 1: the knife into its neck. One farmer commented on how
Speaker 1: nicely they roasted the pig. Yet another saw fat dripping
Speaker 1: from the corpse onto the charred wood below, and said,
Speaker 1: it's a pity all that fat is wasted. When the
Speaker 1: body had been charred, when all skin turned to ash,
Speaker 1: there was no way of telling if they had roasted
Speaker 1: a man or a pig. The murder of a Landomonet
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with the victim and everything to
Speaker 1: do with his torturers. On the afternoon of August sixteenth,
Speaker 1: the crowds of haut Fe transformed an innocent man into
Speaker 1: a reflection of their most profound, primal fears. He was
Speaker 1: a concrete symbol for an amorphous enemy for Prussians, Republicans, nobles, conspirators,
Speaker 1: a disease in the national body that needed cleansing. Amidst
Speaker 1: the chaos of war and the possibility of famine. Here
Speaker 1: was a physical object they could lay hands on. Here
Speaker 1: was something they could do to control the circumstances for
Speaker 1: which there was no clear solution. Upon returning home, one
Speaker 1: of the ringleaders told a friend, we did it to
Speaker 1: save France. Our Emperor will surely save us. Arrests were
Speaker 1: made the same night the murder took place. Police from
Speaker 1: the local city of Nontent were notified of a murder
Speaker 1: and potentially an uprising. It wasn't too difficult to identify
Speaker 1: the main perpetrators. Some of them couldn't stop boasting about
Speaker 1: the whole affair, and many earnestly believed their actions would
Speaker 1: be protected by imperial writ In total, the police arrested
Speaker 1: around fifty people from around Outfit and transferred them to
Speaker 1: the Nont Plant prison, some ten miles away, though only
Speaker 1: twenty one would be charged with the crime. That same night,
Speaker 1: a doctor was called to perform an autopsy. The doctor's
Speaker 1: report itself was meant to describe the physical condition of
Speaker 1: the body, but he couldn't help but emphasize the innocence
Speaker 1: of the victim, writing the corpse charred almost beyond recognition
Speaker 1: was lying on its back, the face slightly turned to
Speaker 1: the left toward the sky, its lower limbs spread apart,
Speaker 1: and the right hand clenched above its head as if
Speaker 1: to implore, the left hand drawn down toward the left
Speaker 1: shoulder and open, as if begging for mercy. News of
Speaker 1: the murder spread throughout the region with wildfire, especially amongst
Speaker 1: the nobility. They feared a peasant uprising, which many had
Speaker 1: believed were a thing of the past. After the bonfire
Speaker 1: and immolation of an innocent man, the major noble families
Speaker 1: of the district mobilized a makeshift militia, details of which
Speaker 1: are scarce in the historical record. The day after, the
Speaker 1: town of Nauqua mounted a defense against what it believed
Speaker 1: was an impending peasant invasion. Two years after the event,
Speaker 1: one landowner recalled how out Fey would have turned into
Speaker 1: the center of a rebellion had the authorities not stepped
Speaker 1: in so quickly. The local the press reflected the anxieties
Speaker 1: of these elites, obsessing over every detail that could reinforce
Speaker 1: the monstrosity of the perpetrators. First, the regional papers took
Speaker 1: the story and ran with it, calling the villagers a
Speaker 1: brutish mob and creatures with human faces. Then, a little
Speaker 1: over a week after the murder, some national papers ran
Speaker 1: the story to great intrigue. All of them at least
Speaker 1: alluded to cannibalism. Reporters and readers alike only had to
Speaker 1: connect the dots. Here were peasants treating nobles like animals.
Speaker 1: Of course, they had eaten his human flesh. Cannibalistic depictions
Speaker 1: of the villagers strongly evoked colonialist stories that circulated in
Speaker 1: French literature at the time. One writer drew a direct
Speaker 1: comparison between the fairgoers and the so called cannibals depicted
Speaker 1: in the novel Robinson Crusoe, which features a racist trope
Speaker 1: that was an this case, applied to the country farmers
Speaker 1: in order to paint them as sub human savages. Perhaps
Speaker 1: what was most shocking to readers was that none of
Speaker 1: the men directly involved in the murder had ever perpetrated
Speaker 1: a serious crime before. Just as the villagers suspected Prussian
Speaker 1: spies lurking in their midst, wealthy newspaper readers grew paranoid
Speaker 1: about the explosive potential of mob violence in their own backyards.
Speaker 1: The press openly despised the town mayor, Bernard Matthieu, for
Speaker 1: having failed in his duties. He was removed from his
Speaker 1: position on August twenty fourth. To make matters worse for
Speaker 1: the town of haut Fay, the Bonapartine Empire that the
Speaker 1: villagers so attached their hopes to crumbled in early September,
Speaker 1: resulting in the rise of the Third Republic, led by Yes,
Speaker 1: the same Republicans that the villagers feared and hated so much.
Speaker 1: When the government changed hands that month, administrators worried ot
Speaker 1: Fay would turn into the center of a Bonapartine counter rebellion.
Speaker 1: No doubt, inspired by the latest reports in the press,
Speaker 1: one administer went so far as to recommend that the
Speaker 1: village be literally erased from the map. The recommendation was
Speaker 1: dropped when the new mayor of ot Fay pointed out
Speaker 1: that the main perpetrators were not actually from the town,
Speaker 1: but only visiting for the fair. Meanwhile, the story lost
Speaker 1: no steam among the general public. In September, the police
Speaker 1: transferred twenty one prisoners to the courthouse in Perango for
Speaker 1: notification of their trial, and a crowd of five hundred
Speaker 1: people streamed in to catch a glimpse of the so
Speaker 1: called monsters of haut Fay. A reporter that visited some
Speaker 1: of the perpetrators in their jail cells, including the horseshoer,
Speaker 1: to described their bodies in brutish terms. One man's eyes quote,
Speaker 1: darted about like a badger's as he tried to hide
Speaker 1: himself in the midst of his co defendants. The trial
Speaker 1: itself took place from September thirteenth to the twenty first,
Speaker 1: nine days of spectacle attended by the families of the defendants,
Speaker 1: by the villagers of Perango, and plenty of upper class
Speaker 1: locals intrigued by the drama. One man reportedly complained that
Speaker 1: his local theater had been closed since the outbreak of
Speaker 1: the war, and so the court offered a decent substitute.
Speaker 1: Spectators delighted and recoil at seeing the brutish murderers alive
Speaker 1: and up close. While the court proceedings revealed that cannibalism
Speaker 1: probably did not occur, they made it clear that everything
Speaker 1: leading up to the consumption of human limbs certainly did happen.
Speaker 1: No gory detail was spared. The prosecution even presented the
Speaker 1: very stones upon which Elaine's fat had dripped while his
Speaker 1: body was burnt. The defense council actually leaned into the
Speaker 1: trope of the villager's savagery, claiming that the peasants who
Speaker 1: banded together were simply acting like animals. All of the
Speaker 1: individuals on the stand were motivated by ignorant superstition and
Speaker 1: collective delusion. How could we severely punish any one person?
Speaker 1: Needless to say, the defense lost. Four of the twenty
Speaker 1: one perpetrators were sentenced to death, and the remaining seventeen
Speaker 1: received prison time. The audience, especially the poorer folks in attendance,
Speaker 1: protested the convictions to no avail. The executions were set
Speaker 1: for February. It was anticipated that the executions would take
Speaker 1: place in Pergo, the same town the court had made
Speaker 1: its decision, but officials decided to move the execution site
Speaker 1: to the town of haat Fay itself, on the very
Speaker 1: fair grounds where the violence began. In a show of
Speaker 1: force and an act of political revenge, the government stationed
Speaker 1: hundreds of soldiers in the village. A crowd of about
Speaker 1: a hundred spectators appeared to see the heads of the
Speaker 1: four main convicts lobbed off by guillotine. To the frustration
Speaker 1: of local priests and officials. Most commoners referred to the
Speaker 1: men as martyrs. The innkeepers of out Fay even refused
Speaker 1: to serve the executioners. From their standpoint, even if the
Speaker 1: mob was wrong to kill Alende Monet, the Republicans had
Speaker 1: no right to treat these otherwise upstanding citizens like animals.
Speaker 1: The court's decision only confirmed the sort of conspiracy between
Speaker 1: elites that the fair goers feared so much, in the
Speaker 1: person of Elaine. There's one more character in this drama
Speaker 1: we have yet to follow up on, Bernard Matthieu, the
Speaker 1: former now disgraced mayor. He died on Christmas Day eighteen seventy,
Speaker 1: shortly after the trials had ended. Apparently his unscathed collection
Speaker 1: of crockery was no source of comfort in those final days.
Speaker 1: That's the gruesome story of the alleged French town of cannibals.
Speaker 1: But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: a little bit more about Hutfey's legacy in literature and today.
Speaker 1: The primary source for this retelling of the outfe case
Speaker 1: comes from the nineteen ninety history of the event by
Speaker 1: the French historian Elaine Corbin. Corbin is something of a
Speaker 1: maverick in the historical establishment during the eighties and nineties,
Speaker 1: when scholars usually wrote about political dynasties, world wars, or
Speaker 1: economic struggles, Corbin investigated more unusual subjects, prostitution, attitudes towards
Speaker 1: the sea, and, as we know, cannibalism. He employs a
Speaker 1: literary style that has been cherished by some for its
Speaker 1: appeal and detracted by others for issuing academic norms. So
Speaker 1: when he tells us about the brutal killing of Alendomnet
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy, he doesn't just flesh out the details,
Speaker 1: no pun intended. He sets the stage, introduces the characters,
Speaker 1: and narrates a tragedy between the killer and the killed.
Speaker 1: If I may say so, it is a gripping rendition
Speaker 1: of the story. Unfortunately, the book's appeal may not have
Speaker 1: been so good for the town of Oute Fay. In
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, the longstanding mayor recommended erecting a
Speaker 1: plaque in remembrance of the lynching, but there was enough
Speaker 1: of an outcry among the town's residents that the project
Speaker 1: had to be scrapped. Where many European cities lean into
Speaker 1: their dark local histories, sometimes to attract tourists, the myth
Speaker 1: of oat Fay's cannibalism is a delicate subject. The town
Speaker 1: has no more than one hundred and thirty residents today,
Speaker 1: only a little larger than it was in the eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: but the attention that it's received in literature and folklore
Speaker 1: has been wildly disproportionate. The story of the killing was
Speaker 1: even converted into a popular tune in the late eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: Some current residents can recall their grandparents' first hand accounts
Speaker 1: of the executions and the bad reputation of the town
Speaker 1: that followed. Even though the murder of Alandimane remains a
Speaker 1: touchy subject, the town has taken many steps towards reconciliationation
Speaker 1: and remembrance. On August sixteenth, nineteen seventy, exactly one century
Speaker 1: after the murder, the oude Fe Church put on a
Speaker 1: ceremony of forgiveness featuring the descendants of Elaine Demonet. Noble
Speaker 1: Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is created and hosted by
Speaker 1: me Dana Shchwortz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston,
Speaker 1: Hannah Zuick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The
Speaker 1: show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima
Speaker 1: Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers
Speaker 1: Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.