WEBVTT - "Eat Him If You Like" 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:05.080 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:12.880 and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener Discretion advised. There was 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:16.480 barely any breathing room in the courtroom as the proceedings 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.880 were set to begin. The French town of Paragu was 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.319 by no means a major city, but people from all 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:27.600 across the entire region, from all across the entire country, 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:32.040 had come to town in order to see firsthand the 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.400 proceedings in what was sure to be the story of 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:41.680 the year. Villagers and notables, lawyers and witnesses all jammed 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.880 into every corner of the courthouse, and on a cool 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:51.240 December day in eighteen seventy, Bernard Mathieu took the stand 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:56.760 and appeared before the raucous audience. Bernard Mathieu was the 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:00.720 mayor of a nearby town called Utfai, where a horrific 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:05.399 crime had taken place, the lynching of a man. No 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:10.520 not just a lynching, the prosecution reminded the audience, Bernard 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:15.440 Mathieu had to answer for a carnival of torture, a 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:21.600 four hour procession of brutality, in ungodly murder, and not 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:24.480 just the murder of any villager, but of a young 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:28.720 nobleman who had served his country. A total of twenty 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:33.120 one men, including Mathieu, ranging from sixteen years old to 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:37.800 well passed sixty, were charged with this crime, which had 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:41.880 occurred four months before the trial, and the press had 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:47.199 spent the intervening months gleefully recounting the most horrific details 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:52.280 of the atrocity. These weren't any ordinary villagers, the stories 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:58.440 made clear, but savages, animals possessed by their baser instincts. 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.560 Bernard Mathieux he was well aware of the public's perception 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.320 of the gruesome stories that were coming out about what 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.959 had happened that day in August. What did it mean 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:12.960 for him to be the mayor of a town of 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:17.560 bloodthirsty monsters. Well, he would do everything in his power 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.000 when he took the stand to distance himself from the 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.680 deplorables of his town. But there was one charge that 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:30.240 Bernard could not quite escape. Some days before he took 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.840 the stand, a lady had come before the judge and 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:39.600 testified against him. She supposedly had overheard one of the 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:43.800 murderers telling Bernard that they intended to kill their victim, 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:50.440 to which Bernard had allegedly responded something truly damning, something 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:55.959 that was corroborated by a second witness. The mayor allegedly replied, 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:00.440 eat him if you like. Before all of this, the 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:04.239 tiny town in France had been renowned for its boisterous 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:08.560 fairs and friendly faces. Not one of the twenty one 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.440 men charged with the crime had ever had a single 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:15.040 run in with the law before. And yet here was 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:20.160 damning evidence not only of the murder of an innocent man, 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:25.520 but of cannibalism. It seemed to the court and to 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:32.360 the world that on August sixteenth, eighteen seventy, the inhabitants 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:37.160 of a quaint town in western France slaughtered a nobleman 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:42.800 and partook in his flesh. I'm Danas Schwartz, and this 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:48.920 is noble blood. A note before we begin, in case 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:51.520 you haven't picked up on that, this episode will contain 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:55.080 some gruesome details, so be aware of that if that's 0:03:55.080 --> 0:04:01.000 something you might be sensitive to. Starting in the summer 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.520 of eighteen sixty eight, Western France was hit by a 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.480 series of droughts that made farming in the town of 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:12.280 Utfoy excruciating. By the summer of eighteen seventy, there had 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:17.440 been almost no rain for six months. Whole lakes dried up, 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:21.279 the price of food more than doubled, and an air 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:26.320 of anxiety took hold of the village. Despite these difficulties, 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:30.480 or maybe because of them, the villagers of Utfoy resolved 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:36.680 to hold their annual summer fair. The fair typically drew farmers, artisans, 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:42.000 and livestock dealers from fifteen miles around to an empty campground, 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:46.719 where people haggled over goods, reconnected with old friends, and 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.320 turned rowdy at the local inn. To the delight of 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:55.560 many fairgoers, Utfoy was only accessible by footpaths. It was 0:04:55.760 --> 0:05:00.520 remote enough that villagers could enjoy the festivities without having 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:04.200 to cater to city folk or to have to curtail 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:10.400 their behavior amidst local police. Coincidentally, this year's fair overlapped 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:14.720 with a national holiday for Napoleon the third. The holiday 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:20.159 took on special significance because France had just declared war 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:24.560 against Prussia. Young Men from the village and from across 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.000 the country were being conscripted to the front, and not 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:32.320 always against their will. Villagers saw Napoleon the Third as 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:36.919 a trusted guardian of their liberties. The villagers didn't trust 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:41.240 many local lords because chances were those lords wanted to 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:46.640 restore ancient privileges over the peasantry. The villagers didn't particularly 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.520 trust their local priests, who were feared to have extorted 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:55.720 villagers on behalf of those nobles, and villagers most certainly 0:05:55.839 --> 0:06:00.040 did not trust Republican radicals, who were imposing un to 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:05.240 do taxes upon them. Only the Emperor was fighting for them. 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:10.920 Rumors spread throughout Utve some days prior that villagers in 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:15.800 other parts of western France had caught and executed Prussian 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:20.719 spies who were lying under cover amongst common folk. These 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.880 rumors were most likely false, but the effect that they 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:28.800 had on the people of Utfa was unmistakable. A fear 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:34.119 of conspiracy lurking below the surface of an otherwise ordinary fair. 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:39.640 The villagers found something to obsess over on August nine, 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:43.560 when a crowd overheard one zealous nobleman by the name 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.400 of Camille de Millard proclaimed that quote the Emperor was 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.520 done for, referring to a string of military defeats that 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:56.080 France had suffered against the Prussians. As it happened, Camille 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.640 was indeed a critic of Napoleon the Third, but in 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.240 reality it's unlikely that he was foolhardy enough to have 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.520 stated his criticisms out loud, let alone announced them in 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.680 a public square, so whether or not he did actually 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.720 make a statement like that, it didn't really matter. A 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:19.560 week later, on August sixteenth, when Camille decided to reappear 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:24.080 in public at oaut Fay's Summer Fair. To Camille's chagrin, 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.520 more than one person remembered him as the man who 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:32.560 hated Napoleon the Third. A crowd began forming around Camille 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:36.400 of local farmers and traders, pressing him for a confession 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.840 of his crime. One person in attendance went so far 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.960 as to claim that he heard Camille shout out long 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:48.480 Live the Republic, which Camille utterly denied. Fearing for his safety, 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.800 he fled the fair ground sometime in the morning. Camille 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:56.920 had a cousin named Alandemnet, another nobleman who decided to 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:01.000 attend this year's fair. By all account, Alone was an 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:05.160 upstanding neighbor. His father was the former mayor of the 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.320 nearby town of Bissup, and Elaine himself served as a 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:13.080 member of the town's municipal council. He spent most of 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.320 his time managing the four hundred acres that made up 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:20.880 his family's inheritance, building waterworks and tending to the needs 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:24.520 of local commoners. He had come to the fair that 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:26.960 day in the first place in search of a cow 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.679 to give to a poor family. Thirty two years old, 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.000 Elaine desperately wanted to join the ranks of the French 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:38.480 army in the war against Prussia, but due to some disability, 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:44.680 the army disqualified him from enlistment. Esteemed compassionate, patriotic, Elaine 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.800 was the last person anyone would have expected to become 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:52.280 a victim of mob violence. There's no record of him 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:57.400 having any prior disagreements with townfolk. Elaine turned up at 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.920 the fair grounds around two in the afternoon, which may 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:05.480 seem insignificant, but actually tells us quite a bit about 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:09.720 the circumstances leading up to the commotion. At this point, 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:14.120 many of the farmers and livestock dealers had packed up shop, 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.720 and they were mingling with one another, perhaps headed to 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.000 the inn for a pint or two. The crowd at 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.360 the center of the fairground was still enraged over what 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:29.079 many believed was Camille's brazen support for the Republic, and 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:33.240 when someone had informed Elaine of the slander against his cousin, 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.120 he approached that crowd with the intention of defending his 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:41.560 family name. From Elaine's perspective, it made no sense that 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:45.720 Camille would ever support the Republic. His cousin was, after all, 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.800 a closeted advocate for the return of the Bourbon monarchy, 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:55.000 a completely different political dynasty to the villagers. Though the 0:09:55.160 --> 0:10:01.440 distinction didn't matter. Republicans were Bourbons were Prussians. Any elite 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.480 claiming authority that did not swear undying fealty to the 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:10.240 bonapartes to Napoleon the Third was a threat. So while 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:14.040 Elaine remained steadfast in his conviction that Camille was innocent, 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.079 more and more villagers attested to having heard his cousin's 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:22.120 treacherous proclamations for the Republic. Why else would he have 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:26.880 been talking about Prussian war victories. Very few people in 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.760 this growing mob knew one another well. The aut fe 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:35.080 fair drew in hundreds of farmers and artisans from all 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:39.120 over the region. While Elaine was well known among some 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.720 residents of ote faith, it's plausible that no one in 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:46.400 the mob knew him personally, so no one could speak 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:50.240 to his actual character. This made it all too easy 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.640 to cast him as an accomplice to Camille and for 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:57.880 the villagers to see one another as fellow defenders of 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:03.120 the Empire before law. Sometime around two thirty in the afternoon, 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:09.200 someone accused Elane of being a Prussian spy. Arguments turned 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:15.240 to insults, insults into clenched fists. More and more villagers 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:20.000 joined without knowing anything about the original provocation or conversation, 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:25.640 and many confused Elane for his cousin. The crowd gained 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:29.120 a momentum of its own, and what began as an 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:33.160 otherwise ordinary day at the summer fair shifted into the 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:37.560 prosecution of an enemy of the state. Someone in the 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:41.199 crowd warned Elane, one of us will be left beaten 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.480 to a pulp. Maybe it was the first punch or 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:47.840 slapped to the face, or the fact that he was 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:52.160 surrounded by a throng of men all holding sticks and stones. 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.560 Eventually Allah snapped out of it and realized his life 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:00.960 was at stake. Historian Alain Corbin tells us that had 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:06.840 understood that his counterparts lived in an entirely different conceptual universe, 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:10.679 one that saw any proud noble as a conspirator against 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:15.040 the Emperor. Maybe he would have survived, but By the 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.439 time the first blows were struck, it was too late. 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.440 Aloon screamed out in an effort to calm down the crowd, 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:27.160 Long Live the Emperor, but it didn't work. Meanwhile, the 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.360 town's priest had been watching the scene developed from right 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:34.320 outside the church. After the first few blows were struck, 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.720 he jumped over his garden wall and sprung into action, 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.120 putting his body between Allan and the mob with a 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:44.400 revolver in his hand. But even with a gun, it 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.960 didn't take long for the priest to shrink away. When 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.560 he heard some members of the crowd express interest in 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.959 wanting to gut the man of faith, the priest tried 0:12:56.000 --> 0:13:00.000 another tactic. He invited the angry men into his presence, 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.600 pretary for free wine and a toast to the emperor's health. 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.040 Only some of the men diverged from their path and 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:13.880 refreshed with free spirits, they simply returned Drunker to the mob. 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.160 The crowd pushed and dragged a lot to the house 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.840 of Hautve's mayor, Bernard Mathieu. We know Bernard as the 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:28.480 man who allegedly incited the cannibalism. That may be false, 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:32.840 but what is certainly true is that Bernard, fearing for 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:37.160 his property and life, made no effort to calm the 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:41.679 situation down. When a few leaders of the crowd demanded 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.960 that the mayor prosecute and imprison the supposed Prussian spy, 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:50.440 the mayor renounced any power and more or less told 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:55.400 the crowd to do as they pleased. One man, a horseshoer, 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.960 emerged from the crowd as de facto leader. He suggested 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.560 that they take Allah to a cherry tree and hang 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:07.920 him from the branches. The crowd moved their hostage to 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:13.160 the execution site, but unfortunately for them and for a law, 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.800 the branches proved too weak for the hanging. At this 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:21.600 point the crowd changed their mind. They wouldn't be so 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.920 merciful as to end the Prussian's life in a matter 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:29.120 of minutes. No, they would draw out the pain, make 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.760 the Prussians suffer in a fashion that was equal parts 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:38.080 barbaric and cathartic. Two farmers from the small village of 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:43.240 Manzak led the charge. They bruised and battered alone, hit 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.840 him up the head, and clobbered him with stones. The 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.280 whole scene was within view of an inn, where one 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.640 man with a rifle turned to the people around him 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.880 and announced that they should all protect that poor man. 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.960 No one else at the inn said anything, and the 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:07.440 riflemen sunk back in his chair. The crowd dragged along 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.120 back to the Mayor's house and forced him inside a 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:14.720 workshop full of ordinary farm tools that offered themselves up 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:20.320 as useful torture devices. Alom was tied to a cattle crush, 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:26.560 a structure that immobilizes livestock utterly defenseless. He was beaten 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:30.920 with hoofs and sticks until his head was a bloody mess. 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.520 There was something strangely casual about the way that the 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:40.200 torture proceeded. The villagers would batter along for a few minutes, 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.760 then take a break, leaving a law alone to howl 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:47.880 in pain. Before they resumed the blood bath. Some of 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.640 the culprits went out for breaths of fresh air. Others 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.280 wandered off to other parts of the fair before turning 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.720 back to the workshop to see how the violence had progressed. 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:02.640 For a brief moment, Allow was left completely alone in 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.240 the workshop, at which point a rescue attempt was made 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:10.160 by the few allies he had had on the fairgrounds. 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:15.320 Four men, including the mayor's nephew and Allan's servant rushed 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.760 into the workshop to try to free him from the 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.640 cattle crush, but the crowd returned before they could succeed. 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.160 The mob doubled down on their torment. One local, who 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.000 had just learned that his son had died on the 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:32.880 front lines of the war against Prussia, drove a hook 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.320 into Alain's head, which was thought fatal by some witnesses. 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:43.600 By some divine intervention, the crowd around Alao had withered away, 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.840 and his rescuers were finally able to wretch him from 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.480 the cattle crush. The mayor's nephew pleaded with his uncle 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:54.800 Bernard to take in the wounded man, but Bernard refused. 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:59.240 His reason. The mayor complained that the mob would smash 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:04.000 up his fire collection of crockery. Bernard Matieu recommended that 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.760 they put Elaine in the sheep pen next to the house, 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.639 out of sight from the fair grounds. Alayne's battered body 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:16.359 collapsed when he reached the pen. In between gasps, he 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:20.719 told his four rescuers to purchase a hogshead of wine 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:24.399 and give it to his pursuers. In an attempt at peace. 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:29.680 A friend passed him some figs to eat. Everything slowed down, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:34.959 but not for long. The horseshoer leading the charge against 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.560 a Lah riled up the crowd, calling for them to 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.119 burn down the pen and break down the front door. 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:44.480 One man protected the entryway, while another urged Alan to 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:48.080 change his jacket and shirt for a peasant's blouse. If 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:51.479 the mob wasn't going to die down, their only chance 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.040 would be a covered escape. None of those plans came 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.600 to fruition, though, as the mass of people burst down 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:01.840 the pen door and got out hold of Elaine. The 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:05.400 court record's report that one of Elaine's friends asked him 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:08.720 if he'd preferred being shot right then and there. When 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.639 Elaine signaled yes, his rescuers demanded that the mob shoot 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.560 him to end his suffering, but no one listened. In 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:20.280 a last ditch effort to save Alan's life or offer 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.960 an easier death, his servant wrestled his body away from 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:27.679 the mob and took him to the local inn. The innkeeper, 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:31.280 much like the mayor, refused to let the bloodied man in, 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.399 whose leg was nestled in between the front entrance and 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:37.840 the door frame. When the innkeeper shut the door, he 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.800 broke Elaine's ankle and amidst all the chaos, the mayor 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:46.200 allegedly told Alan's servant to quote take him away from 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:49.760 the front of the inn because he was blocking traffic. 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:55.720 Accounts of the precise circumstances of Allan's death diverge, but 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.040 it was around this point, some two hours after the 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:05.040 initial mob began, that the victim finally lost consciousness. When 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.560 the mob dragged him once again onto the fair grounds, 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:12.679 Allah seemed overcome with adrenaline, as though he knew this 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.280 was his last chance. He picked up a stake and 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:19.280 shoved it into the face of the horse shoer, but 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:23.680 he was promptly disarmed. When Elaine ran under a wheelbarrow 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.840 to try to fetch another steak, he was dragged out, 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:33.200 screaming and finally killed. The murderers began that day as strangers, 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:37.879 but they ended it as accomplices. When Elaine finally died, 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.919 they set up his body as a punching bag for 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:45.840 fair goers to beat as they wished. Importantly, they never 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:49.800 used a knife or a blade to spill blood, the 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:54.680 same protocol shepherds followed when they prepared animals for slaughter. 0:19:55.480 --> 0:20:00.159 Some witnesses described farmers poking the corpse's abdomen as they 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:04.600 might sheep. Elaine was dead, but the suffering imagined by 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:09.919 the fair goers transformed the suspected Prussian into the beast 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:15.199 they believed he was. As night approached, members of the 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:18.879 crowd called for the burning of his body, as though 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:22.880 they were grilling meat for a feast. Elaine was dragged 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:27.200 to the same spot where residents celebrated Saint John's Eve 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:32.359 with bonfires less than a month earlier. One witness describing 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:35.240 the transfer of the corpse four years after the fact, 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:39.359 reflected he was dragged by the legs through the narrow 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:43.280 streets of the village, his bloody head ringing on the stones, 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:48.360 his torn body jumping up and down, barring the corpse. 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:52.000 The scene could have been mistaken for some sort of holiday. 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:56.159 Women and children fetched kindling. The mayor showed up the 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.320 horse shoer brought a bale of straw and laid it 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.960 on top of Elaine's body, asking a group of children 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.320 to light the fire with a pack of matches. When 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:10.400 the fuel flared in a horrible blaze, the crowd cheered 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:16.000 Long Live the Emperor. Conflicting accounts of the immolation emphasized 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:21.840 the dehumanization underlying this horror. One witness said, in court quote, 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.320 I saw the fire blaze up, and I could see 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.320 the poor man moving under the wood piled on top 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:31.080 of him. Another said, just as the fire blazed up, 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:34.800 Monsieur de Monet flailed his arms and legs and made 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:38.760 sounds like the noises a hog makes when you stick 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:43.320 the knife into its neck. One farmer commented on how 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:48.120 nicely they roasted the pig. Yet another saw fat dripping 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.560 from the corpse onto the charred wood below, and said, 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:55.480 it's a pity all that fat is wasted. When the 0:21:55.520 --> 0:22:00.000 body had been charred, when all skin turned to ash, 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:02.680 there was no way of telling if they had roasted 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:07.520 a man or a pig. The murder of a Landomonet 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:10.480 had nothing to do with the victim and everything to 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:15.119 do with his torturers. On the afternoon of August sixteenth, 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:19.760 the crowds of haut Fe transformed an innocent man into 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:24.320 a reflection of their most profound, primal fears. He was 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:31.720 a concrete symbol for an amorphous enemy for Prussians, Republicans, nobles, conspirators, 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:36.320 a disease in the national body that needed cleansing. Amidst 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:40.560 the chaos of war and the possibility of famine. Here 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.159 was a physical object they could lay hands on. Here 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:47.840 was something they could do to control the circumstances for 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:52.560 which there was no clear solution. Upon returning home, one 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:55.480 of the ringleaders told a friend, we did it to 0:22:55.600 --> 0:23:03.280 save France. Our Emperor will surely save us. Arrests were 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:06.840 made the same night the murder took place. Police from 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:10.360 the local city of Nontent were notified of a murder 0:23:10.400 --> 0:23:14.959 and potentially an uprising. It wasn't too difficult to identify 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:19.200 the main perpetrators. Some of them couldn't stop boasting about 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:23.800 the whole affair, and many earnestly believed their actions would 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:28.880 be protected by imperial writ In total, the police arrested 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:32.639 around fifty people from around Outfit and transferred them to 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:36.399 the Nont Plant prison, some ten miles away, though only 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:40.720 twenty one would be charged with the crime. That same night, 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:45.280 a doctor was called to perform an autopsy. The doctor's 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:48.679 report itself was meant to describe the physical condition of 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:52.280 the body, but he couldn't help but emphasize the innocence 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:57.640 of the victim, writing the corpse charred almost beyond recognition 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:01.199 was lying on its back, the face slightly turned to 0:24:01.200 --> 0:24:05.080 the left toward the sky, its lower limbs spread apart, 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:08.520 and the right hand clenched above its head as if 0:24:08.520 --> 0:24:12.000 to implore, the left hand drawn down toward the left 0:24:12.000 --> 0:24:16.919 shoulder and open, as if begging for mercy. News of 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:20.879 the murder spread throughout the region with wildfire, especially amongst 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:25.119 the nobility. They feared a peasant uprising, which many had 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:28.480 believed were a thing of the past. After the bonfire 0:24:28.600 --> 0:24:33.120 and immolation of an innocent man, the major noble families 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:37.720 of the district mobilized a makeshift militia, details of which 0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:41.479 are scarce in the historical record. The day after, the 0:24:41.520 --> 0:24:45.120 town of Nauqua mounted a defense against what it believed 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:49.600 was an impending peasant invasion. Two years after the event, 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:53.560 one landowner recalled how out Fey would have turned into 0:24:53.640 --> 0:24:57.520 the center of a rebellion had the authorities not stepped 0:24:57.520 --> 0:25:01.959 in so quickly. The local the press reflected the anxieties 0:25:02.000 --> 0:25:05.800 of these elites, obsessing over every detail that could reinforce 0:25:05.840 --> 0:25:11.000 the monstrosity of the perpetrators. First, the regional papers took 0:25:11.080 --> 0:25:13.760 the story and ran with it, calling the villagers a 0:25:14.119 --> 0:25:18.679 brutish mob and creatures with human faces. Then, a little 0:25:18.800 --> 0:25:22.680 over a week after the murder, some national papers ran 0:25:22.760 --> 0:25:26.399 the story to great intrigue. All of them at least 0:25:26.440 --> 0:25:31.479 alluded to cannibalism. Reporters and readers alike only had to 0:25:31.520 --> 0:25:36.320 connect the dots. Here were peasants treating nobles like animals. 0:25:36.760 --> 0:25:41.440 Of course, they had eaten his human flesh. Cannibalistic depictions 0:25:41.480 --> 0:25:46.240 of the villagers strongly evoked colonialist stories that circulated in 0:25:46.359 --> 0:25:50.400 French literature at the time. One writer drew a direct 0:25:50.440 --> 0:25:55.040 comparison between the fairgoers and the so called cannibals depicted 0:25:55.080 --> 0:25:59.280 in the novel Robinson Crusoe, which features a racist trope 0:25:59.480 --> 0:26:02.440 that was an this case, applied to the country farmers 0:26:02.520 --> 0:26:07.080 in order to paint them as sub human savages. Perhaps 0:26:07.160 --> 0:26:10.800 what was most shocking to readers was that none of 0:26:10.840 --> 0:26:14.840 the men directly involved in the murder had ever perpetrated 0:26:14.880 --> 0:26:19.720 a serious crime before. Just as the villagers suspected Prussian 0:26:19.840 --> 0:26:25.040 spies lurking in their midst, wealthy newspaper readers grew paranoid 0:26:25.080 --> 0:26:30.200 about the explosive potential of mob violence in their own backyards. 0:26:31.280 --> 0:26:35.359 The press openly despised the town mayor, Bernard Matthieu, for 0:26:35.440 --> 0:26:39.000 having failed in his duties. He was removed from his 0:26:39.080 --> 0:26:43.560 position on August twenty fourth. To make matters worse for 0:26:43.640 --> 0:26:46.840 the town of haut Fay, the Bonapartine Empire that the 0:26:46.960 --> 0:26:51.840 villagers so attached their hopes to crumbled in early September, 0:26:52.240 --> 0:26:56.680 resulting in the rise of the Third Republic, led by Yes, 0:26:56.880 --> 0:27:01.720 the same Republicans that the villagers feared and hated so much. 0:27:02.520 --> 0:27:07.160 When the government changed hands that month, administrators worried ot 0:27:07.200 --> 0:27:11.200 Fay would turn into the center of a Bonapartine counter rebellion. 0:27:11.720 --> 0:27:15.040 No doubt, inspired by the latest reports in the press, 0:27:15.640 --> 0:27:18.600 one administer went so far as to recommend that the 0:27:18.680 --> 0:27:23.080 village be literally erased from the map. The recommendation was 0:27:23.160 --> 0:27:26.160 dropped when the new mayor of ot Fay pointed out 0:27:26.240 --> 0:27:30.040 that the main perpetrators were not actually from the town, 0:27:30.600 --> 0:27:35.000 but only visiting for the fair. Meanwhile, the story lost 0:27:35.160 --> 0:27:39.160 no steam among the general public. In September, the police 0:27:39.200 --> 0:27:43.119 transferred twenty one prisoners to the courthouse in Perango for 0:27:43.359 --> 0:27:47.520 notification of their trial, and a crowd of five hundred 0:27:47.640 --> 0:27:51.080 people streamed in to catch a glimpse of the so 0:27:51.320 --> 0:27:55.800 called monsters of haut Fay. A reporter that visited some 0:27:55.920 --> 0:27:59.520 of the perpetrators in their jail cells, including the horseshoer, 0:27:59.800 --> 0:28:04.760 to described their bodies in brutish terms. One man's eyes quote, 0:28:04.960 --> 0:28:07.800 darted about like a badger's as he tried to hide 0:28:07.880 --> 0:28:12.080 himself in the midst of his co defendants. The trial 0:28:12.160 --> 0:28:16.240 itself took place from September thirteenth to the twenty first, 0:28:16.920 --> 0:28:20.800 nine days of spectacle attended by the families of the defendants, 0:28:21.200 --> 0:28:24.840 by the villagers of Perango, and plenty of upper class 0:28:25.000 --> 0:28:30.159 locals intrigued by the drama. One man reportedly complained that 0:28:30.240 --> 0:28:33.639 his local theater had been closed since the outbreak of 0:28:33.680 --> 0:28:37.560