Anthony Davis

February 9, 2009

Courtroom sketch of Elisabeth Cons-Boutboul

The murder trial of Elisabeth Cons-Boutboul drew together the Paris smart set, the horse-racing fraternity, the underworld and the Roman Catholic Church. It was a case of lies, cynicism, make-believe and manipulation and as such has gone down in French legal history as one of the most enigmatic.

 by Anthony Davis

As the murder trial of 70-year-old Elisabeth Cons-Boutboul opened in Paris on March 2, 1994, the question on everyone's lips was not, "Is she guilty?" but, "Which role is she going to play?"

During her life, Madame Cons-Boutboul (pronounced Conz-Booble) had acted out a range of parts – both fact and fiction– worthy of a Hollywood star: the discreet landlady of apartments in the chic quarters of Paris; the religious bigot; the lawyer who had swindled a missionary society; devoted mother of a champion jockey; secret agent of the Vatican; doting grandmother of little Adrien; a hypochondriac riddled with imaginary cancers.

So, which was it to be: the Machiavellian fraudster, the bogus widow or the innocent victim of a fiendish plot? The list of possibilities was long: Her whole existence seemed in retrospect to have been constructed on deceit, fantasy and self-seeking to the extent that is was difficult to separate truth from fancy, reality from self-delusion.

January 25, 2009

Céline Jourdan, age 6, went missing from her home in the tiny village of La-Motte-du-Caire

Homophobia had a field day at the trial of young Céline.

by Anthony Davis

One hot summer's evening in 1988, little Céline Jourdan went missing. Her father raised the alarm at 9 p.m. but her body was not discovered until the following afternoon, only a few hundred yards from the village. The pathetic corpse had been clumsily hidden under branches alongside a peaceful mountain brook. Céline had been raped and her skull smashed with a rock. It was the 27th of July, only weeks before her seventh birthday.

March 29, 2009

Wrongly accused? Omar Raddad stands outside the courthouse.

French justice can be quite curious. After being pardoned but not exonerated in the murder of his employer, Omar Raddad risked being re-imprisoned by asking for a new trial to clear his name.

by Anthony Davis

June 1, 2009

Emilie Tanay

by Anthony Davis

 Saturday, June 11, 1994 was to have been a foretaste of the summer vacation for the children of Gruchet-le-Valasse, a small town (pop. 2,700) in Normandy. Their school was organizing its traditional end-of-term fete and 9-year-old Emilie Tanay was spending the weekend at the house of one of her classmates, Jérome Tocqueville.

Emilie was an only child. Her parents, Denis and Corinne Tanay, had been invited to a christening but, not wishing to deprive their daughter of the pleasure of dressing up for the fete, they gladly accepted the Tocquevilles’ offer to look after her. It was to be the first time she had ever spent the night away from her parents.

Emilie had been suffering from a cold for a couple of days and her mother sent her to the Tocquevilles with a bottle of Josacine ready prepared , but she was not going to let a mere cold spoil her fun.  Dressed like the other merry-makers, both young and old, in medieval costume, she spent a happy afternoon with her schoolmates.

On returning to her friend’s home that evening she felt unwell and Jérome’s mother, Sylvie Tocqueville, gave her a spoonful of the prescription medicine. Emilie pulled a face on taking the dose and rinsed out her mouth with water to get rid of the unusually horrid taste.

Within minutes Emilie collapsed. The Tocquevilles immediately summoned medical help. Although she was rushed to hospital, she died at 10:30 p.m. the same evening. The doctors were unable to determine the cause of death.

March 8, 2009

Grègory Villemin, age 4

The murder of little Grègory Villemin was one of the most mysterious and media-hyped criminal cases of the 20th century. During the 25 years since, the investigation has seen new and surprising developments, throwing light on numerous dysfunctions within both the French judicial system and the media, and leading to repercussions including a second murder, the resignation of a high-ranking gendarmerie office, the destruction of one judge's reputation and another's loss of health and subsequent premature death. Who was the murderer? Who was the corbeau? A quarter of a century later these questions remain unanswered in a story of murder, revenge, bizarre family feuding, strange twists and surprise suspects.

by Anthony Davis

Grègory Villemin would have been 29 years old this year and probably – like his parents before him – happily married, with a good job and a nice house. Instead, an infinitely more cruel fate was reserved for him: On Tuesday, October 16, 1984 his body, tied hand and foot, was found floating in the River Vologne. He was only 4 years old.

As if this wasn't shock enough for the 1,000 inhabitants of the village of Lèpanges-sur-Vologne (Vosges, north-eastern France), a second murder was to follow a mere five months later.

So many rumors, contradictions distortions of the truth have beset the case that it is difficult picking one's way through the files, news reports and books written on the subject to determine what was fact and what supposition, malicious gossip or plain lies.