Transcription
Today we are looking at a case from the mid-19th century, so sit back as we go to France.
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In the middle of the 19th century, the French economy was still largely dominated by the agricultural sector. However, in the mid-1840s, there was a poor harvest which affected many crops, including potatoes, wheat, barley, and corn. This led to an increase in food prices, and the cost of a loaf of bread doubled.
Industry was not as developed as in some other European countries, as banking and credit facilities did not meet the needs of the changing economy. Most of the people still preferred to invest in gold or land rather than put their trust in the banks. As unemployment rose and the economy fell into an economic depression, the government were accused of corruption. There was also discord amongst the French people.
In the morning of the 15th of April, 1847, in the beautiful city of Toulouse in southwest France, a bookbinder named Bertran Conte was preparing to take two baskets of books that he had been preparing for the Institute of the Christian Brethren. He had been working from his small workshop, binding books for many years, and the quality of his work was known throughout the area.
The Institute occupied a very big building in the city. It had a large courtyard, a garden, and a chapel. On the other side of the road, there was sleeping accommodation and a school where new recruits would study the Bible and learn about their faith. This area was joined to the main Institute by a tunnel under the roads.
On this particular morning, it was raining. The rain had started in the early hours and had not stopped. It was also quite windy. The baskets of books were carried by two of his female assistants. One was named Marion Rumanak; she had been working for Monsieur Conte for some time. The other was an apprentice who, after a year, was now in her final week of service. She was 14 years old, and her name was Cecile Combat.
Cecile was from a very poor family who lived in a very notorious part of the city. She had received very little education, but when she was younger, she'd often run errands for the local nuns, and they had seemed very fond of her and taught her to read and write.
As the three of them approached the Institute, the porter opened the door. The baskets were then placed on the table, and Monsieur Conte instructed that Madame Marion Rumanak return to the workshop to continue her duties. He then passed to Cecile his umbrella and asked her to wait until he returns. He then went with the porter to the library to deliver the books.
He often visited the Institutes and soon became distracted. He began to speak to the director, not only about other books that may need binding but also about the situation and the uneasiness that seemed to be spreading throughout the country. Although he had told Cecile that he would only be a short while, he did not, in fact, return until 45 minutes later, by which time Cecile was nowhere to be seen. The umbrella, however, had been left leaning against the wall.
He asked the porter if he had seen her, but he replied that he had not. There had been quite a few visitors already, and he had been busy opening and closing the door, but he had not seen her leave. So, if she was not there, she must have left from the other entrance. Monsieur Conte was not overly concerned. He was aware that Cecile's mother had not been well, so presumed that she must have gone home to see if she needed anything. He did not look for her, as he was anxious to prepare for his journey to the city of Auch, some 80 kilometers away, where he had some important business to attend to. He left later that afternoon.
Meanwhile, Cecile's family were getting worried, as no one had seen her since she had left for work that morning. They asked at the workshop, but they were told that she had not returned from the Institute. As evening came, there was still no sign of her. They searched the streets and asked anyone who passed by if they had seen her, but no one could remember seeing her at all that day. They asked people to help in the search, but it seemed that, apart from the family, no one was particularly bothered. The poor Mademoiselle Cecile Combat, the 14-year-old bookbinder's apprentice, was missing.
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The following day, Friday, the 16th of April, the gravedigger arrived at the cemetery at Sonoban. It was early, just 6 am, and it looked as though it would be a pleasant day. The rain and the winds had passed, and the sun was already shining. As he unlocked the padlock from the gates, he noticed something strange at one end of the cemetery, near a large wall. It looked like a young woman kneeling in prayer.
As he went closer, he saw that she was actually lying on her face and knees, and she was being supported by her elbows. He reached out and touched her, but there was no reaction. He touched her again; she was stiff and cold. The gravedigger then realized that she was dead.
The authorities were contacted, and an investigation immediately began, led by Commissioner Lamell. As news spread that the body of a young woman had been found in the cemetery at San Aban, people remembered that the previous day, the family of Cecile Combat were worried, as they had not seen her since the early morning. The commissioner ordered that someone who had known Cecile come to identify if the deceased was indeed her. Soon after, it was confirmed that the body in the cemetery was that of fourteen-year-old Cecile Combat.
Commissioner Lamell was puzzled by the position of the body. It lay in the corner between two cemetery walls. One wall separated the cemetery from the Rurikeh, and the other from the garden of the Institute of the Christian Brethren. So, how did it get there, and who could have placed it there?
Different theories were discussed. Could the body have been brought at night and deliberately placed in the position where it was found? This would have been difficult, as the cemetery gate was always locked at night, and no footprints had been found near the body. It had rained very hard the previous day, and the ground was still wet, so there would have been footprints in the soft earth between the gate and the place where the body was found.
The second theory discussed by the investigators was that the body may have been thrown over the wall, either from the garden of the Brethren or from Rurik. The plants on the wall, which connected the cemetery to the garden of the Brethren, looked as if they had not been disturbed, so that only left the possibility that someone had thrown the body from the side of the Rurikeh. But nothing seemed out of place on that side either.
A postmortem was carried out. The pathologist established the deceased had been assaulted and then hit with a heavy object. He also ascertained that she died at around 10 o'clock on the previous morning. The material found on the poor girl's body and clothes was investigated. There was a geranium plant in her hair, a flower that grew in abundance in the garden of the Institute of the Christian Brethren. There are also leaves from a cypress tree and shreds of what appeared to be fibres from a rope, rope that very much looked identical to the rope that could be found in the Brethren's garden.
At first, it looked like the cemetery may have been accessed from the garden and the body placed there, but the cypress trees only grew between the cemetery wall and the Rurikay, and the geranium petal could have easily blown in the wind. The investigators did manage to find a geranium in full bloom with a petal missing in the Brethren's garden, near to the cemetery wall, but this was not proof enough to say that the person who was responsible for this terrible crime had entered the cemetery from the garden.
However, it was then confirmed that although this cemetery was locked every night, there are occasions when the padlock to the gate had been left unlocked. If it had been left unlocked that night, someone could have entered from there and then closed the padlock when they left. It was also pointed out that although there were no footprints in the earth that surrounded the body, there are also no indentations in the grass where the knees and elbows of the deceased had been placed.
Commissioner Lamell thought that the most credible explanation was that Cecile had been placed there and that the person who had committed this terrible crime had carried the body through the gates, but not everyone agreed with this. He now had to find out who was actually responsible.
Cecile was last seen in the Institute holding Monsieur Bertrand Conte's umbrella. This caused the commissioner to think that the crime had been committed by someone who had been inside the Institute of the Christian Brethren on the morning of the 15th of April.
The funeral of Cecile Combat took place five days later, on the 20th of April, 1847. She was laid to rest in the Techabout Cemetery, and her funeral was paid by money donated by the people of the city. The commissioner was reminded that the bookbinder, Monsieur Bertrand Conte, had some years earlier been the subject of much gossip regarding his improper behavior towards his brother's wife. Monsieur Conte had also shown very little concern when it was discovered that Cecile had gone missing.
Commissioner Lamell ordered that he be arrested. Of course, Monsieur Bertrand Conte denied that he had anything to do with the terrible events of the 15th of April. He told the commissioner that he had left Cecile with his umbrella in the hallway and had asked her to wait for him. He suggested that, as he took rather longer than he had thought, she must have just left the Institute and met the person who committed this terrible crime while alone in the streets.
The next day, however, he asked to see the magistrates and told him that he now remembered that when he had left Cecile in the hallway, two of the brothers were deep in conversation: Brother Jubrienne and Brother Leotard. He presumed that they had been there to keep out of the rain. Commissioner Lamell ordered that this should be investigated, and they were both interviewed, but neither could remember being in the hallway that morning, and no one could remember seeing them there. None of the other brothers were able to corroborate Monsieur Conte's story. The porter had not recalled seeing them, neither had Madame Marion Rumanak. Nevertheless, they were arrested and interrogated.
After much consideration, Commissioner [Lamell] thought that the crime had been committed by Brother Leotard. His real name was Louis Boniface, and he'd entered the Institute nine years earlier, in 1838. His main duty was as a linen worker for the school, but he'd also been given some other bursary duties. It was believed that he had lingered in the hallway before luring Cecile away, telling her that he was going to feed the rabbits and the pigeons in the barn. He then assaulted and murdered her and hid her body before returning at night when he took the ladder and threw the body over the wall.
Brother Leotard, or Louis Boniface, was put in prison to await his trial, during which time he was beaten on many occasions. As the prosecution was building the case against him, witnesses for the defense were arrested and placed in a cell for a minimum of one night. Monsieur Bertrand Conte, whose accusations had placed Brother Leotard in this position, was also put in a cell and was made to stay there for four months, as was Brother Jubrienne. Both men were eventually released.
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The trial of Brother Leotard did not commence until February 1848, and ever since his arrest, he had been kept in a dark cell in the Toulouse prison. The prosecution offered a very weak case against him. It was only Monsieur Conte who could place the defendant in the hallway in view of young Cecile Combat.
During the trial, the French Revolution of 1848 began, which ended the rule of the monarchy and established the French Second Republic, led by Napoleon Bonaparte. Due to this, the trial had to be adjourned, and a second trial began a few weeks later.
The prosecution told the courts that the material on the body indicated that the deceased had been murdered within the grounds of the Institute. Although no footprints had been found near the body, there had been some discovered near the flower beds, and a geranium petal in Cecile's hair. There was also straw and a pigeon feather, which must have come from the barn. They believed that after murdering her, Brother Leotard had returned to the barn, placed a ladder against the wall, and then thrown the body into the cemetery.
This was challenged by the defense, and even though the prosecution could not produce any witnesses who could in any way put some type of credibility to this assumption, the defense was unable to produce any witnesses who could disprove it. Strangely, Brother Leotard had changed the room in which he slept just two nights after the murder. The prosecution claimed that this had been arranged by the director of the Institute, in order that the new room would have no access to the garden or the barn, so it would seem as though he could not have committed the crime.
It was decided that the court should visit the Institute to see exactly how these events may have unfolded. During the visits, the Brothers of the Christian Brethren behaved in a somewhat awkward manner. They attempted to ignore the court's visits, and when questioned, gave incorrect and misleading answers. The director of the Brethren said that it was impossible that the crime had occurred within the grounds of the Institute. He was supported by the Archbishop of Toulouse and the Bishop of Mont-de-Marsan.
There was much anti-religious sentiment in France at the time, and this, coupled with the fact that the brothers in the Institute had not been very forthcoming in their cooperation with the authorities over the investigation, it made it easy for the prosecution to get both the newspapers and the public believing that Brother Leotard was indeed guilty.
When the trial eventually finished, the evidence was deliberated for some time before the verdict of guilty was delivered, but guilty with extenuating circumstances. Brother Leotard, or Louis Boniface, the name in which he was tried under, was sentenced to life in prison. He had maintained his innocence throughout the trial, and this continued while he was in his cell in the Toulouse prison. The conditions there were very bad, and two years later, he became quite ill. He sent for the prison chaplain and the prison warden.
It seemed that Louis was aware that he was dying. He told them that he did not even know who the girl found in the cemetery was until he was arrested for her murder, a murder that he did not commit, and that he was innocent of all the charges for which he had been found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. He told the chaplain that he would meet God with a clear conscience. The following day, Louis Boniface died.
The people of Toulouse would often speak about the case. Some wondered if an innocent man had been convicted. Then, on the 10th of January, 1866, the headless body of a woman, wrapped in her petticoats, was found at a lock near the Menin Bridge. She was identified to be Marie Kiyomi, a woman known to the police for her loose morals. She had been living with a man named Jean Joseph Aspay, who was an innkeeper. He was known to be aggressive, and on many occasions, people had seen him arguing with Marie.
As police started to investigate the crime, witnesses told her they had seen him pulling a heavy trunk. Investigators went to his inn. They found evidence that a crime had been committed there. There were bloodstains on the floor in his room. There are also Marie's belongings. He was arrested and charged with her murder.
Before he'd become an innkeeper, Jean Joseph Aspay had been a cook in the Institute of the Christian Brethren, and while awaiting his trial, he allegedly confessed to the Bishop of Miguelo to the killing 19 years earlier of Cecile Combat. He apparently said that he had lured the young girl into the kitchen and, after murdering her, hid her body under the oven. He then returned that night, carried her through the tunnel to the garden, where he climbed a ladder and threw the body into the cemetery.
However, Jean Joseph Aspay refused to speak again about the case. He was instead tried for the murder of Marie Gilmour, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison at the penal colony of Cayenne. He never publicly admitted his involvement in the crime committed on the 15th of April, 1847. To this day, Brother Leotard, or Jean-Louis Boniface, is the person who is documented as being responsible for the murder of Cecile Combat.
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Hello everyone, and thank you so much for listening. As usual, please leave any comments or feedback you may have, and I hope to see you all again in the next brief case.