Blanca Elena Errázuriz Vergara (9 April 1894 – 20 March 1940), also known as Bianca de Saulles, was a
Chilean socialite and the former wife of football player and businessman
John de Saulles
John Gerard Longer de Saulles (May 25, 1878 – August 3, 1917) was an American football player and coach, real estate broker, and businessman whose murder by his millionaire wife (accused, but acquitted) led to a widely reported trial.
Early li ...
. In August 1917, Errázuriz fatally shot de Saulles multiple times during a disagreement over the custody of their son. After a highly publicized and sensational trial, Errázuriz was acquitted of her ex-husband's murder.
Early life and marriage
Errázuriz was born in
Viña del Mar, Chile, the eldest daughter of Guillermo Errázuriz Urmeneta and of Blanca Vergara Alvarez, a beauty known as the Star of Santiago, and thus a member of the politically influential Errázuriz family, of
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
descent. Her father, a mining magnate, died when she was two, and she was educated at Sacred Heart Convent in London, England. In 1911, when she was 16 years old, she met
John de Saulles
John Gerard Longer de Saulles (May 25, 1878 – August 3, 1917) was an American football player and coach, real estate broker, and businessman whose murder by his millionaire wife (accused, but acquitted) led to a widely reported trial.
Early li ...
, an American businessman and society figure 15 years her senior; he had travelled to Chile as representative of the South American Concessions Syndicate to negotiate a new railway line. After some initial difficulties with her family (mostly due to the difference in age and religion as Errázuriz was
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
) they were soon engaged.
On 14 December 1911, they were married at an English Catholic chapel in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. (The civil ceremony had taken place the previous day.).
De Saulles had previously been engaged to the heiresses
Mary Elsie Moore
Mary Elsie Moore, Princess di Civitella-Cesi (October 22, 1889 – December 21, 1941), was an American railroad equipment heiress who married and divorced Italian Prince Don Marino Torlonia, 4th Prince of Civitella-Cesi.
Early life
Mary Elsie Moo ...
(later Princess Torlonia) and Eleanor Granville Brown. He was later briefly appointed as U. S. Minister to Uruguay in 1914, a post he resigned shortly after accepting and without ever leaving the U.S. The newly married couple settled in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. They had one child, John Longer "Jack" de Saulles, born on 25 December 1912, and for whom the steel magnate Charles H. Schwab stood as godfather. Shortly after John, Jr's birth, the couple's marriage began to falter mainly due to de Saulles' well known infidelities. Errázuri filed for divorce in the summer of 1916.
The divorce
Shortly before filing for divorce, Errázuri befriended future actor
Rudolph Valentino in New York City. Valentino was then working as an exhibition dancer (
taxi dancer
A taxi dancer is a paid dance partner in a partner dance. Taxi dancers are hired to dance with their customers on a dance-by-dance basis. When taxi dancing first appeared in taxi-dance halls during the early 20th century in the United States, mal ...
) and had gained attention for his rendition of the Argentine
tango
Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...
, which was the craze at the time. Whether the two actually had a romantic relationship is unknown, but Valentino did agree to provide proof in court during the de Saulles' divorce case that
Joan Sawyer
Dame Joan Augusta Sawyer, DBE, PC (born 26 November 1940) is a Bahamian judge. She was Chief Justice of the Bahamas from 1996 to 2001 and President of the Court of Appeal of the Bahamas from 2001 to 2010. She was the first woman to ever serve ...
, his dancing partner, was having an adulterous relationship with John de Saulles; he himself took the stand to support Errázuriz's claim of de Saulle's infidelities. De Saulles was also accused of various financial improprieties involving his misuse of his wife's fortune, claims that received greater validity when it became clear upon his death that de Saulles was deeply in debt.
John de Saulles was not pleased with this, and once the divorce was granted in December 1916, he used his political connections to have Valentino arrested along with a madam named Mrs. Thyme (the exact charges are unknown). The evidence was flimsy at best (Valentino having been near the wrong place at the wrong time) and after a few days in jail, Valentino's bail was lowered from $10,000 to $1,500. The scandal and subsequent trial were highly publicized, and Valentino felt degraded and misused. No one would hire him, his old friends would no longer talk to him. Errázuriz did not thank him for his testimony and cut off all contact with him.
The murder and trial
Shortly after the divorce was final, on 3 August 1917, Errázuriz drove from her home in
Roslyn, New York
Roslyn ( ) is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is the Greater Roslyn area's anchor community. The population was 2,770 at the 2010 census.
History
Ros ...
to the home of her ex-husband, The Box, in Meadowbrook Colony, near Westbury. She had legal claims over the custody of their son, since she and her husband had been given shared custody over him, but de Saulles refused to acknowledge the court's decision. She arrived at The Box shortly after 8pm, and found her former husband sitting on the porch of the house. They argued, and she pointed a gun at his head demanding him to immediately hand over the child to her. When he tried to disarm her, she shot him five times. He was rushed to the
Nassau County Hospital, but died there at 10.20pm from his injuries. In the meantime, she awaited at the house for the arrival of the police, to whom she surrendered. She was charged with murder in the first degree and imprisoned in the Nassau County Jail at
Mineola, New York
Mineola is a village in and the county seat of Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 18,799 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from an Algonquin Chief, Miniolagamika, which means "pleasant village".
...
, leading to a sensational trial.
The widely reported case went on for months. Errázuriz was defended by Henry Uterhart, a noted criminalist of the time, and the principal witness for the defense was Suzanne Monteau, Errázuriz's French maid, who had accompanied her that night and completely supported her version of the events. Blanca Errázuriz became the darling of the press, and the champion of the suffragettes who portrayed her as the victim of the chauvinism prevalent in the society of the time.
Blanca Errázuriz was unanimously acquitted of the murder charges on 1 December 1917 in what was called a "popular" verdict.
Later years and death
Following the trial, Errázuriz moved to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
where she sought and obtained full custody of her son. She and her son went later to
Japan. Eventually she and her son returned to Chile and settled there. On 22 December 1921, she remarried, this time to engineer Fernando Santa Cruz Wilson in
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...
; the couple later divorced.
By the late 1930s, Errázuriz was suffering from poor health and had become estranged from her son, Jack, Jr. He severed contact with his mother and moved back to the United States.
[Evans 2014 p.259] On 20 March 1940, she committed suicide by taking an overdose of barbiturates at her home in
Viña del Mar.
Legacy
The case was the basis for the 1918
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...
''The Woman and the Law'', directed by
Raoul Walsh. It featured Jack Connors,
Miriam Cooper
Miriam Cooper (born Marian Cooper; November 7, 1891 – April 12, 1976) was a silent film actress who is best known for her work in early film including ''The Birth of a Nation'' and '' Intolerance'' for D. W. Griffith and ''The Honor System'' a ...
and
Peggy Hopkins Joyce
Peggy Hopkins Joyce (born Marguerite Upton; May 26, 1893 – June 12, 1957) was an American actress, artist's model, and dancer. In addition to her performing career, Joyce was known for her flamboyant life, with numerous engagements, four ...
. (Guillermo Errázuriz, Blanca's diplomat brother, killed himself in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
hotel in May 1922, after being spurned by Joyce.) The name "de Saulles" was changed to "La Salle" but the film's opening credits admit to being based on the story.
References
External links
Blanca Errázurizat
Flickr Commons
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professional ...
Hansboro News newspaper for 7 December 1917Short biographical antecedents of Blanca ErrázurizShort biography and genealogical page
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Errazuriz Vergara, Blanca
1894 births
1940 suicides
Blanca
Barbiturates-related deaths
Chilean expatriates in the United States
Chilean people of Basque descent
Chilean Roman Catholics
Chilean women
Drug-related suicides
People acquitted of murder
People from Viña del Mar
People from Roslyn, New York
Chilean socialites
1940 deaths
Vergara family Chile