Marie-Louise Victorine Bessarabo (

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

s, Héra Mirtel, Juliette de Boulogne, Juliette de Lotus; 24 October 1868 - 21 March 1931) was a French writer, woman of letters, militant feminist, salonnier, lecturer, and ardent

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...

. She was also a spiritist and a "believer in the

Black Mass A Black Mass is a ceremony celebrated by various Satanic groups. It has allegedly existed for centuries in different forms, and the modern form is intentionally a sacrilegious and blasphemous parody of a Catholic Mass. In the 19th century the ...

," a

stock exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for ...

gambler, a plotter for the restoration of the royalist regime in France, as well as an advisor of other women in matrimony and affairs of the heart. Mirtel was famous for the murder of her second husband, Georges Bessarabo, whose body was sent in a "bloody trunk" "from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to Nancy, by rail. Brilliantly defended by Vincent de Moro-Giafferi, she was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. She was suspected of having murdered her first husband as well.

Early years

Marie-Louise Victorine Grouès was born in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

on 24 October 1868. She was the aunt of

Abbé Pierre Abbé Pierre (born Henri Marie Joseph Grouès; 5 August 191222 January 2007) was a French Catholic priest. He was a member of the Resistance (France), Resistance during World War II and deputy of the Popular Republican Movement. In 1949, he foun ...

Career

Known by her pen name, Héra Mirtel, she wrote novels, poems, plays, and many articles, including columns for ''Le Sillon de Bordeaux'', magazine exclusively written by women; ''Le Soleil'', daily; ''La Renaissance Contemporaine'', literary review; and ''Le Divan''. She was the founder of the newspaper ''L'Entente'', and secretary general of the editorial staff of ''La Renaissance contemporain''. In addition, Mirtel worked in advertising, and lectured at Université Populaire de Montmartre. Mirtel advocated a matriarchal feminism inspired by the theses of

Johann Jakob Bachofen Johann Jakob Bachofen (22 December 1815 – 25 November 1887) was a Swiss antiquarian, jurist, philologist, anthropologist, and professor of Roman law at the University of Basel from 1841 to 1844. Bachofen is most often connected with his th ...

. In 1897, in

Saltillo Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and high ...

, Mexico, she married Pierre Paul Antoine Jacques, a trader of the

Ubaye The Ubaye (; ) is a river of southeastern France. It is long and flows through the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department. Its drainage basin is .

valley. After becoming financially enriched in Mexico, she became a widow in March 1914, with two daughters, Paule (1898) and Louise (1900). In 1915, in Mexico, she married Ishmael Jacob Providence Weissmann, a commissioner born in Romania, who called himself Georges Bessarabo. Mirtel murdered Bessarabo in Square La Bruyère, Paris, on 31 July 1920. On 4 August 1920 his corpse, shot dead by a revolver, was discovered at the bottom of a trunk in the Nancy rail station, having been sent by train from the

Gare de l'Est The Gare de l'Est (; English: "Station of the East" or "East station"), officially Paris Est, is one of the seven large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. It is located in the 10th arrondissement, not far southeast from the Ga ...

. On 21 June 1922 Mirtel, defended by Vincent de Moro-Giafferi, was sentenced to twenty years of forced labor. During the investigation, suspicions weighed on the death of his first husband, who feared that his wife would poison him, and who committed suicide with a revolver in March 1914. But the investigation confirmed the suicide. His daughter, Paule, present at the scene of the crime and judged for complicity, was acquitted. Many dailies followed the trial, rich in theatrics: ''

Le Petit Parisien ''Le Petit Parisien'' () was a prominent France, French newspaper during the Third French Republic, Third Republic. It was published between 1876 and 1944, and its circulation was over two million after the First World War. Publishing Despite its ...

'' (17 issues), ''

Le Temps ' (, ) is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. The paper was launched in 1998, formed out of the merger of two other newspapers, and (the former being a merger of two other papers), ...

'' (12 January 1922), '' Le Matin'' (22 June 1922), ''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

'' (29 April 1921), ''Le petit journal illustré'' (18 June 1922), ''L'Ouest-Éclair '' (June 9, 1922) and ''

Le Gaulois () was a French daily newspaper, founded in 1868 by Edmond Tarbé and Henry de Pène. After a printing stoppage, it was revived by Arthur Meyer in 1882 with notable collaborators Paul Bourget, Alfred Grévin, Abel Hermant, and Ernest Dau ...

'' (29 April 1921). Arthur Bernède recounted the lawsuit in the Bessarabo case (Tallandier, 1931). In 1929, after recognizing that Paule had lied, there was a request for the revision of the trial. Mirtel, incarcerated in Rennes and on the verge of obtaining a conditional release, died on 21 March 1931. She was buried with her first husband, in

Saint-Paul-sur-Ubaye Saint-Paul-sur-Ubaye (, "Saint Paul-on- Ubaye"; Vivaro-Alpine: ''Sant Pau d'Ubaia'', before 1998: ''Saint-Paul'')Alpes de Haute-Provence Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (sometimes abbreviated as AHP; ; ; ), formerly until 1970 known as Basses-Alpes (, ), is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France, bordering Alpes-Maritimes and Italy to the east, Var to the south ...

The Gruesome Case of Mme. Bessarabo

In ''The Police Journal'' (1920), L. Czapski provided a narrative of the case:—

Selected works

* ''Loupita : mœurs mexicaines (E. Sansot, 1907) * ''Fleurs d'ombre, suivies de : Fleurs d'aube, Fleurs de lumière. (Paris, E. Sansot, 1910) * '' Renée Vivien'' (1910) * ''Leur proie : histoire contemporaine dédiée à toutes celles qui furent leur proie'' (1912) * ''

Alphonse de Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869) was a French author, poet, and statesman. Initially a moderate royalist, he became one of the leading critics of the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe, aligning more w ...

et la poésie contemporaine'' (1913) * ''Une doctoresse aux Alpes'' * ''Complaintes de guerre'' (1916) * ''De la Patrie à la matrie, ou du bagne à l'Éden'' (1920)

References

Attribution

* *

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mirtel, Hera 1868 births 1931 deaths Writers from Lyon 19th-century French women writers 20th-century French women writers French novelists French female murderers French people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by France French poets French columnists French dramatists and playwrights French feminists Radical feminists French suffragists French women columnists Mariticides French salon-holders