The Dark & Disturbing Case of Marie Groues

Brief Case

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Transcript

00:07Today we are going to France and Mexico, so sit back as we go to the early 20th century.

00:19Marie-Louise Victorine Glouès was born in Lyon, France on the 24th of October 1869.

00:28Like many young girls in France, her parents sent her to be educated by nuns in a local convent.

00:35It was here that she developed her love of literature, she loved to write stories and spent

00:41hours reading novels. Her father worked as a silk merchant and was often overseas for many weeks at

00:50a time looking for the best quality raw silks to transport back to France. Marie always took a

00:58keen interest in her father's work. She was always fascinated by the colours and the shine of the

01:05silks that he brought home, so it was no surprise that when she finished her education she went to

01:12work with her father. Silk importing had become a very competitive business especially after 1872

01:21with the opening of the Suez Canal. Due to the canal more raw silk was being imported to Europe

01:28and Marie's father's business was not doing as well as in previous years. But Marie's father thought

01:36that her enthusiasm, energy and charm could help the business prosper and together they worked to

01:44restore the company's fortune. In 1892 Marie and her father travelled to Mexico. They wanted to take

01:53advantage of the opportunities there. Due to the development of steamships and railways they could

02:00easily transport the beautiful fabrics they created in Mexico to Europe and America. Moreover, this allowed

02:08them to expand into buying and selling other materials. Their Mexican operation was based in the capital

02:16of the country, Mexico City. Marie loved life in Mexico as it was an exciting place to be in the

02:241890s.

02:26It was being transformed under the presidency of Porfirio Díaz. He aimed to transform the capital city

02:33into a rival for the great European cities. To achieve this he used Paris as a model but made sure

02:41to keep

02:41the city's Mexican traditions. Marie was fascinated by the architecture and culture of the city and was

02:49very happy living and working there. Not surprisingly, Marie soon attracted the attention of several

02:57wealthy young businessmen. She would often go out and spend romantic evenings with different admirers.

03:04It was even rumoured that one of these young men was so obsessed with her that he took his own

03:10life

03:11after being rejected. On one of her romantic outings she was taken to an hacienda in a village outside of

03:20the city.

03:20The view from the town was remarkable as it was towered over by the spectacular volcano of Popocatepetl.

03:28The young admirer wanted to impress her but the couple failed to return from their trip. Later that evening

03:35she was found by the local police traumatised and crying. The young man whom she had gone out with

03:43was lying dead on the floor after being shot. Marie told the police that bandits had arrived,

03:52robbed them and shot her young companion. It was known that there were bandits operating in the area

03:59so the police believed what she had said and escorted her home as they were concerned for her safety.

04:07While working in Mexico, Marie met a French man named Paul Jacques. He was a very elegant, extremely

04:15articulate and well-educated man. Like Marie's father, he also owned a very successful silk business

04:22place in Mexico, which operated in Mexico and France. Marie liked the fact that he shared her love of

04:30literature and they would regularly go out together. They would spend hours talking while strolling through

04:37the Chapultepec park and liked to listen to the mariachis in Coyacan and Plaza Santa Cecilia. Marie enjoyed

04:46spending time with Paul but her only reservation was that she was a young,

04:52attractive woman trying to help her father's business and he was a wealthy businessman twice her age.

05:01As they continued to meet and enjoy each other's company, Paul eventually proposed to her and the

05:07couple married. Paul wanted to start a family and decided it would be best if they moved back to France.

05:15Soon they went to live in Paris and in 1904 Marie gave birth to a daughter that they named Paulette.

05:24Their marriage was going well and Paul encouraged Marie to keep on writing. In order to share her

05:31writings with others and discuss her work with like-minded people, she formed a literary circle.

05:38The members of her new literary club were impressed with her work and so she decided to continue writing

05:45using the pen name of Hera Martel. Her first romantic novel was soon published and it was relatively

05:53successful. It sold various copies and the publishers asked her to write more books. Marie's literary career

06:02under the name Hera Martel had begun. Her life as an author meant that she travelled around France

06:11and met new people from more walks of life. She also gained some financial independence from her husband.

06:20However, rumours soon started to circulate around the Paris literary establishment that Marie was often

06:27entertaining other men and that her relationship with her husband was deteriorating. The couple were rarely

06:35seen out together socially and Paola was happy to spend his time working rather than with his wife.

06:43Marie wanted to go back to Mexico, she thought that her literary talents would be appreciated there

06:49and she had an idea of doing some promotional events. She very much liked to be in the limelight so

06:57being

06:58the centre of attention in some high society functions in Mexico's capital city very much appealed to her.

07:07Paul however refused her request and told her that she had to stay in Paris. He reminded her that she

07:14had a

07:15daughter and that she should try and spend more time with her. Marie started to feel that her husband was

07:24trying

07:24to restrict her literary talents. In January 1914 she prepared a bowl of soup for Paul and mixed in it

07:34a white powder.

07:36She then asked her maid to take the soup to her husband, who like most nights was working late in

07:43his study.

07:44Unbeknown to Marie, the maid saw her put the white powder in the soup, so when she took it to

07:51the study

07:52she said to her master, I hope you like the flavouring that madame put into your soup. Paul did not

08:00eat it,

08:01instead he took it to be analysed by a chemist. The results confirmed that the soup had been poisoned,

08:11however for some reason Paul did nothing. He did not confront his wife or report the incident to the

08:19authorities, he just went on as normal. Marie was still desperate to return to Mexico and the

08:26relationship with her husband was getting worse. Then on Sunday the 3rd of May 1914 she frantically

08:35called the maid to come quickly to her bedroom. The maid ran to her mistress's room and there lying dead

08:43on the floor was Paul, he had been shot. This was the second time that a man associated with Marie

08:51had

08:52been shot as it happened years earlier in the hacienda in Mexico. The French authorities arrived and looked

09:01into the shooting. Beside the body was a note which looked remarkably like it had been written in the

09:09handwriting of the deceased. Marie told the police that Paul had been depressed and that his business

09:16was not doing very well. She said that she thought he shot himself to escape facing up to the shame

09:25of

09:25bankruptcy. When the police finished their investigation they concluded that Paul Jacques had committed

09:32suicide. After a period of mourning, Marie and her daughter Paulette boarded a ship and went to

09:40Mexico. Even though Marie had longed to go back there she needed to make the trip in order to sort

09:48out

09:48her late husband's Mexican business interests. She soon discovered that her husband's financial affairs

09:56were not in such a bad shape and she received nearly one million francs from the sale of his Mexican

10:03assets

10:04and property. Not wanting to miss an opportunity she also relaunched herself into Mexican society as a

10:12writer and novelist. She started to immerse herself in Mexico City's literary circles. She soon caught the

10:21attention of a man named Georges Besarabo. He was originally from Romania and no one really knew how he made

10:30his money but Marie was pleased that he was showing an interest in her and they started to meet whenever

10:38possible. In 1916 Georges proposed and Marie happily accepted. The couple married and along with Marie's

10:48daughter Paulette they returned to France in 1916 and resettled back in Paris. Here Marie continued to

10:58write and also promoted herself as a clairvoyant. She always liked to mix with creative people whose work

11:07she thought showed emotion, beauty and power so she tried to associate herself with writers, painters and

11:16musicians. Her marriage to Georges was not working and she frequently found herself upset. Just like her

11:25marriage to Paul she tried to dominate him and they would often argue Georges did not like her spending so

11:33much time with her friends, many of whom were male. But Marie had no intention of changing her social or

11:42business life and just carried on regardless of her husband's feelings. On the 8th of July 1920 Georges

11:51returned to their Paris home to find Marie getting ready for a meeting with a male author. When he questioned

11:59her on why she was going out, Marie took a pistol from her bag and demanded that he leave her

12:06room. She

12:07then fired a shot to remind her husband that he should not question what she does. By now Georges had

12:17had

12:17enough. His wife often displayed erratic behaviour and he feared for his safety. He told Marie that they

12:26should separate but she didn't want to do that as she relied on him to keep her in a nice

12:33Parisian

12:33neighbourhood where they lived. She knew that his business dealings were not altogether legal

12:40so she told him that if he left her she would report him to the authorities. The couple continued to

12:48live together and continued to argue. All the staff became aware of the couple's marital issues.

12:56On July 31st 1920 Georges and Marie had another argument and not wanting to continue to argue with his

13:05wife Georges went to bed. Some time after he went to bed and while he was still asleep, Marie took

13:14out

13:14a revolver and shot her husband. He died instantly. Marie then put the revolver on a nearby chair, climbed

13:25into bed and went to sleep. The next morning she got dressed, ate breakfast and thought about what she

13:34could do with her husband's body. Her previous husband Paul had also died of a gunshot but police

13:42declared that to be suicide so could Georges have also taken his own life. She then came up with a

13:50better solution. Georges was known to have some shady business dealings so it could have been that a

13:58dubious business associate had killed him. Marie took a chest to her bedroom and tried to place her

14:06husband's body in it but it was too heavy for the petite Marie. In order to move it she asked

14:14her

14:14daughter Paulette for assistance. Evidently Paulette was shocked at what she saw but after some persuasion

14:23from her mother she helped her to move the body. They covered up the corpse with a raincoat and eventually

14:30managed to fit it in the chest. Afterwards they went to a store to buy some rope and returned home

14:38to secure

14:39the chest. Together they dragged it down the stairs and called a taxi, giving the driver instructions to

14:48take the chest to guard the lest. From the station it was to be transported to Nancy and would be

14:55delivered

14:55to an imaginary lady. Marie then tried to get rid of any evidence linking her to the crime. She washed

15:04and ironed all of the linen from the bed and burned the pillow in the kitchen stove. Then along with

15:12her

15:12daughter she went to a small lake near to where she lived and hired a small rowing boat. Once they

15:19were in

15:19the middle of the lake she dropped the revolver and watched it slowly sink to the bottom. She then went

15:26home and not wanting to draw attention to herself just went about her daily routine. On the 4th of

15:35August 1920 the abandoned chest was discovered at Nancy railway station. The police opened it and were

15:44astonished to find that it contained a corpse. The police traced the chest back to Paris and soon

15:52established that it had come from Marie's residence, so they paid her a visit. They discovered that Marie

16:00had booked a trip back to Mexico for herself and Paulette. They interviewed people who knew Georges and

16:09they all believed that just before he died he had closed a large deal with a business operating in

16:16Mexico and France. Thanks to the deal he had been paid hundreds of thousands of francs in commission.

16:24He deposited most of this money in a bank but he had kept a few thousand francs in his wallet.

16:32Of course

16:33when he was found there was no money on his person and his pocketbook with all of his dealings had

16:39also

16:40disappeared. Marie told the police that the culprit was probably one of his business associates but the

16:48police did not believe her or her made up story. Not only did they trace the chest back to the

16:55house

16:56but they also found the shop where the string had been purchased. The police believed the evidence

17:02against her was very strong. When she was confronted with the facts and under police pressure Marie made

17:10a full confession telling the police all of the chilling tale. The police were shocked. It was as if

17:19she was reciting one of her novels but she wasn't. This was real. She admitted to shooting her husband.

17:30The trial of Marie Louise Victorine Gruet began on the 15th of February 1921. Her daughter was also

17:41tried for the same crime. Both mother and daughter retracted the confessions that they had previously made

17:48to the police. Marie remained cool and dignified throughout the trial. She told the court that her

17:56husband had a mistress in Nancy and had left Paris because his business was failing. It was put to

18:03Marie that it was in fact her who had financial issues and not her husband. Toward the end of the

18:11trial

18:12Paulette was worried that they were going to be found guilty. She knew that France still carried the death

18:19penalty and because of this Paulette announced to the court that she had to tell the truth. She went on

18:26to describe the events that took place on July 31st 1920. She informed the court that it was her mother

18:35who shot her stepfather and her crime was helping her hide the body. When the trial ended Paulette's

18:43confession meant that she was released but her mother was found guilty. She did however escape the death

18:51penalty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Marie Grues died in 1930 while still serving her sentence.

19:04Thank you to everyone for listening to this video on Marie Grues narrated by Forgotten Lives

19:09and I will see you in the next briefcase.

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