In the 1880s, in poitiers, France, inside the Monnier family mansion.
Since 1876, the house has been buried with a dark secret.
The secret was hidden in the attic, where there was a locked room where you could often smell a disgusting stench, and if you listened closely, you could hear a vague roar: "Let me out!" I want to be free! Give me back my freedom! ”
Although the old servants always advised and intimidated the newly hired servants into living in the attic of a witch or monster to forbid them to come near, the old servants, who had been coerced by Madame Monnier and her son Marcel, all knew where the roar came from.
The source comes from Madame Monnier's daughter Blanche, who has been imprisoned by her, who has been declared missing!
Blanche
Time flies, and it comes to May 23, 1901.
This morning, the Attorney-General of Paris rushed to his office as usual, and just as he was about to open the office door, he suddenly found that an anonymous whistleblower letter had been crammed into the gap between the doors of his office.
Guess what kind of neighborhood dispute is it?
As he thought about it, he pulled out the report letter, tore open the envelope and began to look at it.
But before he could read a few lines, the content of the letter that was really too shocking suddenly made his heart ring a thunderclap!
That anonymous whistleblower letter
The letter reads to the effect:
"—Dear Mr. Attorney General, I will be honoured to tell you about a very serious case.
I am talking about an old maid imprisoned in Madame Monnier's house for twenty-five years, during which she may have lived for a long time in her own feces and rotten garbage heaps, extremely hungry and malnourished, please save her. ”
Until sitting at his desk, the attorney general's heart was like a sea of upside down.
The contents of the letter are unbelievable, the accused Monnier family has always been one of the great nobles of Poitiers, since the death of her husband who was the dean of the Poitiers College, the 75-year-old owner of the house, Madame Monnier, has been keen on charity, so she has been commended by the government as a kind old woman, and her son Marcel was once a brilliant lawyer, who has always handled cases impartially and is deeply loved by the local people.
Madame Monnier
How could they have done such a cruel thing?
But what if everything said in this letter is true? Wait, it seems that someone did call the police to say that Madame Monier's house could hear a woman's sobbing or strange cries...
Without further ado, let the police check first.
He picked up the phone: "Hey, I'm the Attorney General, please pick me up at the Poitiers Police Station." ”
Half an hour later, a part of the police in Poitiers, who had received the alarm, assembled outside the villa of monnier's family.
Looking at the palatial villa in front of him, the police chief in charge of leading the team swallowed his saliva and felt a pang of anxiety in his heart - after all, the Monier family was a highly respected nobleman, and he couldn't afford it at all, if he couldn't find anything, I was afraid that his usha hat would be unsafe.
"Your Honor, what are you thinking?" Just then, his shoulder was suddenly tapped.
The location of the Poitiers region in France
"Huh?" He turned his head and saw his friend, a sheriff's familiar face: "Ah, no, it's all right." ”
"Are you worried about your usha hat?" The sheriff stepped forward and looked up at the magnificent villa in front of him, with a confident smile on his face: "I don't think you have to worry." ”
"Why?" The director turned his head and looked at him with a puzzled face.
"Did you forget?" It had been reported that a woman had heard a woman's strange cry at Madame Monnier's house, and that her daughter had been missing for twenty-five years, but not only had she not reported it, but she had not searched for it, nor could she even see the sadness. There must be something wrong with this! ”
A word awakened the dreamer, looking at the old friend's firm eyes, the director gritted his teeth, and then made up his mind: "Search! ”
The newspaper that reported the case at the time was 1
The police quickly rang the doorbell, and when Madame Monnier's son, Marcel, opened the door, the director first presented the search warrant, and then said straight to the point: "Hello Mr. Marcel, we have been entrusted by the Attorney General of Paris to investigate whether there is a woman imprisoned in your house, please cooperate with Madame Monnier in our work, thank you." ”
Hearing this, Marcel's face flashed a trace of panic at first, and after a few seconds, he had a cold expression and said coldly: "Who dares to play such a prank and tease me and my mother?" ”
"Sorry we have nothing to say." "You!"
"Marcel." Just then, the figure of the faltering Madame Monnier appeared behind Marcel, and her gaze also coldly swept over the policemen, and then she turned and went into her bedroom: "Let them come in and search." ”
"Yes."
The newspaper that reported the case at the time2
Looking at the dark corridor behind Madame Monier, all the policemen took a breath of cool air, and at the same time, because they had witnessed the panic on The Face of Fang CaiMassell, they were all more convinced of what the sheriff said - in this villa, there must be something wrong with the mother and son!
After leaving the two detectives to watch Marcel and Madame Monnier's mother and son, the search began, and although each officer was full of confidence, their confidence began to be repeatedly frustrated in the face of "reality".
Every room in this villa is so clean and atmospheric, even if the police officers carefully stepped on every floor, turned over every sofa and mattress, and carefully checked every corner, but they could not find any dark passages or suspicious traces.
Madame Monnier's house
Just when the police were about to be helpless
"Director, Director!" The director suddenly heard the voice of a police officer in charge of checking the top floor.
"What's wrong?" "I found a locked attic room on the top floor that seemed to smell a foul smell."
As soon as these words came out, they immediately shocked all the police officers present, and the chief turned around, and his scrutinizing eyes swept over the faces of Monnier's mother and son—and their expressions were still cold, and they could not see the slightest wave.
The room where Blanche was once imprisoned
"Please open that room, Madame Monnier."
"That room was long abandoned, the stench was the smell of rotting wood, and the keys had long since disappeared."
Seeing that Madame Monnier did not want to cooperate, the director's heart was even stronger, and he turned his head back and ordered, "Take me up and cut the door open!" ”
"Yes!"
Ten minutes later, everyone, including Marcel and Madame Monnier, gathered in front of the wooden door of the locked room in the attic, accompanied by the officer's axe falling, and suddenly there was a woman's terrible scream in the darkness where she could not see her five fingers: "Ah! ”
After 25 years in captivity, Blanche finally saw the light of day
No matter what time, in the heart of every young girl, there should have been a longing and nostalgia for her other half.
The same is true of Blanche, who, in her youth, was the pearl of Poitiers, the most beautiful woman in France, the jewel of the Monnier family, she had a good face, was sociable, and attracted many suitors.
At that time, many marriageable men in French society took the pride of knowing her; especially many of the poor children of high society,her "good" mother, Madame Monnier, took pride in marrying such a man so that she could continue to enjoy the glorious and wealthy life of the upper class, and arranged several blind dates for her.
Blanche, who was treated in a psychiatric hospital in his later years
But Blanche was tired, she was tired of the vulgarity of the stupid boys, and she had always liked and longed for a man who was as gentle and kind as she was.
So a lawyer who was older than her was in her field of vision.
Although 25 years of darkness is like an endless pocket, depriving her of her language and reason, as well as his name and his appearance, she will never forget his gentle voice and the gentleness between his fingers when he brushed the ends of her hair, and it was his gentle love and encouragement that allowed her to survive these 25 years of darkness.
At first, their love had always been opposed and monitored by their mother, and Madame Monnier thought that his family was poor, and tried everything to drive him away, isolate them, and arrange more blind dates for Blanche, but this difficulty could not defeat their loyal love, and they began to meet in the woods at night, flying in the moonlight, and talking about their ideals in life in the stars.
The newspaper that reported the case at the time3
Eventually, the old servant in the house betrayed her whereabouts to her mother, and that night a fierce quarrel broke out between mother and daughter, and Blanche always resolutely resisted:
"I will never marry any suitor you pick, I choose love over money!"
Eventually, she was locked in this attic; initially, she actually had the opportunity to see the light of day again, and her mother told her: "When will you give up your marriage to a poor lawyer and agree to never see him again, when will I let you out?" ”
But Blanche stubbornly believed that if she conceded defeat, it would be a betrayal of her lover, a taint to this love, so she still resolutely resisted, and once opened the window and shouted for help, until her angry mother rushed in and locked her in a bed with chains, sealed the window, and announced that her daughter was mentally ill.
After this, she always hoped that her lover would hear her cry for help and come to rescue her from the sea of suffering, but she could not wait any longer- as early as 1885, the lover who had been looking for her for more than nine years had died of longing.
Pictures of the scene during the police search
Police disclosure:
"When we removed the thick curtains and hinges from the windows, the planks, and the sunlight entered the room, we noticed that on the bed behind us, there was a woman who weighed only 25 kilograms and was skinny. The unfortunate woman was chained to a rotten straw mat, naked, with only a tattered and dirty blanket draped over her body. ”
Around her movable position, around a "protective circle" of feces, minced meat, rotten meals, stinky fish, and rotten bread, stinky oyster shells were thrown on her bed, and bugs crawled over her body with a big swing; and she was so frightened by our intrusion that she dared to hide her head in a blanket and make uh-uh-uh sounds, unable to utter the full sentence. ”
"She hadn't seen the sun for 25 years, hadn't worn clothes for more than 20 years, and her only friend might have been rats snatching food from a dirty room; to cover up the facts of her crime, Madame Monnier even gave her a fake funeral a few years later, and the walls of that cell were already full of the word freedom."
When Blanche was sent to a psychiatric hospital by the police for medical treatment, her tragic experience went away in French society, which soon caused a national uproar, and the information gradually disclosed by the police in the reporter's interview caused the French people to boil over.
Overnight, the word Monnier became synonymous with the scorpion heart of every French people, and fifteen days later, people from all over the country, including Blanche's neighbors and former friends, angrily stormed Madame Monier's home, and countless stone bricks smashed open the glass window and flew into the room, startling Madame Monier so sick that she soon died of a heart attack.
Immediately, an angry people sent Blanche's brother Marcel to the courtroom, hoping that the court would seek justice for her.
But the belated justice was not perfect after all, and Marcel insisted that he did not expose his mother out of filial piety and fear that his mother would stop cultivating and supporting him, and said that he did not use violence against her, had severe myopia, could not see how bad her sister's living environment was, had done everything he could for her, except to arrange servants to go in to meet all her needs, and even endured the stench to personally go in and read newspapers for her.
Subsequently, he cleverly exploited the legal loopholes he learned in the profession of lawyers to force the court to acquit him in court.
When the hammer of judgment fell, if there was no police obstruction, he would be angrily torn to pieces by the people who were watching.
But even if he had cleverly escaped the punishment of the law, the whole French society did not spare him and his relatives - his status not only plummeted, he became a street rat, everyone shouted and beat him, his wife and daughter became the target of attack, and once had to hide in the convent to save his life; his daughter was originally engaged to an officer, and the other party canceled the marriage contract, and lived a lonely life.
And the poor girl, Blanche, was diagnosed with various diseases, including anorexia nervosa, schizophrenia, dew fecalism, and fecal addiction—and has been living in a nursing home ever since, and although many sympathizers came to visit her and help her, she slowly relearned her speech at the help of doctors, regained her weight, and was even able to rediscover flowers, birds, and the ability to read; but she could never return to society.
After twelve years in a nursing home, she died of organ failure in 1913.
And her story has been adapted into many novels and documentaries so far, and will be revived by the media from time to time, causing a new round of discussion...
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