The little minx

The pretty Violette Noziére went down in French criminal history for attempting to murder her parents at the age of 18. The attempted murder actually proved fatal for her father. But what was Violette’s motive? This question remained unanswered until she confessed. Violette was born on January 1, 1915, in Neuvy-sur-Loire, the daughter of Germaine, a seamstress, and her father, Baptiste Noziére, a mechanic. Violette was a much-wanted child. Her mother, in particular, was overjoyed to finally have a small, loving family after her first marriage, which had been marked by violence. After Violette’s birth, the family moved to a small apartment in Paris. After elementary school, the pretty Violette attended high school, but was expelled in the summer of 1931 due to her poor academic performance and often shameless behavior. Violette, who was adored by her parents, was as beautiful as she was scheming, and blamed her expulsion solely on her teachers, whom she believed had conspired against her. Violette transferred to the Lycée Fénelon in the Latin Quarter, which was notorious for its red-light district. Instead of attending high school, Violette preferred to enjoy herself with men who offered the beautiful young girl a lot of money for sexual services. Violette loved having this power over men. Her parents had no idea. Even when her mother picked her up from school every day after Violette had stolen from it, she mingled so skillfully with the stream of students leaving that her truancy went unnoticed. Violette even posed naked for newspapers. When she was diagnosed with syphilis in 1932, she began an affair with Dr. Henri Deron, who issued her a certificate of virginity so that her parents would not become suspicious. He quickly explained to them that it was a hereditary disease. Violette took advantage of this and, in March 1933, made her first attempt to poison her parents by giving them the sleeping pill Somenal to protect them from contracting syphilis. However, the dose was too low and both parents survived. Then, in June 1933, Violette met Jean Dabin, a penniless but handsome student, with whom she fell completely in love and whose life she financed from then on. Violette dreamed of one day traveling with him to the Côte d’Azur in a Bugatti and living there. On August 21, 1933, she tried to poison her parents again. To get her parents to drink the glass of water with the dissolved sleeping powder, she forged a letter from her family doctor saying that it would help protect them from syphilis. She wanted the poisoning to look like a joint suicide, which is why Violette turned on the gas tap and started a small fire. The poisoning proved fatal for her father, while her mother survived. However, the police quickly suspected that the suicide was only a pretense, as the amount of gas released would not have been sufficient for a suicide. In addition, the police found the alleged remedy for syphilis in the apartment. This was examined by the chemist Prof. Kohn-Abrest, who was able to detect phenobarbital. After a week on the run, Violette was arrested on August 28, 1933. But why did she want to kill her parents? During police questioning, Violette confessed that her father had raped her at least once a week since she was 12 years old, when her mother was away from home. Because of this sexual abuse, she wanted to kill her parents. Three years later, she recanted this allegation of abuse. On October 10, 1934, the criminal trial began against Violette, now 19 years old, who was sentenced to death by guillotine. After her lawyer’s appeal was rejected, he submitted a petition for clemency to French President Albert Lebrun, who commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment with hard labor on Christmas Day 1934. Her sentence was reduced to 12 years’ imprisonment, which she served in Rennes prison. On August 29, 1945, Violette was released from prison and went on to start her own family. She had five children and lived in Rouen, where the court announced her rehabilitation in March 1963. Violette was at peace with herself and finally happy. But three years after her rehabilitation, she died of cancer. Thus ended the life of the former prostitute who had become a loving mother.