The Hysteria Show
An insane asylum is an unlikely setting for a hit show. And, true enough, drawing crowds was never the intention of the show's brilliant creator,...
An insane asylum is an unlike...
Read More
The original Paris needle-attack panic
Disturbing stories were circulating in Paris about a madman randomly assaulting young women in the street. His method of attack was bizarre: he would approach...
Disturbing stories were circu...
Read More
What is a: Bastille Day?
The first Bastille Day was in 1789. Back then, the French didn't even know it was Bastille Day, they just decided it was a good...
The first Bastille Day was in...
Read More
Death by poison: 4 more lady killers
The Marie Lafarge poisoning case that I wrote about recently remains a mystery to me. When I try to decide for myself whether she was guilty or...
The Marie Lafarge poisoning c...
Read More
Murder on the Métro: Who killed Laetitia Toureaux, and how
The story began with a locked room mystery: an impossible murder played out in real life. How was it that Laetitia Toureaux boarded an empty...
The story began with a locked...
Read More
Murder on the Paris Métro: Laetitia Toureaux and the French fascists
Laetitia Toureaux wasn't the only foreign national in France to be murdered in unusual circumstances in 1937. In January, four months before Laetitia was stabbed...
Laetitia Toureaux wasn't the ...
Read More
Femme fatale: the Lafarge poisoning scandal
In the summer of 1840 Marie Lafarge was the most famous woman in France. She was such a celebrity that everything she did, said and...
In the summer of 1840 Marie L...
Read More
French women who broke the law to wear trousers
In 2013 a ban on French women wearing trousers was finally overturned after 200 years. The repressive law, designed to keep women out of the...
In 2013 a ban on French women...
Read More
Murder on the Paris Métro: the double life of Laetitia Toureaux
It was past midnight on Thursday the 13th of May 1937 when Laetitia Toureaux exited the métro station and began making her way home. She...
It was past midnight on Thurs...
Read More