9. The Verdict
1. Unless otherwise noted, for quoted passages from the trial, see the transcript in Enquêtes criminelles diverse, Art. 2–3: Affaire Dominici (suite), 1952–56, Archives Nationales, Paris.
2. “Ah! Cette petite!”
3. “Quelle garce!” The term means “what a bitch” or “what a slut.”
4. Clovis had used the term “occupation” instead of “incarcération” when referring to Gustave’s jail term.
5. “N’aï péta très! N’en pourrié faïre péta un aoutré!”
6. Scapel was a former bâtonnier and a member of the conseil d’ordre of the Marseilles barristers. Bâtonnier is an office that does not exist in British or American law. The title is attached to the president of lawyers attached to a particular court; in other words, the person serves as the leader of the bar. On Scapel’s arrival in Digne, he had said, “I hope to remain a silent witness throughout the trial.” Combat, 24 November 1954.
7. Quoted in Dumarcet, L’affaire Dominici, 73.
8. France Soir, 26 November 1954, wrongly described Roger Perrin as Gaston’s brother-in-law.
9. Le Figaro, 28 November 1954.
10. Unlike court procedures in the United States, in French law the civil suit is heard at the same time.
11. News Chronicle, 18 November 1954.
12. National Archives, Kew, FO 369/5032. The original letter was written in December 1953. The letter was translated into French and given to Delorme by Geoffrey Meade, the British consul general in Marseille.
13. Giono, Notes sur l’affaire Dominici, saw Yvette as a product of the new world of consumerism, a paysanne travestie (a tarted-up peasant).
14. France-Soir, 19 December 1954.
15. Le Dauphiné Libéré, 30 November 1954.
16. This was subsequently changed to a jury of nine jurors and a panel of three judges: the president and two associate judges. On appeal there is a jury of twelve jurors and three judges. Terrorism and major drug trafficking cases are tried in a special court with seven active justices in the first hearing and nine on appeal. There are no jurors. The system remains inquisitorial rather than confrontational.
17. Daily Express, 29 November 1954.
18. News Chronicle, 23 November 1954.
19. Times, 5 February 1955.
20. See the useful summary of press reactions in France and Britain in a dispatch from Gladwyn Jebb in Paris to Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, dated 20 December 1954, in National Archives, Kew, FO 369/5032.
21. Le Figaro, 8 February 1955.
10. The Chenevier Inquiry
1. This translation does not convey all the grammatical and syntactical faults of the original. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1.
2. Manchester Guardian, 29 November 1954.
3. Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 612.
4. Chevenier inquiry papers in Enquêtes criminelles diverse, Art. 2–3: Affaire Dominici (suite), 1952–56, Archives Nationales, Paris.
5. For an apricot crop in 1952, $300 seems a great deal of money.
6. His full name was Jean-Michel Guérin du Boscq de Beaumont. He came from a distinguished Norman family, had joined de Gaulle in London during the war, was sent to New York as consul for Free France, and subsequently had a distinguished career, holding several cabinet positions. As foreign minister he helped pave the way for French acceptance of German rearmament, and as minister of justice he played a major role in Pierre Mendès-France’s campaign against excessive alcohol consumption, summed up in the slogan “Never more than one liter of wine per day!”
7. A street and a metro station are named after Marx Dormoy in the eighteenth arrondissement. The assassins were former “cagoulardes,” or members of La Cagoule, a right-wing extremist group active in the 1930s.
8. Constellation, March 1955, 36–40.
9. Known in French as non-lieu.
10. France Soir, 17 December 1954.
11. France Soir, 18 December 1954.
12. Chevenier inquiry papers in Enquêtes criminelles diverse, Art. 2–3: Affaire Dominici (suite), 1952–56, Archives Nationales, Paris.
13. Chevenier inquiry papers in Enquêtes criminelles diverse, Art. 2–3: Affaire Dominici (suite), 1952–56, Archives Nationales, Paris.
14. Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 682.
15. Chevenier inquiry papers in Enquêtes criminelles diverse, Art. 2–3: Affaire Dominici (suite), 1952–56, Archives Nationales, Paris.
16. Maurice Patin would have a very distinguished career. He went on to become president of the court of appeal and head of the committee of public safety in Algeria. In 1959 President de Gaulle nominated him to serve on the Constitutional Council.
17. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 4.
18. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 4.
19. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 4.
20. Times, 18 February 1955.
21. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 8.
22. National Archives Kew, FO 369/4924.
23. National Archives Kew, FO 369/4924.
24. Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 611.
25. Times, 21 June 1965.
26. Deniau and Sultan, Dominici, 275.
27. National Archives, Kew, FO 369/4924.
11. The Case Is Closed
1. Times, 9 March 1955.
2. Chenevier, De la combe, 181.
3. See, for example, Populaire Dimanche, 3 July 1955.
4. Laborde, Dominici Affair, 341.
5. For information about bâtonnier, see chapter 9, note 6.
6. Floriot, When Justice Falters, 98–117.
7. Times, 20 July 1955.
8. See Détective, 15 August 1955.
9. Sube meant that her life had been a terrible ordeal.
10. Times, 26 July 1955.
11. Times, 20 October 1955. The ban was subsequently lifted, and the short film is now on DVD.
12. Enquêtes criminelles diverse, Art. 2–3: Affaire Dominici (suite), 1952–56, Archives Nationales, Paris.
13. Times, 11 August 1955.
14. Chenevier, De la combe, 203–4.
15. The abbey closed in 1992. The remaining monks then moved to Ganagobie.
16. Enquêtes criminelles diverse, Art. 2–3: Affaire Dominici (suite), 1952–56, Archives Nationales, Paris.
17. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, part 1.
18. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, part 1.
19. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 3.
20. Vincent Carrias, “Pourquoi je le crois coupable,” http://vincent.carrias.pagesperso-orange.fr/dominici.htm.
21. “Qu’il a pas lieu à suivre en l’état.” Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 3?
22. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 4.
23. Times, 5 August 1954.
24. As part of a television series titled Cinq colonnes à la une.
25. This was not a pardon, simply a remise de réclusion (released from prison).
26. See the protests in Dauphiné Libéré, 26 August 1960.
27. Times, 15 November 1957.
28. Times, 28 July 1960.
29. Daily Telegraph, 29 November 1954.
12. Reception
1. Reymond, Dominici non coupable, 7.
2. Fourastié, Les Trente Glorieuses. The expression was a modification of les trois glorieux, or the three days in July 1830 that brought down Charles X, who was replaced by Louis-Philippe, le roi bourgeois (the bourgeois monarch).
3. Zeldin, “Destruction of the Peasants.”
4. Ehrmann, “French Peasant and Communism.”
5. Blum was the socialist leader of the Popular Front government.
6. Le Roy Ladurie, a tall, stolid, royalist Norman and inheritor of a vast estate, was the father of the historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie.
7. Paxton, French Peasant Fascism.
8. Duby and Wallon, Histoire de la France rurale, 4:449.
9. This was six year
s before rationing was finally ended in Britain.
10. The CAP consumes about half the European Union’s budget at a cost of about €50 billion (about $53 billion).
11. Le Monde, 29 July 1965. Thanks to the European Economic Community, between 1959 and 1975 French agricultural production rose by 61.3 percent in volume and by 228 percent in value.
12. Quesnay wrote, “La terre est l’unique source des richesses,” and spoke of the peasantry as the sole classe productive (productive class).
13. Bernot and Blanchard, Nouville; Friedmann, Villes et compagnes; and Wylie, Village in the Vaucluse.
14. Mendras, La fin des Paysans.
15. Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou; Duby and Wallon, Histoire de la France rurale; and Foucault, Moi, Pierre Rivière.
16. The French concept of paysan is far less archaic and pejorative than the English word “peasant” and is still in common everyday usage to describe both farmers and laborers. A “peasant” is a hayseed; a paysan is a highly respected and hardworking member of the community.
17. Bové managed to get 1.32 percent of the popular vote in the 2007 presidential election with 483,008 votes. He is now a member of the European Parliament.
18. There is some doubt as to what he meant by franc z’loyal. Did he mean “frank,” or did he mean français (French)?
19. Ministry of the Economy, Annuaire statistique de France, 159.
20. Ehrmann, “French Peasant and Communism,” 34. A 1972 survey showed that 41 percent of workers and only 19 percent of peasants could identify Jean-Paul Sartre. This was considered a shocking example of the latter’s cultural backwardness.
21. See, for example, the article by Faure, “Ouvriers et paysans.”
22. Farquhar, Beaux’ Strategem, act 4, scene 1.
23. Innocenzi, L’enigme de Pélissanne.
24. Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Tithonus,” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45389?.
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