#french crime

• Les Bonnes, a play by Jean Genet.
  

• The Maids, a film based on Les Bonnes, by Christopher Miles.
  

• My Sister In This House, a play by Wendy Kesselman.
  

• Sister My Sister a film based on My Sister In This House, by Nancy Meckler.
  

• Les Abysses, a film by Nikos Papatakis.
  

• Les Soeurs Pain, a book by R. Le Texier.
  

• Blood Sisters, stage and screenplay by Neil Paton.
  

• L'Affaire Papin, a book by Paulette Houdyer.
  

• La Solution Du Passage a L'acte a book by Francis Dure.
  

• Paris Was Yesterday a book by Janet Flanner.
  

• La Ligature, a short film by Gilles Cousin.
  

• Les Muertres Par Procuration, a book by Jean-Claude Asfour.
  

• Lady Killers, a book by Joyce Robins.
  

• Minotaure #3 1933, a magazine.
  

• The Maids, an opera by Peter Bengston.
  

• Les Blessures Assassines, a film by Jean-Pierre Denis.
  

• En Quote Des Soeurs Papin a documentary by Claude Ventura.
  

• Gros Proces Des L'histoire, a book by M. Mamouni.
  

• L'Affaire Papin, a book by Genevieve Fortin.
  

• The Papin Sisters, a book by Rachel Edwards and Keith Reader.
  

• The Maids, an artwork by Paula Rego.
  

• Anna Le Bonne, a spoken song written by Jean Cocteau performed by Marianne Oswald.
  

The case of The Papin Sisters is one of the most analysed cases in French history, with intellectuals and playwrights researching and using this case as an inspiration ever since the murders took place in 1933.

Christine and Lea were the two younger of three children born to the troubled Papin family south of Le Mans. Christine was born on the 8th of March 1905 and Lea was born on the 15th of September 1911, and despite the large age gap, they grew extremely close during their childhood, a bond which would continue throughout their entire lives. All three of the girls had extremely difficult childhoods according to the research done on the case, with all three girls being subject to severe neglect and abuse. 

Emilia, the oldest of the three girls, was reportedly sexually assaulted by her cruel father, an experience which led to her moving away and becoming a nun, leaving her younger siblings to deal with their parents together. According to reports, their mother cared very little for the children, doing absolutely nothing to protect them, or show them any kind of love or affection.

After Emilia left to become a nun, their parents would divorce, but not because of their fathers crime, or his abuse of all three of his children, but because their mother was apparently jealous of Emilia and her fathers ‘relationship’ believing that he didn’t rape her, but that they actually had had a consensual affair. The difficulties in their childhood is what would lead to Christine and Lea becoming so unusually close, according to researchers, Lea always being protected by her older sister, from abuse and molestation, essentially led Lea to become an extension of her older and smarter sister, causing her t lack any real individual personality whatsoever.

After their parents divorced, the girls reportedly spent a portion of their childhood in a mental institution due to the fact that there was no one around to take the girls in. They had grown very quiet during their youth, so quiet in fact that those who were in the institution with them, and even some of the staff, believed the girls to be telepathic. Some people had never heard them speak at all, but they were always together.
Upon their release they began to work as maids, together when they could, in multiple homes south of Le Mans, managing to both find a live in position with the Lancelin family in 1926. The girls working conditions were harsh, they worked 14 hour days 6 days a week for a pedantic mistress who would reportedly use 'mild violence in order to punish the girls, things like pinching them with her nails when they were slacking or that they weren’t doing their jobs well enough.

The attack took place on the night of February 2nd 1933 after they had worked in the home for around 7 years, after a argument reportedly started over Christine plugging in a faulty iron and causing a power outage in the home.

The Lancelin family were due to go to dinner at a friends home, but when Mr Lancelin arrived at their friends home and his wife and daughter failed to show u, he felt as though something was wrong, and decided to return to his home to make sure that his wife and child were okay. When he arrived all of the doors and windows were locked, and the only light in the home was the flicker of a candle in Christine and Leas bedroom. Knowing something was wrong he went and got the police.

Tragically when they entered the home, police found Mrs Lancelin and her daughter Genevieve dead, and beaten to a point that they were almost completelyunrecognizable. Investigators described the scene as looking like a 'blood orgy’, it a an incredibly violent attack which is believed to have lasted around half an hour. Both of the women had had their eyes gouged from their sockets, one of Genevieve’s eyes was found a little way away from her on the floor, and Mrs Lancelin’s eyes were found caught in the folds of the scarf which she was wearing around her neck. The two women also had numerous slash wounds on their legs, so many that they couldn’t be accurately counted and they had been hit around the head with a hammer, and with a pewter pot which had been at the top of the stairs.

The sisters denied nothing when they found wrapped in each others arms as they slept, with the blood Mrs Lancelin ad Genevieve rubbed all over their bodies, confessing to everything that hapenned almost immediately.

For the first time in their lives the girls wereseparated while they awaited trial, and after being found guilty and being sentenced to different prisons, Christine for life, and Lea for just 7 years since they believed that she was manipulated by her smarter, older, ad more dominant sister, Christine couldn’t cope. She suffered an extremely severe mental breakdown leading to her attempting to gouge out her own eyes, just like she had done to her victims, and she died after just 4 years of her sentence because she refused to eat, or to look after herself in any way.

Lea was released in 1941, and according to reports she started a new life under a fake name, found a job and never offended again, which wasn’t surprising to investigators who believed that Lea alone did not prove a threat to society, and that it was with Christine’s influence alone that Lea had committed these awful crimes. 

There’s a lot of questions around the demise of Lea Papin, most sources state that the died in 91, however, a documentary filmed by Claude Ventura claims that she actually died in 2001. In Claude’s documentary, he claims to have found Lea in a hospital, post stroke, and unable to talk, however it is not known for sure whether this really was Lea orwhether he was simply trying to make his documentary more exciting, though this 'Lea’ was actually featured in his film.