Blanche Monnier was born to a well-known wealthy French family, but they were shocked when their daughter fell in love with someone who was lower according to their societal standards. Because of this, they imprisoned her in a small, dark room for more than 20 years. Her father, Charles-Émile Monnier, held a prestigious position as the head of the arts faculty at the local university, and her mother, Louise Monnier, was a well-known French socialite. The Monniers were connected to high society in Paris, projecting an image of upstanding community members with aristocratic aspirations.
In May 1901, the attorney general of Paris got a strange letter. It said the Monnier family in Poitiers, France, was hiding a shocking secret. According to the letter, a woman named Blanche Monnier had been held prisoner in the Monnier house for 25 years, living in terrible conditions. The author of the letter didn’t sign it, and the Monnier family had a good reputation until then.
The attorney general was disturbed by the letter and decided to investigate immediately. What the police found inside the Monnier house was shocking.
Blanche Monnier, who was thought to be away, was actually locked in a room in the house for 25 years. She was now very thin, covered in dirt, and surrounded by rotten food and bugs. Her own mother had imprisoned her just because she loved a man her family didn’t like. When the police arrived, they may have doubted the situation because the Monnier family was well-respected. Madame Louise Monnier, part of the family, was known for her charity work and even received a community award for her generosity.
Louise Monnier’s husband was in charge of a local arts faculty. Their son Marcel, a law school graduate, worked as an administrative official in the Puget-Théniers commune. They also had a daughter, Blanche Monnier, born in 1849. Blanche was known for being gentle and good-natured, and her physical beauty attracted many admirers. Given her family’s esteemed position in society, she often found herself in the public eye.
However, in 1876, Blanche mysteriously disappeared. Louise Monnier told people that her daughter had “gone away” or was traveling. As time passed, acquaintances assumed the young socialite had moved abroad permanently, and questions about her ceased within the Monnier family. But they didn’t know that Blanche was trapped in her own home. It took more than 20 years for someone to send a secret letter to the attorney general of Paris, exposing her awful situation:
On May 23, 1901, someone sent a secret letter to the top law official in Paris. The letter claimed that a woman had been kept against her will by her mother, living in really bad conditions without enough food, and she had been there for 25 years. The police in Poitiers were informed, and they quickly went to the house of Madame Louise Monnier, the person mentioned in the letter. They asked to see her daughter Blanche. At first, Louise Monnier resisted, but eventually, she led them upstairs to Blanche’s locked room.
The author of which is still unknown, that revealed the incarceration: Monsieur Attorney General: I have the honour to inform you of an exceptionally serious occurrence. I speak of a spinster who is locked up in Madame Monnier’s house, half-starved and living on a putrid litter for the past twenty-five years – in a word, in her own filth.
The police officers went into the room forcefully. The first thing they noticed was a strong smell—overpowering stench of poop and spoiled meat. In the darkness, they spotted her lying on a straw mattress on the floor. She was a very thin woman, without any clothes except for a dirty bed sheet. She had long, black hair that reached down to her thighs, and her nails, both on fingers and toes, were long and curved. Around her, there was a layer of old food, poop, bugs, and pests. This woman was Blanche Monnier, 52 years old.
Blanche went to the hospital. She was very dirty and extremely thin, weighing only 25 kilos (55 lbs). Although she wasn’t in immediate physical danger, her mental health was a big concern. It was expected that she would be traumatized after being isolated and neglected for many years, but there was more to her mental condition – people said she was mad.
Blanche’s mother, who was 75 years old, and her brother Marcel, 53, were arrested and charged for keeping Blanche confined. Marcel didn’t live in the same house, but he often visited his family home on the opposite side of the street. Two weeks after their arrest, Louise Monnier, Blanche’s mother, passed away. She had been sick for a while, and the angry crowd outside her home worsened her health. Despite everything, she showed no remorse for how she treated Blanche and even said, “All this fuss for nothing.”
A police officer who was at the crime scene remembered a shocking sight: “The poor woman was lying naked on a dirty straw mattress. There was a layer of filth around her made up of poop, bits of meat, vegetables, fish, and moldy bread. We even saw oyster shells and bugs crawling on Miss Monnier’s bed.”
Considering the awful mistreatment the woman had endured, it was amazing she was still alive. The stench of dirt and decay was so strong that investigators couldn’t stay in the room for long. They found it hard to believe she had managed to survive in that room for about 25 years.
Blanche’s story became big news in France. A shocking picture of Blanche when she arrived at the hospital was all over the headlines. People were very angry about how her own family treated her so horribly. Everyone wanted to know why this happened, and soon, a reason came out.
Read also:
- Andrew McAuley Disappears In Middle of Ocean, Leaving Behind Terrifying Video
- Mystery of 20-25 Minute Cut from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ Revealed
- Joe Rogan Reacts to Quest To Discover Genghis Khan’s Tomb That Has Never Been Found
The story goes like this: Blanche, a happy and beautiful 25-year-old, fell in love with a lawyer who was a bit older. However, Blanche’s mom didn’t like the match because he was poor and not Catholic, unlike their noble and Catholic family. To break off the engagement, Blanche’s mom locked her in a room and lied to everyone, saying she had disappeared.
Not long after Madame Louise Monnier was arrested, she said that her daughter had chosen a partner many years ago. Sadly, the family wasn’t happy because he wasn’t a young, rich aristocrat but an older lawyer who had no money. Even though her mother wanted her to pick a more suitable husband, Blanche Monnier wouldn’t give up on the man she loved.
In response, Madame Monnier locked her daughter in a room with a padlock until she agreed to do what her mother wanted. The years passed, but Blanche Monnier refused to give in. She stayed locked up even after her boyfriend died in 1885, with only pests for company. Blanche’s brother didn’t help her, and he was eventually accused of working with his mother.
It is still not knonwn who wrote the letter that led to Blanche being rescued. One rumor says a servant told her boyfriend, who got shocked and told the attorney general. The terrible story quickly became known to everyone, and people got so upset that an angry crowd gathered outside the Monnier house.
The stress from people being upset caused Madame Monnier to have serious heart problems. She passed away 15 days after her daughter was freed. Sadly, the only family member left to answer for the crimes was Blanche’s brother, Marcel. Marcel had a trial starting on October 7, 1901, accused of being involved in violence. The trial lasted for five days, and many people who had worked in the Monnier family home testified. They talked about Blanche’s situation, how clean her room was, and her ability to move around the house.
The testimonies revealed a different story from what was portrayed in the media and on the streets. Firstly, everyone working for the Monniers knew about Blanche and her illness. Secondly, she wasn’t confined to her room the entire time; she could move around the house and even played the piano for a while. Thirdly, many people stated that Blanche was taken care of and her room was kept clean during the twenty years Marie Fazy looked after her.
However, these testimonies need to be understood considering Blanche’s violent behavior due to her illness. She would soil herself, rip clothes, and damage things in her room. Blanche was not an easy patient to care for. When her main caregiver, Marie Fazy, passed away five years earlier, things got worse.
Blanche’s mother, Louise Monnier, seemed to have abandoned her daughter at this point. Instead of hiring another nurse after Marie Fazy, Louise employed a series of untrained maids who couldn’t handle Blanche’s needs. They were expected to sleep in Blanche’s room, and many left quickly. Louise’s stinginess made the situation worse, as she refused to provide clean nightshirts and sheets for Blanche.
In 1899, Blanche’s condition worsened when Louise assigned two inexperienced housemaids, Juliette Dupuis and Eugénie Tabeau, to care for her. Louise did not actively participate in Blanche’s care, and Marcel, Blanche’s brother, seemed powerless to take action. Marcel, in fact, waited for his mother to die before doing anything.
Louise’s declining health eventually led to Blanche’s discovery. About six weeks before the police intervened, Louise became too sick to give orders, and Marcel didn’t take charge. Blanche was left in a terrible state, lying on a dirty mattress covered in waste, rotten food, and vermin. Someone, likely one of the new maids, informed a soldier boyfriend about Blanche, leading to an anonymous letter to the authorities.
Marcel was found guilty and sentenced to 15 months in prison, but he immediately appealed. His lawyers argued that Louise, as Blanche’s legal guardian and house owner, was responsible, not Marcel. The appeal succeeded, and Marcel was released in November 1901.
Marcel sold the different properties he inherited from his mom and went to live by the coast. Blanche stayed in a mental hospital in Blois for the rest of her life. Even though she was taken care of, she still struggled with mental illness. Both Blanche and Marcel passed away in 1913.
In 1930, André Gide used Blanche’s story to write his novel, La Séquestrée de Poitiers. The book tells about a young woman held captive by her mother because of a love affair that the family didn’t like – similar to the rumors about Blanche and the Protestant lawyer that still exist today.
Fact Check:
If you search for Blanche’s story online today, you’ll find the same version on many blogs, news sites, and even Wikipedia. It’s like a dark fairy tale about a princess, Blanche, who is trapped in a tower, waiting for a prince who will never come. People often show pictures of Blanche before and after her discovery, comparing her as a young woman. However, the “before” photos are not actually of Blanche Monnier. The woman on the left is an American actress named Maude Fealy, and the woman on the right is unknown, dated 1914, a year after Blanche died at the age of 65. (Source)
So, the photos are fake, but what about the story itself? The lawyer mentioned in the tale might have been real, but his role in Blanche’s imprisonment seems to be exaggerated. Despite headlines claiming “a woman held captive for 25 years,” there is a lot of doubt about whether Blanche was actually held against her will. The story told during the trial of Blanche’s brother, by the maids and doctors who cared for her during these supposed 25 years of “captivity,” is complicated. Blanche Monnier wasn’t like Rapunzel or Elisabeth Fritzl. The harm done to her was more ordinary, the result of many people turning a blind eye or neglecting their responsibility.
