Jeanne Brécourt, sometimes her name is given as Bricourt, was one of France's most notorious courtesans. Using dishonesty and blackmail, she ruined some of her lovers. She was sentenced 15 years' penal servitude for having one of her lovers blinded.
Biography
Born Eugénie Arménaïde Brécourt on 8 April 1837 in Paris, she was the daughter of a printer and a vegetable seller. As a child she was neglected, and at 5 years old was adopted by a Baroness. When Brécourt was 11, her parents took her away from the Baroness and used her the sell gingerbread on the streets. When she was 17 she returned to the Baroness, who agreed to take her in and found her work in a silk factory. When Brécourt was 18 she attended the wedding of a co-worker. On returning home she express her desire to get married. The Baroness didn't take her seriously and when Gras, the grocer, called to make his delivery, jokingly suggested him for a husband. Brécourt took the idea seriously and in 1855 the couple were married. The Baroness reluctantly gave her consent and provided a dowry of 12,000 francs, which the couple used to open a grocery store. The marriage didn't last long. Brécourt was very demanding and after a while Gras left. Brécourt went back to the Baroness for a while and then disappeared. She is reputed to have started a relationship with an officer of the garrison at Vincennes.
Courtesan
Some while later Brécourt reappeared as a courtesan, calling herself Jeanne de la Cour, having unsuccessfully attempted commerce, acting, literature and journalism. Brécourt regarded men as playthings, to be discarded when they had served their purpose. She wrote: One of her lovers, a German, committed suicide, another took an overdose of cantharides. A third died in hospital. Brécourt was unmoved by their deaths, however her actions ended with her being admitted to an asylum. A few months later she was released as "cured". From the asylum she went to Vittel, where she assumed the title of Baroness. When Brécourt was in her late 30s, her hair was greying and her looks fading. Her lovers were deserting her because of her blackmailing them, others looking for younger women. Gras died in a charity hospital, and now free from her past and to safeguard her future, she set off to find a permanent benefactor.
In 1873 Brécourt met Rene de la Roche at a ball in Paris. Roche was a wealthy 20-year-old who became infatuated by her, and by the end of that year they entered into a relationship. Roche was referred to in some reports as Georges de Saint Pierre to protect his anonymity. Three years later Roche left for six months in Egypt. Brécourt met an ageing courtesan with a younger blind lover who was devoted to her and could not see the effects of age on her. The concept appealed to Brécourt, and on Roche's returned from Egypt in 1876 she hatched a plot to blind him. Nathalis Gaudry had been a childhood friend of Brécourt and they had been reunited when he moved to Paris looking for employment after being in the army. She convinced Gaudry, to blind the Roche, telling Gaudry that Roche was the son of a man who had cheated her. Gaudry eventually carried out her wishes to blind Roche on 13 January 1877. Brécourt and Gaudry were brought to trial for this in July 1877, and Brécourt was defended by Charles Lachaud, who had earlier defended Marie Lafarge. Brécourt was found guilty, and was sentenced to fifteen years penal servitude, while Gaudry, who had been found guilty with extenuating circumstances, was sentenced to five years in prison.
