Brécourt, Jeanne (b. 1837)

French courtesan and blackmailer. Name variations: Jeanne de la Cour; Brecourt. Born Jeanne Amenaide Brécourt in 1837 in Paris, France; death date unknown; married a grocer named Gras, who deserted her.

One of France's most infamous courtesans, Jeanne Brécourt destroyed a number of her paramours through blackmail and deceit, while feigning an aristocratic background. After plotting to have a wealthy lover blinded to guarantee his dependence, she was brought to trial in 1877 and defended by Charles Lachaud, who had also been the attorney for Marie Lafarge . The trial, one of the more spectacular of its day, reportedly attracted the elite of Paris, including journalists, playwrights, and even members of the popular Comédie-Française.

Brécourt's early life included a troubled childhood and an abusive marriage. Born in poverty, she was adopted at age five by a wealthy baroness who sought to provide a home for the neglected child. When Brécourt was 11, her parents demanded her back to help support the family. At 18, after seven years on poverty row, she returned to the baroness. Soon after, she married impulsively, living in an abusive relationship for a number of years until her husband abandoned her. Brécourt then tried her hand at writing and acting, before adopting a new persona: she emerged as a beautiful courtesan named Jeanne de la Cour. Professing a devout hatred of all men, she proceeded to use and dismiss a cadre of wealthy lovers, many of whom became suicidal in her wake.

In 1873, Brécourt met Georges de Saint Pierre, a rich and handsome young man 16 years her junior. Faced with his family's disapproval and no marriage plans, Brécourt began to obsess about his fidelity. In a morbid plot, she convinced an old friend, Nathalis Gaudry, to blind Georges by throwing acid in his face, thus causing his dependence on her for the remainder of his life. The plan, which was carried out successfully after she and Georges returned home from a masked ball, eventually fell under the investigation of detective Gustave Macé, who would become one of France's most capable detectives. After months of sleuthing, during which time Brécourt tried to escape to Italy with Georges, Macé wore down Brécourt and located Gaudry. Further implicating Brécourt were letters she had hidden in order to blackmail Georges should he ever try to leave her.

The trial, during which Gaudry confessed to carrying out the crime because of his over-whelming love for Brécourt, culminated in the dramatic testimony of Georges de Saint Pierre, which ultimately clarified Brécourt's guilt. She was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Little is known of her final years, though by some accounts, she left prison haggard and old, and spent her last days peddling fruit, as she had as a child.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts