Manette Bonhourt: A Killer for Our Time

Manette Bonhourt was not your average Parisienne. She was young, blond, and quite attractive but this was common enough in the fashionable French capital. What was not so common and indeed was unique in that city’s history was her predilection for serial murder. 

It seems that Ms. Bonhourt was jilted by her lover, something she did not take lightly nor lying down. Driven homicidal by that rejection she began the unusual practice of dressing up  in men’s evening dress, although not concealing her gender, and frequenting the many clubs and bars of Paris looking for victims. Intrigued by this unusual cross dressing young woman, at least 20 men fell victim to this lure. The exact number may never be known.

Taking her intended prey to a nearby hotel Manette and her escort would proceed up to a room she had already booked. Arriving at the room and proposing even more alcohol to her pick of the evening, who was often well along in any case, she would serve her guest wine, along with a sedative she would slip into his drink. After the poor man was unconscious she would then produce a hammer and with a single blow to the head kill him instantly. In the morning Bonhourt would dress in conservative women’s clothing and walk out of the hotel unnoticed, leaving the body of her victim behind to be found by the hotel staff.

At first the Paris police were mystified by these seemingly random killings but then they began hearing tales of the strange blond haired young woman dressed in men’s clothing seen leaving the bars and clubs with the men who later were found dead in hotel rooms around Paris. Although feeling doubtful that a woman was responsible for these murders, they decided to plant officers in some of these places in the hopes of spotting this woman. Deadly femme fatale, material witness, or accomplice she was certainly ‘a person of interest’ they needed to talk to, hopefully before another gruesome killing  took place. They were quickly successful.

One undercover officer spotted her immediately upon her entry into the drinking establishment he was at. Being quick off the mark he swiftly moved to invite the strange but beautiful young woman to join him. Pretending to act more drunk than he actually was the officer was surprised after a short while to receive an invitation to join the lady in her hotel. Cautious but ever daunting he went with Manette up to her room where she proceeded to ply him with the doctored wine. Unaware of the danger the officer downed the drink.

As the sedative began to take effect the officer suddenly realized what was happening, and was made doubly certain when he saw Manette cross the room and come back with a nasty looking claw hammer in her hand. Luckily he had remained largely sober and he had enough consciousness left to disarm his attacker and issue a cry for help. Manette Bonhourt was arrested, taken to jail, duly tried, and sentenced to death by the dreaded guillotine.

As her executioner Henri Sanson stood admiring her Manette said to him “Don’t you think it a pity to cut off a head as pretty as mine?” Alas, the blade fell and Manette Bonhourt was launched into her eternal fate.

Being a rare creature we would expect a woman serial killer like Manette Bonhourt to be better known, especially in this age of terror we have passed through, with the likes of Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and many others become household names, but references to her in the annals of crime, especially serial murder, are rare.

Perhaps this is because Manette Bonhourt lived and died during another reign of terror – the French Revolution. She was executed on the 16th of May 1808.

Image via Wikipedia