A Modern Movement to Exonerate a Medieval Serial Killer

[lermontov]

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/gilles-de-rais-bluebeard

[kazinator]

> perversions that cannot presently be expounded upon by reason of their horror, but that will be disclosed in Latin at the appropriate time and place

Priceless! I have to use that in a comment, or piece of documentation.

[gumby → kazinator]

Why are you reading my code???

[MargotK]

"Court of Cassation" was the expression used in English language newspapers of 1992. The actual retrial was, admittedly, a publicity stunt. But it was based on proper research, some of it dating back to an earlier attempt at a retrial in the mid-1920s.

I defy anybody to read the translations of the trial documents thoroughly & not notice a) clear evidence of evidence extracted by torture & b) serious contradictions in the evidence. For instance (& noted by Georges Bataille, the most hostile of biographers) a string of missing children at Machecoul when Gilles was living at Tiffauges...

[TL_DR]

Some bold assertions made here (eg no witnesses and no victims) directly contradict those on Wikipedia. Further, I fail to see a movement. The article is mostly about a book author who was so "intrigued" by ""one of the blackest sorcerers in history"" as a teenager that reading about his retrail was the ""greatest adrenaline jolt of [her] life"" and "who calls herself “Gilles de Rais’ representative on Earth”". The other relevant person being the researcher that brought about the retrail.

[civilian → TL_DR]

No shit wikipedia contradicts what Margot Juby is saying. Wikipedia would just be repeating the official (and potentially fabricated?) narrative from a kangaroo court. Juby is trying to update that official record. I think your "hierarchy of sources" is out of wack.

[killin_dan → civilian]

It's on Wikipedia so it must be true! /s

[MargotK → TL_DR]

Well, the article does also reference Salomon Reinach, Fernand Fleuret & Jean-Pierre Bayard, plus Revolutionary pamphleteer Joseph La Vallée. As soon as the trial record was published in translation, there was a definite movement towards doubting the verdict of the trial; certain biographers, notably Bataille and Gabory, were very aware of this & attempted to defend the status quo with attacks on Reinach's credibility. Prouteau was not a researcher, he was a novelist; his case rested very heavily on twentieth century writers.

So, yes, I AM Gilles de Rais' representative on earth, but I'm not the first in line & nor will I be the last.

[hossbeast → TL_DR]

Maybe you don't know how Wikipedia works

[alricb]

A Court of Cassation, the highest court of appeals in France, was conducted and Rais was fully exonerated later that year.

That didn't happen. The "court" had no official status and no real jurisdiction, and didn't hear any professional historian.