The Dominici Affair
Page 35
9. Combat, 6 August 1952.
10. Yet in a statement made to the gendarmes on 8 August, Olivier said that Gustave “had made a sign for me to stop.” Perhaps Olivier was already stopping when Gustave made the sign. There is also confusion about where exactly he came to a halt.
11. Sébeille, L’affaire Dominici, 86.
12. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, part 1.
13. Gaston had said, “Vaï te coutcha!”
14. L’Humanité, 8 August 1952.
15. Domènech’s book on the case, Lurs: Toute l’affaire Dominici, is one of the best contemporaneous accounts and contains some interesting photographs taken by the author.
16. Combat, 19 August 1952.
17. L’Humanité, 12 August 1952.
18. As mentioned elsewhere, Drummond was granted permission to go behind enemy lines and help provide food for the starving Dutch.
19. L’Humanité, 19 August 1952.
20. National Archives, Kew, FO 369/4924, Reilly to Patrick Dean at the FO, 22 December 1953. Also in FO 369/5032.
21. The full extent of Sir Jack’s involvement in “secret” work is described in chapter 6, in the section on his career.
22. Paris Match, 23–30 August 1952.
23. Sébeille, L’affaire Dominici, 89.
24. L’Humanité, 28 August 1952. The paper referred to this new witness as “M. Panconi” and said he was “an electrician from Nice.”
25. Sébeille, L’affaire Dominici, 91.
4. Gaston Denounced
1. National Archives, Kew, MEPO 2/9393.
2. Paris Match, 4–11 October 1952. Hopefully the well was disused, but the record contains no such indication, simply mentioning “the well at the farm.”
3. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 5, 28.4.1956. It was a .30 carbine (7.62 x 33 mm), the standard ammunition for the M1.
4. Ce Soir, 4 September 1952.
5. L’Humanité, 5 September 1952.
6. Combat, 6 September 1952.
7. Laborde, Dominici Affair, 117.
8. Pollak was a fervent opponent of the death penalty, but five of his clients were executed, including the last person in France to receive the death penalty, Hamida Djandoubi, who was executed on 10 September 1977. He also defended the notorious Marseille Unione Corse family Guérini, who organized the so-called French Connection that supplied the heroin trade to New York. See Pollak, La parole est à la défense.
9. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 2. The name in the archives is incorrectly spelled. Stansfield was an outstanding operative and was awarded the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and the Military Cross for his services in the Aveyron.
10. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 7.
11. L’Humanité, 6 September 1952.
12. Under a paragraph in the penal code introduced by the Vichy government on 28 November 1943 and signed into law by de Gaulle on 25 June 1945.
13. As in a number of instances, there is some confusion in the record regarding the spelling of this family’s name. It sometimes appears as “Barthe,” but “Barth” is the most common.
14. One set was taken by the gendarmes; the other, by the technical and scientific police.
15. Times, 21 November 1952.
16. The mythical “second Hillman,” seen by the Lurs postman and by two road menders on the main road near Ganagobie, was almost certainly that of the Drummonds. The second car, which a gendarme saw in Digne on the evening of 4 August, might well have been British but not a Hillman.
17. National Archives, Kew, MEPO 2/9393.
18. Daily Express, 18 October 1952.
19. L’Humanité, 28 August 1952.
20. National Archives, Kew, mepo 2/9393.
21. Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 304.
22. Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 121.
23. See, for example, Ce Soir, 4 September 1952.
24. Speaking in dialect, Paul Maillet had said, “Mai mount érès?” Gustave replied, “A qui devans.” Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 464–65.
25. In December 1953 Maillet admitted that before Yvette returned, he had asked where Gustave was. Gustave replied that he was “in front.”
26. He was minister of justice from 20 January 1952 to 18 June 1954 in the governments of Edgar Faure, Antoine Pinay, René Meyer, and Joseph Laniel.
27. Sébeille, L’affaire Dominici, 160.
28. Roure was accompanied by Clovis and Boyer.
29. Le Parisien Libéré, 13 November 1953.
30. Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, [page?].
31. Gaston spoke in dialect: “Ai paù de dégun! Es ioù qu’aï fa péta leis Inglés!” There is some debate about the precise meaning of these words. Guerrier (L’affaire Dominici, 495) suggests that there is an ambiguity in the expression “fa péta,” in that it could imply that he had someone else to do the deed. That this is far-fetched can be seen by the repetition of the phrase in the next paragraph, “I killed all three of them.”
32. The Gras was the French Army’s standard single-round 11mm rifle, which was introduced in 1874. It was a modified version of the famous Chassepot, using metal rather than paper cartridges. It was replaced by the Lebel in 1886.
33. “Leis aï fa péta toutéi très.” Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 496.
5. Confession
1. Laborde, Dominici Affair, 235.
2. There seems to be some confusion about when mention is first made in official papers of the carbine being kept on the shelf in the shed. See Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 491.
3. Combat, 2 September 1952.
4. See, for example, Times, 14 November 1953.
5. Le Parisien Libéré, 20 November 1953.
6. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, part 1.
7. By the time of the Dominici trial, Sabatier had been promoted to staff sergeant (chef de brigade).
8. Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 504, makes much of the fact that Gaston spoke of “the rifle” in one version of this exchange with Guérino and said “my rifle” in another. Also, he spoke of a “rifle” and not a “carbine.” The second distinction is hardly relevant, because whoever used the weapon did not realize that it was an automatic.
9. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, part 1.
10. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1.
11. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1.
12. It will be remembered that the magazine held fifteen rounds.
13. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1.
14. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1.
15. Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 522.
16. Gaston had spoken in dialect: “Lei aï fa péta toutéi très. Sè nin faù faïre péta encore, lou farai péta.” Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1. Notice the slight difference in the wording (aï fa péta) from his account of the incident as mentioned in chapter 4, note 31.
17. “Je vous remercie, monsieur Gustave.” Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1.
18. “Au moment des faits.” Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1.
19. Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 533.
20. Times (London), 17 November 1953.
21. Le Figaro, 17 November 1953.
22. Daily Express, 17 November 1953.
23. The work of Jean Meckert, Jean Laborde, and Jean-Charles Deniau and Madeleine Sultan are in broad agreement. Domènech supports the official version.
24. In dialect: “Aguès pas paou, ti piqueraï pas.” Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici. 540.
25. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1.
26. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1.
27. William Reymond, Dominici non coupable, 89, claims that it was “the family”; Domènech, Lurs, 209, says it was Marie Dominici; and for Pollak, La parole est à la défense, 237, it was Gustave.
28. Le Figaro, 17 November 1953.
29. Le Figaro, 11–12 September 1953 and 17 November 195
3.
30. Le Figaro, 16 September 1953.
31. Le Parisien Libéré, 14 November 1953.
32. Le Parisien Libéré, 16 and 17 November 1953.
33. News Chronicle, 18 November 1953.
6. Two Lives
1. Details on Drummond’s life can be found in National Archives, Kew, MAF 256 and 256/4; and in his obituary by F. G. Young, “Jack Cecil Drummond, 1891–1952,” Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 9, no. 1 (November 1954): 98–129. See also Fergusson, The Vitamin Murders.
2. In 1929, together with Christiaan Eijkman, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for work establishing the association between beriberi and the consumption of decorticated rice.
3. See Drummond’s article in the Biochemical Journal 14 (1920): 660.
4. Boyd Orr, Food, Health and Income.
5. Friend, The Schoolboy.
6. Drummond and Wilbraham, The Englishman’s Food.
7. Dorothy Hollingsworth tried to bring the book up to date in 1957, but her changes were minor and do not meet present-day concerns about dairy products, which Drummond championed. See the edition published by Pimlico in 1994.
8. Ministry of Food, Food and Its Protection.
9. Kingsley Wood had served as minister of food in Baldwin’s third term.
10. In 1942 the Ministry of Food demanded 12.4 million tons but only received 11.4 million tons. There were no unmanageable shortages. Taylor, English History, 1914–1945, 546. The prewar importation of foodstuffs averaged 22 million tons per annum, according to the ministry.
11. Roughly seven U.S. cents.
12. Sir Wilson Jameson was the chief medical officer at the Ministry of Health and the architect of the National Health Service. Sir John Boyd Orr was a feisty champion of nutrition and a brilliant scientist who was awarded the 1949 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the field. See Lasker Foundation, “Group Awards: 1947—The British Ministries of Food and Health,” http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/show/historical-awards/.I.
13. Malta was the most heavily bombed area in the entire war.
14. Council of British Societies for Relief Abroad, Nutrition and Relief Work.
15. Chapman, Jesse Boot, 201.
16. Boots Annual Report, 1949–1950, Boots UK Limited Archives. Schering, founded in 1841, was taken over by Bayer in 2006.
17. National Archives, Kew, MAF 256/4. Evans was a professor of physiology at University College, London, and he worked at the Chemical Defence Experimental Station at Porton Down, Wiltshire. He was a specialist in gas contamination, and Drummond consulted him when writing his paper on decontamination.
18. National Archives, Kew, MEPO 2/9393
19. On 30 December 1952.
20. CID to Sûreté, 26 January 1953, MEPO 2/9393.
21. As noted previously, the department was renamed the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in April 1970.
22. “La famille de Gaston et Marie Dominici,” Affaire Dominici—Triple crime de Lurs (forum), 13 October 2008, http://www.affairedominicitriplecrimedelurs.com/t54-La-famille-de-Gaston-et-Marie-Dominici.htm.
23. For further reference, it is also known as Livre des secrets sur les vertus des herbes, des pierres et de certains animaux. Better known as Albertus Magnus (1206–80), Albert le Grand was a distinguished scholar and scientist who did much to promote Aristotle and Avicenna and thus was a great influence on Saint Thomas Aquinas. He dabbled in alchemy, magic, and the occult, for which he was roundly denounced. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1931.
7. Dominici Awaits His Trial
1. Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 573.
2. Meckert, La tragédie de Lurs, 231; and Laborde, Dominici Affair, 282.
3. “Aï pou de dégun. Naï fa péta très . . . naï fara uncap éta sin fau.” Guerrier, L’affaire Dominici, 549.
4. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, Minutes, PV, 5 December 1953.
5. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 7 December 1953.
6. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 7 December 1953.
7. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 17 December 1953.
8. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 18 December 1953.
9. Figaro, 21 November 1953.
10. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 28 December 1952.
11. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 30 December 1953. The year before Roure had put the time at about 7:45 a.m.
12. Marshal François-Achille Bazaine had fought with great distinction in the Crimea, at Solferino, and in Mexico. He was the commander of the French forces trapped with 170,000 men in Metz during the Franco-Prussian War. There he made the famous remark, “We are in a chamber pot, and they’ll shit on us!” He capitulated on 27 October 1870. Widely seen as a traitor, he was condemned to death by a court martial, but the sentence was commuted. In 1888 he died in obscurity in Madrid.
13. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 4 February 1954.
14. Pollak, La parole est à la défense, 275.
15. Gustave said this was on 13 November, but this is clearly a mistake.
16. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 23 February 1954.Archives.
17. Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 23 February 1954.
18. Laborde, Dominici Affair, 253.
19. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 20 March 1954.
20. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 24 February 1954.
21. Clotilde would have been ten years old at the time.
22. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 24 February 1954.
23. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 1, PV, 8 March 1954.
24. No such statement by Gaston can be found in the written record.
25. Laborde, Dominici Affair, 269.
8. The Trial Opens
1. As noted in chapter 6, a santon is a small nativity figurine and popular in Provence. A traditional Provençal crèche has fifty-five individual figures representing various characters from Provençal village life. The Images d’Épinal were prints of military subjects, storybook characters, and other folk themes, and they were hugely popular throughout the nineteenth century. They were usually backed by wood or metal.
2. Giono, Notes sur l’affaire Dominici, 86.
3. National Archives, Kew, FO 369/5032.
4. Unless otherwise noted, for all quoted passages from the trial, see the transcript in Enquêtes criminelles diverse, Art. 2–3: Affaire Dominici (suite), 1952–56, Archives Nationales, Paris.
5. Pollak mistakenly dated this as 17 December 1953.
6. In a French court the jury is the judge, whereas the judge acts as a president. As is shown in the case of Gaston Dominici’s trial, the president acts not as an impartial judge but very much as a prosecutor.
7. Scize, Au grand jour des assisses, 305. A similar verb—maronner—is standard French, meaning “groan.” The verb is formed from the slang noun marron.
8. For example, see Jean Thiery-Doyen in Voilà: Europe Magazine, 5 December 1954.
9. See Birdwhistell, Kinesis and Context.
10. Barthes, “Dominici,” in Mythologies, 43–46. The original article is reprinted with comments in La Vie Judiciaire, 17–23 December 1990, 7–8. He cites the example of Gaston being asked, “Êtes-vous allé au pont?” (Did you go to the bridge?) He replied: “Allée? Il n’y pas d’allée; je le sais, j’y suis été.” (A path? There is no path; I know, I’ve been there!) Allé means “gone”, allée is “path.” Dominici also used suis été rather than ai été for “been.” Mythologies was first published in Paris in 1957.
11. National Archives, Kew, MEPO 2/9394 report of 20 July 1955.
12. Archives Départmentales Digne, 1182 W 8.
13. Vincent, L’affaire Dominici, 236.
14. Scize, Au grand jour des assisses, 307.
15. Sébeille said Gaston used the term pêché d’amour.