title: The Courtesan and the Gigolo: The Murders in the Rue Montaigne and the Dark Side of Empire in Nineteenth-Century Paris
author:  Aaron Freundschuh 
description: <b>*2017 Gold Medal Winner for True Crime at The Independent Publisher Book Awards*</b><br /><br />"Carefully crafted and beautifully written...Freundschuh has a real talent for transforming archival details into arresting stories. He engages in crime storytelling while analyzing late-nineteenth century crime storytelling, weaving together the lives of the criminal, his victims, and the journalists and police officers involved in the "Pranzini Affair."<br /><b>--H-Urban Reviews</b><br /><br /><b>From</b> <b><i>THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW</i></b>:<br />"Aaron Freundschuh rings the graveyard church bells for a refined, if corrupt <i>fin de sicle</i> world that passed away with a sigh. When the Paris police prefect got word in March 1887 of a triple homicide on the Rue Montaigne, he knew what he had -- yet another senseless murder of women from the Parisian demimonde. But this time attention had to paid, because one of the victims, Madame de Montille, was a courtesan belonging to "an ethereal rank" of kept women known for their professional skills and fabulous wealth. The level of butchery linked the killings to a series of unsolved homicides that began eight years earlier. Had Jack the Ripper not made his dramatic appearance a year later, Freundschuh convincingly argues, the courtesan killings would have entered into the historical annals."<br /><br />
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  # FILE NO. 113
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### EMILE GABORIAU
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  I
  
  
  II
  
  
  III
  
  
  IV
  
  
  V
  
  
  VI
  
  
  VII
  
  
  VIII
  
  
  IX
  
  
  X
  
  
  XI
  
  
  XII. THE DRAMA
  
  
  XIII
  
  
  XIV
  
  
  XV
  
  
  XVI
  
  
  XVII
  
  
  XVIII
  
  
  XIX
  
  
  XX
  
  
  XXI
  
  
  XXII. THE CATASTROPHE
  
  
  XXIII
  
  
  XXIV
  
  
  XXV
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ###  I
  
  
  
  
  
    
  In the Paris evening papers of Tuesday, February 28, 1866, under
  
  
  the head of Local Items, the following announcement appeared:
  
  
    
  "A daring robbery, committed against one of our most eminent
  
  
  bankers, M. Andre Fauvel, caused great excitement this morning
  
  
  throughout the neighborhood of Rue de Provence.
  
  
    
  "The thieves, who were as skilful as they were bold, succeeded in
  
  
  making an entrance to the bank, in forcing the lock of a safe that has
  
  
  heretofore been considered impregnable, and in possessing themselves
  
  
  of the enormous sum of three hundred and fifty thousand francs in
  
  
  bank-notes.
  
  
    
  "The police, immediately in