Beware the Red Armchair

In 1944, Paris was occupied by German forces. One man tried to take advantage of that. He succeeded, for a while. And then it all came crashing down on his head. Almost literally.

Marquise Jeanne de Sigoyer was married to “The Marquis Alain Jules Antoine Romain Gaspard de Bernardi de Sigoyer” – a moniker that the man gave to himself. The man was a skilled con artist – his real name being plainly Alain de Bernardi. And de Bernardi was making a name for himself.

During the German occupation of Paris, de Bernardi gained the favour of the German army through his wine connections – by supplying them with black market wines and other goods. Business was booming, and de Bernardi was worth a lot of money – money that he was not keen on parting with, under any circumstances.

On March 28th, 1944, a mother showed up at a Paris police station. She was frantic and distraught. She said that her daughter had failed to return home. She told police that her daughter, Jeanne, had gone to see her estranged husband. She hadn’t been seen since.

Jeanne was a pretty 23 year old woman. She’d been married to de Bernardi, but she was seeking a divorce. On the night she disappeared, she’d gone to his home in order to seek child support. She’d also seen Irène Lebeau at the home – a woman de Bernardi had hired to be his wife’s maid and help care for their first child.

Police paid de Bernardi a visit, where he admitted to seeing Jeanne that night. He said they argued over the divorce, and the demand for child support money. He told the police that Jeanne had gotten upset and had left in a tizzy. He hadn’t seen her since. De Bernardi thought his run ins with the police were over. He was wrong.

As the “tides of war were turning”, de Bernardi also attempted to change sides. He was not successful. He’d been too well known through his black market connections as being very good friends with the German occupying forces. After Paris’ liberation, de Bernardi was arrested.

While in prison, de Bernardi wrote many letters to friends asking for help. Mail going in and out of the prison was censured. One particular letter that de Bernardi wrote caught the attention of his jailers. It was a letter written to Irène Lebeau.

The letter was a request. De Bernardi wanted Irène to dispose of several of Jeanne’s dresses. But that wasn’t what caught their attention. They’d paid special attention to a particular phrase he used in the letter – “Be fearful of the red armchair.”

Police paid a call to Irène in order to get answers. She told them that everything they needed to know was in the vaults under the home. Police went down and began to dig. They soon came across clothing matching the description Jeanne’s mother had given them nearly a year prior. Police continued to dig, eventually uncovering Jeanne’s body.

After the discovery, Irène began to tell her story. She told them that de Bernardi had seduced her in 1940, when she was only 17 years old, and before he’d married Jeanne. Their affair continued after his marriage – marking Irène as his mistress.

She went on to state that de Bernardi had been abusive towards her, and then towards Jeanne. Eventually, Jeanne had had enough and left him.

Irène went on to explain that she was there the night Jeanne had come to visit – she’d opened the door for her and then led her into the library, where she sat in a plush red armchair.

Jeanne wanted child support from de Bernardi. He was having absolutely none of it. From behind the chair, he wrapped a cord around his wife’s neck, and braced himself by placing his knee on the back of the chair as he pulled. Jeanne tried to struggle, then went limp. De Bernardi threatened to give Irène the same treatment if she dared interfere.

Police then went to visit de Bernardi in jail to ask him questions. They asked him to clarify the significance of his comment about the red armchair. De Bernardi replied, jokingly, “So Irène would know what to expect if she talked”. De Bernardi was charged with the murder of his wife, Jeanne de Sigoyer.

As he awaited trial, more of his murky past began to emerge. Along with giving himself a pretentious title, and an even more pretentious name, de Bernardi styled his appearance after Emperor Napoleon III. He had a hefty record of being in and out of prison, and, in 1938, he’d even escaped an asylum after having been “certified insane”. He went into hiding before retuning to Paris with a new name, a new look, and selling goods to the German forces on the black market.

The arrest and charges that de Bernardi faced were not good enough for the police. Just for good measure, they arrested and charged Irène Lebeau as an accomplice to Jeanne’s murder.

In December of 1946, they stood trial. Irène was the first to take the stand. She told the courts about his seduction in 1940, and about how he’d married Jeanne and hired Irène. De Bernardi liked his women to be within his reach.

Despite the abuse, Jeanne gave birth to de Bernardi’s first child, who fell under Irène’s care. Then, in 1943, everything changed. Irène gave birth to de Bernardi’s second child. Jeanne, having had enough of the abuse, couldn’t look past this slight. She left him and took both children with her, for fear they’d receive his harsh treatments.

Irène told the court that de Bernardi had been the one the commit the murder in the red armchair. She gave the court the same details she’d given to the police.

De Bernardi took the stand in his own defence. He claimed that, despite the advancing divorce proceedings, he and Jeanne had reconciled, which made Irène angry. He told the court that the night of Jeanne’s visit, she and Irène got into a heated argument over his affections. In the heat of the moment, Irène shot Jeanne in the head. He claimed that the strangulation in the armchair had been a “figment of Irène’s imagination.” Quite the contradiction from his first statement to police in 1944.

De Bernardi’s testimony, while sensationalist courtroom drama to save his own ass, was effective. The judge ordered Jeanne’s body be exhumed so that the head could be X-rayed.

In the meantime, the defence claimed that the way Jeanne was strangled was impossible. They even brought the infamous red armchair into the courtroom in order to perform a re-enactment.

With a volunteer sitting in the chair, the defence claimed that “the back of the chair was too low to permit strangulation in the manner described. The prosecution countered this by saying it was simply a matter of technique.”

Both points were made absolutely moot when the X-ray results came back. They showed that no bullet hole was found in Jeanne’s head. It was clear that de Bernardi had been lying through his teeth. And his lies had just sealed his fate.

The jury found Irène Lebeau not guilty.

However, on December 22nd, 1946, after only deliberating for half an hour, the jury found Alain de Bernardi guilty of the murder of his wife, Jeanne de Sigoyer. He was sentenced to death. He was beheaded by the guillotine.

His life as a big shot quite literally came down on his head.

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Sources:

The Mammoth Book of Bizarre Crimes – Robin Odell
Scared Into Silence – Max Haines – Truro Daily News (I couldn’t save a link that worked for this article, but if you google “Jeanne de Sigoyer murder” this link comes up in the search as a PressReader article)