I’ve posted before about what happens when we put our trust in a less-than-honourable health care professional. But there is very little that is more tragic than when that trust puts a child at risk.
Dr. “Eugene Etienne” was a French-born dentist who settled into a rooming house at 714 Saint Peter Street, in the French Quarter of New Orleans in 1884 after being wounded in the Crimean War. He was a dentist by trade, but discovered the world of “magnetic physiology” through his studies and readings. “He began to explore the occult and convinced himself that magnetism had great curative properties.” The practise involved using small doses of chloroform on his patients. This, he said, would make them more susceptible to his “magnetic will”.
For the most part, the doctor kept to himself. He had many patients who sung his praises, though very few, if any, friends. However, this changed in 1888. In 1888, the doctor made the acquaintance of fellow Frenchman Jules Deitsch, a carpenter by trade who lived nearby. Both men hit it off immediately, being Parisian immigrants who spoke very little English.
It wasn’t long before Deitsch became an ardent disciple of the doctor’s experiments and beliefs in the benefits of magnetic physiology. Deitsch was a widower with two young daughters – Laurence (9) and Juliette (12). He often brought his daughters when he visited the doctor, thinking his genteel manners most befitting his young, vulnerable, and impressionable children. The doctor took a very particular liking to Juliette, who looked mature for her age. This worried her father, as the neighbourhood boys were paying her attention he did not like.
After meeting Deitsch and his daughters, Dr. Eugene Etienne confessed that his true name was Etienne Deschamps. He’d been part of a wealthy family in France, but he’d been disinherited due to unspecified “youthful excesses”. He’d settled in New Orleans “as part of a plan to make himself wealthy”. Deschamps was convinced that his powers could cure the sick. He also had another scheme up his sleeve.
Deschamps was convinced that he could find the long lost treasure of Jean Lafitte, a well-known and notorious pirate. The legend stated that his treasure – known as the Barataria Preserve – was located somewhere near New Orleans. Deschamps needed help finding the treasure, and Deitsch was the only man he could trust to help. You see, “for the next part of his scheme, he needed a young virgin to act as a medium to help him locate the treasure using his magnetic powers.” Deschamps thought Juliette was the right person for the job.
Deitsch, who thought Deschamps was much better company for Juliette than the neighbourhood boys, agreed readily. Deschamps explained that he would dose Juliette with chloroform and conduct private “mediumship” sessions. Deitsch saw no issues with this – Deschamps was a grandfatherly type, a good doctor in his 70s who would be a good influence on Juliette and Laurence.
Over the weeks, Deschamps spent time with both Laurence and Juliette, practicing his magnetism in his private rooms. He also took Juliette on trips in search of where the legendary treasure was located in order to prepare her for finding it. Deschamps would never manage to find the treasure, though.
On January 30th, 1889, Deitsch was interrupted at work by his elderly mother, who was in a state. She said that Laurence had come home distressed, without Juliette. Deitsch rushed to find his daughter. With Laurence in tow, Deitsch rushed to Deschamps’s rooms, where his daughters had been earlier in the day. He pounded on the door, and received no answer. Deitsch rushed to Third Precinct Station and drew the attention of three police officers. Finally, they were able to enter Deschamps’s rooms with the use of a duplicate key provided by the landlady.
The room looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months. There was clutter everywhere – stacks of books and papers on every available surface. Further investigation found Juliette and Deschamps naked on the bed, with Juliette’s head on Deschamps’s chest. It was clear that Juliette was dead. Deschamps, it appeared, had stabbed himself in the chest four times with a sharp dental tool. Upon waking, he told police, in French, “I meant to die”, then promptly lost consciousness again. Out in the clutter, police also found many letters addressed to Deschamps, all apparently written by Juliette.
Laurence wasted no time testifying at the Coroner’s Inquest. She told the Inquest about how the girls had gone to the doctor’s rooms, and Deschamps had promptly told Juliette to disrobe and get on the bed. He then did the same. Laurence told the Inquest that this was normal behaviour for Deschamps. She’d even climbed into bed with them on numerous occasions, though she was adamant that Deschamps had never done anything to her. The doctor would then administer the chloroform dosage. Juliette claimed to have seen religious visions while under the influence of the chloroform, and these visions enthused Deschamps.
During the final session, Deschamps had dosed Juliette, but he was not satisfied with the results. He dressed, and left to get more chloroform – which was easily accessible to him as he was a dentist first and foremost. He left Laurence instructions not to disturb her sister. When he returned to the rooms, he told Laurence that “this would be our most successful experiment”. He then undressed again, climbed back into bed with Juliette, and dosed her a second time.
After a time, Deschamps jumped out of bed and cried out: “Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! Qu’est-ce-que j’ai fait!” (“My God! My God! What have I done!”) Laurence began to panic – her sister wasn’t moving. Deschamps instructed her to go find her father – “Tell him that I am going to die” he said.
Y.R. LeMonnier, the coroner, determined that Juliette had undoubtedly died of chloroform overdose, and made note of the chemical burn marks on her lips. The post-mortem also “revealed that Juliette had been sexually assaulted over a long period.”
Meanwhile, Deschamps’s wounds were declared superficial, and he was moved from Charity Hospital to Parish Prison. Along the way, and while incarcerated, Deschamps made several wild accusations about Juliette. He “claimed that he had learned months before that she was ‘no better than a common prostitute’ since she was no longer a virgin”.
Deschamps stressed the point that her death had been an accident. Prison guards found that many of Deschamps rants and ramblings were either incoherent, contradictory, or both. On several occasions, he made grandiose claims about finding Lafitte’s treasure, promising to split the profits with anyone would let him out of his cell.
Seeing as those promises were quite fruitless, Deschamps was rendered a desperate man. Seeing it as his only way out, he made several suicide attempts that were continuously and constantly thwarted.
A handwriting expert also noticed that most of the letters found in Deschamps’s rooms were written by the doctor himself. In the letters, Deschamps suggested that he hadn’t been the first man to be involved with Juliette. He did not want to be responsible for her abuse.
Deschamps was arraigned before Judge R.H. Marr on February 18th, 1889. The entire affair was a spectacle. Deschamps protested vehemently about being put on trial in an English court since he only spoke French. He argued that he was a gentleman and not a murderer. He even went so far as to claim that the trial was “an attempt to smear the ‘fair name of France’”.
Deschamps refused a lawyer, though one had been appointed to him, and the trial was set to begin either April 29th, 1889 or May 1st, 1889 – the dates I found were conflicting.
The trial ended up being a much more subdued event than the arraignment, though Deschamps did need an interpreter. Both Laurence and the coroner testified, repeating everything that had been said and determined at the Coroner’s Inquest. After 18 minutes, the jury returned and delivered a guilty verdict upon Dr. Etienne Deschamps.
Deschamps’s lawyer immediately appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court. There, the verdict was overturned on the grounds that the defense hadn’t had proper time to prepare – especially with the language barrier. A new trial was ordered for March 28th, 1890.
In the 10 months between both trials, Deschamps proved to be an absolutely uncontrollable prisoner, driving other prisoners and guards mad with his rantings, ravings, and rumblings. He was openly hostile to everyone around him, and was moved to solitary confinement for his own safety – the guards weren’t sure the other prisoner’s wouldn’t dispatch the doctor themselves. Though he was convinced that the new trial would set him free and he could return to France, Deschamps made several failed attempts to escape prison.
The second trial went much like the first trial – the trial itself lasted two days, wherein Laurence and the coroner once again testified as they had done 10 months prior. This time, the jury only took 13 minutes to return a guilty verdict.
As Deschamps was awaiting execution, he became even more bizarre than before. Guards and prisoners often overheard him having conversations in his cell with Juliette and Lafitte, convinced he’d get out and find the treasure and return to France a rich, vindicated man.
In a most mysterious turn of events, on April 19th, 1892, Judge Robert H. Marr vanished without a trace. He was “last seen walking along the levee on the edge of the Mississippi River but no trace of him was ever found”. Deschamps, upon hearing the news, was absolutely elated. He claimed that he had arranged for the disappearance of his enemies, starting with the Judge, with the moon, and the moon had delivered.
On May 12th, 1892, Dr. Etienne Deschamps was hanged, proclaiming his innocence all the way. And Jules Deitsch? Well, I have no idea how he reacted to all of this, though I bet he learned never to let looks deceive him again.
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Sources:
The Mammoth Book of Bizarre Crimes – Robin Odell
The Magnetic Doctor’s Crime, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 – Romeo Vitelli, Providentia