The annals of French crime are rich in dramatic and extraordinary episodes, but none can excel in breathless interest the story of the murder of Madame Houet and the discovery and punishment of her murderers twelve years after her tragic death.
Madame Houet was a widow with a fortune estimated to exceed two hundred and fifty thousand francs, who lived with her son in a little house in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris. Her only daughter was married to a wine merchant named Robert, who was reputed to be well off. The old lady's son was a big, powerful fellow, whose weak brain prevented him earning more than a precarious livelihood, a fact which annoyed his penurious parent. She scraped and saved and half-starved herself to be able to add a few coins daily to her store. In the circumstances, it is not astonishing that amongst her neighbours she should have had the reputation of being worth a great deal more than she actually was.
The gossips never tired of discussing her hidden wealth, and everybody was prepared to hear of her murder for the sake of her hoard. Even her son-in-law was ignorant of the extent of her savings—the old lady would never discuss the subject with him or anyone else—and, after making allowances for the exaggerations of the neighbours, he came to the conclusion that his wife's share of her inheritance would not be less than a quarter of a million francs. There were times, too, when he comforted himself with the assurance that his wife's brother would not live very long. More than one doctor had hinted that the weak brain would soon affect the body, and that he would suddenly collapse and die.
These thoughts induced the wine merchant to sell his business and retire. Robert had always wanted to live the life of a gentleman, as he termed it. He was fond of the theatre and the restaurants, and he had a mania for tempting fortune on the racecourse and on the roulette table. So when he observed signs of decline in his mother-in-law—and his wife often wept as she told him that the old lady was fading away—he found a purchaser for his shop, pocketed the proceeds, and went the pace, confident that before he had spent his capital he would be in possession of Madame Houet's cash.
But Madame Houet was tougher than he thought, and easily outlasted the twenty-five thousand francs Robert had received for his shop. For a few months Monsieur and Madame Robert were seen everywhere, and they became familiar figures in the fashionable restaurants and theatres. When he came to his last thousand-franc note Robert determined to risk it all on a visit to a gambling den. He carried out his intention, and returned home at three in the morning penniless.
He was now not only without resources, but heavily in debt. As the husband of Madame Houet's heiress he had been given extended credit, but the ex-wine merchant knew that if he failed to keep his agreements his creditors would complain to his mother-in-law.
But could he hold his creditors back until the old lady died? Several times a week he called on her and noticed with increasing alarm that she was daily improving in health. Her appetite was prodigious, as he discovered every time he took her out to lunch. Driven desperate, the penniless man tried forgery, and by imitating his mother-in-law's signature on the back of a bill induced the merchant who had purchased his business to advance him twelve thousand five hundred francs for three months.
The weeks passed all too swiftly, and when only a fortnight remained of the three months the forger's position was worse than ever. Fourteen days more and the forged bill would be presented and dishonoured, and Madame Houet would repudiate the signature. Robert went for long walks every night to think over the situation, and eventually he found a solution.
"I have urgent business to attend to," he told his wife one morning, "and I am afraid I shall have to be often away from your side. Why not pay that long-promised visit to your aunt in Marseilles? I should be happier if I knew you were with her."
His wife agreed, and for a month was out of Paris, and during that month the tragedy occurred.