Blanche Monnier was Imprisonment for Falling in Love

Blanche Monnier was famous for her breathtaking beauty. She was the talk of the town back in the late 1800s when she was young. That’s why many eligible bachelors were ready to marry her and were sending their proposals. But, Blanche wasn’t the one to be mesmerized or impressed by money, fame, and glamor. She belonged to a noble, aristocratic family, but her heart lay with the masses. So, she chose a lawyer, who was much older than her and, from societal and her family’s standards, was no match to her.

But, Blanche remained adamant. She started refusing all incoming proposals. Her parents were quite worried about her. Blanche’s mother, Madame Louise Monnier, tried to reason with her daughter, but the class differences that were widely prevalent in French society at that time didn’t make any sense to the 25-year-old gorgeous girl. Then one fine day, Blanche Monnier disappeared. Her folks were devastated. What could have happened to her? She was eventually discovered 25 years later, and with her discovery, the ugliest truth about her kidnapping came to the forefront. In this article, we will share the sad story of a French socialite who lost the best years of her life just because she loved someone.

Mademoiselle Blanche Monnier was born in France on 1 March 1849 into a wealthy, aristocratic family. Her parents Emile Monnier and Madame Louise Monnier named her Blanche Monnier after their surname. The family had a good reputation in the city and was known for their generosity. In fact, they had received a Community Award called “Committee of Good Works” to recognize their charitable works. This award was given to citizens who “displayed the highest of virtues.” Mr. Monnier was the head of a local art facility. 

Blanche had a brother as well, Marcel Monnier. He was a lawyer, and both shared a healthy sibling connection. This was a pleased and blessed family. They had money, fame, their son was successful in his career, and their daughter was charming and talented. The young socialite was described by her acquaintances as “very gentle and good-natured.” The family lived at 21 rue de la Visitation Street, a wealthy neighborhood of Poitiers, France. The Monniers belonged to the upper-middle-class and were well-liked in their community. 

Blanche Monnier’s life was every bit like a fairytale. She was young, strikingly beautiful, and belonged to an affluent household. Her brother was a law school graduate. Their family was respected, and many potential suitors came forward to ask for her hand in marriage. But then, destiny had other plans. Blanche fell in love with someone from the lower middle class. According to Blanche’s parents, this was just one of the many shortcomings, which the guy possessed.

Blanche’s love interest was older than her. And Madame Louise was against their union. Blanche brought her man of choice to her home so that he could meet her mom, but Madame Louise refused him as he wasn’t from an aristocratic family and didn’t meet her own standards of eligibility. So, Madame Louise told Blanche to marry the one she had chosen. But, Blanche refused to accept this decision of hers. That’s when things went rough between Blanche and her parents.

Imagine the plight of a beautiful young lady who was being punished for choosing a groom for herself. This socialite was a timid child and struggled with insecurity throughout her teens. She didn’t get along with her mom too well and suffered from anorexia. In 1876, Blanche turned 25 and was a charming woman. She started developing an interest in a lawyer who lived nearby.

She decided to tell her mother about her decision, but she was sure that Madame Louise wouldn’t like the guy as he was not a wealthy and young as her. And then Blanche suddenly disappeared as if she never existed. People who knew her showed concern for a few days. Still, since her parents were not interested in investigating their daughter’s disappearance, everybody else lost interest too, and soon, people forgot about Blanche Monnier. But, the question here is, what actually happened to Blanche? How did she vanish? Or did she vanish at all?

It is true that if Blanche hadn’t made the wrong choice regarding her future husband, we might never have heard about her existence. She selected a groom whom her mother utterly disliked. Madame Louise disliked the man so much that she locked her daughter in a tiny room in their house. She did it on purpose because she wanted Blanche to give in to her demand and marry the person her mother had chosen. One evening, Madame Louise, with her son Marcel’s help, tricked Blanche into entering a tiny attic room on the second floor and then chained her in. 

Blanche was informed that she would be released from the room when she accepted her mom’s decision and swears to forget about her love interest. Blanche was just as adamant as her mother when it came to decisions, so, she refused to bow down. She stayed in the tiny room with her choice. Days went by, Blanche didn’t swear. She was given food and water, but not as much as a young woman of her age would require. And this confinement didn’t end any sooner. It took her several decades to see the light of the day, and it was made possible by the attorney general in Paris. 

Several years passed, even the lawyer whom Blanche Monnier wanted to marry passed away in 1885, but her ordeal didn’t end. Her father died in 1879. Still, she remained locked. Marcel was also living in the house, but he was too intimidated by his mom and couldn’t help Blanche much. Maybe he also was worried about his reputation and family name, so he didn’t want his sister to marry anyone from the lower class. 

Meanwhile, Marcel and Madame Louise pretended in the society that Blanche was dead and they were mourning the loss. Their house servants were well aware of whatever was happening, but they couldn’t dare to say anything against their masters. Such was the domineering persona of Madame Louise. So, 25 years passed in this way.

Blanche Monnier remained in the custody of her mother and brother for twenty-five years. On 23 May 1901, the attorney general of Paris received a strange letter from an anonymous sender. He might have disregarded the letter because it had no name, but he couldn’t hold back from investigating the matter after reading the content. Here’s what the letter read:

This kind of a claim was indeed a huge shock for the attorney general. He sensed something fishy was going on with the Monniers. But, given that Madame Monnier was a highly respected resident and the family was known for being too classy and decent, the attorney general was confused whether to trust the anonymous individual or not. Then he decided to follow his gut feeling and send a team of officers to search the house.

The attorney general of Paris sent several officers to check the house. Initially, they were denied entry, and Madame Louise refused to let them inside and examine her house. But, the police were adamant about checking the house, so they forced themselves inside. They searched the entire house but couldn’t find anything suspicious, and the “spinster” mentioned in the letter was nowhere to be seen. 

While they were deciding to leave the house, they felt a putrid odor coming from a tiny room on the second floor of the house. The area nearby this room was eerily dark, and the foul smell was coming from that room. The cops immediately ran upstairs and forced the door open. What they saw was enough to give them nightmares for life. 

The cops entered the tiny room, the door of which was padlocked shut. They smashed the lock and broke into the room. A pitch-black environment welcomed officers, and the only thing they could sense was the foul odor coming from every nook and corner of the room. Feeling intrigued, they pried open the windows covered with thick curtains. As soon as the sunlight entered the room, they discovered Blanche Monnier.

And this was a ghastly discovery. They found out that the horrendous odor came from the rotting food scraps that littered the floor. A tiny, decrepit bed was present in the room upon which an emaciated female was chained.

“We immediately gave the order to open the casement window. This was done with great difficulty, for the old dark-coloured curtains fell down in a heavy shower of dust. To open the shutters, it was necessary to remove them from their right hinges. As soon as light entered the room, we noticed, in the back, lying on a bed, her head and body covered by a repulsively filthy blanket, a woman identified as Mademoiselle Blanche Monnier,” a policeman told the media later when the matter became a national headline.

This was the first time in 25 years that Blanche had seen the sun. She was completely naked, and her long hair kept her body covered. Apparently, she had been chained to the bed since the day she disappeared. She was covered in her filth and vermin from the rotting scraps that surrounded her body entirely. The cops could not stay in the room for a few minutes; they couldn’t imagine how Blanche had spent over two decades in this small, filthy room.

The policemen were horrified by what they had just witnessed. They wrapped her in a blanket and took Blanche to a hospital while Marcel and Madame Louise Monnier were arrested immediately. After hospital staff examined Blanche Monnier, they reported that the girl only weighed 55 pounds and was horrendously malnourished. She was lucid, and when she was breathing fresh air, she remarked, “how lovely it is.”

The woman was in pretty bad shape. She was 50 years old by now but didn’t look like a human at all as her body and face was covered with food and feces. Her body, skin, and looks, everything had been deformed. She was severely malnourished and couldn’t walk properly. One of the officers who rescued her commented:

As soon as Blanche Monnier was rescued, her sad story became the national media headline. Many outlets started reaching out to her neighbors to determine whether someone ever heard or saw something. The New York Times published an article on 9 June 1901. Here’s an excerpt from it. Now everyone in the country knew about the disappearance of Blanche Monnier. Everyone was in shock because of the extent to which Madame Monnier had gone to make sure her daughter’s decision to marry someone from the lower-middle class didn’t tarnish the family’s good name. Soon neighbors started spilling the beans. One of the Monniers’ neighbors said that they had heard Blanche begging to be released and stating that her imprisonment was not fair. She even pleaded for mercy. But, since Blanche still refused to swear, she wasn’t allowed to leave the room. Her mother kept her trapped in the attic that became her prison cell. 

Madame Louise was arrested, but she couldn’t stand the trial as she died of cardiac arrest just 15 days later. But, before dying, Madame Monnier had confessed to her crime and admitted that she treated her only daughter inhumanly. Her final words were, “Ah, my poor Blanche!”

So, now it was just the brother, Marcel, who had to stand trial. He was an accomplice in his mother’s cruel act of imprisoning his sister and keeping her in such dreadful conditions for 25 years. Initially, Marcel was sentenced to 15 months in prison. However, he was later released on the ground that he wasn’t responsible for his sister’s restricted movement. He told the cops that Blanche had lost her mind and was not moving on her own. 

For Blanche, nothing changed much after she was rescued as she was disillusioned and was too old and fragile to socialize. Authorities decided to admit her to a psychiatric hospital, where she spent her remaining years of life. Blanche Monnier died in a sanatorium in Bois in 1913. During the time she was in the hospital, she was cared for well by the staff. She was given a room and was washed daily. Blanche eventually gained weight and was able to sit alone in a room with the windows open. However, she couldn’t recover mentally. 

Who Wrote That Letter?

It is yet unclear who wrote the letter received by the attorney general. That letter changed everything for Blanche Monnier as she was rescued from the prison and spent the final years of her life in good health. It is suspected that Marcel, Blanche’s brother, wrote the letter. He must have realized the consequences of this act and was worried that the entire blame would be upon him if his mother died. So, he decided to involve the authorities and expose his family’s dirty secret.

Moreover, in the event of his mother’s death, he would be the only one Blanche would be dependent on for her survival. Since he was a lawyer, too, he knew all the loopholes in the legal system that could lead to his freedom if he ever gets arrested for the crime. So, exposing the truth while his mother was alive was the best thing to do at that point. Another suspicion is that one of the servants told about Blanche’s imprisonment to a new boyfriend who wrote the letter.