La Santé, Jail House in Paris, 1930 - Silver Gelatin Black & White Photography

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A unique original silver gelatin black and white photography by Agence Meurisse, Paris. La Santé, jailhouse in Paris, circa 1930. … Read more A unique original silver gelatin black and white photography by Agence Meurisse, Paris. La Santé, jailhouse in Paris, circa 1930.
Features:
Original silver gelatin print photography unframed
Press photograph.
Press agency: Meurisse, Paris.
Photographer: Anonymous.
Title: La Santé, jailhouse in Paris, circa 1930.
Provenance: Private collection.
Image Size: 6.53 in. high (16.6 cm) x 4.49 in. wide (11.4 cm) - Archivally matted in a 17 in. x 13 in. mat.
Credit and caption are typed at the back.
"Les cellules des condamnés a la Santé. C'est dans les cachots de ce rez-de-chaussée que sont les prisonniers soumis a "la grande surveillance". La cellule d'Almazoff est celle devant laquelle se tient le gardien. Photo Meurisse". (The cells of the condemned to the prison of La Santé. In the dungeons of this ground floor, the prisoners are subjected to "great surveillance". Almazoff's cell is the one in front of which the guard stands. Photo Meurisse).
The piece will be shipped in a mat (17 x 13 in.) that fits a standard-sized frame.

About:
La Santé Prison (literally meaning Prison of la Santé Street) is a prison operated by the French Prison Service of the Ministry of Justice located in the 14th arrondissement in Paris, France at 42 Rue de la Santé. It is one of the most infamous prisons in France, with both VIP and high-security wings. La Santé is one of the three main prisons in the Paris area. It was inaugurated on 20 August 1867.
In 2000, the head doctor of the prison published a book in which she denounced the very poor imprisonment conditions. The book was a shock to the public and prompted a parliamentary evaluation of the situation. In 2014, the prison closed for renovations.
(Credit: Wikipedia).

The case of the bloody trunk, 1929.
On the morning of September 13, 1929, a corpse was found in a wicker trunk, at the locker at Lille train station, in the North of France.
It was an unpleasant smell that alerted the station workers. A pool of reddish, smelly liquid suddenly appeared as they pulled the trunk away from the other packages. It didn't take long for them to pop the two small locks, lift the lid, and discover the corpse of a bound man. He was dressed in a gray striped suit and a dark leather briefcase was placed near him. The police officers rushed to take out a wallet and the identity of the unfortunate man was immediately known: Frédéric Auguste Rigaudin dit Rigaud.
Her mother, disturbing coincidence, had been found strangled in her room, on the seventh floor of a Parisian building, on April 25, 1929, and her murderer was never identified. She was living with her son in a small apartment and it was he who discovered her when he came home for lunch. The messy apartment seemed to indicate the theft had motivated the crime. A tenant testified that at about 11:30 a.m. he passed a rather suspicious individual on the stairs, in his twenties, and of average build. It was also discovered that the unfortunate woman frequented anarchist circles but the police failed to identify the culprit.
The investigation into the death of Frédéric Rigaudin lasted several months and had many twists and turns.
On September 9, at eight o'clock, Rigaudin left his house and went to Mr. Dunner, the furrier in the rue Chabanais, to obtain a loan. He stayed there until nine o'clock and left, weighted down with one thousand four hundred francs, to go to his death.
A bankrupt tailor, named Michel Almazoff, was long suspected of being the perpetrator and was therefore imprisoned for six months before being dismissed and released. A bloody cotton swab had been found in his house, traces of blood on the door of his backroom, and stains on his pants. But above all, Rigaudin was his accountant and they had spent the afternoon of September 8 playing belote with other people. However, it was not proven that Almazoff and Rigaudin could have met after the latter's visit to the furrier Dunner.
In 1932, Almazoff claimed a million French francs in damages from the courts and it was never known who had murdered Frédéric Rigaudin.
This affair had a huge impact on the French national and regional press. Many newspapers covered it extensively, covering no less than thirty headlines on this affair, between September 14, 1929, and July 5, 1930.
(Credit: Romans Historique) See less