25 Horrible Years Of Prison In a Dark Room
Blanche Monnier from France Was Imprisoned in her home for 25 years because she fell in love with a penniless lawyer.
Love has always faced stiff resistance from family members worldwide when the lover happens to be of lower social status. This is what happened to Blanche Monnier when she fell in love with an older lawyer who was not so rich. She decided to marry the lawyer when she was 25 years old.
Her mother disapproved of her decision and forced her to select her future husband from other wealthy suitors who wished to marry her. Blanche Monnier’s persistence angered her mother so much that she put her in a tiny dark room upstairs in her home and kept her locked for the next 25 years until police discovered her.
Blanche Monnier was known for her beauty throughout France.
Blanche Monnier was born into an aristocratic family on 1 March 1849 in Poitiers, France.
She was a French socialite from a conservative bourgeoisie family with old noble lineage. She grew to be the most beautiful girl in her locality and soon became famous for her beauty throughout high circles in France.
Inspired by her beauty and aristocratic line, various wealthy and noble suitors wished to marry her. Louise Monnier wanted to marry her daughter into a wealthy family that could meet her standards.
However, Blanche Monnier fell in love with an old lawyer struggling with his finances and didn’t belong to a noble lineage, and he didn’t have the money or noble family status that could have pleased Blanche’s mother.
In 1876, Blanche wanted to marry her love and live a peaceful and happy life. She was 25 years old when she decided and informed her mother of her intentions.
She chose imprisonment but didn’t give up upon her love.
When her mother came to know of Blanche’s never-changing love for the penniless lawyer, she got so furious that she locked her daughter in a dark attic with the help of her son Marcel.
She warned her daughter to leave the lawyer or perish in the dark. Blanche urged her mother to let her live with her lover, but all her pleas fell on deaf ears.
She screamed a lot. Even her neighbors heard her screams and asked her mother about her. Madame Monnier and Marcel told the neighbors that she had gone insane and was locked in a room.
According to reports, she was chained to her bed, and the only window in the room was permanently shut with plaster that her screams might not come out.
After her home imprisonment, people asked her mother and brother about her whereabouts, but they told lies that she ran away and was missing. They feigned a mourn for a few days and then went on with their daily lives.
The suitors and other people who knew her also went on their lives, and nobody earnestly inquired about her. Even her lawyer lover died in 1885, and she suffered the horrors of the harshest prison ever.
According to the Daily Star Report, Blanche remained locked in the darkroom for 25 years only to be fed by scraps thrown at her servants or her mother. She was left to rot to death.
The terrible secret reveals
In May 1901, one morning, the Paris Attorney General received a shocking letter describing the horrible event that had taken place in Madame Monnier’s house.
The letter read:
“Monsieur Attorney General: I have the honor to inform you of an exceptionally serious occurrence. I speak of a spinster who is locked up in Madame Monnier’s house, half-starved, and living on a putrid litter for the past twenty-five years–in a word, in her own filth.”
Due to the high social status of Madame Louise Monnier and her son’s high administrative job, the police took the letter for the allegation and didn’t give it a serious thought. However, they grew suspicious about the happenings and asked the neighborhoods about the occurrence of any severe such event in Monnier’s house.
The police were recalled of the sudden vanishing of the Blanche some 25 years ago without a trace that made them decide to investigate the house.
When the police reached Monnier’s house and knocked on the door, no one answered. They opened the door forcefully and searched the house, and they went upstairs to the attic and forced opened it.
When they finally reached the room where Blanche was kept, they were astonished by the horrible sight they saw. The filth, the pungent smell, the darkness in the room, and a skeletal covered in a filthy blanket made them rush outside.
According to police, Blanche Monnier, her bed, and the room were horrible. They described it thus:
“The unfortunate woman was lying completely naked on a rotten straw mattress. All around her was formed a sort of crust made from excrement, fragments of meat, vegetables, fish, and rotten bread. We also saw oyster shells, and bugs running across Mademoiselle Monnier’s bed. The air was so unbreathable, the odor given off by the room was so rank that it was impossible for us to stay any longer to proceed with our investigation.”
When Blanche Monnier found, once famous for her exceptional beauty, she was terribly malnourished and weighed only 55 pounds.
Blache Monnier was rescued after 25 long horrible years.
It is still unknown who wrote the letter to the Paris Attorney, but it is assumed that one of the Monnier’s servants spelled the secret to her boyfriend. Upon listening to the pitiful condition of such a beautiful girl that she has suffered because of her love, he immediately wrote a convincing letter to the attorney.
After the rescue, Blanche was immediately shifted to the hospital, where she was provided treatment. Her mother, Madame Monnier, and brother Marcel were immediately arrested.
Madame Monnier confessed her crimes of this abysmal abduction of her daughter and was imprisoned. She died after 15 days due to a heart attack after confronting an angry mob in front of her home for days.
While her brother was initially sentenced to15 months for helping her mother but was later acquitted for mental retardedness.
Blanche Monnier saw the light after 25 years. She suffered various mental health issues and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, coprophilia, anorexia nervosa, and exhibitionism. She was soon admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Blois, France. She lived for 12 more years in this heartless world and breathed her last in 1913.
