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Rosalie Soubère
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Rosalie Soubère, nicknamed Mariette (1868 – after 1894), was a newspaper folder, activist and anarchist terrorist. She is best known for her role in the Saint-Germain bombing, a key event in the history of terrorism that plunged France into the Ère des attentats (1892–1894).
Originally from the Loire region, Soubère became a young anarchist and entered into a relationship with another anarchist activist, Joseph Jas-Béala. She sheltered Ravachol in her home while he was being sought by the police in 1891. The three formed a group and became further radicalized in response to the Clichy affair, in which three anarchists were brutally beaten by the police and then sentenced to harsh prison terms. They moved to Paris between late 1891 and early 1892, where she met and joined with fellow anarchists Charles Chaumentin and Charles Simon.
Soubère waited for the bomb to be prepared, then transported it under her skirts to the judge's home, where Ravachol planted it. She then kept watch while the other members fled. While she was arrested with her accomplices, she was acquitted in her first trial related to the bombing. However, she soon faced new charges, some of which were likely for crimes she did not commit. She was tried a second time and acquitted once again. During her third successive trial, this time for having harbored Ravachol, Soubère was sentenced to seven months in prison.
She later settled in Saint-Étienne after having lived under the pseudonym Rosalie Gibert in Saint-Denis. She possibly continued her activism at least until the 1930s.
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Early life
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Rosalie Mariette Soubère was born in Saint-Étienne on 21 September 1868.[1] Her mother, Victoire Gimbert, was a reseller, while her father, Toussaint Soubère, was a foundry worker.[1] Soubère entered a relationship with the anarchist militant Joseph Jas-Béala there[1][2][where?] around 1886.[3] She was working as a newspaper folder around that period.[4] On 3 March 1889, Soubère gave birth to a daughter, Louise Michelle, without naming a father.[5] The baby died one month later.[6]
At their home in Saint-Étienne, she sheltered Ravachol, who was wanted for the murder and robbery of a wealthy hermit. The three moved towards Paris's suburbs, in Saint-Denis, where they were hosted by Charles Chaumentin.[7] According to Jean Vigouroux, it is plausible that they moved to the capital to carry out anarchist attacks.[7] The couple also brought Ravachol a significant amount of dynamite when they joined him in Paris.[8] The group met Charles Simon there, a young anarchist militant whom Chaumentin introduced as someone with a great understanding of Paris's layout and capable of helping them with their plans.[9] The group was radicalized following the Clichy affair,[10] in which the police beat imprisoned anarchist militants.[11] After the case's prosecutor, Bulot, requested the death penalty and the judge, Benoît, handed down harsh sentences, the group planned to assassinate Benoît.[11]
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Saint-Germain bombing
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In the following days, Ravachol and Simon built the bomb, Simon conducted a first reconnaissance of the judge's residence at 136 Boulevard Saint-Germain, and then the group of four took the tramway from Saint-Denis to carry out the attack on 11 March 1892.[11] Soubère sat between Simon and Béala and carried the bomb, hiding it under her skirts.[11] She then handed it to Ravachol, who, armed with two loaded pistols, entered the building, placed the bomb on the second floor, the center of the building—since he did not know exactly where Benoît lived.[11] He lit the fuse and fled, while Soubère and Béala would have either stood watch outside[12][13] or she would have gone back to her home.[14] Following the first view, the militant would maybe have remained on-site to observe the aftermath of the explosion as her companions left the area.[15]
The bombing caused no deaths, did not hit judge Benoît, who lived on the fifth floor, and injured one person.[11]
Arrest
She was arrested around 23 March 1892 by the police with her partner Jas-Béala, both denied everything and refused to give any information to the police when they were interrogated.[16] They stayed silent - but the partner of Chaumentin ultimately decided to break under pressure and give the description of Ravachol.[16]
On 27 March 1892, Ravachol carried out the Clichy bombing, this time targeting the prosecutor Bulot. Although a number of anarchists, such as Simon, were arrested following the denunciation by Chaumentin, he was able to do escape and do the attack.[11] The bomb exploded, injuring seven people but not affecting Bulot who was not present in the building.[11] Ravachol was arrested a few days later, having been denounced by Very, the very owner of the café Le Very where he dined.[11]
First trial
On the eve of her trial, 25 April 1892, anarchist militants from the Pieds-plats group, Théodule Meunier and Jean-Pierre François, carried out the Véry bombing, targeting Véry and killing him in the explosion.[18] She appeared with her four accomplices before the Court d'assises of Paris the following day.[1][19] She was defended by a lawyer named maître Eugène Crémieux,[20] and maintained her innocence by declaring that she had never been aware of what the pot she carried under her skirt during the Saint-Germain bombing contained.
The prosecutor, Jules Quesnay de Beaurepaire, accused the three other participants but portrayed her as weak due to being a woman and under the influence of Jas-Béala.[21] He concluded his closing statement by saying that, in his view, she:[21]
is a woman, she is weak. She was attached to one of the accused and fell under his influence through affection. There is doubt regarding her guilt, and she may benefit from it. As far as she is concerned, let the jury not hesitate to show mercy and to listen to their hearts.
She was acquitted by the jury along with Béala, while Ravachol and Simon were found guilty but with mitigating circumstances.[22][23]
Second trial
After their release, they stayed at 94 Rue de Paris in Saint-Denis, on the third floor.[25] On 12 May 1892, at 3:30 A.M, agents led by brigadier Rossignol, a police officer who had arrested Clément Duval a few years earlier, entered their room and arrested them on the order of judge Lascoux — for complicity in the murder of the Marcon ladies, two women whom Ravachol, Soubère, and Jas-Béala were accused of having killed in Saint-Étienne,[25] crimes they probably did not commit.[26] She was transferred there on 16 May by the 10:50 A.M train, along with her accomplices.[27] The group arrived that same day to their destination and was taken on foot to the prison.[27] The next day, the militant refused to answer and remained silent when questioned.[28] She was placed in a cell adjacent to those of Béala and Ravachol, cried profusely during her first days of incarceration, and asked to see her mother, who was then working as a vegetable seller on the Fourneyron square.[29]
She appeared at her second trial wearing a black straw hat on her head and answered the interrogation with a smile.[30][31] Her lawyer was once again Eugène Crémieux for this second trial.[32] When the judge told her that the reports about her were not unfavorable, she misunderstood the remark and said she was surprised, which made part of the audience laugh.[31] She responded to her interrogatory with brief remarks, accused Chaumentin—who had denounced them—of lying, and then fell silent.[31] Later, Soubère was indignant and forcefully confronted Chaumentin when the latter publicly accused her during the trial of having sheltered Ravachol at her home while he was on the run.[33] She called him a liar, a wretch, and a scoundrel, and insisted she had only met Chaumentin in Paris and had not known him before.[33]
To a witness who had seen her and claimed to identify her by recalling that she was missing a tooth,[34] Soubère replied:[35]
- Look at that nerve ! Oh, you noticed I was missing a tooth ? You must have looked the wrong way, my friend; I am missing three.
She also replied that he would have seen her "thinner" than she actually was.[36] Her attorney, Crémieux, gave his closing argument around midnight and achieved a certain degree of success.[32]
Soubère and Jas-Béala were acquitted once again on all charges in this second trial, while Ravachol was sentenced to death.[37][38]
Third trial and imprisonment
Soubère was referred to criminal court for having sheltered Ravachol at her home.[38] She was convicted for the first time during this third consecutive trial, this time for having harbored Ravachol.[37] After this conviction, she exclaimed:[37]
This is shameful! This is disgraceful! I will have my revenge at the risk of my life!
This declaration caused deep alarm among the judges and prompted one of them to abruptly leave the room out of fear.[39] Historian Thierry Lévy regards this event as a clear example of the panic instilled in magistrates by anarchists during that period, following the two attacks targeting them.[39]
The anarchist received an additional month for this statement, which the judges considered an outrage.[37] Béala, for his part, was sentenced to one year in prison on 5 July 1892.[1] She appealed, and her sentence was reduced by one month.[1][19]
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Later years
After the Carmaux-Bons Enfants bombing, in which Émile Henry and other anarchists attacked the headquarters of the Carmaux Mining Company, Soubère was suspected and arrested.[2] Indeed, during the attack, an unknown brown-haired woman wearing a black shawl was alleged to have been the person who planted the bomb.[40] She was therefore arrested, but the judge quickly concluded that she did not know Henry and would not be linked to the case.[2] It was probably Adrienne Chailliey, according to Vivien Bouhey.[41]
Soubère and Béala then settled in Saint-Denis on rue de la Briche, living under the names Viala and Gibert to avoid detection. At this time, they worked as newspaper vendors at rue du Croissant before moving back to Saint-Étienne.[42]
According to anarchist historians Rolf Dupuy and Thierry Bernard, the militant may have still been active in the 1930s and might possibly be 'comrade Mariette', treasurer of Terre Libre ('Free Land') at that time.[1]
Legacy
In February 1894, an anarchist arrested in Saint-Étienne for a common law crime presented her portrait to the police who had apprehended him and declared that he was inspired by her.[43]
Overall, many French writers and artists were influenced by the Ère des attentats (1892–1894), that the Saint-Germain bombing launched.[44][failed verification] Many writers and artists, such as Jean Ajalbert, Francis Vielé-Griffin, Maurice Beaubourg, Paul Claudel, Bernard Lazare, Camille Mauclair, Stuart Merrill, Lucien Muhlfeld, Adolphe Retté, Saint-Pol-Roux, Octave Mirbeau, and Stéphane Mallarmé, were deeply interested with these events.[44]
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Works
Second trial (Archives de la Loire - 2 U 299 - courtesy of Archives anarchistes)
- Interrogation, 17 May 1892, Montbrison (in French on Wikisource)
- Interrogation, 17 May 1892, Montbrison (in French on Wikisource)
- Final interrogation, 31 May 1892, Montbrison (in French on Wikisource)
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Texts
- The trial of the dynamiters, in Le Père Peinard (24 April 1892), defending her and her co-accused during her first trial
Police sources
- Archives de la Préfecture de police de Paris - Ba 139 - Saint-Germain file
- Testimonies on the Saint Germain bombing, 14 March 1892 (Archives de la Préfecture de police de Paris - JA 8 Ravachol - courtesy of Archives anarchistes)
- Arrest of Soubère and Béala, March-May 1892 (Archives de la Préfecture de police de Paris - JA 8 Ravachol - courtesy of Archives anarchistes)
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References
Bibliography
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