Swiss Soap Opera Plus A Random Murder Featuring Identical Twins!
Many of us are fans of Victorian melodrama - Charles Dickens, the Brontes, etc... - and assume that a lot of the crazy shenanigans in there are just for dramatic effect.
Gather around and listen to the entirely true tale of Eliza Durussel, based on her court affidavit for divorce and the protection of her property, and a news article about her aunt.
WARNING: Discussions of domestic abuse and violence follow.
In 1868, Eliza Hacker, the 30-year-old daughter of prosperous British parents Charles and Mary Ann, was sent by her family to Paris to study French. Eliza fell madly in love with the brother of her French tutor, a 26-year-old engraver named Mr. L. Edouard Durussel, and married him in a runaway elopement, without the consent of her parents or any financial support beyond her own one share in the Great Western Railway. Edouard sold that share for 120 pounds and used 110 pounds of it to pay off his debts, before moving with Eliza to Berne, Switzerland, where he set up as an engraver. To make ends meet while Edouard pursued his artistic career, Eliza began, much more financially successfully to offer English lessons to Swiss children. After some time Eliza and Edouard had a first child, who died soon after birth. The couple then began to quarrel regularly, in particular about money. She wished to keep her earnings for household expenses and he wished to take it all to spend for his own purposes.
When Eliza delivered her second child, a healthy daughter named Isabel, her mother sent her a 5 pound note from England, to be used to help her recover by paying for a private nurse. Eliza was worried that her husband would take the money if he discovered it, so she hid it under her pillow. When Edouard did find the cash, two weeks after her difficult childbirth, he reacted by beating Eliza in bed, rendering her unable to walk for four months and "seldom without a black eye." He also forbade her to work. Eliza became pregnant again in 1873 and, with her husband's encouragement and her doctor's advice, traveled back to England for the confinement. Her parents were reluctant to give her money to travel back to Berne, and Edouard didn't send any money or reassurance, but eventually she somehow got herself, her toddler Isabel, and her newborn son Lucien back to Switzerland.
In Switzerland, she discovered that Edouard's engraving assistant, a young Swiss woman, was no longer working for him, because she was in prison on charges of obtaining an illegal abortion. Edouard insisted he was uninvolved with the crime and/or his assistant. However, against Eliza's wishes he promptly rehired the young woman as soon as she was released from prison - and then paid for the expenses of her following pregnancy.
At this point Eliza wanted to return home to England, especially since Edouard was forbidding her to teach again. She sold all of her clothes and got some money from her former pupils to get her and her two children back to England. Edouard signed a contract of financial support for them of thirty shillings a week but then, shockingly, failed to fulfill it.
At this point, in 1879, Eliza began working as a governess in England, supporting her kids on only her earnings and a 25-pound-a-year inheritance from her parents, who had themselves died by 1875. She also initiated divorce proceedings. Matters must have seemed pretty dire financially. Suddenly, however, Eliza received both fortunate and tragic news. Her eccentric maiden aunt had been murdered and left her an inheritance! Eliza's aunt was one Miss Matilda Hacker, a wealthy woman who avoided paying rents by living under various assumed names, most recently "Miss Uish" and repeatedly moving when payments were due. In fact, Miss Hacker had been dead for 18 months when her strangled corpse was found hidden in the coal cellar of her former lodging house. Since she moved so often without telling her family, they simply hadn't realized that she had actually died.
Initially, Miss Hacker's maid, a Miss Hannah Dobbs, was accused of the crime, since she had told the lodge-owners, a married couple known as Mr. and Mrs. Severin Bastindoff, that Miss "Uish" had simply moved out without giving notice. Hannah Dobbs had been seen with several items formerly belonging to Miss Hacker. However, Miss Dobbs claimed that she was innocent, and that if anyone was to blame, it was her lover, Severin Bastindoff, the lodging-house-owner. Miss Dobbs was duly acquitted of murder, though she was convicted of theft for pocketing the items that had been left in the apartment.
However, when Severin Bastindoff himself was put on trial for the murder of Miss Hacker (alias Uish), he defended himself with an airtight alibi, claiming that Miss Dobbs had mistaken him for his identical twin brother Peter Bastindoff, with whom she had actually had an adulterous relationship. Furthermore, Peter Bastindoff also turned out to have an alibi for the alleged date of the murder.
No one was ever found guilty of Miss Hacker's death, but when the trial finally settled, Eliza Durussel stood to inherit more than 100 pounds. It was at this point that she filed the document which I may have been the first person in 100 years to read, since she was unable to receive this inheritance if she could not protect it from being seized by Edouard.
Edouard went on to have a noted career in engraving and making commemorative coins; he died in 1888 at the age of 46 "at the height of his talent." Eliza, who seems to have possibly returned to calling herself Eliza Hacker, died in 1923 at the age of 85, survived by her two children, Isabel and Lucien. Lucien moved to Saskatchewan eventually and has many living descendants.
Gather around and listen to the entirely true tale of Eliza Durussel, based on her court affidavit for divorce and the protection of her property, and a news article about her aunt.
WARNING: Discussions of domestic abuse and violence follow.
In 1868, Eliza Hacker, the 30-year-old daughter of prosperous British parents Charles and Mary Ann, was sent by her family to Paris to study French. Eliza fell madly in love with the brother of her French tutor, a 26-year-old engraver named Mr. L. Edouard Durussel, and married him in a runaway elopement, without the consent of her parents or any financial support beyond her own one share in the Great Western Railway. Edouard sold that share for 120 pounds and used 110 pounds of it to pay off his debts, before moving with Eliza to Berne, Switzerland, where he set up as an engraver. To make ends meet while Edouard pursued his artistic career, Eliza began, much more financially successfully to offer English lessons to Swiss children. After some time Eliza and Edouard had a first child, who died soon after birth. The couple then began to quarrel regularly, in particular about money. She wished to keep her earnings for household expenses and he wished to take it all to spend for his own purposes.
When Eliza delivered her second child, a healthy daughter named Isabel, her mother sent her a 5 pound note from England, to be used to help her recover by paying for a private nurse. Eliza was worried that her husband would take the money if he discovered it, so she hid it under her pillow. When Edouard did find the cash, two weeks after her difficult childbirth, he reacted by beating Eliza in bed, rendering her unable to walk for four months and "seldom without a black eye." He also forbade her to work. Eliza became pregnant again in 1873 and, with her husband's encouragement and her doctor's advice, traveled back to England for the confinement. Her parents were reluctant to give her money to travel back to Berne, and Edouard didn't send any money or reassurance, but eventually she somehow got herself, her toddler Isabel, and her newborn son Lucien back to Switzerland.
In Switzerland, she discovered that Edouard's engraving assistant, a young Swiss woman, was no longer working for him, because she was in prison on charges of obtaining an illegal abortion. Edouard insisted he was uninvolved with the crime and/or his assistant. However, against Eliza's wishes he promptly rehired the young woman as soon as she was released from prison - and then paid for the expenses of her following pregnancy.
At this point Eliza wanted to return home to England, especially since Edouard was forbidding her to teach again. She sold all of her clothes and got some money from her former pupils to get her and her two children back to England. Edouard signed a contract of financial support for them of thirty shillings a week but then, shockingly, failed to fulfill it.
At this point, in 1879, Eliza began working as a governess in England, supporting her kids on only her earnings and a 25-pound-a-year inheritance from her parents, who had themselves died by 1875. She also initiated divorce proceedings. Matters must have seemed pretty dire financially. Suddenly, however, Eliza received both fortunate and tragic news. Her eccentric maiden aunt had been murdered and left her an inheritance! Eliza's aunt was one Miss Matilda Hacker, a wealthy woman who avoided paying rents by living under various assumed names, most recently "Miss Uish" and repeatedly moving when payments were due. In fact, Miss Hacker had been dead for 18 months when her strangled corpse was found hidden in the coal cellar of her former lodging house. Since she moved so often without telling her family, they simply hadn't realized that she had actually died.
Initially, Miss Hacker's maid, a Miss Hannah Dobbs, was accused of the crime, since she had told the lodge-owners, a married couple known as Mr. and Mrs. Severin Bastindoff, that Miss "Uish" had simply moved out without giving notice. Hannah Dobbs had been seen with several items formerly belonging to Miss Hacker. However, Miss Dobbs claimed that she was innocent, and that if anyone was to blame, it was her lover, Severin Bastindoff, the lodging-house-owner. Miss Dobbs was duly acquitted of murder, though she was convicted of theft for pocketing the items that had been left in the apartment.
However, when Severin Bastindoff himself was put on trial for the murder of Miss Hacker (alias Uish), he defended himself with an airtight alibi, claiming that Miss Dobbs had mistaken him for his identical twin brother Peter Bastindoff, with whom she had actually had an adulterous relationship. Furthermore, Peter Bastindoff also turned out to have an alibi for the alleged date of the murder.
No one was ever found guilty of Miss Hacker's death, but when the trial finally settled, Eliza Durussel stood to inherit more than 100 pounds. It was at this point that she filed the document which I may have been the first person in 100 years to read, since she was unable to receive this inheritance if she could not protect it from being seized by Edouard.
Edouard went on to have a noted career in engraving and making commemorative coins; he died in 1888 at the age of 46 "at the height of his talent." Eliza, who seems to have possibly returned to calling herself Eliza Hacker, died in 1923 at the age of 85, survived by her two children, Isabel and Lucien. Lucien moved to Saskatchewan eventually and has many living descendants.
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