Puppet. We are in 1869. In the early morning, a farmer has to face a chilling scene. He discovers the corpse of a woman in the middle of a plain. Neither one nor two, the man sounds the alarm. The police rush to the scene… The start of one of the most publicized criminal cases of the Second Empire. In a mass grave, they dig up six mutilated bodies: that of Hortense Kinck and her five children, aged 2 to 13.
For several weeks, this affair will make the front page of the press. “Le crime de Pantin” becomes a daily soap opera. “There had been crimes, there had been murders that had caught the eye. But this is the first news item that enjoys unprecedented press coverage,” comments the historian Fabrice d’Almeida.
After the discovery of the bodies, very quickly, eyes turn to Jean Kinck, Hortense’s husband, and their eldest son Gustave. The two men are nowhere to be found. Are they guilty? The corpses of the two unfortunates, also murdered, will finally be found shortly after.
Arrested by the police in Le Havre, a man named Jean-Baptiste Troppmann finds himself at the heart of the case. Little by little, the noose is tightening. The charges are mounting against him. The 20-year-old mechanic is accused of having killed the Kinck family to steal it.
The Troppmann affair: the beginning of a transformation of the press
For several weeks, the Troppmann affair made headlines. ” Is this an act of revenge or are we dealing with a madman ? can we read in the columns of the Petit Journal on September 22, 1869.
” We are at the beginning of journalism when Le Petit Journal begins to take up the Troppmann affair, continues Fabrice d’Almeida. They will not hesitate both to make elements of investigations, to seek witnesses (…). Le Petit Journal has this incredible ability to formulate hypotheses, to describe scenes as if they were fictional novels. A formula that works: from the discovery of the bodies to the execution of Jean-Baptiste Troppmann, the sales figures explode. “It will participate in a form of democratization of the newspaper since with these sales which increase, advertising will also increase and we will lower the price of the newspaper” explains Bérénice Mariau, teacher-researcher in Information and Communication Sciences.
Find all the explanations around this case in the video placed at the top of the article.