Tuesday, August 23, 2022

The Seznec Affair Storyline part 1 : Introduction

The Seznec Affair


The Seznec affair is a criminal case from 1924 in which Guillaume Seznec is found guilty of the murder of Pierre Quemeneur and also of forgery. Subsequently, the judgment was the subject of fourteen petitions to obtain a new trial after a final verdict between 1926 and 2006, all of which were rejected.

The Affair

Pierre Quemeneur, wholesale merchant and local politician  disappeared in 1923, during a business with his friend Guillaume Seznec from Brittany, in western France to Paris. The purpose of this trip was to sell American WWI surplus Cadillac cars to the Soviet Union.  Quemeneur had a very important appointment in Paris with an American who was to be acting as a middleman in this trade. Seznec, thought to have been the last person to have seen Quemeneur alive,  became the main suspect. This led to his arrest, indictment, and finally imprisonment, even though Quemeneur's body was never found. However, during Seznec's trial,  several witnesses will declare having met Quemeneur after the presumed date of his disappearance.

 

Seznec ww1 Cadillac type 57

Seznec 's Cadillac Type 57


The newspapers evoke the suspicions of the police, who suppose that Seznec would have killed Quemeneur with the jack of his car. A lot of investigations were performed near Houdan with no success.

The Seznec trial, during which one hundred and forty-eight witnesses are heard, lasted eight days and ends on November 4, 1924. The accused is found guilty "of forgery in private writing and the murder of Pierre Quemeneur ". Premeditation being ruled out, he was sentenced to forced labor for life, even though General Attorney had requested the death penalty.

After the rejection of a first petition to obtain a new trial filed by his wife, Seznec was taken to French Guyana. He was in jailed at the camp of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni on April 7, 1927, then he was
transferred to the prison on Île Royale in 1928 and, again, in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni in 1942. Several studies attest to the very difficult living conditions in the penitentiary set up by the French Republic in Guyana.

After the Second World War and the definitive closure of the penal colony of Guyana, Seznec benefited from a ten-year sentence reduction, which allowed his release on May 14, 1947; Then, he was allowed to return to France. On February 13, 1954, he was hit by a delivery truck and he died in Paris on February 13, 1954, from his injuries.

 

Guillaume Seznec and Pierre Quéméneur

 On the left Guillaume Seznec and on the right Pierre Quemeneur

 

https://www.seznec-affair.com/2022/08/the-seznec-affair-storyline-part-1.html

https://www.seznec-affair.com/2022/09/the-seznec-affair-storyline-part-2.html

 

https://www.seznec-affair.com/2022/09/seznec-affair-requests-for-revision-of.html

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