Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
Thank you for joining us for the first episode of a new season of Criminalia. This season, we'll be talking about arson, firebugs, and in this episode a creature known as the petreluse. The petreluse is at its very basics, considered to be a woman who uses petroleum fuel to set fires, according to the rumors around Paris in May of eighteen seventy one, though multiple petrulus were to blame for burning down much of the city. Of course, the story is a lot bigger than that, so let's get
into it. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarki.
And I'm Holly Frye. And to talk about the Petreluse. And even though that sounds the same to English speakers as the singular, we are talking plural here. We need to first talk a bit about what was happening in France when they allegedly materialized, specifically the political turmoil in France in the nineteenth century, how France became a democracy after its defeat in the Franco Prussian War of eighteen seventy and the impact of the short lived radical Paris
Commune that resulted. We fully acknowledge that, yes, one could easily spend a lifetime talking about the details of the commune what led up to it. You know, once you get from French Revolution into like late nineteenth century is kind of one long arc. That is a lot of things impacting one another and how things ultimately came to
a fiery end. But because our focus is on the female supporters of the Paris Commune and the mythology that grew out of accusations of them being quote rebellious, we're going to talk pretty quickly through the historical timeline to get to the rise of the commune itself.
Big changes happened in Central Europe after the Holy Roman Empire dissolved in eighteen oh six, and that included the unification of states. Before eighteen oh six, the German speaking States, or simply called the German States, had only been neighbors, really together, only in a very loose political entity. That political entity was the Holy Roman Empire. In the absence of that, Prince Otto von Bismarck thought he'd tried to unify all German states under the control of his northern
German state of Prussia. Consolidation led to the creation of the German Confederation that was thirty nine unified states, including Prussia. Consolidation, though spawned three wars. The first war of German unification was the eighteen sixty two Danish War, the second was the eighteen sixty six Austro Prussian War, and the third and final piece of consolidation was the Franco Prussian War of eighteen seventy.
And that brings us to Emperor Napoleon the Third. Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, Napoleon the Third led what was known as France's Second Empire, and he did not much care for Otto's idea. He declared war against Prussia in retaliation. German troops, though, were ultimately better prepared than the French army, and the
war ended with France's admission of defeat. France signed an armistice with the new Prussian led German Empire in January of eighteen seventy one, and remaining French government officials formed a new legislative National Assembly. Adolf Thier was appointed to lead the incoming government, a parliamentary republic rather than a monarchy, and he sat as President of what would become known
as France's Third Republic. The new government set itself up at the former royal palace at Versailles, only about twelve miles west of Paris, and it remained there for several years. Today, the period of the Third Republic is considered to have been the first stable electoral democracy with universal male suffrage in Europe. This new government, though, was more conservative than the citizens of Paris were, and many were unhappy that
the new rules seemed very similar to the old rule. It, like the Second Empire, was supported by the Catholic Church as well as military leaders and France's conservative population, but among Parisians there was a fear that it was just going to turn out to be a republican name only, and that the new political leaders planned to re establish the monarchy.
Working class Parisians, who were both angry at the armistice with Germany and with Tierre's leadership, established a new revolutionary political authority, the Paris Commune. Its delegates, known as the commune Ards, were considered among Parisians to be a group of low class, ruthless radicals. They were actually mainly comprised of Jacobin's but also included Blancists as well as members of Karl Marxi International Workingmen's Association. The Paris Commune lasted
for sixty four days. Though it existed for just two months, the Commune made a big impact and it's where we find the beginnings of the Petrulus. Concepts and ideas that in many countries are considered pretty commonplace in modern democracies. Things like women's rights, workers' rights, as well as separation of church and state. These were radical concepts that were not accepted in France in eighteen seventy one, but they were accepted ideas within the commune.
The creation of the Paris Commune introduced more anger and aggression to the city. We're going to jump ahead a few months to April of eighteen seventy one, when the Versaie those are the troops who had remained loyal to Tiars's new government began amassing outside the city, fearing an impending attack, and rightly so, the leaders of the Paris
Commune ready to mountain offensive. Louis Rossel, a soldier unhappy at the armistice with Germany, felt the new commune offered a quote lifeline, and he wrote to the Minister of war quote. I do not hesitate to join the side which has not concluded peace and which does not include in its ranks generals guilty of capitulation. Early offensive attempts failed, though, and Commune leaders called off their attacks on the Palace, but this.
In turn then emboldened Tiers's troops, who attacked, entering the city through an unguarded city wall. At the time, Paris had roughly two million residents, and the war was being fought literally on their streets, in their front yards. By May twenty second, more than fifty thousand of tiers troops had moved into the city, and he hoped that suppressing the insurrection would ultimately strengthen the position of the Third Republic.
In response, the Paris Commune issued a call to arms, and this is what brings us to the Paris and what's known as lass Amene Saint Blanc or the Bloody Wheat.
Paris, as you can imagine, had turned into chaos at this point. By May twenty third, the third day of the Bloody Week, Tirs's troops were targeting and killing supporters of the Commune in earnest communards, Catholic clergy. Let's just go ahead, and say anyone and everyone who lived in the city feared being shot or killed day and night and without cause. In one truly terrible statistic, more than three hundred suspected Communards were killed inside the church of
Saint Marie Madeleine by Versailles troops. French poet Augustine Malvina Blanche Cotte described in her work Tablette dunfem pond'n la commune that's writings of a woman during the commune, the smell of gunpowder and the overwhelming terror around her. On May twenty four, she wrote, quote, the night has been dreadful, with reciprocal fury shells, shrapnel, cannonade, musketry all kept on bursting in a frightful concert. The sky itself is red. The flashes of the massacre have set it on fire.
The city really wasn't prepared for conflict at this level. Many street barricades went unmanned. There wasn't enough ammunition. The city was defended not by the French army, those were Tier's forces, but rather by the local national guard called the Federat, which had roughly four hundred thousand volunteers among
its forces. The national Guard had played a major role in previous wars, including the Franco Prussian War, but was disbanded by TIER soon after the establishment of the Third Republic. That job loss contributed to recent economic losses throughout the city, sparking additional anger among Parisians. When the Guard was reactivated to defend Paris during the eighteen seventy one uprising, it
wasn't the unit Tier had known. It was a a newly radicalized national Guard that wasn't above say, burning down the Hotel Deville.
Fires were intentionally set around the city during the uprising, and many during the Bloody Wheat. Targets included the Hotel de Ville as we just mentioned, the Palais de Justice, Tuilieri Palace, the Richelieut Library of the Louver, dozens of smaller buildings near the Rue Royale and the Rue de Faubourg Saint Honore, as well as the commercial docks along the Seine. Anything that had a whiff of the monarchy about it was considered a target, and among one of
the first marks set ablaze was the Vendome Column. That's a monument that Napoleon Bonaparte had erected to honor well himself. The commune arts called it quote a monument of barbarism, and the idea to destroy the tower is sometimes credited to French artist Gustave Courbet, who had held leadership positions on the commune's arts and education councils, although he had broken with the commune before the Vendome column was attacked.
Some private homes were looted and burned, including the residence of Adolph Thierre. In the days and months that followed the uprising, the fires and those who set them took on a story all their own.
The Bloody Week ended on May twenty eighth, when Tierre's forces took control of the city, and a final act of brutality, roughly one hundred and fifty commune ards were executed and buried in a mass grave at Perlische's cemetery the night of May twenty seventh. More than forty three thousand Parisians were arrested in the aftermath of the uprising. Some leaders of the newly defunct commune fled France. Others were exiled to the French territory of New Caledonia in
the South Pacific. Some were executed for their role in the uprising, though many members in the commune were eventually granted amnesty.
We're going to take a break for a word from our sponsors, and when we return, we will talk about how the story of these Parisian arsonists just doesn't hold up.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about how the female Communards became a scapegoat for the violence that happened during the uprising and the misogynistic coverage of the trial that followed.
So let's talk about the fires. We know from modern historians and some not so modern historians that the fires set around Paris during the uprising were likely set by Tiers troops as well as the National Guard and those who were striking out in political anger, but that is not how the story of these fires was told. The widespread arson, according to the original narrative, was attributed to the women Communards, who were given the nickname les Petrolus.
American historian Albert Boehm once wrote that these women quote often symbolized the commune as a militant female, the mythical petruluse, the female incendiary who flouted her true nature.
Women did have an active role in the Paris Commune, and that included everything from caring for the wounded to fighting in their revolution. There were a number of feminist initiatives proposed in the Commune, including equal wages for women, the right to divorce, and professional education for women, yet there were no women in leadership positions in the Commune.
In her book The Fury Archives, Female Citizenship, Human Rights and the International Avant Garde, author Jill Richards writes that at the time, women who were active in politics would have been at the same time excluded from any kind of political recognition. That was the climate, and that was true within the Second Empire, the Third Republic, and the Commune's Central Committee. Richards calls these women political actors, human but not given the rights of men.
At a time in France when women had no political rights and little to know liberties, the idea of the Petreloeus of the Paris Commune was one that represented the emancipated woman that was the usual term for a feminist in the nineteenth century. The petrelieuz was considered among Parisians to be dangerous. According to Gay Gullickson, professor Emerita at the University of Maryland and author of the book Unruly
Women of Paris images of the Commune. Quote. They were women who had left the domestic sphere for the political arena, where feminism challenges bourgeois men's sense of order, power and well being. There was and is no evidence that there was an all girl arson gang.
Female commune arts were on trial for their alleged arson activities during the uprising. French journalist Leonce DuPont recalled that the women were ugly, to be sure, but not quite ugly enough, or not as ugly as one might have expected.
And though we paraphrased him a little bit there, all those ugly words were his, and it's his words, those ugly words that went on to become pretty much the default record of the fourth Military Tribunal of the Paris Commune that was the first of the trials to be devoted to female commune arts.
Five women appeared in court, Elizabeth Gretife, Leontine Souetin, Josephine mauche Eula li Papavoine, and Lucie Marie Bouquamp. And of all of them, DuPont wrote, quote, they were not hideous enough, not old enough, not criminal enough to inspire horror. He had more to say on the subject, and reportedly knowing a little about physiognomy, he deliberately focused on any facial markings or perceived deformities the women had. So physiognomy, in
case you do not know, is a pseudoscience. It's the practice of assessing a person's character or personality traits from their physical characteristics, and specifically their face. DuPaul reported Elizabeth had a quote large nose and beast like grin. He also wrote that she was overdressed for court and perspired too much. Leontine's left cheek, he noted, was scarred, and he went on to speculate that this may have happened
in a brothel. There's no evidence at all to suggest that Josephine, he observed, seemed dirty and withered, and he wrote that she looked angry, quote like a fury. He found twenty four year old ulales face to be too large, and of Lucy well, her mouth was just too big. If you're looking for any evidence that these women were arsonists, though, do not look to DuPont. His account sort of reads like a Petrelouze fanfic.
Renee de Polges, a journalist for the French Daily newspaper, le Figero also expressed disappointment with the looks of the accused arsonists. In his coverage of the trial, he reported that a crowd had gathered outside the courtroom quote with some excitement, no doubt, because the very word petreluze summoned the most sinister menace, that is to say, savage hordes of she devils. However, to the audience's dismay, the persons led to the bench were ruined girls, ragged, grown pale
from their night watches or darkened by the sun. Their voices hoarse, their eyes dull, no longer feminine or masculine, beings without sex, without morality, without conscience, without even cynicism. He never uses the word ugly, as DuPont like to throw about quite liberally.
But he really.
Doesn't have to, does he. He doesn't even describe these women as human.
Writers were not the only ones describing the accused this way. The Petrelius were also vilified through visual art. Misogynistic caricatures of women were printed in publications and newspapers, most depicting female Commune art supporters as mustachioed women carrying torches and watering cans full of gasoline. Some women were drawn with
pig like features. The writing and the imagery had nothing to do with evidence, but it did directly reflect societal fears at that time, fears concerning the fight for female independence and agency, and in this instance, through women's participation in revolution.
Captain Juan, prosecutor at the trials, stated of the accused women, quote the horrible campaign against civilization begun on March eighteenth by people who believe in neither God nor country, and alas in great number unworthy creatus who seem to have taken on the task of becoming an opprobrium to their sex. And she becomes a moral monstrosity, then woman is more
dangerous than the most dangerous man. What began with what you might consider like low hanging fruit among misogynists, such as referring to women as a she devil, became a larger and uncomfortable question of how female commune ards mattered in regard to much bigger issues such as women's legal personhood.
The accused women of the Commune emerged from the flames as a mythical creature, but they also emerged as a scapegoat whose role in the Commune, say modern historians, was exaggerated in reaction to the threat they posed.
Since the nineteenth century, researchers and historians have tried to estimate the number of commune Ards killed in the uprising. Current estimates suggest that at least ten thousand people most during the Bloody Week, but as many as twenty thousand deaths may have happened.
We are going to take a break forward from our sponsor now, but when we're back we will talk more about the depiction of the petreluse and the misogynistic narrative that formed around the female commune arts.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's continue talking about the way female commune arts were treated after the uprising and how their story became mythology.
Even before the trials began, the press had fixated on a perverse idea of the petroluse. In their writing, reporters invoked descriptions including things like she wolves, the hydra, and other mythological monstrosities to describe the accused women. Early political cartoons printed newspapers portrayed women from the commune as ghoules
carrying cans of gasoline. Propaganda postcards showed the petrulus as a witch, usually holding a water can and quote watering the fires of destruction because they violated traditional gender rules. Female commune ards were considered by journalists and illustrators to be unfeminine, and we saw the quote unnatural so many times. They were certainly not welcome in joining the political discourse.
French novelist and poet Arson Hussai, who was a contemporary to the Commune, disparagingly wrote that quote with a kick to their skirts, we should cast into the hell of malediction, all these horrible creatures who have dishonored women in the saturnalias and impieties of the Commune.
Of the misogynistic press coverage. Author Gaye Gilixen writes that quote virtually overnight, this representation of the dangerous, unruly female incendiary came to symbolize the evils of the commune. For its critics, she could not have been imagined without the fires that burned furiously in parts of the city. But she was also the heir of the female representations already circulating,
the gun wielding Amazons, furies, viragos, female orators, and cantinier. Instead, the Petrulus lingered in people's minds, a powerful personification of evil with which to condemn the commune and to question the very nature of woman.
Not all coverage of the women came from outside the commune, though in her memoirs completed in eighteen eighty six, female communore Louise Michelle described her mindset at the time as quote all or nothing of the events. She wrote barbarian that I am I love cannon, the smell of powder, machine gun bullets in the air. In contrast to the circulating propaganda, In real photographs of Luise, she appears to be a no nonsense woman dressed in a National Guard uniform.
Summarized by French writer and male communard Benois Mallon, quote, above all, one important fact that the Paris Revolution brought to light is the entry of women into politics. They felt that the cooperation of women was indispensable to the triumph of the social revolution, which had reached the fighting stage. The woman and the proletariat, those ultimate victims of the old order, could not hope for their emancipation except by forming a strong union against all the forces of the past.
Gullixon explains that quote vengeful proletarians were dangerous enough, but women posed even greater threats to the social order. She continues, explaining that there were damaging ideologies that grew up around the female commun art stories which show us today the extent of the fears around French women's potential political power and agency. During the Proletariat's civil war and revolution, they were punished for existing outside of the traditional domestic rule.
Some were exiled and others were killed when the Commune fell to the Third Republic.
Activist and founder of the Union des Femme Elizabeth Mitriev, a contemporary of the Paris Commune, once stated that these women, these radical women, felt that they could achieve quote the creation of a new social order founded on equality, solidarity and of freedom, but it wasn't meant to be. Instead of improving women's rights, female supporters of the Commune were
demonized for daring to involve themselves in politics. Long after the Commune was gone, spite lingered and the women, or more accurately, the idea of what these women represented, became a successful scapegoat for the French state regarding the burning of Paris and atrocities committed during the uprising. These women are forever immortalized in the image of the Petreloeus and their mythology went beyond the borders of Paris and France.
American politician and diplomat Elihu Washburn, for example, is known to have brought home tales of the quote savage petrelus in Paris, imagine that dinner party conversation.
In the aftermath of the Paris Commune, a general feeling, like a general undercurrent throughout the city allowed for the concept of femininity to become greatly distorted among the public, politicians, and among the press covering the events. To quote Gallixen again, and this is because she really hits the nail on the head here. Bourgeois men and women were obsessed with representations of the women on the barricades as immoral and unnatural.
For conservatives, the fires and the sinister Petreloeus were a godsend since they distracted attention from the army's slaughter of the Parisians.
Everyone from historians to politicians to Parisian citizens has a differing view on the significance of the Petrulus, the violent uprising, and the commune. Revolutionary Karl Marx described the Paris Commune as the first proletarian revolution, one that rejected the authority of the French Third Republic. Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Russian Communist Party, was impressed by the quote revolutionary passion
of the Commune arts. Chinese communist revolutionary and the founder of the People's Republic of China Mau Situng spoke of being inspired by the Commune Arts.
But those women accused of using nineteenth century Molotov cocktails to burn down Paris, that's right, they didn't exist.
All right, Maria. Yes, it's a new season and a new drink segment, so we're calling this one Lighter Fluid.
Which I love.
I can already tell that the challenge of this season is not making everything a spicy fire.
Drink exactly, can we Let's just set all the drinks up and we'd get boring.
They may all be spicy. We'll see what happens, We'll see what feels correct. So in this case, I started to think about flavors common in French foods. French food not really known for its spicy, fiery dishes, so that's one thing. But what French food is known for, among other things, is it's beautiful pastries. And so I started
thinking about French fruit tarts. So usually like a fruit tart, there are obviously different variations, but there's a base like a crust that's usually a cookie type thing, like a very buttery crust, and then there's a creamy layer and then there's fresh fruit on top. So I wanted to do something that conjured that but also seemed like maybe you put a very mild hot sauce on top of it. Oh, So to start, you have to do a little prep on this one, which is that you have to take
about four ounces of vodka. You're not gonna use all four ounces, this is just for prep.
I'm like, this is a big drink, used it.
Across multiple projects. But it's one of those things where we've talked about before if you if you go lower, your proportions of ingredients get a little harder to control as they shrink. So we're starting with four ounces of vodka and about a tea spoon or like a pretty rounded barspoon of paprika. You're gonna put that in the vodka and you're gonna let that sit not for a long time. This isn't like a multi day.
Thing, and this is like a sweet Hungarian, not a smoky.
It can be whatever paprika you have on hand. Truthfully, because the thing that you're pulling out of it that really gets left in the vibe cut is almost the same. Either way. Smoky is great in my opinion. You're gonna give it a little shake in, like a little jar or whatever you got. If you only have a cup and you stir it, that's fine too. You really only need to let that set forty five minutes, not a long time. Go have lunch while you do that. That's
what I did. So then when you are ready, when that has set for a minute, you are gonna make your drink, which I am calling the gasoline goules. These women were incorrectly and rudely called ghoules. But we're gonna
make something delicious out of it. You are going to in a shaking tin with plenty of ice, put in a half ounce of simple syrup, a half ounce of lemon juice, three quarters of an ounce Creme de violette, three quarters of an ounce of low sugar apple juice, one ounce of shambour See we're getting lots of fruit flavors in there, one ounce of that paprika infused vodka.
And when you do it, I would say, let the paprika settle to the bottom a little bit where you pour it, because you don't want that particulate in there. It's a little tricky to strain off, but we're gonna double strain it on the pour out so you'll be okay. And then you're gonna add to get that slightly creamy situation, an ounce and a half of the milk of your choice. I did oat milk and a drop of vanilla extract, okay, because you just want to give it that bakery sensation
without getting too heavy. You are gonna shake this with ice like crazy, and then you'll double strain it so whatever your usual cocktail strainer is, and through a mesh strainer that for me, got almost all the particulate out that was coming from the paprika. And you're gonna strain that into a pre chilled glass. And then you have your gasoline gul which is this really fun, fruity, creamy drink that has a lot of body to it. And then part of your brain goes, do I smell smoke like.
That smoky paprika.
I'm like, but in a very faint background y kind of I'm.
Very excited about the idea of paprika vodka.
If you are a bloody mary drinker I am. I'm not really into them, but I highly recommend because it's a fun way to make a bloody mary have a little bit more kind of base tone to it. It just gives it a little bit more flavor. For the mocktail on this, it's super easy. We're just doing some switch outs. So in lieu of krem to violette, you'll do violet syrup, in lieu of shambour, you'll do a raspberry syrup. And in lieu of your paprika vodka, you're
gonna do a paprika infused kim emialte. Oh so easy, very nice.
Yeah, that makes sense.
You may want to, depending on your interest in sweetness, dial back your simple syrup since you're using other syrups here. That's one of those tests it in sea, but otherwise it's pretty similar it. In my opinion, the mocktail carries the fruitier notes a little harder, because alcohol will sometimes undercut a fruity note if it's not the prominent ingredient of a thing. So that is the gasoline ghoul, which was pretty darn tasty and I'll probably make again, and
I hope. If you make it, you enjoy it. We are very excited for this season. Ahead of fire, firefire.
Smoking, all the drinks.
Smoking all the drinks. It'll be nothing but cinnamon and smoking. I promise, I want you that every time. Also pretty sure it will come up. He will be right back here again next week with another hopefully fascinating story of arson and another hopefully yummy drink. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.