Word: caillaux
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
These attacks had undoubtedly greatly angered Caillaux; for one day in March, 1914, there appeared at the office of the Figaro Mme. Caillaux, third wife of Joseph, herself a divorcee. Her card was handed to Calmette, who with a gesture of impatience, showed it to Paul Bourget. "What are you going to do?" said the latter. "She is a woman. I must receive her," replied Calmette...
When Mme. Caillaux entered the office, Calmette received her politely, asked what he could do. Said she: "It is needless for me to pretend that I am making a friendly call." She then took out her revolver, fired one shot. M. Calmette fell to the ground. Mme. Caillaux then fired the remaining four shots, only one missed. The anger of the Parisiens was aroused. Caillaux was repeatedly attacked by furious mobs and the day following the murder he resigned...
Despite the strongest chain of evidence of premeditated murder, Mme. Caillaux was acquitted by a jury, after a sensational trial?apparently upon the novel ground that if the doctors called in to attend Calmette had given him the proper treatment he would not have died. Meanwhile, Joseph Caillaux had stood for reëlection and was once more a Deputy in Paris...
Then came the War. M. Caillaux was observed on the boulevards sporting an Army paymaster's uniform. He became the centre of unpleasant incidents at Vichy and in Argentina, where he was sent on a diplomatic mission. The end came in Italy in 1916, where he said that France would not hold out beyond the Spring of 1917, that France must conclude a separate peace and then an alliance with Germany. Premier Briand wired
...trial is historic. Caillaux contended that the papers seized were merely evidence of his intimate dreams, defended himself with great skill and eloquence. He was, however, sentenced to three years in prison, banished from Paris for five years, had his civic rights suspended for ten years...