Jean Giono: Notes sur l'affaire Dominici (1955)

In the early morning of 5 August 1952 three people were murdered near the village of Lurs in Provence: the eminent scientist Jack Drummond, his wife Ann, and their daughter Elizabeth, aged ten. Jean Giono was asked by the weekly paper Arts to cover the trial, and presumably Giono (never possessing a car) went by train from his home in Manosque to Digne in order to do so. These are notes on his findings.

Much of this concerns the Dominici family, near whose home the Drummond family – on holiday from Long Eaton in Derbyshire, near where Jack worked for Boots – had stopped to perhaps camp for the night, but who were certainly in need of water for the Hillman's radiator, tortured by the the heat in Provence.

The trial was a little crazy, but the 72-year-old Gaston Dominici – who had admitted to the murders several times but then retracted his statements – seems to be a cooked goose still in the farmyard: Giono (surely slightly exaggerating?) states that he's worked out that Gaston (who must have left school between the age of nine and eleven) has a total vocabulary of 35 French words, and even though he's intelligent, this is no match against the many thousands of words lawyers and judges make use of, especially if they choose to use them to get a trial over quickly.

Giono says he wouldn't like to be in the shoes of one of the jurors, but Gaston is sentenced to death, in spite of the unbelievable bungling of the cops, and in spite of no motive for the murders being put forward, although the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and de Gaulle freed Dominici on health grounds in 1960 (five years afters Giono published these notes). Giono is uncertain of Dominici's guilt, but certain that the trial was by no means fair.

But Dominici was never pardoned, which later generations of the family have tried to achieve. A German prisoner Wilhelm Bartkowski had confessed that he was partly responsible for the murders (the motive no doubt being robbery) although this doesn't appear to have been followed up by anyone. Such is the course of justice.

My Jean Giono posts:
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Sylvie Giono: Jean Giono à Manosque
Jean Giono: L' Homme qui plantait des arbres
Jean Giono: Le Hussard sur le toit
Jean Giono: Colline | Hill of Destiny
Jean Giono: Un de Baumugnes | Lovers Are Never Losers
Jean Giono in Manosque
Jean Giono: Notes sur l'affaire Dominici
Jean Giono's grave, Manosque, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Pierre Citron: Jean Giono 1895–1970
Jean Giono: Regain | Second Harvest
Jean Giono: Que ma joie demeure
Jean Giono: Pour saluer Melville
Jean Giono et al, Le Contadour

Sculpture and Maximilien Vox in Lurs, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04)

This sculpture at the entrance to Lurs village, consisting of forty-two upright stones, is designed to explore writing systems and the origins of the alphabet. Obviously, it is not by chance that this exhibit is in Maximilien Vox's villag

John Hamilton in Lurs, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04)

The grave of Arthur Henry Patrik [sic] Hamilton (1917–94), born in Breinton, Hereford (UK), and died in Lurs. His stone against the cemetery wall says that he was an English teacher in Paris, and a poet in Lurs, although if he ever had anything published, in English or French, I can find nothing. In World War II he was a flight lieutenant in the RAF.

John Pudney (1909–77) was a short story writer, poet, writer of children's books, and also with RAF associations. I very much doubt if the two men ever met, but a very popular poem of Pudney's, 'For Johnny', is inscribed under this epitaph: 'Do not despair/For Johnny-head-in-air/He sleeps as sound // As Johnny in the cloud/And keep your tears/For him in after years // Better by far/For Johnny the bright star/To keep your head/And see his children fed.'

John Pudney

Henriette Frontera-Roche in Lurs, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04)

Local historian Henriette Frontera-Roche (1895–1971) apparently wrote just one book: Histoire de Lurs (1969). Below is how Lurs (population 377 (in 2015)) looks today – OK, yesterday to be exact.

Maximilien Vox in Lurs, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04)

Maximilien Vox (born in Condé-sur-Noireau in 1894 and died in 1974 in Lurs), was born Samuel William Théodore Monod and, among many other things, was a drawer, illustrator, publisher, theorist and historian of international letters, or characters. Throughout the world, he is recognised as an expert in typography. His son Sylvère Monod (1921–2006), who wrote his doctoral thesis on Charles Dickens, was a prominent translator from English to French, including Charlotte Brontë, Conrad, Walter Scott, Shakespeare, and – it perhaps goes without saying – Dickens. His son Richard Monod (1930–89) was a teacher of Theatrical Studies.

Henri Laborit in Lurs, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04)

Henri Laborit (born in Hanoi in 1914 and died in Paris in 1995) was a medical surgeon and neuro-biologist. By introducing antipsychotic drugs in 1951 he revolutionised psychiatry, and he also revolutionised anaesthetics. He became known to the general public by popularising neuroscience, and took part in Alain Renais's film Mon oncle d'Amérique. He published a huge number of works.