Raoul Villain (1885 – 1936) was a French nationalist primarily remembered for his assassination of the French socialist leader Jean Jaurès on July 31, 1914 in Paris.
Contents |
Villain was born in Reims, Marne, France. As a 29 year old student in archeology at the Ecole du Louvres, he was a member of the Ligue des jeunes amis de l'Alsace-Lorraine ("League of Young Friends of Alsace-Lorraine"), a nationalist student group.[1]
After France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine were annexed by Germany. This was a source of anger and resentment in France, causing many to feel that a new war with Germany was in order to recover both territories and French "pride". Therefore many like Villain opposed to the pacifist policies of Jean Jaurès.
Villain focused on Jaurès, bought a revolver and began stalking him, scribbling incoherent notes about the socialist leader's habits into his pocket-book. At about 21:40 on Friday, July 31, 1914, Villain fired two bullets through a window embrasure into Jaurès' head while his victim was having supper with his contributors in Le café du Croissant at the corner of Rue Montmartre and Rue du Croissant.[2]
The next day, posters went up all over France announcing the general mobilization, and war was declared three days after Jaurès's death. What would be World War I began.
Incarcerated for the duration of the war, Villain was brought to trial in 1919. He was acquitted by a popular jury on March 29, 1919, and Anatole France wrote in L'Humanité: "Workers! A monstrous verdict brings in that assassinating Jaurès is not a crime...".[3] Jaurès's wife, plaintiff, was convicted in costs.
After having briefly been arrested in 1920 in Paris after trying to pass some false currency, Villain fled to Ibiza in the Balearic Islands off Spain. Receiving some money through a legacy, Villain settled in a hovel near Santa Eulalia, where he was known as el loco del puerto ("the madman in the port") . He was shot on the grounds of "espionage" on March 19, 1936 (just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War) by Republicans (or by Jean Coryn[4]).