Gabrielle Bompard

Gabrielle Bompard (born 1868) was a French murderess in the 1889 Gouffé Case who, conspiring with Michel Eyraud, was responsible for the homicide by strangulation of the bailiff Gouffé after luring him into her home, which fascinated the public and media in France and abroad due to her claim of being under hypnosis. Bompard claimed that Eyraud had hypnotized her and therefore she should not be found guilty in Gouffé’s murder. The credibility of this defense was heavily debated and the subject of conflicting expert testimony. However, Bompard won the hypnosis argument, and while she was found guilty, she escaped full blame and the guillotine, instead receiving hard labor. Bompard became a famous and popular figure in the fin-de-siècle during the murder trial due to the attention the case received in the press and how Bompard seemed to enjoy that attention and parade her newfound celebrity.

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