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Find on Actu Chartres, every Sunday, a Eurelian chronicle of History and stories offered by Alain Denizet. Professor, historian, writer of Eure-et-Loir, he brings together for years all of his chronicles on his site.
You can also find his news and books there. Alain Denizet also chairs the Beauce and Dunois manuscript prize.
1915 in Chartres, Paul became Suzy
The story of Paul Grappe, transvestite deserter, starts to Chartres in December 1914.
Returning to the front after leave was difficult. The feeling of duty was mingled with the fear of facing death again. Some deserted.
The cases were rare without being exceptional, not a week went by without the newspapers not reporting, in Chartres, a desertion motivated by fear, love or in the case of Paul Grappe, by theinjustice.
Already injured and hospitalized at Reims for a thigh wound on August 31, 1914, Private Grappe was again wounded on November 4, 1915 at Andechy in the Sum with a shrapnel which had severed two phalanges of his right index finger.
This injury seemed suspicious to his superiors who accused him of voluntary mutilation. He owed to the testimonies of his comrades not to be shot and was finally exonerated.
Convalescing in his regiment in Chartres
Sent in convalescence to his regiment at Chartres, he was treated there, benefited from the attention of Louise, his wife, who sent him parcels.
Six months passed. In April, Paul claimed that it was still impossible for him to get a handkerchief out of his pocket. So, shoot a gun …
But the healing was so slow, so much so that his captain, suspecting him of tugging at him while preventing healing, promised him the forehead without delay.
Grappe, who had matured his business all winter, decided to desert and join his wife in Paris. On May 22, he was declared a deserter.
An extraordinary adventure to escape research
Thus began his extraordinary adventure because he had to escape the search. But how ? Paul Grappe, with the agreement of his wife, imagine crossdressing. He took a liking to it.
For the neighbors, he was Suzanne Landgard, nicknamed ” boyish “. For the regulars of the Bois de Boulogne and the establishments of pleasure in Montmartre, it became Suzy, prostitute who loved both men and women.
Suzanne also devoted herself to parachuting. The newspapers did not fail to salute the courage of the intrepid Mme Suzanne Landgard …
The hoax lasted ten years until the law of January 3, 1925 amnesties deserters.
Suzanne, who no longer risked anything, then granted an interview to the Little Parisian. Suzy became Paul again, stopped dressing up, put on a mustache and sank into alcoholism.
In 1928Paul was shot and killed by his wife, whom he hit when he was drunk. She was acquitted amidst cheers.
Find out more: The boy and the murderer, Fabrice Virgili, Daniele Voldman, Petite biblio Payot, 2017. Our roaring twenties, a film by André Téchiné, 2017.
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