This is not really a ghost story. I'll tell you anyway because cruel events like the ones I'm about to tell you soon often lead to paranormal events. It would not surprise me if the Papin sisters still give people nightmares today.
Birth under a bad star
Christine and Lea Papin, the stars of our story, were born in France in the early 1900s. They had a very troubled childhood. Their father Gustave was an abusive alcoholic and the mother Clemence was considered to be of low morals and unsuited for motherhood.
Clemence gave birth to her first child, Emilia in 1901. Four years later - when Christine came to the world- her mother decided it was all too much for her and gave the baby into the care of Gustave´s sister.
Shortly after Lea was born, Clemence discovered that her husband has raped the oldest daughter Emilia, who was 10 years old at the time. Clemence immediately filed for divorce and Emilia was packed off to a convent.
Monastery as punishment
Clemence believed that she had seduced her father, and as punishment sent her to be raised by nuns at the convent of Le Bon Pasteur, that was known for its discipline and harshness.
As further revenge against her children Clemence sent Christine away from the loving home of her aunt, to join her sister at the convent.
To further release herself from the responsibility of motherhood, Clemence sent her youngest daughter Lea to live with a great uncle.
Away from drunken violence and abuse
Clemence´s punishment backfired. The girls must have flourished in their new stable environment, away from drunken violence and abuse. Not only did the sisters grow very close to each other, but as soon as Emilia was old enough she took the vows and became a nun. Christine intended to follow in her beloved sister´s footsteps as soon as she was eligible.
Clemence was livid with rage when she heard the news of Emilia´s decision to join the order. She had planned for her daughters to leave the convent as soon as they were old enough to work - and to seek employment as live in maids.
Bring me the money, honey!
Clemence removed Christine immediately from the convent, fearing losing potential income and forced her to work in the middle class households of Le Mans.
Because she had been trained in a variety of domestic duties in the convent, Christine fitted into this life with ease. Her employers were very satisfied with her, but Clemence was not satisfied with the wages they paid her daughter. She forced Christine to resign from numerous jobs and seek better paid ones.
Lea, the youngest daughter, was removed from her uncle´s care and also pushed out to work as a maid.
Despite the youngest and middle sisters being separated so long, they discovered a bond, and enjoyed each other´s company immensely.
Finally together
In 1926 Christine obtained the position as maid and cook in the home of Monsieur Lancelin and his family which consisted of his wife Leonie and two grown daughters. One of them was married and lived away, the other, Genevieve was still at home.
After a few months of most satisfactory service, Christine convinced Madame Lancelin to take on her sister Lea as chambermaid. Madame. Lancelin agreed without hesitation.
The two Papin sisters rarely went out, except to church on Sundays, and to visit a local fortune teller, who told them they had been together as man and wife in a previous incarnation. They worked long hours and the Lancelin´s were very pleased to have such hard working and pious girls under their roof.
Although the Lancelin´s found their new servants perfect in any way, a previous employer had stated that Christine was extremely imperious and would get agitated if told to perform a duty she felt beneath her. This particular lady sacked Christine after just 15 days. Local shopkeepers also found the girls to be very peculiar in their manner and said their personalities were cold and distant.
All that aside, the Papin sisters got on well with Madame Laancelin and her daughter. They were well fed, given a heated room and paid the standard wages for that time.
Finding a new mother
Christine and Lea even began to look upon Madame Lancelin as a mother figure, adressing her als “Maman” while referring to their own mother Clemence as “that woman”.
When Madame Lanceline became aware that the sisters had been sending all of their wages to her mother Clemence, she took matters in hand and urged the girls to keep the money for themselves and took it upon herself to tell Clemence that her gravy train had finally stopped.
As time went by though, the lady of the house started scutinising the cleaning and became very critical of it; leading even to physical assault as Madame Lancelin pinched Lea very hard and kept doing so while forcing her to kneel on the floor to retrieve a small scrap of paper she had missed while sweeping up.
Later on in the evening when the girls were in their room, Lea confided to Christine, that should Madame Lancelin try such a thing again, she would be ready to defend herself next time.
On February 2, 1933, Madame Lancelin and her daughter went out for the day, while Monsieur Lancelin went off to his office as usual.
Sometime in the early evening the Lancelin ladies returned home from their shopping tour…
Merciless slaughtered
The house was in darkness, because Lea had shortened the power when she plugged in a faulty iron. The Lancelin ladies were met at the door by Christine who explained the reason for the house being in darkness. According to Christine, Madame Lancelin flew into a fiery rage upon hearing this.
Christine picked up a pewter jug and smashed the madame over the head with it. Genevieve than joined the fray to assist her mother, whereupon Lea leapt in to help her sister. Christine shouted “I´m going to massacre them!” She directed Lea to smash her head into the ground, pointing to Madame Lancelin. She also told Lea to “tear her eyes out!”. These atrocities were also inflicted upon Genevieve. Now, with their victims lying dazed and helpless on the ground - without their eyeballs - the Papin sisters collected a few weapons to finish their gruesome work.
Using knifes and a hammer they beat and stabbed the Lancelin woman without mercy. Both woman were screaming and moaning and calling out, but the Papin sisters weren't listening. After killing the victims, they prepared their corpses as if for cooking. Christine described it as following the recipe for a rabbit dish from a 1901 cookbook. Not quite done with this outrage, they lifted the victims skirts over their bloody pulped heads and mutilated their bottoms and thighs.
As if applying a baste, the sisters used the menstruation blood of Genevieve and smeared this all over the Lancelin ladies. Satisfied with their work, the Papin sisters calmly tidied up after themselves. Like on every normal day, they started their evening toilette in readiness for retiring to bed.
Coming home
Monsieur Lancelin returned home to find the house tightly locked. Assuming his wife and daughter had already left for the dinner engagement they were all invited to later on that evening, he continued onto this destination, just to find out that they had not arrived.
Now uneasy, he returned with a friend who was at the dinner party. They noticed that the only light was flickering candlelight emitted from the servants room at the top floor. Now thoroughly alarmed, they called a Gendarme who gained entry by scaling the rear garden wall.
Nothing had prepared them for the grisly sight that greeted them as they entered the dwelling. As the officer shone his flashlight over the stairwell leading to the crime scene, he shuddered as the light revealed a milky eyeball staring back at him.
At this point the Gendarme ordered Monsieur Lancelin and his friend to stay downstairs. On the second floor the officer discovered the carnage that the Papin sisters had caused. The facial features of Madame Lancelin and her daughter were unrecognisable. Madame Lancelin´s ripped out eyeballs were found draped around her neck in the folds of her scarf.
Fearing the two servants had met a similar fate, the Gendarme continued up to the third floor. A glowing keyhole directed him to their room. Hearing hushed voices within, he tried the door but found it locked. After knocking and still getting no answer, he broke the lock mechanism and forced his way in.
On the bed in the corner of the room, lay the two culprits in a tight embrace, shivering in fear. Next to them on a small table lay a blood and brain matter encrusted hammer…
Caught!
The Papin sisters immediately confessed to the killings, but claimed self-defense. They were arrested and charged with murder.
Amazingly, there was a lot of public sympathy for the sisters; not only amongst the populace in general, but also from the intellectual giants of the day - including Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Genet - who believed it to be a sign of class struggles between the rich and the very poor.
Their appointed lawyer pleaded insanity on their behalf. Christine and Lea certainly looked the part, making no eye contact and staring straight ahead as if in a daze. They protected each other and wouldn´t implicate one another. Both confessed sole responsibility for the crime.
However, three medical experts for the prosecution swayed the jury by stating that they had examined the Papin sisters and found them to be sane but totally cold blooded and calculating, detailing how they had meticulously cleaned up after the carnage. Surprisingly the bizarre mutilations and preparation of the corpses for cooking were not elaborated upon.
This certainly didn´t appear to be the actions of anyone of a sane mind, but the court and the jury had already decided on the verdict. The sentence was handed down. The court showed compassion for Lea, who they believed was under the power of her older sister. She was given 10 years hard labour. Christine was sentenced to death by guillotine, which was to take place on the 30th of September 1933, in the public square at Le Mans.
Love me Lea! Love me now!
During their confinement, the sisters were kept separated. Christine´s mental health deteriorated rapidly because of this, and she repeatedly begged to see Lea. She had violent fits, refused to eat and attempted to tear her own eyes out after which she was placed in a straightjacket.
Finally the warden relented and allowed the sisters to see each other. During this visit Christine made sexual advances to Lea, attempting to unbutton her blouse and repeating: “say yes, please!”
On January 22, 1934, President Albert Lebrun issued a state of execution for Christine. She was re-sentenced and given a term of hard labour for life, but was transferred after only a few years to an insane asylum in Rennes. She had written a letter pleading to be with Lea. This wish was not granted. She then refused to eat and wasted quickly away - dying there at the age of 32 on the 18th of May 1937.
Lea was released from prison on grounds of good behaviour after she had served eight years, and was free in 1941. She went to live with her mother in Nantes and got a job as a hotel maid under an assumed name. There is no exact date when she died.
It is now believed the Papin sisters suffered from a condition known as shared paranoid disorder. Characteristically, this condition occurs in small groups or pairs who become isolated from society and lead an intense, inward-looking existence with a paranoid view of the outside world. Most couples who commit murders together in fact have this kind of insular, very obsessive and inward-looking relationship. It is also typical of shared paranoid disorder that one partner dominates the other. The Papin sisters were the perfect example. They are buried in the Cimetiere La Bouteillereie in Nantes.