Sister Trouble: The Sacrifice March 17, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Apologies for this one. But there is so obviously a good Roald Dahl short story to be had here, the tale needs to be shared.
A murder has just been committed at Fontchristiann, near Briancon, France, under very extraordinary circumstances. Two sisters, named Marie and Catherine Ollagnier, aged 45 and 47 respectively, lived together in that place. They were in comfortable circumstances, and were most attached to each other.
Beach took a decade to pry Mrs Beachcombing away from a sister: ‘they were most attached to each other’. Perhaps this is why the story seemed so fascinating to him. But creepy sibling relationships also recall some of those fascinating descriptions of folie a deux (o trois or quatre)
Much of their time was devoted to religious exercises good works, and they were esteemed far and wide. It seems that on Monday Catherine Ollagnier told her sister that the Lord had appeared to her in the night, and had asked her to sacrifice her [Marie] as proof of her devotion. Marie Oilagnier saw nothing strange in this, and consented to be offered up as a victim. Accordingly, on the following day, after attending mass, the two sisters returned to their home, and, after taking cup of coffee, Catherine made a deep gash with a razor on Marie’s arms and feet. Catherine Ollagnier relates that, as she was bleeding to death, her sister repeated, ‘Jesus, Mary, my hope, my Saviour!’ while for her part she carefully collected the blood which flowed from her wounds as precious relic.
Catherine now got down to business.
As soon as Marie had breathed her last Catherine laid her out, attiring her in white robe. She then proceeded to notary with a copy of her sister’s will. She assured the notary that God had bidden her to kill Marie, and to burn all the securities which she possessed, and that she had obeyed His will in every particular. Catherine was of course arrested on the spot, and she is to be examined medical expert with view to ascertain whether she is sane.
Source: Sun Echo, 14 Aug 1886, 3
There is no question that this happened. The passage below is practically (with some very small added details), the or a French original (from the Patriote Savoisien). Beach has been unable to find out what happened to Catherine Ollagnier and whether she had other visions. Can anyone help: drbeachcombing At yahoo DOT com
25 Mar 2016: I read the post about Catherine Ollagnier with great interest. Sadly, I have nothing to report on that, but here’s another interesting case that I immediately thought about the Gibbons sisters: Their novels were published by a self-publishing press called New Horizons, and they made many attempts to sell short stories to magazines, but were unsuccessful. A brief fling with some American boys, the sons of a US Navy serviceman, led nowhere. The girls committed a number of crimes including arson, which led to their being committed to Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security mental health hospital. There they remained for 14 years. Placed on high doses of antipsychotic medications, they found themselves unable to concentrate; Jennifer apparently developed tardive dyskinesia (a neurological disorder resulting in involuntary, repetitive movements). Their medications were apparently adjusted sufficiently to allow them to continue the copious diaries they had begun in 1980, and they were able to join the hospital choir, but they lost most of their interest in creative writing. The case achieved some notice due to newspaper coverage by The Sunday Times journalist Marjorie Wallace. The British tabloid The Sun gave a brief but accurate account of their story, headlined “Genius Twins Won’t Speak” (an apparent reference to their having tested above average intelligence when being considered for Broadmoor Hospital).
