right|250px|thumb|Humbert about 1903

right|250px|thumb|Humbert and her lawyer, [[Henri-Robert, from a drawing by French illustrator Paul Renouard circa 1903]]

Thérèse Humbert (1856–after 1936) was a French female fraudster, who pretended to be an heir of an imaginary American millionaire named Robert Crawford.

Biography

Early life

Humbert was born Thérèse Daurignac, a peasant girl in Aussonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France. Her father Guillaume Daurignac was a foundling whose mother Jeanne Daurignac legally recognized very late. Later, Guillaume married Rose-Lucie Capella, who was 25 years younger than him, and they had seven children, among them Thérèse.

The Crawford fraud

Humbert claimed that in 1879, when she was in a train, she heard groans from the next compartment. She entered into it by climbing along the outside of the train. There she found a man who was having a heart attack. When she had helped him with her smelling salts, the man told her he was an American millionaire named Robert Henry Crawford, and that he was eternally grateful and would reward her some day. Two years later in 1881, she received a letter stating that Crawford had died and made her beneficiary of his will. However, she also added that Crawford's two nephews Henry and Robert contested the testament and had produced another will which made them Crawford's sole heirs. Thérèse finally concluded by claiming that the documents and the bearer bonds proving the existence of this inheritance were stored in her safe.

With this story, Humbert obtained a huge loan using the supposed inheritance as a collateral. She moved to Paris with her husband and bought an elaborate house in . In order to keep her story credible, she hired solicitors and barristers to sue the nephews in courts, obtaining several rulings, including from the Court of Cassation, to bolster her claims about the reality of the will.

Humbert gathered much influence, fame and wealth. Her salon became a center of socializing. Humbert and her associates, other members of the Humbert family, borrowed money against the nonexistent inheritance. They lived in luxury for about 20 years, spending their money on flowers, elaborate dresses and banquets. Among those she invited were Georges Ernest Boulanger, Louis Lépine, Félix Faure and Proust. Matisse's mother-in-law, who was the Humbert family's housekeeper, fell under suspicion, and her husband was arrested. Matisse's studio was searched by detectives, and his wife's family found themselves menaced by angry mobs of fraud victims.

The Humberts had already fled the country, but they were arrested in Madrid in December 1902. Thérèse Humbert was tried and sentenced to five years' hard labor. Her two brothers, who had masqueraded as Crawford's nephews, were sentenced to two and three years each. Her husband Frédèric was also sentenced to five years. Her sister Marie, daughter Eve and deceased father-in-law, the justice minister Gustave Humbert, were stated to be victims of the fraud and were thus not prosecuted.

Aftermath

Purported emigration to the USA

The generally held theory is that when Thérèse Humbert was released from prison, she emigrated to the United States and that she died in Chicago in 1918. People whom she had defrauded remained mostly silent to avoid further embarrassment.

Rumors of her remaining in France

Most sources repeat that Thérèse emigrated to Chicago where she died. However, in the weekly paper , edition number 79 dated 1 May 1930, there is an article entitled (20 Years of Conjuring'). The article is written by Monsieur J. France who was one of the leading lights in the prosecution against Thérèse Humbert and who went to Madrid to take her back to Paris for trial. The story of the fraud is retold in the article following the death of Romain Daurignac, a brother of Thérèse. In this article, J. France says: 'Thérèse Humbert is still living, poorly, in Paris. She has lost her miraculous vitality. What a reverse of fortune her golden past has left her. She is a quite humble old lady, who never speaks to anyone." () There are also two photos. One of these shows the door to a house in Paris and has underneath the note: 'Here, boulevard des Batignolles, lives to-day, she who was . () The note beneath the second photo says: 'Behind these windows with the white curtains, Thérèse Humbert meditates on her past...'. () Her husband died in 1936; he is not listed as a widower.

In 1939, she has been reported to have inherited from her brother.

Adaptations

A French crime drama based on her life was released in 1983, Thérèse Humbert, directed by Marcel Bluwal and written by Jean-Claude Grumberg, with Oscar and Emmy winning actress Simone Signoret as Thérèse Humbert.

Notes

References

  • Spurling, Hilary - La Grande Thérèse: The Greatest Swindle of the Century.
  • Spurling, Hilary, 2005, "Matisse's Pajamas", The New York Review of Books, August 11, 2005, pp. 33–36.
  • The New York Times Scam Artiste Alice Kaplan July 9, 2000.
  • L'Affaire Humbert, an in-depth look at her swindle and French society of the time.