Affaire Jaccoud

The Affaire Poupette was a Swiss judicial scandal of the 1960s.

Murder of Charles Zumbach

On 1 May 1958, the seventy years old agricultural machinery dealer Charles Zumbach was brutally murdered in Plan-les-Ouates. When his wife arrived at home, she heard four shots and help screams. Shortly afterwards she was pulled by an unknown to the garden and pushed down. Later on, she could not remember the offender. The perpetrator - perhaps there were several - turned back to Charles Zumbach, and murdered him with knife hits before he drove away with a bicycle. [nach [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826048-1,00.html "L'Affaire Poupette"] , Time Magazine, February 15, 1960, "Prozessbericht".]

Zumbach was involved in an agricultural machinery business in Plan-les Ouates; his home also served as a headquarter of an international gang of criminals and arms dealers led by a former French legionnaire called Reymond. [ [http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/dokument/68/27/dokument.html?titel=Ein+gewisses+L%C3%A4cheln&id=43067286 "Ein gewisses Lächeln"] , Der Spiegel, 45/1960, 02.11.1960, page 71.]

Pierre Jaccoud is getting involved

When the police listened to Zumbach's son André, this one said having been called twice that night in his office (a radio station in Geneva) - but each time, the unknown did not say anything during the phonecall. André Zumbach suspected that the caller wanted to ensure that it is not at the home of his parents, and therefore, Pierre Jaccoud became suspected for the calls. Jaccoud had, during eight years, a relationship with Linda Baud (called by Jaccoud "Poupette"), who worked at a radio station as chief secretary. Baud was at the moment his fiancee and wanted to separate herself from Jaccoud. Jaccoud had written many desperate letters written to her to convince her otherwise and, as nothing convinced her, he supposedly sent, eight months before the murdering, anonymously (some) nude photos to Linda. The police now suspect Jaccoud for the murder [The motive for entering the house was - maybe - to get back the nude pictures. "Die 50er Jahre. Ein dramatisches Jahrzehnt in Bildern.", Ringier-Dokumente, Ringier Zürich o. J., S. 53.] and searched in his absence (he was Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce (Comité de Servis Industriel) of Geneva with this on a trip to Stockholm) his apartment. There was blood on a jacket and a Moroccan knife, but, as later studies revealed, Jaccoud as well as the victim had the same blood group zero. In addition (after the later controversial opinions of the Basel professor Erik Undritz), fresh liver cells have been found on the knife. Jaccoud owned two pistols, but not the arm used for the murder. In addition, it has been found himself on the road at the Zumbachs a button, one of the variety in an Jaccouds coats fit it into the second-hand-store were and where a button was missing. On the return in June 1958 Jaccoud subsequently was arrested. Jaccoud in prison suffered a nervous collapse and was mostly on the infirmary.

The process

From the 14th January 1960 onwards, the trial took place before a jury in Geneva. The case also has attracted the Swiss borders big stir. Defender Jaccouds was the Paris prosecutor René Floriot, on the side of the indictment was the prosecutor Charles Cornu. The wife of Zumbach did not know Jaccoud at confrontation (but identified instead a policeman) and Linda Baud has admitted at the time of the act, that she was no longer in a relationship with André Zumbach, but already with another guy. Nevertheless, Jaccoud had been condemned for simple manslaughter to seven years in prison. The jurors gave only three hours. [ [http://aolsvc.timeforkids.kol.aol.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,871461,00.html "L'Affaire Poupette"] , Time Magazine, February 15, 1960.] For the Paris press, the case was a typical Swiss case; Jaccoud being a victim of the Geneva calvinist morality, their city saw it pollutes. Angry students burned Paris newspapers before the court in Geneva. In 1980, the last revision of Jaccoud dismissed.

Controversial judgement

The judgement is one of the most controversial Swiss judgments, or, in other words, "un des dossiers" les plus troublants, énigmatiques qui les plus jamais aient défrayé judiciaire de la chronique [la Suisse] »". [Sylvie Arsever, [http://www.letemps.ch/dossiers/dossiersarticle.asp?ID=210923 "Affaire Jaccoud: l'ombre d'un doute?"] , Le Temps, 9. Juli 2007.] Gerhard Mauz considered the case as a second "Dreyfus case." [Gerhard Mauz, [http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/dokument/dokument.html?id=46170026&top=SPIEGEL "Ein Mord, ein Knopf, und Calvins Geist] , Der Spiegel 14/1965, 31.03.1965, page 119.]

According to Hans Martin Sutermeister, Jaccoud suffered a miscarriage of justice, whose main cause were faulty forensic expertises. [Sutermeister, Hans Martin (1976): "Summa Iniuria - Ein Pitaval der Justizirrtuemer: fuenfhundert Faelle menschlichen Versagens im Bereich der Rechtsprechung in kriminal- und sozialpsychologischer Sicht", Basel: Elfenau Verlag, 1976, Seite 124.] The Bernese doctor has long been striving to the work of prominent criminal scientists and legal practitioners who were involved, including Pierre Hegg, "the onset of amateurism in the forensic medicine" to demonstrate and had even before a Zurich court against the accused to defend them as "irresponsible non-rounder to have defamed." Sutermeister made that the case (repeatedly) was opened. [ [http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/dokument/dokument.html?id=43067286&top=SPIEGEL "Ein gewisses Lächeln"] , Der Spiegel 45/1960, November 2, 1960, page 71.]

:"The process observer Sutermeister but wanted to study methods of the Hegg colleagues," one without a thorough self-training, already frequently mistaken ", not behagen. He would now certainly never the investigation methods Heggs critically accepted, he would not convinced from the beginning was that Jaccoud innocent. ... Charles Zumbach had been murdered because he Algerian rebels for 12 000 U.S. dollars have supplied explosives, which was not apparent. On this track was the amateur detective finally to a gang of international crooks and arms dealers, which are had fallen, was the garage of the Charles Zumbach as headquarters. Ange leads from the former Indochina Legionnaire Reymond, the gang had - certainly without the knowledge Zumbachs - in the garage and daggers and knives alternates kept under Sutermeister as murder weapons in question." Der Spiegel 45/1960, November 2, 1960, page 71st. [ [http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/dokument/dokument.html?id=43067286&top=SPIEGEL "Ein gewisses Lächeln"] , Der Spiegel 45/1960 vom 2. November 1960, Seite 71.] Sutermeister's main argument invoked unsorgfältige blood tests. [ [http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/dokument/dokument.html?id=43067286&top=SPIEGEL "Ein gewisses Lächeln"] , Der Spiegel 45/1960 vom 2. November 1960, Seite 71.]

Filming

In 1974, the case was by the german series Fernsehpitaval under the direction of Wolfgang Luderer with the title "The nude photographs". [ [http://www.dra.de/online/hinweisdienste/spezial/2006/dra-spezial_09-2006_pitaval.pdf s p e z ial - Fernsehpitaval, Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv 2006, S. 11.] ]

External links

*Sylvie Arsever, [http://www.letemps.ch/dossiers/dossiersarticle.asp?ID=210923 "Affaire Jaccoud: l'ombre d'un doute?"] , Le Temps, 9. Juli 2007.
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826048-1,00.html "L'Affaire Poupette"] , Time Magazine; February 1, 1960.
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,871461,00.html TIME 15.02.1960 - The Verdict (EN)]
* [http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?full=Pierre+Jaccoud&genre=&chaine=&mode_document=&datedif_jour1=&datedif_mois1=&datedif_annee1=&action=ft "Pierre Jaccoud beteuert seine Unschuld" und "Interview mit Linda Baud ("Poupette")"] , Television show on ORTF, Archive of the "Institut national de l'audiovisuel", Paris.
*Ursula von Kardorff, [http://www.zeit.de/1960/07/Mordsache-Jaccoud-der-Prozess-des-Jahres?page=all "Mordsache Jaccoud - der „Prozeß des Jahres"] , Die Zeit Nr. 07; February 12, 1960.

Literature

*Jürgen Thorwald "Die Stunde der Detektive" - Bd.1 Blutiges Geheimnis, Knaur Taschenbuch 1972
*Stéphane Jourat "L'Affaire Jaccoud", Editor: Fleuve Noir, 1992.

References