To be the daughter of Emile Louis… everything is in the title of this autobiographical work written by the one who was born from the first marriage of the killer of Yonne and Chantal Delagneau. Eldest of the couple’s four children, Maryline Vinet managed to get out of this infernal spiral created by this individual. But if he is responsible for atrocities, the place of his first wife also questions. Christophe Hondelatte read passages from his book on Europe 1 during his episode devoted to this butcher and one of them questions the actions of the one who was Madame Emile Louis on her own daughter.
Maryline Vinet was forcibly married at 17 to a soldier, Albert. Her mother is delighted with this marriage and is waiting for her daughter to give her a “baby chocolate“, as she puts it. But she’s been on the pill all along, which pisses her mum off. That’s how a baby will come, far from a happy event.”Her name is Eugenie. She was born in Draguignan where Albert has just been transferred. And the same day, Albert and my mother bond to steal it from me. When I left the maternity ward, mum grabbed my little Eugénie. No right to take care of her, not even to formulate an opinion“, writes Maryline Vinet.
Maryline Vinet will then explain to Christophe Hondelatte’s microphone that she had to bring in the justice system to be able to recover her daughter. Did his mother see the possibility of cherishing a child without the shadow of Emile Louis and the horrors he can commit? Because while she takes care of the baby, who takes care of the two children placed in their home? Emile Louis. Céline, 8, paid the price for the absence of the killer’s wife, Maryline is sure of it since when her mother returns to her home, she discovers that the little girl can no longer hold herself back to go to the toilet. Justice will then confirm that the child has indeed been raped.
There is therefore to be the daughter of Emile Louis, but also to be his wife. Chantal Delagneau could not not know the actions of her husband but she was silent. Maryline Vinet tries to understand what was in her mother’s head: “She was a child martyr, she had no family balance. You can’t help but get attached to this woman. And then I saw her so unhappy, in extremely painful situations, I can’t blame her for certain things.” She adds that if she did not speak, it is to avoid “what will be said about it” and to preserve family integrity. She also wanted to avoid at all costs that her sons reproduce the paternal pattern, so being in denial was perhaps part of this approach, that of not making the monster exist.
However, he did rape his own daughter, he did kill in front of his eyes and he pushed her to suicide. The strength it took for Maryline Vinet not to succumb to such a story is difficult to grasp. Yet she is there, surviving the worst. Emile Louis died at the age of 79 in 2013. He was sentenced in 2004 to life imprisonment with eighteen years of criminal imprisonment.