The Prisoner’s Confession Was a Verboballistic Invention By PAUL DELANY I, PIERRE RIVIERE, HAVING SLAUGHTERED MY MOTHER, MY SISTER, AND MY BROTHER… A case of Parricide in the 19th Century.Edited by Michel Foucault. Translated by Frank Jellinek. On June 3, 1835, a 20-year-old Normandy peasant named Pierre Riviere went to his mother’s house and murdered her with a pruning hook; he then killed his sister and a little brother with the same weapon. Leaving the house, he told a neighbor, “I have just delivered my father from all his tribulations. I know that they will put me to death, but (more…)
