Marie-Aurore-Lucienne Gagnon, simply known as Aurore Gagnon, was a Canadian girl who was a victim of child abuse.
Background
She died of exhaustion and blood poisoning from some 52 wounds inflicted by her stepmother, Marie-Anne Houde, and her father, Télesphore Gagnon. Aurore was born into and raised in a Roman Catholic family as the second of five children of farmer Télesphore Gagnon and his first wife Marie-Anne Caron, whom he married in September 1906. The Gagnons" first child Marie-Jeanne was born in August 1907.
Career
The story of l"enfant martyre (English translation: The Child Martyr) received great attention in the media and Aurore became an icon of Quebec sociological and popular culture. They lived in Fortierville, Quebec, a small village on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, a hundred kilometers southwest of Quebec. Aurore"s birth was quickly followed by that of Lucina then Georges in 1910 and Joseph in 1915.
In 1916, not long after Joseph"s birth, Marie-Anne Caron was hospitalized for tuberculosis.
She was born in Sainte-Sophie-de-Lévrard, a neighboring municipality of Fortierville, Quebec. On 6 November 1917, 2-year-old Joseph was found dead in his bed.
A coroner"s inquest revealed that it had been a natural death, although some villagers suspected that Marie-Anne Houde might have had something to do with lieutenant On 23 January 1918, Marie-Anne Caron died of tuberculosis at the Beauport Asylum.
The following week, Télesphore married Marie-Anne Houde.
Meanwhile, Télesphore was beating Aurore with an axe handle. At age 10 in September 1919, Aurore was hospitalized for more than a month at the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec with a severe leg infection caused by a beating. Upon her release, the beatings resumed.
When Aurore died on February 12, 1920, the cause was listed as poisoning.
lieutenant was not immediately known if she had been poisoned deliberately or if she had succumbed to an infection from her many wounds. Télesphore Gagnon and Marie-Anne Houde were arrested as they tried to leave the church after her funeral on February 16, 1920.
Marie-Anne Houde was sentenced to be hanged for murder, but her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. After serving 15 years she was paroled for "health reasons", and she died of breast cancer in May 1936.
Télesphore Gagnon was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to life imprisonment, but he was released from prison in 1925 for "good behavior" after serving only five years.
He returned to his hometown and his previous life, where he wrote several letters to Marie-Anne Houde, still in prison. After Houde"s death, Télesphore remarried. He died peacefully in 1961.
Aurore Gagnon remains a popular cultural icon in Quebec, with almost mythical status.
Numerous books have been published detailing her life. In 1920, the first dramatic production was written by Louis Petitjean.
lieutenant would eventually become his most famous play. Télesphore Gagnon tried unsuccessfully to block the release of the 1952 film.