Jean Lanfray

Who was Jean Lanfray?

Jean Lanfray, a laborer who was French by birth but living in Switzerland was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and two children in a drunken rage on the afternoon of August 28, 1905, in Commugny, Switzerland. It was later revealed by police that he had drunk an excessive amount of wine and hard liquors that morning, along with two ounces of absinthe. However, due to the moral panic against absinthe in Europe at that time, his murders were blamed solely on the influence of absinthe, leading to a moral panic and a petition to ban absinthe in Switzerland shortly after the murders. The petition received 82,000 signatures and absinthe was banned in Vaud shortly thereafter. A 1908 constitutional referendum led to absinthe being banned in all of Switzerland, and absinthe was banned in most European countries before the outbreak of World War I.