Site of "The Absinthe Murders"

Absinthe has always been a drink of mystery and intrigue. This is due in no small part to its longstanding history as a seductive drink of choice for artists and bohemians, the complexity of the process involved in drinking it properly, and the much-rumored hallucinogenic properties of its original ingredients.

By far the biggest contribution to the green drink’s legacy however, is the fact that it was effectively banned in most western countries for nearly 100 years. The ban left such a lasting mark on the liquor, granting it a permanent air of being a forbidden fruit in the public psyche, that the Absinthe Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana is divided into two sections: pre-ban and post-ban histories.

Lesser known is that the primary catalyst for the ban was a gruesome murder scene in the tiny rural community of Commugny, Switzerland. In 1905, an alcoholic by the name of Jean Lanfray drank himself to the point of delirium, which was not unusual for him.

The unusual part was that when he returned home, he immediately got into an argument with his pregnant wife which culminated in his murdering her and their two children before turning the gun on himself and shooting himself in the head.

Lanfray had no less than five different types of alcohol in his bloodstream that day, including more than five liters of wine, his drink of choice. But it was the liquor he reportedly drank the least of that ended up getting the most attention.

His consumption of absinthe immediately allowed prosecutors and journalists to dub the event “The Absinthe Murders,” and suggest that Lanfray was overcome by vicious, inescapable tendencies brought on by this dangerous substance.

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