I, PIERRE RIVIERE, HAVING SLAUGHTERED MY MOTHER, MY SISTER, AND MY BROTHER: A Case of Parricide in the 19th Century

To free his father and himself from his mother's tyranny, Riviere decided to kill her. On June 3, 1835, he went inside his small house with a pruning hook and cut to death his mother, his 18 year-old sister, and his seven year old brother. Foucault's reconstruction of the case is an exploration of the roots of our contemporary views of madness, justice, and crime.