Little demon in the City of Light: a true story of murder and mesmerism in Belle Epoque Paris. Steven Levingston. 2014.

Little Demon in the City of Light is the thrilling story of the gruesome 1889 murder of a lascivious court official at the hands of a ruthless con man and his pliant mistress and the international manhunt, sensational trial and inquiry into the limits of hypnotic power that ensued.

In France at the end of the nineteenth century a great debate raged over the question of whether someone could be hypnotically compelled commit a crime in violation of his or her moral convictions. When Toussaint-Augustin Gouffe entered 3 rue Tronson du Coudray, her expected nothing but a delightful assignation with the comely young Gabrielle Bompard. Instead, he was murdered - hanged - by her ruthless companion, Michel Eyraud.  The body was then stuffed in a trunk and dumped on a riverbank near Lyon.

As the inquiry into the guilt or innocence of a woman the French tabloids dubbed the “Little Demon” escalated, the most respected minds in France debated whether Gabrielle Bompard was the pawn of her mesmerizing lover or simply a coldly calculating murderess. And at the burning centre of. It all: Could hypnosis force people to commit crimes against their will?