Crimes of passion are acts perpetrated by people who, through a sudden burst of emotion, be it jealousy, rage, fear or humiliation, often end the life of another.

The Death of Soul Singer Marvin Gaye

During the midmorning of 1 April 1984 Marvin Gay Snr walked to his son’s (Marvin Gaye Jr) bedroom and, pointing a .38 pistol the acclaimed singer and musician had given his father, shot him once through the chest, hitting his heart.

As the Sexual Healing star slumped off the bed, his father, a one-time pastor, walked forward towards his son and shot him again. Marvin Gaye Jr, whose songs had set many women’s hearts palpitating, was declared dead just after one o’clock that afternoon.

Marvin Gay Afraid of His Son

In an interview with the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Marvin Gay Snr admitted, ‘I do know that I did fire the gun. I was just trying to keep him back off me. I want the world to know it wasn't presumptuous on my part.’

Marvin Gaye’s father was initially charged with murder, but in September of that year he was permitted to plead to voluntary manslaughter, which kept him from death row. The reasons for this amendment were based on the fact that he was elderly (70), his son had physically assaulted him before the killing and a post-mortem showed that Marvin Gaye had traces of cocaine and angel dust in his system.

Defining a Crime of Passion

This crime is what we would define as a crime of passion or what the French boldly call crime passionnel. It is the sudden burst of irrational emotion which provokes assault and in many cases murder. Emotions usually fit in the extreme spectrum of passion and include jealousy, rage and lust, which all induce a feeling of humiliation on the one who perpetrates the crime.

In an excerpt from the story of Marvin Gaye’s murder on Crime Library, the psychiatrist Dr Ronald Markman, who interviewed the elderly killer, claimed that ‘people kill basically because they're humiliated. It's not a question of whether you're a pacifist, a minister or a rabbi.

‘It's a question of whether you are capable of being humiliated and whether you are able to deal with that humiliation short of the need to destroy. That day Marvin had humiliated his dad by knocking him down. So you have a 45-year-old man hitting a 70-year-old man. He was knocked to the ground. He got up without a word but he went and got a gun and returned to kill him.’

Temporary Insanity in Crimes of Passion

In the United States a crime of passion is also referred to as ‘temporary insanity’ and in parts of the world defendants pleading crimes of passion can use this as their defence to have their charges changed to those of lesser status and ultimately have sentences reduced.

However, a crime of passion should never be premeditated nor is the killer or abuser ever presumed to be in a state of readiness to attack. And yet, this defence almost always feels as though the victim was never really a victim, but in some aspect played a part in their demise or downfall.

Yvonne Rosseau Kills her Husband Pierre Chevallier

It certainly is true for Yvonne Rousseau who killed her husband and father of her two sons, Pierre Chevallier, when he assumed an affair with the married sex-goddess, Jeanne Perreau. After a hearing lasting 17 hours and a 45-minute deliberation by the jury, Yvonne Rousseau was exonerated and walked out a free woman.

The story of Yvonne Rousseau and Pierre Chevallier started in 1937 when they met in their charming home city of Orleans in the centre of the Loire River Valley. She was 24, plain and timid. He was 26, a confident medical student and born of an affluent family. Within weeks of their meeting the young woman had moved into her lover’s apartment. They were wildly and passionately in love and while his love would wane, hers burned on for as long as he was alive.

The Life of the Chevalliers

Through the edginess of Germany’s growing power in Europe and the subsequent war, Pierre went on to play a significant part in the French resistance, becoming a war hero. His political astuteness saw him become mayor of his hometown and rising to be the protégé of the French Minister of Finance, Réné Pleven.

Pierre was charming, smart, using his confident prowess to win over crowds, whereas Yvonne stayed at home raising their sons and no match for her husband in looks, etiquette, intelligence or society. Their worlds were slowly moving apart, but she always maintained her love.

Pierre Chevallier Falls in Love

When Yvonne learned of her husband’s affair through an anonymous letter, she knew she couldn’t compete with Jeanne Perreau; certainly not in looks or intelligence anyway. Nonetheless, she hoped that their marriage and their children would lure him home again. Pierre continued to spend more and more time in Paris, becoming increasingly cold and contemptuous of his wife.

Yvonne was frantic. She confronted her husband who seemed to care little anymore about her or the fact that his affair was out in the open. She called on her husband’s lover who acknowledged the affair but had no plans to end it. Worried and panicking, she sought assistance from Jeanne’s husband and although he knew of the affair and his wife’s previous affairs, he had no plans to confront his wife. Yvonne was alone.

A Murder in the Name of Love

At this point, Pierre was to be appointed as Minister of Education, Youth & Athletics. He knew a divorce would sully his reputation. France, a Catholic nation, known world over for its romantic image, could turn a blind eye to affairs, but looked down on divorce. After his appointment, he brought up the issue of divorce, dismissively throwing in his wife’s face that he no longer loved her and wanted to be with Jeanne.

Those words chilled Yvonne. She retreated to a wardrobe and pulled out a pistol, threatening to kill herself. Pierre callously told her to wait until after he had left. Who knows what precise emotions were working through her mind and spirit then, but it surely must have been as John Milton described, ‘the injured lover’s hell’, because within moments she shot her husband four times.

Crime Passionnel and the French

Her elder son, only ten at the time, ran upstairs to find out what had happened. Yvonne calmly pulled him from the scene and took him downstairs to join his younger brother and the housekeeper. Yvonne went back upstairs and shot her husband one more time then called the police and waited for them on the porch in her mourning clothes.

The case fascinated the French public while other nations looked on in abhorrence. Journalist Stanley Karnow wrote, ‘[the French] worshipped reason and cherished moderation as the traits that made humans superior to animals. But they would drool over the sight of wives, husbands, mistresses and loves enmeshed in sordid imbroglios, as though these tragedies were real-life theatre.’

Sympathising with the Murderer

Ben Bradlee, editor of the Washington Post called the crime passionnel in France something akin to a cultural event. They couldn’t get enough of it and while at first they looked on negatively at Yvonne, their distaste soon shifted to the redhead Jeanne Perreau, her murdered lover and Perreau’s idle husband as the truth of events played out in court.

It seems it is the same with Marvin Gaye. On stage, he wowed crowds, sang of social injustice, love, peace, inequality and today everyone screams aloud and sways suggestively as the seductive melodies and on-point lyrics of Sexual Healing play on our radios, but what no one dares utter is that the soulful Marvin Gaye was a drug addict, drawn to pornography and other lewd sexual acts, beat up the women he professed to love and claimed to be ‘one of the last great chauvinists.’

Crimes of Passion in South Africa

Knowing the finer details, the question remains as to whether the act of taking a person’s life is ever justified. The two cases mentioned are only a few of hundreds upon thousands of crimes committed in the name of passion. South Africa, a society often criticised locally and abroad for its violence, has also had its share of crimes of passion.

In January this year, News 24 reported the death of a woman whose lover had stabbed her because she fought with him over a live chicken he hadn’t managed to slaughter. The same news forum reported in June last year how a man saw his girlfriend walking with an alleged lover, pulled over fired shots at her then turned the gun on himself. In October 2008, a man killed his lover and her alleged lover then shot himself.

Is Crime of Passion an Excuse?

Is it enough that we blame our emotions for killing or wounding another person? In Marvin Gaye’s case, his father didn’t love him and often claimed he was not his son. Yvonne Chevallier might have been the neglected and abused wife, but does a trial of 17 hours excuse her own insecurity?

At her trial, as reported by David Krajicek on the Crime Library, the judge admonished her ‘animal passion’; adding ‘you should have conquered it and have realised that you have no right to take the life of another person. This passion overwhelmed your whole way of life without any attempt on your part to control it. I understand your cavalier action, but do not condone it.’