An Heiress Admitted To Taking Her Ex-Husband’s Life, But Her Motive Let Her Walk Away Scot-Free

As a brutal war waged across the world in August 1917 a scandal unfolded that would distract the American public from the horrors playing out overseas. In Nassau County, New York, heiress de Saulles confronted her philandering former spouse over custody of their young son. And before they could find a resolution, the conflict turned deadly.

With both the victim and the accused occupying a high place in New York society, the resulting trial made headline news. And for months, the jury deliberated over de Saulles’ guilt. Eventually, though, she walked from court a free woman, sparking both sympathy and outrage across the U.S. So what really happened on the day that her ex-husband John was murdered?

Born Blanca Errázuriz Vergara in April 1894 the future Mrs. de Saulles spent her early childhood in the Chilean city of Viña del Mar, some 80 miles northwest of the capital Santiago. Her mother, also named Blanca, was a renowned beauty of the day, while her father, Guillermo, was from a family which wielded great political influence in the region. 

The young woman was set to inherit a great estate — one of the finest in Chile, to be precise. But first, she needed to get an education befitting of an aristocratic young lady. And when her father passed away, she was sent to London to study at a convent school.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in New Haven, Connecticut, a young man named John de Saulles was making waves as the star quarterback at Yale University. Some 16 years older than his future wife, he was the son of Catherine Margaret Heckscher, whose father was a prosperous New York merchant, and Arthur Brice de Saulles. 

After becoming captain of Yale’s football team, John went on to coach players at the University of Virginia in 1902. But as time passed, he branched out into other interests — such as the fledgling TransAndean railroad, set to connect Chile with Argentina, its neighbor to the west.

At the time, the idea of a new railroad was appealing, particularly to wealthy Americans with business interests in the region. And so, a group known as the South American Concessions Syndicate was formed with the object of promoting the benefits of the development. As part of this organization, John traveled to Chile in 1911. 

By this point, his 16-year-old bride-to-be had left England and returned to Chile, where her path crossed with John’s. And despite the large age gap — and the fact that the de Saulles were Protestants, while her family were Catholics — the pair fell in love. Before long, they were engaged to be married.

Apparently, the Chilean heiress had to receive special dispensation to marry John because of his Protestant background. But permission was duly granted, and the pair tied the knot on December 14, 1911, in a Catholic church in Paris, France. According to a 1921 article in the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper, a number of high-profile Americans were guests at the ceremony.

After the wedding, reports claim, the newlyweds enjoyed a brief honeymoon in France before heading to the United States. There, John took a job at a real estate firm in New York City, becoming heavily involved in national politics. In fact, he campaigned so hard for Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 election that he was appointed U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Uruguay as a reward. 

John, though, appeared to have little interest in relocating to Uruguay, resigning from the position soon after. And by this point, he had other things on his mind. On Christmas Day, 1912, de Saulles gave birth to John Jr., the couple’s first and only son. But beneath the surface, their marriage was a troubled one.

Although we don’t know exactly what happened between the couple, there has been plenty of speculation over the years. And much of it focuses on de Saulles’ relationship with a man named Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaele Pierre Philbert Gugliemi, better known by his future alias Rudolph Valentino. 

In the 1920s Valentino would become a Hollywood sex symbol, famous for movies such as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and The Eagle. But when de Saulles met him in New York City, his star was still on the rise. Two years after emigrating to the U.S., he was beginning to find success as a professional dancer at a local cabaret.

Reportedly, de Saulles befriended Valentino at some point in 1915. And while the truth has likely been lost over the years, many suspect that the two soon became lovers. At the same time, de Saulles’ husband was rumored to be engaged in a number of adulterous affairs. And before long, their marriage began to crumble.

In summer 1916 de Saulles, inspired by either her husband’s infidelity or her own illicit passion, requested a divorce. And Valentino’s behavior during the proceedings fueled rumors of an affair. In court, he took to the stand in his friend’s defense, claiming that his dancing partner, Joan Sawyer, was in a romantic relationship with Mr. de Saulles. 

In fact, things weren’t looking good for John. Despite the gossip surrounding his wife’s relationship with Valentino, it was his own infidelity that became the focus of the trial. And to make matters worse, he faced accusations of financial impropriety. He had, some believed, squandered his wife’s fortune, leaving the family struggling with debt.

Eventually in December 1916 the court granted the couple a divorce. Reeling from the humiliating scandal, John sought revenge not on his former wife, but on Valentino, whom he blamed for his damaging testimony in court. And so, he called on his friends in high places to bring the ambitious young dancer down.

Amazingly, he was almost successful. Thanks to his influence, Valentino was arrested on vice charges and spent several days behind bars. And although he was eventually released, the damage to his reputation had already been done. Afterwards, he found himself isolated from New York society and struggling to find work.

Eventually, things got so bad that Valentino fled to the West Coast, where he was able to start his career afresh. But de Saulles, who is said to have distanced herself from her alleged lover after the trial, didn’t have the luxury of a fresh start. With the divorced couple sharing custody of John Jr., their fates would be entwined for the rest of their lives.

According to reports, though, the arrangement was not an amicable one. And on August 3, 1917, things came to a head. At the time, de Saulles was living in Roslyn, a town some 25 miles east of New York City. John Jr. meanwhile, was in his father’s custody in Meadowbrook Colony, located a few miles southeast.

Apparently, the couple’s custody arrangement had been due to change the previous month, with John Jr. being passed into his mother’s care. But de Saulles claimed that her ex-husband had refused to comply with the terms that had been agreed in court. Angry, she and her French maid, Suzanne Monteau, drove to Meadowbrook Colony to confront him.

What happened next would be recounted — in lurid detail — across the pages of American newspapers in the days and weeks to come. According to The New York Times, de Saulles approached her ex while he was sitting on the porch outside his home. But when she pulled out a revolver, it soon became clear that this was no ordinary domestic dispute.

Allegedly, de Saulles approached her ex-husband with the revolver, demanding that he hand over their son without further delay. And depending on which version of events you believe, he attempted to either disarm her or renegotiate her terms. In response, she pulled the trigger five times, hitting her target with multiple bullets.

Although it’s not clear exactly who alerted the authorities to the incident, we do know that John was whisked to the Nassau County Hospital, where medics fought to save his life. But unfortunately, they were unsuccessful. At 10:20 p.m. the former football star passed away; investigators hunting his murderer didn’t have to look far.

According to reports, de Saulles had waited patiently at the house for the police to arrive. And when they got there, she handed herself over without a fight. Facing charges of murder, she was locked up in the Nassau County Jail to await trial. And the events that followed made her a media sensation across the country.

In court, de Saulles took a bizarre approach to her own defense. But even without it, the trial would have made headlines. At the time, World War I was dominating the news cycle on both sides of the Atlantic. And since America had entered the conflict four months earlier, it was all that anyone could talk about.

The trial of a glamorous, beautiful heiress, then, must have been just the distraction that the American public needed. And things became even more exciting when de Saulles took to the stand. Instead of denying that she had murdered her husband, she freely admitted her guilt, reportedly telling investigators, “I killed him and I am glad I did it.”

But what lawyer would want to defend a suspect who openly confessed to murder? As it turned out, there was one man — Henry Uterhart, a prominent criminalist of the day — who felt up to the challenge. And over the course of several weeks, he took control of the narrative, painting de Saulles as the victim in this grim story.

In court, Uterhart used testimony from Monteau to demonstrate that the marriage had been abusive, with her husband conducting multiple affairs. And even though de Saulles never changed her story, this approach began to work. Rather than being vilified as a murderer by the press, she became a figure of sympathy instead.

At the time, women in America were still considered second-class citizens in many ways. Ever since the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 the suffragettes had been campaigning for the right to vote. And while the tide of public opinion was beginning to sway in their favor, it would be another three years before they achieved their goal.

By highlighting de Saulles’ mistreatment at the hands of her husband, Uterhart succeeded in making her a symbol of downtrodden women everywhere. And while newspapers lauded her bravery in finally standing up to her former spouse, the suffragettes adopted her as a sort of poster child. In the fight against institutional misogyny, it was conveniently forgotten that she had murdered a man in cold blood.

On December 1, 1917, the jury gathered to deliver a final verdict on de Saulles’ guilt. And after less than two hours, the results were in. Unanimously, they decided to acquit the defendant, leaving her to walk from court a free woman. And despite the fact that a murder had gone unpunished, the public seem to have been delighted by this turn of events.

But not everyone was happy about the outcome of the trial. And even among those who supported the suffrage movement, there were some who felt that things had gone too far. In an op-ed piece published in American newspaper The Independent in December 1917 one writer theorized that women were now considered “above the law.”

“The trial of a woman for murder or for almost any serious offense in the United States has become a disgraceful farce and a waste of public money,” the piece read. “If the American people have no intention of holding women accountable before the law, why not say so and be done with it, and amend the statutes accordingly?”

Bizarrely, the author claimed to support women’s rights, while at the same time likening the suffragettes’ tactics to the “tantrum” that led de Saulles to shoot her ex-husband. He wrote, “Women must have every educational, industrial and professional opportunity. They must have the right to vote and to hold office. But with these rights they must accept responsibilities and acknowledge the imperative obligation of self-control.”

As the drama surrounding the trial began to die down — and newspapers resumed reporting on the final months of the war — de Saulles tried to return to normal life. Relocating to San Francisco in California, she set about regaining custody of John Jr. And when she succeeded, the pair traveled together to Japan.

Eventually, though, de Saulles returned to her home country of Chile, where her ill-fated relationship had first begun. There, she met an engineer named Fernando Santa Cruz Wilson and tied the knot for a second time. But just like her first marriage, this one ended in divorce; as far as we know, this husband survived the split.

In 1918 — a year after the trial that captivated America — director Raoul Walsh released The Woman and the Law, a silent movie based on the de Saulles murder trial. And in a bizarre twist, one of its stars, Peggy Hopkins Joyce, would go on to have a real-life relationship with de Saulles’ brother, Guillermo. Reportedly, she rejected his proposal of marriage, leading him to commit suicide.

Throughout the long trial, much was made of de Saulles’ vulnerability as a woman — and her determination to protect John Jr. But in the end, mother and son wound up estranged from each other, with the latter returning to the U.S. alone. And on March 20, 1940, the self-confessed murderer took her own life at the age of 45: a fitting final chapter to this tragic story.