Alice de Janzé was introduced to wild social life ever since her early adolescence. She was one of the most prominent socialites of Chicago during the late 1910s and early 1920s, frequenting the most fashionable nightclubs of the time, with the encouragement of her father.
Due to her glamorous lifestyle and extraordinary life, Alice herself had grown eccentric and unconventional. Her two great passions, based on her own words, were cocktails, hard drugs, and animals. Her temperament had also become highly unpredictable, ranging from deep melancholy to sudden fits of rage.
The Happy Valley SetAlice and her husband, Frédéric, first travelled to Kenya in 1925. There, they spent some time in the so-called Happy Valley, Kenya, a community located in Wanjohi Valley, near the Aberdare Mountains that consisted mainly of British colonials. The community had become notorious among socialites in England for being a paradise for all those seeking an hedonistic lifestyle, including drugs, alcohol and various sexual affairs between the members of the community. Frédéric de Janzé documented his time in Happy Valley and all the various eccentric personalities he met there in his book, Vertical Land, which was published in 1928. In the book, Frédéric provides several non-eponymous references to members of the Happy Valley set, including a psychological portrait of his wife that alludes to her suicidal tendencies:
"Wide eyes so calm, short slick hair, full red lips, a body to desire. The powerful hands clutch and wave along the mandolin and the crooning somnolent melody breaks; her throat trembles and her gleaming shoulders droop. [...] She holds us with her song, and her body sways towards ours. No man will touch her exclusive soul, shadowy with memories, unstable, suicidal."
On 25 March 1927, while in Paris with her lover Raymond Vincent de Trafford informed Alice that his family (of strict Catholic views) had threatened to disinherit him were he to marry her; therefore, the two of them had to part ways. A few hours later, in the Gare du Nord, while he was about to leave the city by an Express boat train to London and bidding farewell to Alice in his compartment, she kissed him, pulled a revolver from her purse, shot him and then shot herself. Raymond was gravely injured near the heart, whereas she was also gravely injured in her stomach.
Ultimately, Alice found herself imprisoned in the famous Saint Lazare, a women-only prison in Paris, held on a charge of attempted murder. Her cell had hosted several notorious female criminals in the past, including Mata Hari, Marguerite Steinheil and Henriette Caillaux. The scandal assumed enormous proportions in the United States of America, England and of course France. However, Raymond refused to testify against her in trial, attempting to alter the events to her favour:
"As we were about to part – she was kissing me -- I told her that I loved her, and again whispered to her not to take my decision as irrevocable. I even told her that we would meet again. As she was leaving me she attempted suicide. But a movement on my part caused the weapon to be deflected. I am sure that she did not intentionally fire at me. The accident was due to my imprudence."
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