JOSSYLN HAY IS FOUND MURDERED and THE SUICIDE OF ALICE DE JANZE

Well, my readers, if you've come this far into my retelling the story of American heiress and expatriate Alice de Janze, you may realize that the murder of Jossyln Hay is the dramatic conclusion of the story and the book The Temptress. In fact, there have been several books written about the Happy Valley Set that include or are focused on this murder because it remains an unsolved mystery. Author Paul Spicer believes Alice e Janze did murder Jossyln Hay, quite deliberately, and believes that with her suicide she left a letter that admitted it, which was confiscated by the police and never seen or spoken of.  As well, Spicer visited a woman who was the daughter of the doctor who attended Alice when her servants heard the shot she inflicted upon herself, and rallied to save her life. He says this daughter was only eleven years old at the time, but her mother did tell her about Alice's confessional letter.

What if Alice Silverhorne, who married Frederick de Janze, and then Raymond de Trafford, had been born today?  Certainly, there would have been much more psychological and psychiatric help for her. If you recognize yourself in Alice, perhaps you have a mood disorder or you fight depression, or maybe the one you love is an unhealthy obsession.  Know that this is true. Reach out for help!

Josslyn Hay, had created enemies, even if he was a likeable character who, despite his reputation ,had been welcomed into the homes of many of the Happy Valley settlers.  He was likely a sex addict and he had gotten himself involved with many women.  Any number of jilted lovers or husbands could have been to blame. 

In 1941, when he was about 40, he was found in a fetal position on the floor of his car which was slightly off road. The author comes up with a credible scenario on how this murder could have happened, as he was shot at close range.  He proposes that Alice is the one who knew when he would be on the road mid-morning and where and drove to that point. Then, seeing that he knew her, Josslyn might have stopped to talk to her.

But who in Kenya was accused?  Despite the notion that the people who came to Kenya and indulged in sex parties, swinging, changing partners, Open marriages, and so on, did so to escape the restrictions in their lives and experience the freedom to do as they like, many of them suffered from too much drama and chaos that was unlivable without the use of alcohol and other drugs. Many of them, when it comes right down to it, sought the perfect partner.

Someone had decided to repress the evidence and let a likely innocent man go to trial.

A man named Jock Delves Broughton was blamed and went on trial. Jock had reason to believe his wife, Diana, was cheating on him. After the murder Alice visited this man as he awaited his fate in prison, assuring him she knew he was innocent, but  thought she was a suspect, she was never suspected enough to be arrested or brought to trial herself. Jock was an older man and becoming a social outcast  because of this accusation was more than he could deal with. Though he was not convicted, he took a fatal dose of morphine in 1942. Then Diana went on to marry one of the wealthiest men in Kenya, Gilbert Coville, in 1943, a month after her husband's suicide. (Diana went on to marry again in 1955. Despite this, Gilbert still left her his entire estate when he died!)

On Page 195 of Paul Spicer's The Temptress we find an accounting of Alice's very intentional suicide:

Alice killed her dog with sleeping pills, she visited Josslyn's grave, and amended her will,

On September 27, 1941, Alice told her African staff not to disturb her, which wasn't unusual since she normally slept in until 11:00. Then she collected flowers from her garden and decorated her bedroom with the blooms. She put notes on her furniture, friend's names, to alert the staff as to who was to get what.  She wrote letters to her children, to her then boyfriend, Dickie, who was in Egypt, to the police, and then a suicide note.  It was clear she had planned her actions.  She locked her bedroom door, wrapped her chest with a large bandage, which must have been in order to keep the bloody mess she would make to a minimum.  Then she took a huge dose of a sleep medication and before it hit took a revolver and aimed at her heart. The attempt to kill herself didn't work automatically.  Servants forced the door open and found her near death.  A doctor was called and raced to the house but it was still a long trip and by then she had died. 

Her grave was left unmarked so it wouldn't be dug up by fortune hunters.

Dickie Pembroke, the new boyfriend, was devastated as he might have married Aice after the war. (World War II)

Raymond de Trafford survived being a prisoner and the war but because of his notoriety was turned down to rejoin the Coldstream Guards. Eventually he was accepted with the Pioneer Corps posted in Morocco, was discharged at the rank of Captain in 1945 and awarded two medals.  True to form, he went back to gambling, womanizing, and hunting.

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ALICE SILVERHORNE - DE JANZE FALLS FOR THE BAD BOY RAYMOND DE TRAFFORD

The people who came to Kenya's Happy Valley in the early 20th century, were people who wanted an escape from the restrictions of their lives, who were searching for something else or more.  

Invited by the pregnant Idina Sackville and her then-husband Josslyn Hay, to visit them at their house called Slains, the de Janzes were introduced to the Happy Valley life.

Idina thought of Alice as her best friend. Now the mother of two small daughters, Alice was not especially enjoying her husband as a lover. During this time Alice and Joss became lovers, just as Idina had planned. I wonder if the two women friends had talked about it and came to an agreement or if it happened naturally.

Perhaps it was the bright African sun, for Kenya was right on the equator, but Alice did feel cured of her depression. However, Alice still must have felt something like "is that all there is?"  She was not besotted with her husband and the affair with Joss made her realize it more so. She did not have designs on Joss as her next husband, but Alice dreaded going home to Europe or America.  So, she and Frederick bought a 600-acre farm and started to build a house on it. (Implied is that it was her money.) After Idina gave birth, her third child and a daughter, in 1926, Alice and Frederick went back to France, to visit their children, which were being raised by his mother. Then they returned to Africa. 

When Alice was introduced to Raymond de Trafford there was an instant attraction. He was 26 and raised Catholic but he had left a trail of broken hearts.  A British aristocrat who was part of Cold Stream Guards, Raymond had escaped having to serve in World War I.  He had recently been to South America where he played polo and went to cattle runs.  Importantly, Raymond was not an heir unlike so many of the Happy Valley Set and had to find a way to make his own money. Not penniless, he bought a small farm which would have to turn a profit. Then he decided that he would trap live African animals and sell them to zoos to earn income.

Now Alice had three men in various stages of relationship with her. Her husband, Frederick, didn't like Raymond but they didn't fight over her either. She also managed to conduct an affair with Raymond without her husband or Joss finding out. The situation didn't please Adina.  Alice knew that her affair with Joss was not the way out her marriage. Joss was on his way out of his marriage with Idina. 

Something I felt aware of as I read the book, The Temptress, was that when it came to money, there were just as many men seeking to marry women with money as there were women seeing to marry men with money.  Idina had married one of the richest men in Great Britain, her first husband David Euan Wallace, but all the money in the world would not have kept her in that marriage. By leaving him, however, she had taken a daring risk - for a woman of those Edwardian times - that was difficult to recover from.

Joss was moving on from Idina, as he had met Mary "Molly" Ramsey-Hill, who was married to Cyril. They lived lavishly.  She had wealth of mysterious origin but perhaps it came from a first husband that she'd married at 16. From that point on, Joss befriended her husband so he could be invited to their impressive home and see Mary. Confident of himself as a seducer, the man certainly seems to have been premeditated in his pursuit, for he would succeed with her.

Frederick came back from a safari with malaria and almost died.  Alice was there for him as he fought the disease. the dutiful wife. In order to overcome the disease, he had to go back to France - alone.  He was medically advised that he should never come back to Africa because another bout of Malaria would kill him.  Alice insisted that their children be in his custody. The heartbroken man left the country and did not argue.  They were Catholic - no divorce.

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