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Alice de Janzé, née Silverthorne (28 September 1899 – 30 September 1941),〔Reed, Frank Fremont (1982). ''History of the Silverthorn Family, Vol. 4'',p. 550. Chicago: DuBane's Print Shop. Her birth and death date can also be found at http://www.ancestry.com/trees/awt/main.aspx. (free registration required)〕 also known as Alice de Trafford and holder of the noble title Comtesse (Countess) de Janzé for a few years, was an American heiress who spent years in Kenya as a member of the Happy Valley set of colonials. She was connected with numerous scandals, including the attempted murder of her lover in 1927, and the 1941 murder of The 22nd Earl of Erroll in Kenya. Her tempestuous life was marked by promiscuity, drug abuse and several suicide attempts. Growing up in Chicago and New York, Silverthorne was one of the most prominent American socialites of her time; a relative of the powerful Armour family, she was a multi-millionaire heiress. She entered French aristocracy in the early 1920s, when she married Count de Janzé. In the mid-1920s, she was introduced to the infamous Happy Valley set, a community of white expatriates in East Africa, notorious for their hedonistic lifestyle. In 1927, she made international news when she shot her lover in a Paris railway station and then turned the gun on herself; they both survived. De Janze stood trial but was only fined a small amount, and was later pardoned by the French state. She further scandalized the public by marrying, and then later divorcing, the man she shot. In 1941, she was one of several major suspects in the well-publicized murder of her former lover and friend, Lord Erroll, in Kenya. After a long history of numerous failed suicide attempts, she died of a self-inflicted gunshot in September 1941. Her personality has been referenced both in fiction and non-fiction, most notably in the book ''White Mischief'' and its film adaptation, where she was portrayed by Sarah Miles. ==Early life== Alice was born in Buffalo, Erie County, New York,〔 the only child of textile industrialist William Edward Silverthorne and wife, Julia Belle Chapin (14 August 1871〔Chapin, Gilbert Warren (1924). ''The Chapin Book of Genealogical Data: With Brief Biographical Sketches, of the Descendants of Deacon Samuel Chapin, Vol. 2''. Chapin Family Association, p. 1795〕 – 2 June 1907)〔Reed, Frank Fremont (1982). ''The History of the Silverthorn Family, Vol. 4''. Chicago: DuBane's Print Shop, p. 434〕 a relative to the Armour family, of meatpacking notability through the Armour & Company brand, at the time the largest food products company in the world.〔 Silverthorne was a first cousin, once removed, to J. Ogden Armour and great-niece to Philip Danforth Armour and Herman Ossian Armour, the granddaughter of their sister Marietta, who left much of her estate to her mother, Julia, in 1897.〔(''The New York Times'', November 18, 1897. "Mrs. Chapin Leaves $500,000", p. 1 )〕 William and Julia were married in Chicago on 8 June 1892,〔(Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763–1900 )〕〔''Chicago Tribune'', 29 May 1892. "Month of Weddings", p. 10〕 the city where Alice spent most of her childhood and adolescence, living with her parents in the affluent Gold Coast district.〔''Chicago Tribune'', Sunday Magazine, 26 May 1996. "Hey Lady! Britain's Beleaguered Princess Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet – Chicago's Rendition", p. 14〕 Alice herself became a favorite of her cousin, J. Ogden Armour. Her family's great wealth prompted her childhood friends to take a cue from her surname and give her the nickname "Silver Spoon".〔(''The Milwaukee Sentinel'', June 27, 1948. Coughlin, Gene. "Battered Brides: Unhappy Hunt of the Golden Girl", p. 32 )〕 Julia Silverthorne died of complications from tuberculosis when Alice was only eight,〔 although biographer Paul Spicer argues that her death was a result from being locked out of the house by her husband during a freezing night six months earlier.〔 Alice, who inherited a large estate from her mother, was herself an asymptomatic consumptive from birth.〔Fox James (1983). ''White Mischief''. Random House, p. 39〕 Following her mother's death, Alice was raised by a German governess in large houses in New York; her alcoholic father〔Fox, James (1982). ''White Mischief''. Random House, p. 40〕 was frequently absent due to his professional obligations. Contrary to her wishes, William Silverthorne quickly remarried in 1908,〔 and had five children with his second wife, Louise Mattocks. Many of them did not survive; Alice's half-siblings included William Jr. (1912–1976), Victoria Louise (died in infancy in 1914), Patricia (1915–?), Lawrence (1918–1923) and an unnamed girl who died in infancy in 1910.〔Reed, Frank Fremont (1982). ''History of the Silverthorn Family, Vol. 4''. Chicago: DuBane's Print Shop, p. 562〕 William later divorced Mattocks and married twice more.〔 With her father's encouragement, the precocious Alice was introduced to wild social life in her early adolescence. She was one of the most prominent socialites of Chicago, frequenting the most fashionable nightclubs of the time. Her father also took her on several European tours and encouraged her image as a prominent debutante. These years of wild youth left Alice with a chronic melancholia;〔 it is possible that she suffered from cyclothymia, a strain of bipolar disorder.〔(''Telegraph''. April 27, 2010. Grice, Elizabeth. "Is This the Happy Valley Murderer?" )〕 Her father soon lost custody of her; an uncle from her mother's side assumed the role of her legal guardian and then proceeded to place her at a boarding school in Washington D.C.〔〔 Journalist Michael Kilian believes this was because William Silverthorne had an incestuous relationship with his adolescent daughter, in which she lost her virginity to her father,〔''Chicago Tribune'', 1 June 1988. Kilian, Michael. "Making ''Mischief'' Take It from the Brits: After Decades of Civility, America is Due for Some Decadence", p. 10〕〔''Chicago Tribune'', 16 September 1987. Kilian, Michael. "Shrink to Fit? What Ever Happened to Good, Old-Fashioned Lunacy? Now, Even New Yorkers are Buying into the Therapy Fad", p. 6〕 until one of her uncles intervened and took the case to the court.〔〔''Chicago Tribune'', Sunday Magazine, 20 August 1986. Kilian, Michael. "Unhappy Endings When Chicago and Europe Play at Love, the Consequences Can be Disastrous", p. 14〕 Spicer disagrees that her relationship with her father was improper.〔(Times Online'', ''The Sunday Times'', May 2, 2010. Wilson, Frances. "''The Tempress: The Scandalous Life of Alice, Countess de Janze'' Review". )〕 Regardless of the court decision, after fourteen-year-old Alice came to live with the Armours in New York she then openly travelled with her father to the French Riviera, where Kilian claims Silverthorne openly sported her as his mistress and allowed her to keep a black panther as a pet.〔 In later years, she was famous for parading the animal up and down the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alice de Janzé」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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