Blanca Errázuriz
| Blanca Errázuriz | |
|---|---|
.jpg)
c. 1910-1915
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| Born |
Blanca Elena Errázuriz Vergara 9 April 1894 Viña del Mar, Chile |
| Died | 20 March 1940 (aged 45) Viña del Mar, Chile |
| Cause of death | Barbiturate overdose |
| Education | Sacred Heart Convent |
| Spouse(s) |
John de Saulles (m. 1911; div. 1916) Fernando Santa Cruz Wilson (m. 1921; div. ?) |
| Children | 1 |
Blanca Elena Errázuriz Vergara (9 April 1894 – 20 March 1940), also known as Bianca de Saulles, was a Chilean socialite and the former wife of football player and businessman John de Saulles. In August 1917, Errázuriz fatally shot de Saulles multiple times during a disagreement over the custody of their son. After a highly publicized and sensational trial, Errázuriz was acquitted of her ex-husband's murder.
Errázuriz was born in Viña del Mar, Chile, the eldest daughter of Guillermo Errázuriz Urmeneta and of Blanca Vergara Alvarez, a beauty known as the Star of Santiago, and thus a member of the politically influential Errázuriz family, of Basque descent. Her father, a mining magnate, died when she was two, and she was educated at Sacred Heart Convent in London, England. In 1911, when she was 16 years old, she met John de Saulles, an American businessman and society figure 15 years her senior; he had travelled to Chile as representative of the South American Concessions Syndicate to negotiate a new railway line. After some initial difficulties with her family (mostly due to the difference in age and religion as Errázuriz was Roman Catholic) they were soon engaged. On 14 December 1911, they were married at an English Catholic chapel in Paris, France. (The civil ceremony had taken place the previous day.).
De Saulles had previously been engaged to the heiresses Mary Elsie Moore (later Princess Torlonia) and Eleanor Granville Brown. He was later briefly appointed as U. S. Minister to Uruguay in 1914, a post he resigned shortly after accepting and without ever leaving the U.S. The newly married couple settled in New York City. They had one child, John Longer "Jack" de Saulles, born on 25 December 1912, and for whom the steel magnate Charles H. Schwab stood as godfather. Shortly after John, Jr's birth, the couple's marriage began to falter mainly due to de Saulles' well known infidelities. Errázuri filed for divorce in the summer of 1916.
Shortly before filing for divorce, Errázuri befriended future actor Rudolph Valentino in New York City. Valentino was then working as an exhibition dancer (taxi dancer) and had gained attention for his rendition of the Argentine tango, which was the craze at the time. Whether the two actually had a romantic relationship is unknown, but Valentino did agree to provide proof in court during the de Saulles' divorce case that Joan Sawyer, his dancing partner, was having an adulterous relationship with John de Saulles; he himself took the stand to support Errázuriz's claim of de Saulle's infidelities. De Saulles was also accused of various financial improprieties involving his misuse of his wife's fortune, claims that received greater validity when it became clear upon his death that de Saulles was deeply in debt.
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Wikipedia