Janze, Alice de, 1899-1941

Alice de Janzé (née Silverthorne; September 28, 1899 – September 30, 1941), also known as the Countess de Janzé during her first marriage and as Alice de Trafford during her second marriage, was an American heiress who spent years in colonial Kenya as a member of the Happy Valley set. Her life was marked by promiscuity, drug abuse, and scandals, including the attempted murder of her lover in 1927, the 1941 murder in Kenya of Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll, and several attempts at suicide, in which she eventually succeeded. Growing up in Chicago and New York, Silverthorne was one of the most prominent American socialites of her time. A relative of the wealthy Armour family, she was a multi-millionaire heiress. She married into the French nobility in 1921 when she wed Frédéric de Janzé, Comte de Janzé. In the mid-1920s, she was introduced to the 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 Raymond de Trafford in a Paris railway station and then turned the gun on herself; they both survived. Alice de Janzé stood trial and was fined a small amount, and later pardoned by the French state. She went on to marry, and later divorce, the man she shot. In 1941, she was one of several major suspects in the murder in Kenya of her friend and former lover, Lord Erroll. After several previous 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.