In 1877, the Police News reported this extraordinary story of a celebrated Parisian dancer who, they claim, auctioned off her amputated leg to a Hungarian prince for the sum of 221,000 francs!
Amazing! But...
/1
The accompanying article claimed to feature extracts from Le Figaro, the Parisian newspaper, but I haven't been able to find any matching stories (though I can't read much French!). The IPN might've got her name wrong, but it's much more likely that they made it all up.
/2
The paper often printed sensational stories about the Parisian demimonde. For them, Paris was a fantasy world peopled by courtesans & their lovers — a landscape of sexual possibilities where everything goes. They printed some MAD stories about the place!
/3
For example:
Here's another (almost certainly) invented story about the Parisian demimonde — this time, the tale of a courtesan who murdered the man who won her in a game of cards!
— IPN (1877)
Yet another Parisian tale about the vengeance of a discarded mistress!
— IPN (1877)
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